Alignment Accuracy

"More is better" is a reliable rule of thumb when it comes to potato chips, but not necessarily so when it comes to training. Training is a good thing, but more training is not necessarily better, says Riaz Khadem, coauthor of "Total Alignment: Aligning Vision, Strategy, and Execution for Organizational Success." What's missing from many corporate training programs, he stresses, is alignment.

Training budgets are tight and shouldn't be wasted on training that isn't aligned with unique contribution to the bottom line, Khadem argues. Effective training begins with clarifying accountability and identifying the specific skills needed by each person, and ends with insuring high competency in those skills and correlation with results.

Here's how he says you can do it:
• Identify each person's unique accountability. Exactly what each person is accountable for should be clear. Khadem says to ask, for example, who is accountable for sales—the salesperson or the sales manager? It should be the salesperson. "The manager of sales should be accountable for such results as a percentage of salespeople over quota," he explains. "'Total Alignment' introduces a methodology for defining unique and non-overlapping accountability that is aligned with the organization’s vision and strategy."
• Identify the skills that match each person's accountability. The aligned skills for the salesperson could include prospecting, qualifying, presenting, and closing. But for the sales manager, he suggests, different skills are needed such as training, motivating, accompanying, and strategizing. "While the sales manager has interest in increasing sales," says Khadem, "his main focus is not sales, but supporting the salespeople so they sell."
• Design and deliver training to increase competency in identified skills. Once the core skills are identified, an effective process is required to increase competency. A simple evaluation tool can be used to assess competency on a scale of one to four, he says. "Once the existing level is determined, each person develops a plan for increasing competency in consultation with his or her boss," Khadem points out. "The plan could include receiving specific training available within the organization or from an external source."
• Practice of the skill should be an integral part of training. Remember the old adage: Practice makes perfect. “The practice component of the training is so important that training programs should not end without practice, reflection, and more training," he notes. "Since the skills are aligned with accountability for results, reflection should include correlating skills improvement with results, and enhancing the training program to improve results."

source: inside learning newsletter

Tempering Turnover

Your company's "revolving door" may be a joke by now, with no one sure who's coming and who's going, but with unemployment rising, and concerns about a possible recession growing, it's more important than ever for employers to control costs related to employee turnover.

"In a slowing economy, it's critical employers more closely manage their expenses," says Annie Stevens, managing partner with ClearRock, a Boston-based outplacement and executive coaching firm. "
One cost they can get better control over is turnover. It costs between two and three times a worker's salary to replace a departing employee, including recruitment, training, lost productivity, and severance costs."
Stevens and Greg Gostanian, managing partner with ClearRock, offer some highlights from the firm's recent turnover research:
• The top way to reduce the turnover of front-line employees is to screen them more carefully before they are hired. "Companies need to invest more in pre-employment screening and testing, and better interviewing processes and procedures," says Gostanian.
• Better orientation for front-line workers also can help. "New employees need to know, right from the start," says Stevens, "what their roles and responsibilities are, the type of business their employers are in, who their customers are, and how each individual worker fits into the big picture."
• Don't neglect exit interviews. "Exit interviews give employers insight into potential problems with management, workplace conditions, and the competitive nature of their compensation and benefits," says Gostanian. "Exit interviews should be offered as often as possible to employees who are leaving, and their comments should be closely considered and evaluated."
• Better training of front-line workers can help slacken turnover. "Better training programs are the hands-on component of better orientation programs"” says Gostanian. "In addition to knowing why they are working there, and what their duties are, employees need to know how to do their jobs as best they can, who they can go to in case they encounter any problems, and where to find answers to their day-to-day questions."
• Giving better pay and benefits also doesn't hurt—especially when coupled with a bigger-picture approach. "Employers," says Stevens, "are using more broadly based methods that will give them longer-term results than a temporary increase in employee morale and engagement resulting from monetary incentives."


source: training magazine

The 10 Most Wanted Features in Tools to Create Online Courses

In the early days of e-learning, content developers had few choices regarding the tools they could use to create courseware. Although the features found in these early programs were limited by today's standards, training content developers did the best that they could with what they had. Today, hundreds of tools are available to developers of online training content. Best of all, today's authoring tools are rich in features and easy to use.

The fact that there are so many authoring tools on the market is a clear indication that different organizations have different needs. It's also an indication that many organizations are creating different types of e-learning content.

What are the most common business and technical requirements for people selecting an authoring tool? Based on our research, the following are the top ten things people want:

1. Novice friendly, yet still has underlying extensibility for complex interaction types.
2. No plug-in required (with the exception of Flash output).
3. Adherence to SCORM specification and AICC standards. (The real need is full interoperability with many LMS solutions.)
4. Short learning curve for new content developers.
5. Extensive library of very interactive question types (beyond multiple choice and true/false).
6. Robust testing engine (with features such as randomization, drawing from a test item pool, etc.).
7. Rich media support.
   Ability to repurpose content quickly from other sources, such as PowerPoint, Word, and specialty authoring tools (i.e., simulation tools).
8. Minimal time spent creating navigational control structures (i.e., navigation buttons, menus, etc.).
9. Low cost (for stand-alone authoring tools).

source: BrandonHall.