CorpU Weekly Digest: Learning Excellence (2012-June-11)

Topics: Learning Excellence

Here are this past week's headlines in learning excellence: 

• (1) Prof John Boudreau (USC/Marshall School of Business) offers thoughts on predictive analytics in talent management ;  
• (2) Prof. Vijay "VG" Govindarajan (Dartmouth/Tuck School of Business) offers a succinct approach to testing innovations — definitely applicable to programs and approaches you may be considering;
• (3) Questioning tuition reimbursement policies: some thoughts from Wharton Prof. Peter Cappelli ; 
• (4) The impact of restructurings and layoffs, combined with the increasing availability of workforce analytics, is leading more companies to consider installing a strategic workforce planning leader ; 
• (5) Employer Branding Strategies from ITV and TMP Worldwide ; 
• Books: Organizational Communication for Survival and HR from the Outside In: Six Competencies for the Future of Human Resources ; 
• Webinars ; and
• Conferences

 Prof John Boudreau (USC/Marshall School of Business) offers thoughts on predictive analytics in talent management 
In this short blog posting, USC/Marshall Prof. John Boudreau suggests that the time is coming for learning and talent development professionals to begin considering the application of predictive analytics to talent development. It's been long understood that "creating learning and change is as much about changing habits as it is about imparting skills. Like retailers trying to lure customers with low prices, traditional efforts to create organizational learning may be thwarted if employees are not aware of the habits they must first unlearn." Habitual behavior — as demonstrated in Charles Duhigg's book The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business (Feb 28, 2012) — offers evidence from neuroscience research suggesting that "the brain shuts down once the habit is formed to preserve conscious brain space." And though the employee-employer relationship is different from the customer-retailer relationship, the depth and detail of employment data is increasing, and with it both opportunities and dilemmas like those faced by marketers today. Talent management and HR leaders might do well to get into the “habit” of considering how predictive analytics implications that face marketers today may be a harbinger of the future of employment, and he offers three potential applications of predictive human capital analytics 

• Identify when employees are ready for learning opportunities, 
• Predict when employees will likely  benefit from a stretch assignment 
• Suggest when employees are ready to contribute to a new project

The short blog post, "Will Predictive Analytics Impact the Future Of Talent Management?" is definitely worth the read.

 Prof. Vijay "VG" Govindarajan (Dartmouth/Tuck School of Business) offers a succinct approach to testing innovations — definitely applicable to programs and approaches you may be considering
In this past week's Harvard Business Review Management Tip, Prof. Vijay "VG" Govindarajan (Dartmouth/Tuck School of Business) offers a tidbit from his recent book Reverse Innovation on how to find the points to test when you are exploring an innovation, breaking it down to four steps:

1. List your unknowns
2. Rate each unknown for uncertainty and importance
3. List the highest rated unknowns
4. Test the unknowns with the highest scores first

The key principle is to spend a little and learn a lot, quickly. To do so, you need to design ways to test your assumptions about the innovation and the unknowns rapidly, whether through computer simulations, customer visits, and focus groups. Because when you apply this discipline to your critical unknowns as early and inexpensively as possible, you produce a higher yield of innovation breakthroughs. Definitely worth the 2:54 to watch the HBR Management Tip video, "Run a Disciplined Innovation Experiment"

 Questioning tuition reimbursement policies: some thoughts from Wharton Prof. Peter Cappelli
A lot of organizations are dusting off their tuition reimbursement policies and are rethinking their approaches to partner with universities on programs and courses to advance employee development and productivity. As Prof. Peter Cappelli (UPenn/Wharton) notes in this answer,  that "most companies now require that tuition-reimbursement costs be paid back when the employee leaves. At least at the Master of Business Administration level, the requirement has been about two years of subsequent service." The questions he offers to help frame the conversation are helpful:

• What problem are you trying to solve by imposing service restrictions for reimbursement?
• Do you agree that highly motivated employees, who are most likely the best workers, are more likely to use this benefit?
• Do you believe that this benefit increases engagement and productive tenure?
• Do you really want to make this benefit difficult to use?
• Is your concern losing investments in people after getting an education?
• Do you have positions, tasks, or programs to help them apply the learned skills?

The Socratic approach in Prof Cappelli's answer here hopefully illuminates the struggle of intentions here, and provides some ways to think about your redesign of tuition reimbursement. Read the Q&A response from Prof. Peter Cappelli, "Should We Require Employees Who Leave to Repay Tuition?"

 The impact of restructurings and layoffs, combined with the increasing availability of workforce analytics, is leading more companies to consider installing a strategic workforce planning leader The role of strategic workforce planning is moving to center stage in a post-recession economic landscape, according to a recent report. With a shortage of strategic workforce planning (SWP) experts, however, employers are looking to add or train specialists, often from within HR — but not always — to manage and drive their SWP efforts. That's because organizations are beginning to confront the short- and long-term impact of the Great Recession, says Mary Young, principal researcher for human capital at The Conference Board, a New York-based business membership and research association. To do that, employers are recognizing that it is crucial to implement a strategic workforce plan. Or, at a minimum, create a strategy to realign human capital needs that match the overall business strategy. Many existing SWP leaders have spent at least some of their careers working in finance, corporate planning, sales, marketing, or as a line manager, according to The Conference Board. There are 10 skills and competencies that SWP leaders must possess or develop to be effective, including business knowledge, analytical expertise and change leadership. In addition, such leaders must be able to collaborate, and have stature, credibility, intellectual capacity, communication skills, scenario-planning skills, diverse experience and a belief in SWP. Read HR Executive article "A Strategic Workforce Planning Officer?"

 Employer Branding Strategies from ITV and TMP Worldwide
At a recent employer-branding event organized by HR Zone, ITV and TMP Worldwide offered some good insights on employer branding strategy as part of recruitment, engagement, and retention efforts. What became clear is that with the right resources — and of course budget — employer branding messages can be very powerful. But how do your recruitment partners fit into that branding message? First, they are often the first "direct" conversation between an employer and its future talent and so your recruitment partners need to be chosen carefully — and briefed well enough so that they not only understand the value of a strong employer brand — but also the importance of how it is communicated. Here are the top tips:

• The involvement and endorsement of senior leaders is critical
• The research supporting your brand should be topical and relevant
• Your employer brand does not exist in isolation but should engage with your consumer brand and your business objectives
• Ideally, your messaging should work internally as well as externally — candidates should land in the organization they thought they were joining
• If you don't measure it, you can't manage it
• A great Employer Brand will engage and retain your staff
• You will attract higher calibre staff for less salary if you are true to a best practice Employee-Value Proposition
• It will save you money, but it does require investment to do that
• And finally, if you're not managing through an employee-value proposition, how do you work with recruiters to ensure that your employer brand is represented well?

Read HR Zone blog "Tips on how to create a powerful employer brand"

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 The Business of Learning: New Major Products, Mergers, Acquisitions, and Partnerships

No major news in mergers, acquisitions, or product releases.

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 Books To Read

A handbook for communicating in the work environment assuming a unique perspective for an organizational communication text, Organizational Communication for Survival 2ed (to be released on July 1, 2012) focuses students on how to communicate with managers and peers to survive, thrive and prosper in organizational environments. Written by Profs. Virginia P. Richmond and James C. McCroskey, well known in the academy for organizational communication, the book is a good primer for students before entering the workforce, offering frameworks and practical demonstrations in how and why managers communicate the way they do and how employees can adapt their own communication skills to be more effective in the organizational environment. Students who master the study guide objectives in this book will be better prepared to function in real organizational situations. This text provides clear and concise guidelines, along with a foundation of theory and scholarship, to help students become more effective communicators in today's workforce. Buy now

Dave Ulrich, professor at the Ross School of Business (U Michigan) and well-known writer on developing leaders and transforming human resources, is about to release his latest work, HR from the Outside In: Six Competencies for the Future of Human Resources (to be released July 18, 2012).  This work is based on data sets Prof Ulrich and team have been gathering since 1987, and offers some keys to understanding how organizations have been changing in the past few years and what is required of human resource professionals. The six competencies focused on in this text (and shared earlier online) are worth noting:

1. Strategic positioner. 
   High-performing HR professionals think and act from the outside/in. They are deeply knowledgeable about external business trends and able to translate them into internal decisions and actions. 
2. Credible activist. 
   Effective HR professionals are 'credible activists' because they build their personal trust through business acumen. 
3. Capability builder. 
   An effective HR professional melds individual abilities into an effective and strong organization by helping to define and build its organization capabilities. Organization is not structure or process: it is a distinct set of capabilities.
4. Change champion. 
   As change champions, HR professionals make sure that isolated and independent organizational actions are integrated and sustained through disciplined change processes. HR professionals make an organisation's internal capacity for change match or lead the external pace of change.
5. Human resource innovator and integrator. 
   Effective HR professionals know the historical research on HR, so they can innovative and integrate HR practices into unified solutions to solve future business problems. 
6. Technology proponent. 
   In recent years, technology has changed the ways in which HR people think and do their administrative and strategic work. 

This book is a crucial blueprint of what it takes to succeed, and the data alone is worth the time and investment, as it presents a clear-eyed view of the way that human resources is changing as a profession. It's a must-have for every HR professional. Through consistent cycles of research and practical application, Prof Ulrich and his team have produced and update the most comprehensive set of HR competencies ever. Read this book for a unique long-term perspective on where HR competencies have brought us and must take us in future. Buy Now

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 Webinars 

Social Learning: Develop Your Strategy
Date: Jun 19, 2012 - 10:00am PT / 1:00pm ET
Presenter: Taleo Register now

The New Era of Talent Acquisition: Outsourcing for Contingent and Direct Hire Recruiting – Where Vendor Managed Services Meets Recruitment Process Outsourcing
Date: Tuesday, June 19, 2012 - 1:00pm ET
Presenter: Jack Van Tiem, Gonzalez, and Tom Tisdale, Peoplefluent Register now

Empowering future language learners: Formal and informal language learning through social media
Date: Jun 28, 2012, 11:00-12:00 Central European Time / 5:00 - 6:00am ET
Presenter: P.A.U. Education Register now

Gamify Your Training: Use Gamification to Increase Employee Engagement and Improve Feedback
Date: Thursday, August 2, 2012, 1pm ET
Presenter: Greg Greunke, President, Tuzooni & Greunke Register now

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 Conferences

Leading Across Generations: Workforce Challenges and Opportunities
Date: June 13-15, 2012
Location: Berlin, Germany Register now

The Talent Management Summit
Date: June 14, 2012
Location: London, UK Register now

Gamification Summit
Date: June 19-21, 2012
Location: San Francisco, CA, USA Register now

2012 ICOI The International Conference of Organizational Innovation
Date: July 10-12, 2012
Location: Indonesia Register now

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