Performance Consulting

Joe Steier presents a practical case study on how innovation was applied to the workplace at Signature HealthCARE and the goals that the company established to impact its future business results.  Watch Video »

Quintiles is a fully integrated biopharmaceutical services company offering clinical, commercial, consulting and capital solutions worldwide. The company has a network of more than 23,000 engaged professionals in 60 countries. In 2005, after a period of rapid growth, the company was having trouble growing revenues, and realized that one of the reasons was high turnover, particularly among new hires. The company was devoting a lot of time and money to hiring people to replace the people that were leaving, and it was keeping it from moving forward.  Read More »

This paper sets forth the business case for creating a corporate university, based on the premise that corporate universities are the current best practice for systematically building human capital – a key capability for adaptive, innovative, knowledge-based organizations.  The term “corporate university” is most prevalent in the United States, Western Europe and Japan, but whether it is called an academy, institute, or center for excellence, the feature that distinguishes it remains the same: the alignment of key learning programs so they actively support the strategic interests of the business.  Corporate universities offer a curriculum designed to support major change initiatives, serve to align staff development with business goals and improve the ROI associated with training investments.  Corporate universities help create the conditions for strategic agility and innovation in a knowledge economy.  Successful corporate universities have executive support and oversight to assure corporate goals and training align; appropriate technologies to assure and measure transfer and retention of knowledge and skills; and a well documented organizational plan for execution.  Companies with efficient and effective corporate universities show measurable improvements to the bottom line in shareholder return, productivity, and customer satisfaction.       Read More »

The current approach to corporate learning is about to be swamped under a tsunami of business change. It’s time for Learning and Talent Management teams to overhaul their corporate learning strategies. Or, if they’ve been focused on delivering programs and managing training operations, they need to develop one for the first time.? It all begins as leaders increasingly hear about the marketplace conditions and challenges of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. This paper is a case for preparing — on the basis of reasoned faith — for a faster rate of change in business, knowledge, and know-how. Corporate learning teams must begin to understand the dimensions of tough challenges that are confronting leaders and their workforces. They also must understand why these new challenges require new learning skills, new learning methods, and new approaches for prioritizing the learning function’s time, attention, and resources. In essence, it is time for learning and talent management teams to overhaul their strategies. Read More »

Without appropriate senior leadership, many L&D organizations run the risk of focusing on the delivery of training related tasks while misaligning with strategy. Top performing organizations, on the other hand, assign the task of L&D leadership to seasoned executives with strong business and relationship building skills. The strategic reason for this approach is that such individuals have a keen sense of how to leverage L&D effectively to achieve business goals. The title CLO is a popular term used to describe the head of the learning and development unit (sometimes called a corporate university). In some cases, the ... Read More »

Quintiles is the world's largest biopharmaceutical services company providing clinical, commercial, consulting and capital solutions in an increasingly complex and evolving industry. It has more than 20,000 employees in 60 countries that help develop or commercialize pharmaceuticals for major companies around the world. With more than 60 internal customers in the form of business roles or groups to serve, the CorpU award-winning Quintiles' Global Learning and Development (GLD) was challenged by a lack of communication and strategic focus. In order to better understand the performance needs of a highly complex and globally regulated business and deliver appropriate solutions ... Read More »

This training request form is the first in a series of companion tools to the CorpU "How to" entitled Training Requests: How to Ensure Training is the Right Answer. Business leaders request training to resolve performance problems and improve employee performance. However, training is sometimes only part of the answer and, in some cases, is not the answer at all. With this in mind, the tool presented here is designed for the learning organization to review the need for the request, ensure alignment with the company’s strategic objectives, and ultimately, help determine if training is indeed the right answer. Read More »

This performance diagnostic checklist is the third in a series of companion tools to the CorpU "How To" entitled Training Requests: How to Ensure Training is the Right Answer. Business leaders request training to resolve performance problems and improve employee performance. However, training is sometimes only part of the answer and, in some cases, is not the answer at all. With this in mind, the tool presented here is designed to utilize data collected during the training request process to answer questions, which will imply what the source or root causes of the performance problem are and suggest possible solutions ... Read More »

This needs analysis intake form is the second in a series of companion tools to the CorpU "How To" entitled Training Requests: How to Ensure Training is the Right Answer. Business leaders request training to resolve performance problems and improve employee performance. However, training is sometimes only part of the answer and, in some cases, is not the answer at all. With this in mind, the tool presented here is designed to serve as a job aid for learning professionals to walk them through the interview, which should be scheduled with business unit leaders after the initial request has been ... Read More »

Learning organizations are often asked to design training when problems arise that affect employee performance. However, training is sometimes only part of the answer to these problems and, in some cases, is not the answer at all. To combat this order taker approach, many learning organizations are incorporating performance consulting techniques into the training request process. This How-to describes the steps needed to revise the training request process to determine if the requested training is unquestionably needed or if the request requires further analysis. Read More »

Leadership support is an important, yet sometimes elusive, aim with which many learning organizations struggle. According to the CorpU 10th Annual Learning Excellence and Innovation Benchmarking study, the use of a consistent performance consulting process is linked to increased participation and support from leaders. This research brief describes what we mean by performance consulting, who is using this methodology, and the unexpected relationship that can form as a result. Read More »

The Performance Consultant reviews work activities that are not meeting performance standards, and conducts root cause analysis to find the underlying contributors to poor performance. The Performance Consultant prescribes both instructional and non-instructional interventions that are important to improving performance. Read More »