As many are preparing for this week’s Learning at Work day, we are busy preparing for the launch of our 2012 benchmark to help you continually improve your L&D provision throughout the year.

Last year a record 600 organisations participated in our 5th Benchmark Study, the largest study of its type in Europe, it’s time for you to join the trend!

This year’s benchmark has already been shaped by the input of over 1800 previous participants and thoroughly reviewed by industry experts. As a result it will be sharper and more focussed than ever before.

Get involved- help us shape the 2012 benchmark

If you missed last year's study and are hungry to get involved, we invite you to take part in our benchmark pilot from the 20th of May prior to the main launch of the study on the 12th of June.

Each participant of the study will receive a complimentary 101 tips for success paper ( all contributed from last year’s benchmark participants) as well as your personalised company benchmark (value £300).

Do email Lauraoverton@towardsmaturity.org to get involved.

Missed last year's benchmark?

Download last year's report and find out what the top performers are delivering and how they are achieving their successes.

If you took part last year but still have not downloaded your personalised report highlighting your strenghts and weaknesses, then do contact us at lauraoverton@towardsmaturity.org and we'll let you know how to access your report.

A big thank you to our Ambassadors

This industry study and the free reports are made possible thanks to the ongoing support of our Ambassadors who share our passion for ensuring free advice is available to all. Find out more 

How can online learning help us build practical skills that translate to real world goals & needs? Let us know your ideas in a new quick study to be published by Summer.

Click HERE to take part - study is open until 25th May.

Traditionally, technology-enabled learning has been useful for merely presenting and assessing information and instructions in a “sage on the stage” type delivery… even though digitally delivered.

Increasingly, organisations are looking for ways to create truly meaningful learning experiences for individuals that empower “practice and perform” authentic online immersive learning experiences. This new experiential digital learning supports the development of creative and critical thinking skills and newfound knowledge that transfers into personalised real world success.

There are many options for encouraging a deeper online learning experience that is both immersive and meaningful to the individual  - the use of purposeful games, thought-provoking scenarios, consequential simulations and even 3D worlds.

But are we making the most of the opportunities  possible in today’s technological worldavailable?  What is holding us back?  How can are we designing learning that takes full advantage of the opportunities available to us?  Also, what can we learn from each other in the process?

These are the themes we are investigating in our short study, supported by our ambassador Toolwire,  & we will be sharing the results by the end of June.

We are interested in:

•    The experiential learning environments* currently being used in your workplace to support skill development
•    The types of skills we are currently building and those we are hoping to build
•    The benefits that you expect to achieve
•    The barriers you hope to overcome?

Definition

In this study we are looking specifically at tools such as purposeful games, thought-provoking scenarios, consequential simulations and even 3D worlds . For the sake of convenience in this short questionnaire, (rather than the desire to introduce another term) we refer collectively to these tools as Experiential Learning Environments.

Who should take part?

If you are investigating any of these environments or if you have had experience of using them, we'd love to hear from you!

This quick study is aimed at those responsible for implementing technology- enabled learning for the staff in their own workplace and in the workplaces of their customers who have got 5 minutes and are interested in sharing their experience and learning from others!

How long will it take?

With only 8 questions in this survey, it should only take a few minutes of your time. However there are comment boxes provided if you have further time to share hints and tips from your exerience that you think might be helpful to others.

Click HERE to take part

Confidentiality

As always, this study is being conducted in accordance with our confidentiality policy. Towards Maturity are conducting this study in partnership with our Ambassador, Toolwire, this support means that the results can be shared freely to promote effective practices.

If you are looking to deploy an engaging, cost-effective induction programme across a global business, Howden and eCom Scotland can offer some creative and inspirational ideas!

Following a period of sustained growth, Howden needed to recruit an additional 350 graduate-level engineers over a five year period. To help attract the best talent and to ensure they would assimilate and become productive as quickly as possible, Howden introduced The Howden Academy in partnership with Glasgow Caledonian University. However, despite the Academy’s success, Howden became aware that it could become cleverer in the way that it delivered training to students – reducing the time given non job-related and less technical issues and increasing the time made available to specific job-related training.

This need to adjust the training focus was also highlighted through student feedback.

The challenge that Howden faced was to modify and re-platform their training offer to graduates that would:

• Improve the capability of Howden to develop graduate engineers recruited by the business.
• Further enable their newly recruited graduate engineers to be more effective more quickly.

The Learning Solution
Howden turned to eCom Scotland to develop a suite of eLearning sessions that would not only enable them to concentrate more on the technical aspects during the three weeks spent at the Academy but also find a way to cut costs. Innovation and design have always been defining features of Howden, and working together with eCom Scotland, these characteristics have now been incorporated into the very fabric of their eLearning strategy.

Impressive business benefits and positive feedback from staff have been the fruit of the transformation of their eLearning. But how did Howden and eCom Scotland do it?

Thank you to everyone who shared ideas on how technology is helping improve the results of sales and customer service training. Organisations such as M&Co, Home Group Ltd, Axa UK, Volvo Car, Dixons Retail and BT have all participated and the final report (due in the next month) will share hints and tips from participating organisations to support your success.

Early results and example case studies can be found in this article.Background

Towards Maturity, supported by our founding ambassador Brightwave, has been conducting a study designed to dig deeper into how learning technologies can support customer strategies.

The benchmark has been gathering the views and experiences of L&D professionals and people responsible for customer strategies, to explore how technology can help deliver results in this critical business area.  The results, which will be released as a report in May 2012, will uncover what organisations are doing to achieve real improvements in the customer experience.

A well-implemented customer strategy is critical for commercial success and brand health. 10 million of us have stopped doing business with a company in the last 6 months due to a poor customer experience.* Against this backdrop, it's not surprising that competitive organisations have a robust  plan to drive better relationships with customers. * Ken Blanchard Companies Industry Report 2012

The use and impact of technology in supporting customer strategy implementation is increasing year on year. In Boosting Business Agility (the 2011-12 Towards Maturity benchmark with 600+ organisations) we reported that it was one of the fastest growing skills areas to be e-enabled with over 36% of businesses now using technology to support customer service training and 29% are addressing sales training using technology.

With this growth in interest, this latest study investigates:

• What is driving investment ?
• What tools and techniques are being used?
• What results are being delivered?
• What can we learn from each other's experiences?

Early Findings

The top 5 drivers behind investing in learning technology for customer strategy training are as follows:

• Improve customer satisfaction
• Improve responsiveness of training to business change
• Reduce cost of training
• Create competitive advantage
• Improve reputation as customer focused organisation 

Whilst the most popular medium for learning in is area is still the classroom in use by 3/4 of participants, organisations are now introducing technologies into the mix. the most popular 3 technology tools in use are:

• Self paced e-learning courses (& online quizzes)
• Dedicated online portals
• Videos and podcasts

The full report will investigate the audiences being supported, how the mix of learning media changes for different audiences (including contact centre, field staff and customers themselves) and will take a closer look at the business impact. Do watch this space!

 Examples of technology enabled customer strategy programmes

The report is due out at the end of May but in the meantime, here are some examples of how organisations are harnessing technology for their customer strategies that you might find useful:

• See Brightwave's award winning case study with Sky
• Friends with marketing: How global businesses are deploying e-learning to support their brands and customer loyalty
• Video debate: how can we extend learning to customers and supply chain
• Towards Maturity case studies from a range of organisations, including Toyota, Dixons Retail, and Cable & Wireless, take a look at practical implementation issues.

• 70% of our benchmark participants have received new ideas from taking part in the review alone.
• All participants who complete the study will also receive a copy of the final report which will uncover what top performing organisations are doing to achieve real improvements in the customer experience.
• On completion, you will be directed to a number of great case studies at the end of the benchmark from the likes of Dixons Retail, Sky and others to find out how they are improving customer service metrics and, in many cases,  increasing revenues.

Click here to participate

When will you get the results?

Your responses are completely confidential. The study, which is being conducted in conjunction with our Founding Ambassador Brightwave, closes 13th April.


* Ken Blanchard Companies Industry Report 2012

About Towards Maturity

Towards Maturity is a benchmarking research company that provides independent expert advice and support to help organisations use learning technologies to accelerate business performance. It leverages the data of its in-depth Benchmark Study, European’s largest learning technology benchmark, gathered by Towards Maturity for over eight years.

To learn more about Towards Maturity’s benchmarking tools and models visit http://mybenchmark.towardsmaturity.org/  

About Brightwave

       
Brightwave is the UK's leading workplace e-learning specialist. Expert in developing quality e-learning solutions that achieve a positive measurable impact, Brightwave works in partnership with clients to provide a complete e-learning service, from bespoke content solutions to e-learning portals and platforms, capability building and consultancy.         

Focussed on ensuring success, Brightwave makes design decisions to meet business goals and places the learner experience at the centre of every project regardless of business area - from onboarding through to major business transformation.

We look at practical steps taken along the way to introduce innovation, engage learners, and deliver bottom line results.

Bottom line Business Benefits - improving sales prices by 30% and customer service metrics by 25%

We have included Dixons Retail in our Evidence for Change programme that gathers stories of organisations who are using learning technologies to make a real difference to organisational performance. Since the introduction of their formal personalised online learning programme, staff demonstrate an appetite for online resulting in an average 15 million page hits in their online learning environment every four weeks, 35% of staff access learning at home and via their own devices. Results:

• Statutory compliance improved, saving £500,000 in year 1
• 25% improvement in customer service metrics

The recent pilot to encourage staff to use video to share their own knowledge with their peers has improved results even further. Stores participating in early pilots of video sharing have increased the average retail laptop price by 30% compared with those who did not.

Find out more:

Download this case study to find out how Dixons Retail got started and how they are now integrating informal learning within the business.

Case study contents:

• Developing a culture of learning (p2)
• Engaging colleagues with formal online learning (p3)
• Impact of e-enabled formal learning (p4)
• Formal or informal learning- why not both? (p4)
• Piloting informal learning – getting to grips with user communities (p5)
• Overcoming Challenges (p6)
• Informal learning - a few months on (p7)
• Informal learning – bottom line impact (p7)
• Top tips for integrating informal learning within the business (P9)

Take a look on You-Tube

Boyd Glover , Head of Skills Training at Dixons Retail, shares more about his journey on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fs95vhBaUhc

This case study has been independently investigated and developed by Towards Maturity and has been brought to you thanks to the support of our Ambassador, Fusion Universal.

 
The scene had been set and it was clear that colleagues were engaged with formalised online learning but this did not necessarily reflect the natural ways they were learning on a day to day basis

Business success is reliant on the right leadership, management and communication skills in place. In turbulent times, every organisation needs employees who are not only effective influencers, but who can motivate their teams and communicate effectively with both customers and staff. 

Financial and economic pressures are driving organisations to consider technology as part of the learning solution, with leadership and problem solving skills amongst the fastest growing technology enabled skills over the last 2 years. 

Despite this interest, these skills are hard to deliver using traditional self-paced learning content alone. The e-learning marketplace is awash with generic bite-sized learning modules for self-study to meet demand. But these ‘soft’ business leadership skills are more effectively taught as discursive topics through exploration and group exercises.

The challenge – What to do when self paced learning is not enough

Many larger companies are able to invest their learning technology budgets to create innovative, interactive blended programmes that bring staff together on line to reflect and work together. Those that have been successful in this area have harnessed an array of learning methods and media to address the challenge and build the softer skills that the business needs. But many do not have the budget to create interactive online soft skills programmes from scratch. If they want to use technology to save time and reduce budget, they are then left with the option of using generic products and services.

Up until now the choice that has been available has been self-paced e-learning content or online books. Both of these have a powerful role to play in building knowledge and supporting performance. However, they do not create the opportunity to discuss, explore and apply ideas with peers, something that is so necessary in building those skills in the first place.

Live online leaning environments help address the balance, but our own research shows that the majority of organisations only really use them for delivering business presentations which, unfortunately, provides plenty of opportunity for staff to switch off and move onto something more interesting!

Another challenge in today’s changing economic climate driver is time. Tighter company purse strings and job cuts have produced a challenging work environment where an employee often performs the work for two, leading to little or no time for study.

Suddenly, classroom training, and even lengthy e-learning programmes, started looking out dated. It was clear that there was a gap in the market for a new off-the-shelf product that would allow individuals to engage in learning without the budget of investing in the classroom or in large scale learning projects.  Brightwave, the Brighton-based e-learning solutions company, had a vision to create high-quality soft skills training using short bursts of accelerated learning, bridging the gap between class room learning and self paced content. They wanted to get participants to share ideas, solve problems together and make suggestions whilst supported by experienced and highly trained facilitators.

From this vision LiveTime was developed, a new approach to soft skills development using synchronous e-learning that would complement existing programmes for large organisations. It would also address the needs of smaller businesses with limited resources.

The  learner experience – the holistic approach to synchronous learning?

A LiveTime participant has the option to select from over 100 bite-sized, 20-minute live online training sessions, each concentrating on a handful of key points and learning objectives. These are run three times a day to provide plenty of choice, and individuals can select any from the schedule, set up an automatic outlook reminder and then just join in on the day. The majority of the sessions are run via a public schedule and as a result participants won’t necessarily know each other. Even though it allows flexibility for the learner, it does, however, add an additional pressure on the trainer.

Ground rules for the session are established up front, but very quickly participants are able to get stuck in to the learning, using a wide range of tools and interactions. Interactive whiteboards are used to reflect on new ideas or to practice new approaches. Individuals can listen and observe (using audio and video) to different interactions between actors, and these recorded scenarios are supported by discussion and observation - a critical approach if soft skills are to be tackled well.

Generally, participants can access any session at any time, but individuals are all provided with a personal improvement plan that they can work through with their manager in order to agree which sessions to attend and what goals are related to each topic. At the end of a session, the record button is switched off and the facilitator stays behind to answer any questions that participants might have. Participants are also provided with a pdf summary of the key points, further reading, websites, summary of other courses in the series and suggestion of next steps. The programme also makes use of action plans to encourage individuals to reflect and apply their learning back at work.

Participants from the same organisation often become part of a social, learning community where they can share problems, post ideas or comments and be very involved.  Facebook and Twitter also update all users of LiveTime sessions and news.


Lesson’s learned along the way

Delivering learning in just 20 minutes to a group that you won’t necessarily know is a tough ask of any trainer. So, how do you design an interactive 20-minute programme that engages a diverse, often multicultural audience from the start? Matt Turner, director at LiveTime, highlights the importance of focus:

"Traditionally, if you go to a course for half a day you would be able to take away 2 usable ideas. We aim to do that in 20 minutes, but it takes focus. We work on identifying 4 critical points that someone might need to take away and start from there.’

Also, trainers have set realistic expectations. For example, it would be rare to use complex interactions on a whiteboard in the first in a series. However, as familiarity with the tools grow, more interactions can be built in.

Due to the demands of working in a highly focussed environment, all new trainers follow a rigorous 3-week training programme that includes experiencing LiveTime as a learner, buddying with other trainers, running  training sessions with other trainers plus a stress test with an awkward audience. Only then are they released to engage with staff.

Brightwave have also found that building a great programme didn’t guarantee take-up. Consequently, each client now gets a full communications support pack to enable Brighway to promote the service to their target audience.

The impact

In the space of just over a year, training has been delivered globally from Europe to India, Azerbaijan, Angola, Brazil – across five continents. Organisations use the LiveTime offering in a number of different ways:

• Law firm Beachcroft LLP employ LiveTime to ensure all staff across a multi-site organisation, including all home-workers, receive a consistent level of training.
• BT is using LiveTime to help its graduates develop skills and knowledge in a wide variety of subjects, at their own pace.
• The Energy Brokers epitomise how SMEs are using the service - to deliver personal development plans for its entire team.
• The British Council is using LiveTime expertise to support appraisals and performance management, allowing it to make significant time and cost savings across continents.

Organisations are also building on the approach by commissioning company specific programmes that complement the generic schedule of  sessions.

Based on current take-up of the programme, the average ROI for using organisations is a minimum of 5:1 up to 20:1. By substituting just two days of classroom-based training per month, 500 people benefit from LiveTime for a whole year. However, what is encouraging is that cost saving has not been at the expense of value to the learners. A survey has shown that this approach really does work, with 4 out of 5 learners thinking that the 20 minute sessions are ‘just right’, and the same number feeling much more confident after participating in just one session.

Brightwave’s focus on accelerated learning for business critical skills has resulted in an innovative application of live online learning to a tricky business problem. Their experience can teach us many lessons that can help us design soft skills programmes in our own organisations.

Hints and tips for making live online learning work for soft skills

1.    Be aware of time constraints for staff - you can deliver great learning in just 20 minutes, but it takes practice!
2.    Use audio files to create low bandwidth scenarios that can be used for reflection and discussion.
3.    If you are working in a complex subject area, build knowledge through a series of progressively challenging sessions.
4.    It takes more work to deliver a short session than a long one, so provide rigorous training, coaching and buddying for facilitators.
5.    Avoid technological gimics & concentrate on participation and collaboration.
6.    If you are rolling out a programme across divisions or countries, create communications plans for use by local managers.
7.    Provide action learning plans to help staff reflect and apply learning back at work.
8.    Provide delegates with resources (pdf’s or past recordings) to provide refresher training after the programme.
9.    Establish the ground rules for sessions up front (ideally before the main session so that you don’t cut into teaching time).
10.    Remove any technology barriers that you can.

This story was written by Towards Maturity and first published in elearning Age magazine as part of our Good Practice Partnership

Barnardo’s won the Charity Learning Award 2011 for the Best overall e-Learning programme and went on to win a bronze in The Learning & Performance Institute’s Learning Awards 2012. It is amongst the top performers in implementing learning technologies (as measured by the Towards Maturity Index).

Barnardo's Assistant Director of Information Services (Learning and Communication), Lisa Johnson, has worked with her team over the last 14 years to develop a series of learning initiatives to support staff in delivering the charity's mission. This is the story of how this much-loved children’s charity creatively harnessed technology to improve service delivery and workplace performance.

The full case study takes a closer look at the following subjects:

• Getting creative - assessing how to meet business needs.
• Learning and technology – make the most of what you have.
• Thinking outside the box - The Barnardo’s induction process.
• The practical stuff - embedding innovation into the business.
• The Impact on Staff.
• Top tips for embedding learning innovation into your business.

We have included this story in our Evidence for Change initiatve. The impact of the programme upon the Charity has been: 

• A knock on effect of the team’s success in building new IT skills has been a reduction in help desk calls by 50%.
• Despite the fact that the number of dedicated training staff has been reduced, the team delivered learning to 54% more learners in 2010/2011 than in 2006/07.

The organisation harnessed a number of technologies to achieve their results and Lisa Johnson shares some of her top tips for success, which include:

1.    Keep in contact with your learners.
2.    Be creative with existing learning technologies.
3.    Engage new recruits early and get them hooked.

For more of Lisa's tips and to be further inspired, download the case study below.

This case study has been independently investigated and developed by Towards Maturity and has been brought to you thanks to the support of  The Charity Learning Consortium

Available:

• IT and Telecoms
• Public/Private Sector - General
• Health and Social Care
• Finance and Insurance
• Learning Services Providers
• Manufacturing
• Central Government
• Professional and Technical
• Local Government

• Utilities

Who are the reports aimed at?

• Those responsible for delivering results with learning technologies within the sector
• Those responsible for building a credible business case for change within the sector
• Those providing service offerings for the sector

What is covered by the report?

Contents include sector spotlights on:

• Budgets and drivers
• Delivering the benefits - current organisational impact
• Performance Benchmarks - how do you compare with your peers on take-up, efficiency and business agility?
• Technologies in use - including mobile and social media
• Accelerating performance - overcoming barriers, building a performance culture and developing the L&D team.
• Implementation benchmarks - strengths and weaknesses across 6 workstreams of implementation activites
• Call to action for the sector
• Appendix of data tables

Each 29 page report contains 12 data tables and 7 graphs.

How much do the sector benchmarks cost?

The sector benchmarks retail at £199 per report however members of the Towards Maturity research community and members of the E-Learning Network are eligible for a 25% discount.

Please contact Charles@towardsmaturity.org to purchase your copy.

NB Premium Benchmark Centre users and those who have booked a place on the Towards Maturity Strategic Review have access to up to 4 sector benchmarks for free within their premium programme.

Background

The Spotlight Sector Benchmarks draw on the organisation’s nine-year track record of producing the leading European Industry Benchmark. Drawing on data from 1,800 organisations, The Towards Maturity Benchmark is considered the most comprehensive independent review of the use of learning technologies in the UK workplace. (The 2011-12 report is available for free download at: www.towardsmaturity.org/2011benchmark).

Participants in the 2011-12 benchmark also received a free personalised benchmark report on completion of the study. This personal report can be used in conjunction with the industry spotlights to directly compare your current learning technology progress with your peers. If you took part in the 2011 benchmark but did not download your personal report, please contact Charles@towardsmaturity.org to find out how you can access it.

• Listened to stakeholders (P4)
• Identified champions   ( P4)
• Aligned with workflow and infrastructure   (P5)
• Think as marketers  (P5)
• Tested the water first (P7)
• Delivered results (P10)

Top tips to take away

If you don't have time to download the full story, here are the top tips from Cambian to help you ensure that e-learning becomes widely adopted into the organisation:

1.    Establish the business need for e-learning, and why traditional classroom learning wasn’t sufficient
2.    Be aware of the challenges of rolling out technology in a care environment

Devise a strategy to go about winning hearts and minds, including:

3.    Conduct consultations to ensure that stakeholders are listened to and that major needs and issues are understood and incorporated into the final design
4.    Identify e-learning champions and how to use them most effectively
5.    Ensure that the system is kept simple and the content relevant to the work environment
6.    Make sure that communication and marketing strategies work to convey message and win people over
 
7.    To ensure staff get a sense of familiarity and localisation with the e-learning, ensure that the content uses in-house terminology and is integrated with offline activities
8.    Take time to implement the e-learning using a phased-in pilot, where user experience can be evaluated, and changes made
9.    Interview managers approx 10 weeks post implementation to understand the operational impact of e-learning
10.    To ensure that e-learning becomes embedded into an organisation, it is critical to provide on-going communication and change management support to staff.

This case study was developed as part of Towards Maturity’s Good Practice Partnership with e.learning age Magazine and the E-Learning awards. It was originally published in the Dec/Jan 12 Edition of e.learning age.