CAREER PLANNING

course, and what they thought of the

Facing the Future: course, wouldnt you want to complete

the course evaluation cycle by under-

5 Questions standing what the course did to improve

sales and customer satisfaction?

T+D: What will be the leading hot-button

ELLEN BALAGUER, managing director of regulations, cross-cultural commun- topic for the profession this year? In five
Accenture Learning, talks to T+D about ications, and global best practices. These years?
the future of the profession. skills are no longer the exclusive domain
of large multi-national corporations. EB: The hot buttons today are aligning
T+D: What factors will promote new in- The Internet has enabled even the small- learning with the business, achieving a
vestment or greater organizational com- est of companies to leverage cross border measurable return and business results,
mitment for training and workforce competencies. and leveraging technology to drive a sig-
development in the near future? Hardly a week passes without refer- nificantly improved learning experience.
ence to the number of persons that will All working in concert to increase skill
EB: There are several key factors that are be eligible to retire over the next five to10 levels much faster than we do it today.
driving, and will continue to drive, invest- years.This is an issue that impacts multi- These hot buttons have actually been
ment and commitment. We view the key ple industry segments and governments the focus of learning departments for sev-
factors as: the development of high per- across the globe. The loss of legacy eral years. However, the post dot com bust
formance workforces, employees with knowledge is further compounded by the years and world events have had a signifi-
the skills necessary to support globaliza- continued rate of change within compa- cant impact on the strategic focus of
tion, and preparation for the aging work- nies, and the expectation of productivity learning departments. Stressed corporate
force. growth. Todays employee has a wide profits and slow growth rates forced
As companies across the globe strive range of responsibilities that draw upon a learning into a cost-containment, or in
to achieve high levels of employee per- variety of competencies. Competencies some companies a cost-reduction, mode.
formance, the role of learning is critical must be continually refreshed as new Learning departments embraced e-learn-
to the creation of a high performance products and services are brought to the ing as a cost-management play. Were all
culture. The signs of superior perfor- market. In addition, todays employees very familiar with the concern that e-
mance are clear. High-performance busi- are highly reliant on the mentoring and learning failed to live up to the expecta-
nesses consistently deliver strong leadership of more seasoned employees. tion that it would quickly become the
returns to shareholders, achieve consis- Having the ability to have access to lega- preferred method of learning delivery.
tent and solid revenue growth, maintain cy knowledge is an important step. The measurement of learning impact
a high return over the cost of capital, and seems to continue to elude learning pro-
are rewarded with valuations that indi- T+D: What new metrics will be employed fessionals. The deployment of the Kirk-
cate strong growth expectations. The to demonstrate the impact of learning on patrick model has evolved into a model
high-performance organization has a individual or organizational performance? that focuses on measuring ROI. Yet, we
leadership culture that unleashes the still see most organizations operating at
businesss energies and capabilities, is EB: The metrics for learning will take on a an assessment level 2 or 3. Whats miss-
skilled in not just developing strategies greater alignment with the metrics of the ing? We still have work to do on assess-
but executing them, and that skillfully business. For some time now, the learning ment process engineering and the
manages the balance between the tasks community has concerned itself with implementation of enabling technologies
of today and the challenges of tomorrow. metrics, such as the number of hours de- that create solid linkage between learn-
In turn, employees are aligned with the livered, cost per hour delivered, number ing systems and enterprise systems.
goals of the organization, and they are of student days, and the student satisfac- Five years from now we will be firmly
highly competent with the right skills, at tion rating of a course. These metrics are in the midst of dealing with the chang-
the right time. valuable from a production tracking per- ing workforce. The learning profession
Globalization continues to make a spective, but they may have little to do will continue to play an instrumental
major impact on global enterprises. As with the actual business impact of a role in the development and retention of
trading partners across the globe con- training intervention. For example, if employees. In the future, there will be
tinue to cross borders, it is critical for youre conducting a sales training course, shortfall of qualified labor to fill open po-
employees to be skilled in global supply in addition to knowing who went to the sitions. There has been research pub-
chain management, international trade course, how much time they spent at the lished to suggest that companies will

44 TDJanuary 2006 Copyright ASTD, January 2006

have to leverage workers that today of quantifying the positive business im- smaller than a traditional coursecalled
might be classified as unskilled labor to pacts of learning. learning nuggets will be delivered to the
fill this forecasted labor gap. This will learner in concert with a just-in-time
place a greater responsibility to educate T+D: What will it take to achieve true on- learning approach. Learning will be em-
new hires in basic job skills. demand, personalized learning on a bedded in the employees work process
Because this skilling must occur at broad scale? and will look less like a discreet learning
the very time companies are experienc- event.
ing labor shortages, the learning depart- EB: The architecture of learning manage- M-learning, delivered through a vari-
ment will be expected to significantly ment systems and knowledge manage- ety of channelslaptops, MP3 players,
reduce time to competency. Rapid learn- ment systems will continue to evolve, mobile phoneswill become a key ele-
ing development methods will become and move closer to merging.The applica- ment for the success of embedded work-
critical to the process of learning, and tions will mature to help me get to the flow learning. Mobile learning will
the ability to integrate, or embed, learn- learning I need, when I need it.The appli- provide learner access to content any-
ing in the employees workflow will no cation integration of learning and knowl- time, anywhere. Learning nuggets will be
longer be something that is nice to have; edge systems will allow the learner to pushed via m-learning distribution
it will have to become the gold standard operate in a learning environment that channels just-in-time to the learner, trig-
for the delivery of learning. guides them to the appropriate course- gered by an event, or a transaction, in the
workits conceivable that a kind of soft- learners business process
T+D: What one skill should learning pro- ware agent will assist with the analysis of
fessionals add to their repertoires in the the learners needs and then map on-de- T+D: In what new areas might employees
near future to assure their relevance to mand, personalized learning to the em- be trained during the next five years?
their organizations? ployee.
On-demand learning will be also en- EB: Training will focus on those compe-
EB: The learning professional of today abled through the continued reduction tencies that have the most significant
needs to understand how technology can in bandwidth cost. This will be true for impact on driving business results. As
leverage learning and how to apply learn- both hard wired and wireless networks. has traditionally been the case, employ-
ing technology to drive business impact. Lower bandwidth costs will allow for ees will be trained in the skills that ad-
In other words, a solid blend of technolo- greater connectivity between the learner dress specific functional competency
gy and business skills to complement and the source of the learning content. requirements. Moving beyond functional
their foundation as learning profession- More bandwidth for lower cost will facil- skills, weve heard from various leaders
als is required. itate the distribution of richer content, there is an increasing interest in equip-
Given we continue to see significant including high quality video. The ability ping employees with skills sets that bet-
influence of technology as a learning to deliver learning with integrated video ter support the broader set of
enabler, learning professionals should will vastly enhance e-learning as we responsibilities required of workers in a
ensure they work to develop their work- know it today. knowledge-based economy. Critical
ing knowledge of information technolo- thinking skills, creative problem solving
gy. In concert with their development of T+D: What emerging trend will explode as skills, and the skills required to establish
technology skills, learning professionals a key element of workplace learning and and grow social networks will be more
should ensure they develop strong rela- development in the next five years? and more important to an employees
tionships with IT departments. success. TD
The development of business skills EB: Two trends will likely explode:
will provide the learning professional embedded workflow learning and
the ability to better understand how to mobile learning. The two are actually
apply the right learning technology at closely related.
the right time. The emphasis on linking As the access to learning for employ-
learning with business results requires ees in a ubiquitous fashion continues to
todays learning professionals to speak evolve, the reality of embedded work-
the business language of their company. flow learning becomes more likely. Suc-
Developing financial and business skills, cessful embedded learning is dependant
such as capital investment analysis and not just on learning pull, but also learn-
business case development, will enable ing push. Learning chunked up into
learning professionals to do a better job smaller components of learningthat is

Copyright ASTD, January 2006 TDJanuary 2006 45