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by Marc Grimm, President, MRC-Business Consulting Services

Looking for elearning ROI? Need an elearning strategic plan?

CK (Concept Keys) Systems is the only web-based learning system in the market place today that seamlessly integrates training and blended learning into measurable performance improvement activities. MRC’s HR Business & Services Consulting Group is the exclusive provider of CK Systems. CK is not just another e-learning program. Today’s e-learning programs focus on the facilitation of ‘participant learning’, using the basic fundamentals of adult’s learning theory on understanding and retention. While providing the same basic elements of a traditional e-learning program, CK uses key elements from coaching, self-management, and communication theory to maximize individual performance improvement. CK measures participant engagement and helps participants to define priorities and set goals relative to their individual working environment. Additionally, CK in real time provides management and HR with the necessary participant specific information to effectively engage in a performance improvement process. Your elearning strategic plan will benefit from CK Systems, and you can measure the results. CK specifically provides a participant engagement index, as one key variable of any elearning ROI calculator.

Any effective training initiative must be measured by its return on investment. Even with the sophisticated ROI tools and performance management systems available in the market place today, many organizations are still in the dark with regard to their ability to define the critical issues that will impact the effectiveness and pay-back of their training intervention(s). These key issues include both behavioral and organizational challenges. In order to address these issues, an organization needs to shift its perspective on training from ‘learning’ (understanding, retention, and control) to ‘performance improvement’
(engagement, communication, alignment). Research shows that participant engagement after the training is a critical success factor for performance improvement, and CK produces important data to track performance and feed into an existing ROI calculator.

Behavioral Issues: The challenge of participant engagement—prior to, during, and after training

• ‘Training as a necessary evil’. As a result of professional experience/attitude, the pressures of day-to-day operations, and organizational performance expectations, participants have a tendency to commit the least amount of time possible in order to complete the ‘training exercise’. This problem is exacerbated if participants feel that they already possess the necessary skills to perform their job successfully. In this context employees will only ‘participate’ to the extent that they feel they are learning something new and relevent to their own work environment. When training doesn’t accommodate participants’ work flow and doesn’t allow for ongoing ‘bottom up’ feedback from the field, participants will place less value on the training process and tend to disengage.

CK Systems addresses these challenges by providing participants with the opportunity to ‘customize’ their learning and enabling them to transform generic training content into individual and job specific priorities and goals. This forces the employee to continuously re-evaluate the training according to its real-work relevance, while allowing the employee to feed back potential systemic and/or structural changes to management that potentially hinder the employee from successfully displaying the desired behavior change. As a result employees experience meaningful training ‘relative to their job’, versus general training ‘on the job’ as is the case in a traditional blended learning situation.

• ‘Searching in the dark.’ “Plan your work and work your plan.” This simple self-management rule falls flat in context of training. Traditional training and training reinforcement programs will provide participants with learning objectives and program goals. Participants are provided with limited opportunity to set personal goals; usually at defined moments during the training or at the end of the training. As a result personal goal setting in training is treated as an isolated ‘activity’, instead of being an integrative step towards future performance improvement and evaluation. Rarely does an employee know exactly what individualized expectations management has for him or her in the context of specific training, or how the new information should influence individual performance with regard to the job specific priorities. As a result, training often becomes ‘frustrating’ and sets the stage for conflict between employees and management. One of the root causes for this issue is the absence of direct management involvement during and after the training. When training doesn’t seamlessly lead from learning off-the-job to performance improvement activities on the job, participants perceive training as less than critical to management, and thus less than critical for themselves, for their performance reviews or for their personal career development.

CK Systems builds a bridge between training and performance improvement through training delivery and re-enforcement and engaging participants in priority and goal setting, while actively involving management by providing this information in real time. This information allows management to identify ‘coachable moments’, align employee’s goals and priorities with organizational objectives and activities, and demonstrate to personal interest in the individual performance of the employee.

• ‘The absence of accountability.’ When training does not produce the desired results, the question raised is obvious: whose fault is it? The trainer’s, the HR function’s, the consultant’s, the manager’s, or the individual participants’? Before answering this question a more important question needs to be asked: ‘Who is responsible for what, and how do we hold people accountable for what they are tasked with? Training is traditionally a result of communication between line management and human resources in identifying current and future needs and linking those needs with various employee development activities. The actual training itself however, is implemented and facilitated by internal and/or external training specialist or consultants. These individuals often do not have the necessary insight into the participants’ day-to-day responsibilities and activities, or the overall structure of the particular division or department and it’s strategic vision. As a result management’s lack of integrated participation, the accountability for the actual performance improvement not only gets watered down in the process of training development to actual implementation, but frequently leaves an accountability vacuum in the post training period. At this point in the process managers will frequently feel overwhelmed. They are now left with the responsibility of having to make the training work and produce the results that the organization expects; regardless of their level of involvement in the process and the quality of the training delivered.

CK Systems places the accountability for performance improvement where it belongs—with the appropriate manager in the field. Provided with the information outlined above (Searching in the dark), managers will have the necessary tool (CK) to actively evaluate training, and manage the performance improvement process during and after the training event. In addition, CK increases the manage’rs motivation to actively engage and collaborate with HR and external consultants during the needs assessment and training development process. With the use of this tool the managers will find themselves at the forefront of the training process; thereby creating a shared responsibility for training development and implementation between line management, themselves, HR, and internal/external consultants.

Organizational Issues: Training as a function of performance improvement—beyond basic participant learning

• ‘Today’s blended learning approaches are limited in predicting future participant performance’. At best, training/learning systems measure whether the participant attended the training, completed the on-line sessions, in what time did they do so, and whether the participant passed a quiz or test at the end of the program. Traditional post class evaluations are easily manipulated by an experienced facilitator and the gathered information offers only limited value to HR and management. Additionally, the participants have yet to experience the application of their new knowledge and skills back on the job. This results in traditional blended learning programs focusing on ‘learning’ instead of ‘performance improvement.’

CK Systems provides HR and line management with the information necessary to measure participant engagement immediately after the training event and assess employee’s activities towards performance improvement. Since this takes place in real time, managers can proactively engage employees instead of reacting to undesirable behavior or performance after the fact. Not only does this lead to improved communication between management and employees, and create improved performance in a shorter amount of time but it can help avoid costly mistakes.

• ‘More is better’. In order to ensure a maximum return on investment many companies fall into the trap of providing a maximum amount of information in a minimum amount of time. As a result, participants frequently feel overwhelmed by the training and have a difficult time transferring critical elements of the training back to specific aspects of their job responsibilities.

CK systems can deliver and reinforce training content. In both instances, CK uses an approach that is designed to accommodate the participant in his or her daily work routine, while ensuring that information is processed in a timely fashion. Instead of forcing as much information as possible onto the participant in a short period of time, CK engages participants in daily ‘micro lessons’. These micro lessons have an average duration of 5 to 10 minutes per day. Each lesson is then followed by a training evaluation segment. In these evaluation segments the participant assesses the importance of the information provided with respect to his or her current working environment. Additionally, the evalutaion segment allows the participant to state how he or she intends to make use of the new information provided. Participants find themselves very actively engaged over a relatively short period of time per day with the benefit of minimal or no lost time on the job. This minimal interuption of work flow will positively impact the results produced by your elearning ROI calculator.

• ‘Presence versus Engagement’. If managers attend employee training, they usually want to demonstrate support and stress the importance of the training content for the organization. While sharing the same ‘learning experience’, they are not using training as an opportunity to actively engage in the employee’s performance improvement. Traditionally they do this for two reasons. They see training as an HR function and service to their department; and managers don’t have the information that would allow them to identify ‘coach able’ moments before they become a performance issue.

CK Systems, based on its design and the data provided to managers, naturally integrates the manager into the employee’s learning as well as performance improvement process. Engagement becomes a necessity not an option, as discussed above.

CK provides real elearning ROI.

Using CK, organizations achieve cost reduction and higher return on investment in comparison to traditional e-learning systems by:

• Less interruption of participant productivity and work-flow
• Less time away from the ‘field’
• Shortened learning curve in applying new information to the work place through prioritizing and goal setting process
• Increased accountability of management and employees for performance improvement
• Improved integration of new information into organizational structure and processes
• Improved employee, management and trainer ‘readiness’ prior to training event
• Increased employee alignment/engagement
• Improved vendor/content evaluation

CK is especially cost effective when used to:

• Reinforce pre-existing training content such as training modules on Customer Service, Conflict Resolution, Coaching etc.
• Reinforce complex and critical development initiatives, such as Leadership Development Programs or Organizational Change Initiatives.
• Develop and/or distribute compliance driven information, i.e. New Employee Orientation on Sexual Harassment, Drug Abuse in the Workplace, Safety Information etc.

Please contact us today for more information on how you can put CK Systems to work for you.