2023 Brandon Hall Gold Award, Excellence in Learning Best Advance in Establishing Governance to Guide Learning Decisions
A multi-billion-dollar global healthcare company based in France is transforming scientific innovation into healthcare solutions around the globe. Dedicated to supporting people through their health challenges, the Company employs more than 100,000 people to provide healthcare solutions in 176 countries.
Situation
As with many biopharmaceutical companies, employee training is focused on qualification and compliance. The Company wanted to expand the scope of its offerings to provide support for critical business priorities and serve as a strategic resource for the organization. While the existing training approaches resulted in regulatory compliance and capable employees, there were still issues that needed to be addressed. Employees were routinely asked to complete training that was unnecessary or repetitive, resulting in an inefficient use of time. This occurred for three reasons. First, training assignments were task-based. Second, locations relied heavily on manual paper-training modules and processes to assign training on an individual basis. Third, locations didn’t have a standardized way to guide learning decisions and curricula groupings, which resulted in inconsistent learning assignments across the organization.
Innovative Learning Group (ILG) worked closely with the Company to develop a governance model strategically built around an industry-standard curricula framework.
Solution
The Company and ILG were able to establish a governance model that successfully leveraged industry-standard curricula framework and forged guiding principles to assist in developing learning decisions that were consistent across multiple units of the Company.
The governance model was developed by validating training opportunities at one location and confirming similar opportunities across other locations. The team also targeted an industry-standard curricula framework with governance strategically structured around it.
Curriculum Organization
The governance model was strategically centered around the curricula framework. This curricula framework standardized how training requirements were organized and assigned to employees in a way that continually maintained compliance. This approach enabled training requirements to be grouped based on sets of defined criteria to enable full accountability for consistent design to the framework.
Curricula Guidelines
Six supporting guidelines were designed to specifically target key opportunities as they related to the current state of curricula design. Key stakeholders evaluated training data to redesign curricula to challenge existing thinking, encourage a change in mindset, and support accountable decision-making related to the curricula framework. These guidelines also served as priorities by which the team would make all design decisions.
Use of Technology
The team combined people strategies with learning management system (LMS) features to take advantage of the automation benefits of the LMS as decisions were made during curricula redesign.
Repeatable Methodology
The team put in place a repeatable, systematic methodology borrowed heavily from DACUM’s analysis methodology, including evidence-based practices in decision-making meetings, change management, and curriculum design to design role-based curricula to replace the task-based curricula. As a companion to this methodology, templates, tools, and resources were built to enable locations to consistently capture and analyze thousands of rows of training data.
Deployment Toolkit
More than two dozen targeted tools and resources were designed and deployed with input and feedback from multiple locations. These tools were then used to support teams as they gathered data and managed to timelines.
Asset Management
Practices were employed to define ownership and accountability for how courses and curricula were managed at the location level to ensure employees were prepared to do their work with relevant, up-to-date materials. RACI matrices established ownership, roles, and responsibilities at the global and local levels so that communication could take place between the correct stakeholders and approvals could be obtained.
Global and Local Partnerships
Global and local partnerships were established within location(s), with roles and responsibilities based on both global and local needs and objectives. These ranged from strategic oversight and alignment with top business priorities to the operational needs and expectations of the location. Additionally, charters as well as RACI matrices were developed that detailed roles and responsibilities to ensure accountability and alignment.
Guidance Document
Documentation with input from more than 20 global partners communicated and enabled alignment to support sustainability on a variety of items. These included terminology, acronyms, roles and responsibilities, curricula framework training and support, standard core curricula processes to implement and sustain curricula, and data sampling tables.
Measurement
Baseline Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and targets were standardized across locations. Then, baseline KPIs were established and tracked at the location level before being communicated to the global level for tracking and accountability. These KPIs were realized at the time of deployment for the updated curricula.
Reporting
Reporting templates were built and tested for managers at locations to ensure employee training occurred and to drive compliance.
Critical Support Tools for Communication
Tools and resources included Yammer articles, a curricula framework video, presentations, presentation templates, and status update templates to share progress with key stakeholders. Job aids on leading effective meetings and work sessions were also included for those individuals who interfaced with subject matter experts in the redesign.
Sustainment
Sustainment was top of mind from the outset. ILG established global and local partnerships with roles and responsibilities outlined for each, created continuous improvement best practices, established life cycle management processes, and engaged other groups that might benefit from long-term sustainment (such as the team that governed the LMS). Elements of the governance model were documented in a Guidance Document.
Results
ILG and the Company devised a systematic data collection and evaluation process to allow each department at each location to document data consistently. The initial data for this project exceeded target KPIs, and the governance process and curricula are being adopted globally.
Overall, the effort has created business impact in the following areas:
- Reduction in training hours
- Reduction in administrative hours
- Increase in automated training assignments
- Reduction in unnecessary assignments
To learn more about how Innovative Learning Group can create custom learning solutions to help improve business results, contact us at info@innovativeLG.com.