IOL: Determining the Impact of Learning

As long as learning has played a prominent role in organizations, metrics have played a prominent role in learning. If CLOs want to be among the heavy hitters at their organizations, they'll have to make reliable and meaningful measurement a priority.

Metrics: Some CLOs swear by them, others at them. Chief Learning Office magazine columnist Mike Echols sounded the clarion call this February for CLOs to rededicate themselves to measurement, whereas former Goldman Sachs learning executive Steve Kerr called measurements like ROI "silly." Love them or hate them, though, metrics likely will play a key role in resolving a serious challenge for CLOs. Few CEOs and CFOs are satisfied with the impact of their organizations' learning programs. There is a need for discussion on the value of metrics and which metrics are valuable.

We're All in This Boat Together

First, there needs to be reconciliation between the two camps: those who believe metrics are our salvation and those who believe they're a waste of time and energy and a feeble attempt to justify the value of learning. Secretly believe what you want, but the heads of your organization - you know, the ones who dictate the budget for learning - are dissatisfied and want evidence of success. Two years ago, when Accenture asked executives about their learning programs, only 10 percent were very satisfied. So after innumerable conferences, classes and advances in technology, CLOs still have a long way to go.

ROI Is Dead

Most organizations don't bother to measure the financial benefits of learning. To a large degree, this is because measuring the ROI of learning is perceived as difficult, time-consuming and labor intensive.

More than half of the organizations surveyed by Bersin & Associates cited the need to improve alignment with the business as one of the top learning and development challenges for 2008. Why would we consider using the same ROI method that has a two-decade-plus track record of indistinction?

Simply put, it's because the method being used for ROI is too complicated. Some, for example, attempt to isolate the effect of training and separate it from other interventions (e.g., technology, marketing, process improvements) as if conducting a laboratory experiment. A lot of hard work and effort gets applied to scrub financial data and tease out the contribution of the learning function. This is but one small example of how we make Level 4 evaluations needlessly difficult on ourselves.

This apparent overcomplication drives many learning leaders to abandon ROI. But they still must do something to report on the training function. Many reach for readily tracked data, such as course-completion rates and training hours - none of which do much to establish the value of learning at the C-level.

Offering up these metrics in some ways demonstrates a fundamental disconnect with the business. Course-completion statistics show nothing in the way of alignment with the goals of the business. There is no inherent value solely in the completion of courses.

Long Live Impact of Learning

For those who want to demonstrate the value of employee development programs to the business, meet Impact of Learning (IOL). IOL is simple enough to be practiced in 100 percent of organizations, not just those elite few that have the time and resources to engage in ROI.

There are three basic steps to IOL as a way of demonstrating the value of learning:

1. Insight: Create a map of the linkage from business goals to training initiatives and identify success metrics.

2. Individual: Gather overall data on success metrics, in addition to personal success stories.

3. Impact: Develop an impact report rich with compelling stories of individual and overall success so executives clearly see the impact on organizational issues about which they truly care.

Start With Insight

The road to business alignment needs to be mapped early on. For each major initiative involving training, it is vital to gain insight and identify the business drivers up-front and in writing. Robert O. Brinkerhoff describes a delightfully simple one-page format to represent business alignment in his book, The Success Case Method. IOL insight involves understanding the business case during the initial phase of work, when the training staff first starts to understand how they can support an initiative.

Insight essentially means metrics - specifically, effectiveness metrics that business leaders are committed to achieving. But it's important to point out that insight metrics rarely are as broad as overall sales or revenues. For example, for the leader of sales at a manufacturing company, sales from new customers were a key focus. That nuance was critical both in planning the learning curriculum and any future assessment of impact. In this case, substantial resources needed to go toward training to sell into new markets.

Or in another example, sales metrics can be targeted specifically to a channel such as independent dealers vs. big-box retailers. Whatever the insight gained from front-end planning, learning leaders must establish from the start that they have clear intent to deliver results.

Mapping this makes our intentions even more visible and lays the groundwork for assessing impact. Typical maps of the linkage to success can be four to six columns of information. Sample column headings may include:

a) Who will be trained (audience, job role or title)?

b) What will they need (knowledge and skills, competencies or expected behaviors)?

c) What they should do (key actions)?

d) What should individual results be (outcomes or job results)?

e) What are the company's goals (business objectives or strategic results)?

The value of the insight map is that it documents the shared understanding of what needs to happen and how and when success will be measured. Armed with that, a CLO can enhance the curriculum accordingly - adding where needed, pruning courses that no longer fit and planning learning strategies that make the most sense for key audiences.

Individuals Make It Happen

The CLO with insight sets the stage, but it is the individual learner who makes it happen. The key to the second part of the IOL process involves a celebration of how people create results. Instead of poring over tedious stacks of data or creating cumbersome financial models to calculate training's ROI, we prefer to listen to the anecdotes of the individuals we have trained. Are they creating the important outcomes we mapped earlier? If so, are they doing so by virtue of the concepts and skills we provided?

The CFO of a major health care system articulated how she used what she had learned to create a balanced set of outcomes, including margins that were within financial targets. This was achieved without sacrificing the core mission of serving those who could not afford health care. The powerful story she told clearly demonstrated success in the context of the organization' s goals and fully acknowledged the value of what has been learned.

This is the most compelling type of data describing the impact of learning. The individual perspective demonstrates the alignment of employees development with the goals of the business. If you can't find those individual examples in the organization, then you need to take a hard look at what you are teaching. Perhaps the curriculum failed to keep up with what really matters in the current environment.

Business goals change and so should your training content. That's important data, as well. Individuals also can tell you if you are not teaching them things that achieve results. They are a great source when it comes to showing the need to make important improvements in training delivery. This side of the equation is not supplied when learning functions rely on an ROI approach.

I have never seen an ROI study fail to return an answer of less than an 80 percent gain. (Given that, it's amazing that CFOs don't clamor to double the training department budget each year.) Yet, overall, individual performance stories are far more credible to executives than the fantastic results often reported in ROI studies. No doubt, it's still worth looking at whether the sales group is meeting its sales targets and if the finance department is managing the business within margin targets. At a high level, this context is important to see if the business is making progress toward its larger goals. But assessments at the individual level should not be overlooked.

Say It With Impact

Learning leaders can't forget to do the most important part at the end of the IOL process. They need to let their internal customers in the organization know they care about the results. The best way to do this is with a written report: an impact statement. If you just spent $500,000 to improve customer service, your internal customers need to hear something more important than the fact that employees sat through 3,000 hours of training.

For example, a large health insurance company is in the process of teaching more than 200 customer service representatives how to more quickly and consistently answer questions about coverage. The organization is geared up to analyze expected improvements in their first-call resolution one month after implementation. It's critical to get that message out in a timely fashion. Few would care if the learning department reported the number of course completions. Not many would listen if it decided to take the next two months analyzing data and then touted some complex rationale around 120 percent return on investment.

But when it tells the story of the 15-year veteran customer service representative who applied what she learned and immediately increased her ability to provide full and complete answers to callers, now they are really saying something of value. Her story, combined with overall results of call accuracy and decreases in escalated calls, is a solid statement of impact.

An impact statement should include at least two or three cases, but it ought to have as many as are needed to lend credibility and clarity to the situation. It also should include the original map constructed in the insight phase. And most importantly, it needs to be produced as soon as outcomes can be seen in the organization. Business leaders need to get the facts quickly before their attention moves on to the next great challenge facing them.

Summary

Every couple of decades or so, thought leaders unveil a model that transforms learning's approach to evaluation. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, it was Donald Kirkpatrick' s four levels of training evaluation. In the 1980s, the new idea was to prove the return on investment of training.
Comparing the cost of a learning intervention to the performance gain it produces seems like a worthy endeavor. ROI might seem viable to a small number of companies willing to put forward the time and money for such an analysis. But even if properly executed, it may overlook whether the learning intervention was organizationally aligned to begin with.

And that's the challenge facing our industry right now: proving our contribution to business goals. IOL is a method that ensures linkage to business goals while yielding faster and more compelling evaluation results. It's time for another sea change in learning measurement.

Lifestyle Learning: Improve the Bottom Line With Behavioral Education

Academic education and professional degrees can impart the technical expertise necessary for on-the-job success, but ultimately, work styles and techniques are what drive productivity.

In today's knowledge economy, with lightning-fast Internet connections and an increasingly globalized marketplace, information reigns supreme. Modern, user-generated tools such as Wikipedia.com and blogs have not only made communication easier and faster, they have emphasized the importance we place on sharing knowledge.

For this reason and more, education is a hot commodity. Bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees help those in the workforce acquire the theoretical knowledge and technical expertise required to get a leg up on the competition. But even in today's world, a degree can only take you so far."The notion of a degree or a certification or a certain educational level really is [just] the price of admission into a job or job function," said David Collins, vice president and general manager of the training products division at Tracom Group, a provider of workforce performance solutions.Once an individual has the knowledge, it's the way he goes about doing his work - his organizational, time-management and behavioral skills - that ultimately drives results."Proven knowledge and skills are often necessary conditions for people to be high performers and to be successful.

But the will-do, the motivation, the engagement facets really play a role in whether or not you will deploy what you're capable of doing," said Dr. Kenneth Nowack, a licensed psychologist and president and chief research officer of Envisia Learning.Keeping this in mind, learning organizations can leverage the work styles, choices and techniques of successful employees to elevate curriculum and improve the overall productivity of the workforce.

Successful Social StylesNowack said success can be conceptualized as a scorecard that involves four independent elements: happiness, values, achievement and relationships. A successful person is fruitful in all four. But how does he or she do it?"The most successful individuals possess a set of personality qualities and practice lifestyle behaviors that facilitate continuous growth and learning," Nowack said. "Some of these include being conscientious and achievement- oriented; identifying and deploying signature strengths; practicing forgiveness and expending less energy [on] remaining angry; actively acknowledging stress and practicing stress-reduction techniques when experiencing work and life triggers to reverse the fight-or-flight response; utilizing support of others, as well as expressive writing to let feelings out; maintaining a regular sleep cycle; [and] taking time to become physically active."Nowack added that a recent Harvard Business Review article, titled "How the Best of the Best Get Better and Better," also offered insight into this topic."Some of the things [writer Graham Jones] mentions is having a long-term perspective, blocking out distractions, seeking candid feedback, stretching development, reflecting on ways to improve and celebrating success," Nowack said.

Many of these behaviors are innate character traits that people exhibit as early as childhood, Collins said."That preferred pattern of behavior sticks with people their whole lives," he said. "Those behaviors impact how people think and use time, how they make decisions [and] their outward actions with others."According to Tracom research, these behaviors also have an affect on personality traits, including pace of speech, volume of speech, quantity of speech, assertiveness and responsiveness.

While many of these characteristics are innate, there are several main themes that emerge from them, on which organizations can train employees.Self-Awareness"When people understand themselves and what their preferences are and how they do things, they can organize their work more effectively, " Collins said.Indeed, one of the first things required to become a successful worker is self-awareness.Kathy Wojcik, manager of leadership development and learning at Gates Corp., an automotive and industrial equipment manufacturer, recalled an incident that highlights the importance of self-awareness."I clearly remember these three guys who worked together in a machine shop, and all three were of strong mind and opinion," she said. "That created a significant amount of clashing - not necessarily destructive, but a barrier to moving forward."After enrolling in personality training, the three employees became aware of their behaviors and began to understand why they were having difficulties coming to an agreement, Wojcik said."Then [they could] take a look at what behaviors would make them more effective," she said.VersatilityThe key to making self-awareness work, however, is versatility.


After all, even if you can identify your own behavior properly, you won't change unless you're willing."One of the best habits in working with other people is figuring out how to best work with them," Collins said. "It's adjusting or adapting your behaviors to meet their needs as opposed to your own. What you really want to be able to do is work with people in the way that they most want to be worked with.

"For example, if I'm going to coach one of my employees, and I understand what their behavioral preferences are, I cam think about those in advance of the coaching session. And if it's a session where I have to give them some difficult news on some performance enhancements or some changes that they need to make, I can tee that message up in a way that's most likely to be accepted by that person - that they're most likely to understand it and I'm most likely to get the outcome that we're looking [for]. So it's not only understanding it but applying it in everyday work situations."In fact, research by Tracom found that managers who exhibited higher versatility were 27 percent better at leading teams and 25 percent better at coaching others.However, versatility only goes so far. According to Nowack, people have the ability to be flexible up to a certain extent, but beyond that, they tend to gravitate back toward their natural states."The visual I like to use is a set of springs hanging on a hat rack," Nowack said.

"If we can learn the different ways that we can pull on those springs - and that might be nurturing, coaching, leadership experiences and development activities - we will find we stretch people farther than they ever imagined. But there's a natural tendency in that spring to go back to its natural set point, where it started."That's not to say that life-altering situations, traumatic events, great coaches and great developmental experiences can't alter the setting of that natural set point, Nowack added. But it highlights the difficulty every employee - from the frontline worker to the senior-level executive - has in trying to maintain behavior change."Zebras don't change their stripes very much, so it's a question again of, how much energy do you put in? What do you need to see from an organizational perspective? " Nowack said. "If you're looking for a dramatic shift from a competent jerk to a loveable star, it won't happen.

"Interpersonal SkillsInterpersonal skills always are important, but now there's a new imperative.We're really dealing in a global environment, and you have to be able to deal with people who haven't grown up in or experienced or been immersed in a culture like yours," Wojcik said.Also, with the growing emphasis on social networking and the younger generations' penchant for collaboration, more and more companies are seeing the team become the preferred work unit. Understandably, working well with others is that much more important

in this collaborative environment, Collins said."I honestly think that a person's success is based almost solely on their ability - especially at a leadership level - to get things done through others, which involves so many of the interpersonal skills that we all use every day, whether they're tremendously honed and highly flexible or whether they're kind of more hardwired," Wojcik said.Yet, interpersonal skills impact more than just individual productivity. Collins pointed to Tracom studies that tied interpersonal skills to bottom-line successes."They're finding that [hospital employees] who do a better job relating to their patients can run more profitable practices, have better patient retention rates," he said.

"Even in a profession that's as highly specialized as the medical profession, they're finding that this notion of interpersonal skills, or understanding people's behaviors and working more effectively with them, is becoming more and more important."According to a survey on the effectiveness of interpersonal skills training conducted by Tracom, nearly 60 percent of respondents said performance had been affected negatively by personal style differences.

Sixty-two percent of respondents cited low morale as another result of these differences."There's a really strong connection between those interpersonal skills and the business-practice skills that organizations expect from frontline people, managers and even their executives," said Sean Essex, director of marketing for Tracom.Training TipsThere are several techniques learning organizations can use to help train employees on the three broad skills necessary for workplace success. First, some initial preparation can put the employee in the right mindset for achieving self-awareness. Additionally, when training employees on work styles and personality traits, it's important to give them real-life examples and explain how the material relates to their everyday routines.

"Where so many programs fall short is they don't tie it back to the daily workflow that people exhibit," Collins said. "So when you're able to take the knowledge from the classroom and actually give them a tool that makes it very job-specific to what they do, the likelihood of them applying it and using it go up much more. And the likelihood of them getting the desired impact that they want goes up equally as much."Wojcik highlighted the universal application of social-style training, which she said Gates Corp. typically offers between six and eight times a year."It not only touches your work life, it touches your whole life," she said. "I've had people call me back six months after this program and tell me how it has changed their relationship with their kids or parents, especially an aging parent, or spouse. [They're] truly life skills.

"Nowack said learning executives can help employees overcome the hurdle of maintaining behavior change in several ways."The use of 'professional nagging' or reminders seem to help all of us keep going with new change efforts, even when we want to quit," he said. "Building in metrics to monitor our change journey is another way of reinforcing our efforts."Celebrating success at specific achievement points that are predetermined helps us to recognize where we have come from and recommits us to continue," Nowack continued.

"Finally, recognizing that relapse-prevention strategies are critical [will help] avoid the inevitable. Build in some social support to help [workers] get through times when [they] actually could lapse, [and] develop a plan of getting right back on track."Finally, it's important to remember that lifestyle learning doesn't happen overnight."You need to give that time," Wojcik said. "It's like farming: You need to wait through the seasons."

Celebrity CEOs Can Undermine Performance

High-profile chief executives brought in to deliver rapid results often have an opposite impact, according to global consultants BlessingWhite।

"Despite their best intentions, so-called celebrity CEOs can easily undermine performance because of all-too-predictable mistakes," said BlessingWhite CEO Christopher Rice. "They come in bent on immediate change or raising the stock price. But if they don't understand the culture they are working with, they end up harming the very organization they set out to strengthen in an attempt for short-term gains."

While they make headlines, noted Rice, celebrity CEOs and their management teams frequently find themselves disconnected from the organization। "They're so intent on making their own mark that they don't pay attention to conserving key aspects of the organization' s culture. Our research has shown that a healthy organizational culture can serve as the foundation for workforce engagement. This is critical for sustaining a business through good and bad times."

Rice identified five common pitfalls:

१।Copycat cultures: Mission and values form the core of an organization' s culture and should be authentic and unique to afford competitive advantage। Some CEOs make the mistake of trying to replicate the strategies of the market leader or recreate the culture of their last firm without regard to the culture already in place.

2. Communication breakdowns: Some CEOs think they can conduct a few town-hall meetings and call it a day. Leaders at every level must state and restate what the organization stands for, as well as the strategies and values. Otherwise the CEO risks being tuned out and the impact of the message ignored, with most employees thinking the speech is just for the sake of investors and analysts, not core to the organization' s mission.

3। Hypocrisy at the top: Actions speak louder than words, and a CEO's failure to exemplify core values will not go undetected। And although BlessingWhite' s research indicates most employees do not feel safe challenging their leaders' decisions and behaviors, the findings also suggest that employees will take stock - and move on if they perceive hypocrisy at the top.

4। Forgetting the team: Culture cannot be successfully changed and sustained without help from the frontlines. But frequently, mid-level managers are held accountable for business results only, and culture issues are left to senior leadership or the HR department.

5। Empty labels: Integrity, Respect, Customer First, Innovation, Risk-Taking. Values such as these are the core of organizational culture. New CEOs are sometimes unable to make these intangible terms reals for employees throughout the organization. The definitions, not the labels, shape employee behavior.

"Every organization has a culture, whether leaders actively shape it or not," said Rice। "If cultivated around a compelling mission and core values, culture can be a CEO's secret weapon। If ignored, an organization' s culture can undermine new ideas for growth, spit out the people who don't fit and survive long past the celebrated leader who chose to misjudge its importance।"

Six Steps to Creating an Ethical culture:

First there was the case of the Wal-Mart whistleblower who alleged that a senior executive was engaging in questionable financial practices. Then there was the Societe Generale scandal, in which a rogue trader lost the French Bank a whopping $7 billion in fraudulent transactions.

These incidents might seem extraordinary, but according to a study by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), U.S. organizations alone lose 5 percent in annual revenue to fraud.

The solution is to create and enforce an ethical organizational culture, according to a new white paper from talent management solutions provider Allegiance.

According to Allegiance's research, organizations with strong ethical cultures report fewer cases of fraud, suffer less litigation and overall have happier and more engaged employees. They also cut their fraud-related losses in half, said Greg Heaps, COO and ethics specialist at Allegiance.

"Not only is having an ethical culture a good idea, but it's now practically a requirement, " he said.

As a result of these findings, Allegiance devised a set of six steps talent managers can take to help create ethical cultures within their organizations.

1. Establish an enforceable code of conduct.
Talent managers should work to create an enterprise-wide code of ethical conduct that describes appropriate behavior and acts as a proactive solution, rather than reaction to past missteps. It also should incorporate employee preferences and opinions because giving them a stake in development will ultimately make them more apt to adhere to it, Heaps said.

And like most HR programs, the code must not only be championed by but also clearly demonstrated by senior executives for employees to take it seriously.

"Employees have a hard time buying in if management isn't buying in," Heaps said.

2. Offer ongoing training.
"Training is not a one-time, one-shot deal," Heaps said. "The purpose is to help employees know what is expected of them and to help them understand that having a strong ethical culture can protect the company's reputation and ultimately can impact their bottom line."

Live workshops, online courses and printed materials all are helpful, and organizations also should provide annual training on specific issues, including proper use of company assets, discrimination, harassment, use of e-mail or use of the Internet. Talent managers should also custom-fit training to the needs of different departments, Heaps said.

3. Issue regular communications.
According to a 2007 report by the Ethics Resource Center, fewer than 40 percent of employees are aware of their companies' ethics and compliance programs.

"Programs exist, but organizations aren't doing a good job of communicating [that] fact," Heaps said.

Senior-level management must establish this line of communication that can take the form of broad announcements in the corporate newsletter or more personal discussions, either by department or individually.

4. Set up an anonymous reporting hotline.
According to the ACFE, an anonymous tip is the most likely way to reveal fraud, accounting for 34 percent of the cases uncovered. But employees must feel their anonymity is safe and secure for them to participate in a whistleblower policy.

"Employees can sometimes be met in the parking lot or somewhere else and physically abused by the perpetrator if their anonymity isn't maintained," Heaps said. This potential conflict may explain why 42 percent of employees who witness misconduct do not report it, according to the ERC survey.

Heaps recommends that employees have access to anonymous Web- and phone- based reporting tools and that talent managers also consider a third-party hotline provider, as employees often feel internal avenues are less secure.

The reporting tool should require whistleblowers to answer targeted background questions, as opposed to open-ended voice-mail or e-mail questions, and it also should have management capabilities that allow talent managers to track incidents.

5. Enforce and take action.
Imposing consequences for violation of the code of conduct will result in all employees - from the CEO to the frontline worker - taking it seriously. Heaps said that research done by ERC found that misconduct is cut by 75 percent and reporting is doubled at companies with strong and enforced ethical cultures.

6. Reward employees who demonstrate the culture.
"Like a manufacturing company that brags about its safety record with signs indicating how many days [it has gone] without an accident, companies should do the same and publicly congratulate employees that adhere to the code," Heaps said.

He added that some organizations might even share the "profits" - the amount of money saved by avoiding fraud - with whistleblowers.

"Employees prefer to work for an organization that has an established ethical culture. They end up happier, they end up enjoying their jobs more - they're more engaged with the organization, " Heaps said. "When you have that kind of environment and that kind of attitude with employees, it directly impacts your bottom line."

Leaders Developing Leaders

A company leader cannot single-handedly take an organization by its neck, shake it, and send it in the right direction. Success comes when the leader turns leadership into a team sport and develops a company of leaders.

The following is excerpted from Talent: Making People Your Competitive Advantage by Edward E. Lawler III:

One outstanding way for senior executives to show their commitment to leadership development is to actively participate in leadership development programs. Depending on their skill sets they can be active teachers or simply show their supports by attending sessions.

A number of highly visible CEOs, in fact, have been excellent role models of how senior executives should behave in this respect.

When Roger Enrico was the CEO of PepsiCo, he regularly taught sessions on leadership with his direct reports. Similarly, Bob Eckert of Mattel has sponsored numerous leadership development programs at Mattel and has taught and participated in them.

When asked why he participates in Mattel management development programs, Eckert doesn't hesitate. He says it is because he learns from the programs and it gives him a change to see the company managers in action. He adds it also shows his support for talent development.

Enrico and Eckert exemplify what effective leaders of HC-centric organizations need to be. It is not the hero or imperial leader who can single-handedly take an organization by its neck, shake it, and send it in the right direction. It is a leader who can turn leadership into a team sport and who can develop a company of leaders.

In a business world that is turbulent, constantly fluctuating, and intensely competitive, what is needed is an organizational ability to adapt and constantly learn. This in turn requires having leaders at all levels who can lead change.

A very important part of the leadership activities of managers at all levels should be searching for better and newer ways to do business, new approaches to organizing, and of course for changes in the environment that should alter the business strategy.

Where possible, the search for better alternatives ought to involve experimentation, use of metrics to validate the effectiveness of new procedures, and sharing learnings with others. Admittedly this type of mind-set and behavior needs to start with leadership by the CEO, but at its very core is the principle that leaders everywhere in the organization need to ensure that learning, experimentation, and attention are focused on what is happening in the external environment.

Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton, in The Knowing-Doing Gap, make a statement that captures my feeling about how managers should think about their jobs.

According to Pfeffer and Sutton, the major job of managers is architecting organizational systems that establish the conditions for others to succeed. In other words, good managers are a combination of coaches and builders that enable performance by others. They help define success as well as identify relationships and processes that will lead to it.

This applies at every level of the organization. In a shared leadership organization the expectation is that leaders at all levels are thinking about an creating systems and situations where teams, individual contributors, and entire business units are able to be successful.

[About the Author: Edward E. Lawler III is Distinguished Professor of Business at the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business and founder and director of the University's Center for Effective Organizations (CEO). Professor Lawler has been honored as a major contributor to theory, research and practice in the fields of human resources management, compensation, organizational development and organizational effectiveness. ]

Millennial Magnets

If you want to attract millennials, you have to think like a millennial। And some companies do that very well।At Marriott International Inc., for example, if teams of employees can figure out how to do their jobs faster, they can have more flexibility in their work schedules --

a particularly attractive perk to a generation that seems especially opposed to letting work become all-consuming.Other companies are equally creative.FactSet Research Systems, which creates financial software, helps employees set up Facebook groups so they can keep in touch with one another.

Scottrade, the online broker, has an employee rewards program that hands out the must-have millennial item, the iPod. And Chesapeake Energy, a natural gas company, trains all managers and supervisors to understand how young people think.Those are just a few of the innovative techniques used by Human Resource Executive's Great Companies for Millennials, an exclusive list prepared for the magazine by the Great Place to Work Institute in San Francisco.

The 18 companies on the list were all given exceptionally high marks by their U.S. employees 25 and under in surveys developed by the institute. The companies were culled, at HRE's request, from the institute's "100 Best Companies to Work For," prepared for Fortune magazine.Many of the companies have programs and initiatives specifically geared to attract and retain younger employees. Others say they don't target one age group over another -- they try to appeal to all employees equally. But what the 18 have in common is that they hit all the right notes in the siren song for young workers.Experts on millennials in the workplace -- as well as human resource executives at companies on our list -- say this new generation of workers has a specific set of expectations.They think having to "pay one's dues" is old-fashioned, and want to be given responsibility quickly. They crave recognition for their efforts. They have a strong desire to be part of a community of young co-workers who not only socialize, but help each other out on the job.The latest technology is important to them, of course. So is work/life balance, and an employer that genuinely cares for the environment and has a sense of social responsibility.

Members of this generation -- many of whom have had their young lives planned out for them to the last detail by their overachieving boomer parents -- also want something else: a clear career path laid out before them. They already know where they're going. And they expect you to make sure they get there.Only four of the 18 companies have more than 10,000 employees -- perhaps not surprising, considering that young workers put top emphasis on the question, "There is a family or team feeling here."But Marriott, which has 123,000 U.S. employees, proves that millennials can find a home in even the largest corporations.For starters, Marriott, based in Bethesda, Md., still emphasizes its origins 80 years ago as a family-owned root-beer stand, says David Rodriguez, executive vice president of global human resources. Marriott has the feel of a small company, and a sense that "everybody's involved in a family business," he says.1. Some Friendly FeaturesAnd like many of the smaller companies, Marriott allows the kind of workplace flexibility that young people find appealing.One example is the company's new "Teamwork Innovations" program, which encourages employees to eliminate redundant work. At one hotel, teams of employees looked at the hour it took to turn over a shift and realized they could cut 40 percent off that time. As a result of the time savings, employees were able to leave earlier."If your work can be done in fewer hours, that's what we want," says Rodriguez. That's also what millennials want. Unlike earlier generations, he says, young people today are far less interested in hanging around so the boss will think they're more productive."They don't want it to be a criterion for being a top performer that they're there for a couple of extra hours," he says."That's what Gen Y is saying -- 'Judge me by my work, not by whether I'm around for a certain number of hours a day.'"That's something all employees want, but "Gen Y has been much more vocal about it," says Rodriguez. "Baby boomers just assumed they would work from dawn to dusk. Gen Y is saying, 'I'm not going to do it the way Mom and Dad did it.'"Rodriguez says millennials have been influential at Marriott, as the company has made work more flexible for all employees."Gen Y is bringing attention to it, but everybody's benefiting," he says.Like many of the companies on HRE's list, Marriott puts the latest technology into its workers' hands.Rodriguez pictures a scenario to illustrate this: A Marriott employee is at home late at night, in pajamas, using an iPod, watching David Letterman on TV and thinking about his or her ideal next job at Marriott.

The employee can get on a computer, access his or her "personal portal" at the company's intranet site and specify the desired type of job, pay level and even city. The moment such a job is posted by the company, the employee will be alerted -- and his or her resume will automatically be sent to the hiring manager.Young people expect that kind of connectivity, at any hour of the day or night, says Rodriguez."They're so used to doing things electronically, " he says. Employers who didn't score well with Gen Y on the Great Company surveys are "probably still pushing paper."And then there is the issue of trust. After the 9/11 attacks, far fewer people traveled, and the hotel industry was temporarily devastated, says Rodriguez. Many hotel companies reneged on job offers they had extended to graduates of university hospitality programs.Not Marriott. "We found ways to employ them any way we could," he says. "We honored our commitments. "He believes that effort has resulted in "lifelong loyalty" from many of those employees.And Marriott's effort is still remembered by university officials, who spread the word to students.Says Rodriguez: "Gen Y is very much looking for employers who are genuine."2. Responsible RewardsThe Great Companies for Millennials also scored particularly high in the surveys among young people asked to rate them according to whether they give promotions "to those who best deserve them."Chesapeake Energy, based in Oklahoma City, has that one covered.

Young employees are given responsibility early, says Martha Burger, senior vice president for human and corporate resources."If a supervisory position is open, it's not necessarily the person who's been here the longest who gets it," says Burger. "It's the person who's best for the job."That's what young people expect, she says. "The concept of paying your dues is something we need to forget for the younger generation," says Burger. "They see paying your dues as occupying space."Her company's policy is, "If you want something, you don't have to wait 10 years to get it. If you've earned the responsibility, you can have it."At Chesapeake Energy, having talented young employees is not a luxury -- it's a necessity. In the 1970s and 1980s, "the oil boom turned to oil bust," and few young people wanted to work for energy companies, says Burger. As a result, an entire generation is missing from the workforce. The company has been growing rapidly in recent years, says Burger, and there's a tremendous need for new waves of young people.But competition for young workers in the industry is intense, so Chesapeake has had to be very creative in keeping them happy. One technique: The company trains supervisors and managers -- who are often in the 50s -- on the best ways to develop young people."We talk about the differences in this generation, and what makes them tick," says Burger. "We do case studies, such as asking, 'How would you handle a young person who comes to you and says, 'I'm not being challenged'? "The company does this because it can't afford not to, says Burger."If young people aren't understood, they will leave," she says. "Their thought process about getting another job is different from other generations. "Companies that don't recognize this run the risk of alienating millennials. That's something that National Instruments, an Austin, Texas-based firm that makes computer hardware and software for engineering uses, understands very well.

"Our culture doesn't start from 'You're too young,'" says Mark Finger, vice president of human resources. "We're not afraid to take people with 12 to 18 months' experience and put them in the field."The company's approach, he says, is "We're not afraid of your talent. We'll reward talent and people who do incredible things. That is very attractive to very smart people."David Hall, who is 25 and has worked for National Instruments for two-and-a-half years, agrees. He's responsible for driving revenue growth for a line of products that test wireless devices in cell phones. He regularly meets with customers, and writes articles for industry magazines."I've been given a huge responsibility to lead a big initiative at a very young age," says Hall, who has a degree in computer engineering. "It's kind of thrilling." He got a taste of that early responsibility when he taught a computer programming class to fellow employees six months after joining the company."Many of the people attending the class had kids older than me," he says. "But they were looking to me for answers for a fairly technical product. And these guys were smart."There was a lot of pressure and responsibility, says Hall, but "that's the kind of experience that grows you as a person and a professional. "It's critical that fast-rising young employees don't get bogged down and discouraged.

Kimley-Horn and Associates, a Cary, N.C.-based company that specializes in civil engineering and land planning, takes care to hire enough graduates each year so young employees can keep moving up.Some companies tend to hire graduates in chunk every few years, but Kimley-Horn, which has about 2,400 employees, keeps the pipeline moving, says Barry Barber, director of human resources."If we don't hire anybody, you're still low man on the totem pole," says Barber.Young employees could get burned out, or stuck in place."We don't want folks to be pigeonholed, " he says. "You don't do that with a 24-year-old. "3. A Social AgendaAlthough corporate America generally frowns on too much socializing at work, many of the companies on our list -- including Kimley-Horn -- actually encourage employees to get together.At many of its offices, Kimley-Horn holds lunchtime forums, during which senior workers share their knowledge and experience with newer workers. But the events also help to get young people together to plan social outings, says Barber."Most new graduates are moving to new geographical areas where they don't know anybody," says Barber. "They're coming from college, where they had an instant social life, and an instant community."The forums not only integrate employees into the firm, but also help them build a new social network, says Barber.

Young people expect this kind of helping hand from their employers, experts say.Neil Howe, co-author of the forthcoming book Millennials in the Workplace, says that this generation has always been comfortable socializing with their parents, and with other kids around adults.It's a natural step for them to want the same dynamics at their jobs, says Howe, who, along with his late co-author, William Strauss, coined the term millennials. Says Howe: "They want to bring the comforts of home to the workplace."Like Kimley-Horn, FactSet -- a Norwalk, Conn.-based firm that creates software for investment professionals -- recognizes and encourages this, says Director of Human Resources Dan Viens.Training courses have a "huge social component," he says. The company arranges social outings, such as bowling, after the training sessions, and helps the groups set up Facebook groups so employees can stay in touch with one another.

That's good for the company in several ways, says Viens: Not only are the employees happier, but the networking helps them do their jobs better.FactSet is also attractive to young people because it allows employees to switch careers at the company. FactSet holds career fairs for employees already on the job, letting them know what's available, says Viens."We don't want anybody to walk out the door because they're looking for a career opportunity that they did not think was here," he says.And then there's the personal touch.Students who have accepted jobs at FactSet, but haven't left school, will often be sent gift baskets, blankets and hot chocolate before their finals. Along with the gifts will be a note that says, "Good luck, we're thinking of you, we look forward to seeing you soon."As much as millennials love the personal touch, they also love the attention. Scottrade, based in St. Louis, understands this -- and considers rewards and recognition programs particularly important to millennials, says Jane Wulf, executive director of human resources."They like to be recognized," she says. "They grew up with bumper stickers on their cars saying, 'My child is an honor student.' They grew up in an era where everyone won a trophy."

In Scottrade's "Above and Beyond" program, any employee can nominate any other employee for recognition. Nominations earn points that can be traded in for such things as gift cards, jewelry and an iPod.Although the program is for all employees, young people find it particularly attractive, says Wulf.4. Make It CoolMillennials not only want cool things, they want to work for companies that are considered cool. It's not surprising that cooler-than- thou Google and Starbucks are also on our list.So is 1,800-employee Umpqua Bank, based in Portland, Ore. Young people love to work there, and a big reason is the bank's image -- as a very cool place -- in the local community, says Executive Vice President of Cultural Enhancement Barbara Baker, Umpqua's chief HR officer.

That coolness is meant to appeal to all customers, not just young people, and Umpqua pursues it with enthusiasm.Its branches are called stores; its tellers are called "universal associates." Branches have Internet cafes, coffee bars (which dispense the bank's own brand of coffee) and couches where customers can relax, browse through magazines and watch business channels on television.Some branches host yoga classes and movie nights, and there's even a water dish for dogs outside, so customers' pets don't have to miss out on the fun.

When you walk into many of the stores, you can hardly tell you're in a bank, says Baker. And that's the intention."We wanted to create excitement around a retail environment, like Starbucks and Nordstrom," says Baker. "We say, 'Come in and browse in our store, and by the way, do your banking.'"Baker says customers love this approach, and so do employees -- particularly the many young people who become tellers at Umpqua right after high school or college. And when they tell people where they work, the response is often, "Oh, that's the cool bank," says Baker.About 20 percent of the company's workers are under 25, typical for a bank."The company does have that cool factor, that 'it' factor," says Chris George, 25, an assistant vice president in the mortgage division.Young employees especially like that, he says. "Your friends are envious," says George. "They'll say, 'How'd you get a job at Umpqua?'"And when people he meets ask what he does for a living, he doesn't say he works for a bank."I say I work for Umpqua bank," says George. "Saying you work for Umpqua speaks for your character."

Reference:

Scott Flander[Human Resource Executive Online April 1, 2008]

Case Study – The Wet Floor

Sushma works in Infosoft Solutions Pvt Ltd. She works there as Project Leader. Occasionally her job demands coming early for her duties or stay till late evening hours.

Once she was handling 2 projects simultaneously and on one such day she had convened a meeting with her team members regarding project delivery. She had called her team members at 0800 hours.

Sushma is a disciplinarian and generally she follows duty timings strictly. Discipline starts with me, was her firm principle. She had made a habit of coming 5 minutes early at least. However, on that day she could not make meeting time of 0800 hours and she was worried of her reputation of being late.

Time was 0805 and she reached main gate of her company. Hurriedly she swiped her card and rushed towards board room. That time few housemen were doing cleaning. One of the housemen had spread soap solution on the floor. Unaware of what is on the floor, she continued to rush to the board room. In hurry, Sushma slipped her foot. The floor was made of marble and soap solution was sprinkled over it. The floor had become quite slippery. Sushma, could not control her balance on the slippery floor and fell down. Slippery floor dragged her couple of feet further.

The impact was so strong that she wailed loudly. Her team members rushed to help her. Somehow she could get up with the help of her team members. Considering her wailing because of pain, she was taken to the hospital. In the hospital it was discovered that her hip bone was broken. Later she was immobile for about two months because of hip injury.

Later in investigation, it was revealed that the houseman who was cleaning the floor had not put the display board “Caution: Floor is Wet”.

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Read the above case study carefully and find out the various communication issues involved.