New Factbook Shows Business Impact of Strategic Leadership Development |
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 When it comes to leadership development, are you a leader or laggard? The just-published Leadership Development Factbook 2009: Benchmarks and Analysis of Leadership Development Spending, Staffing, and Programs is the first-ever benchmarking resource for corporate leadership development.
Our research shows that companies with mature leadership development strategies see benefits that translate into significant business impact. The Factbook contains data that correlates business performance with strategic leadership development initiatives.
Following are examples of benefits seen by companies with mature, strategic leadership development as opposed to those with inconsistent leadership development strategies:
- Higher scores on employee productivity and financial business performance.
- More robust leadership pipeline.
- 62% lower turnover of high-performing employees; 63% lower turnover among newly hired employees.
- 50% less likely to have downsized during current recession.
This 120-page report, based on input from more than 350 U.S. companies of all sizes, provides you with the data and analysis to assess all aspects of your company’s leadership development initiatives – including spending, budget allocation, staffing, participation levels, delivery methods, and more – all broken down by leadership level.
The Factbook also takes in in-depth look at formal and informal learning at all levels. You’ll find detailed analysis of the following formal development components: onboarding; participant identification; program hours; delivery methods; and assessments, as well as a detailed snapshot of how on-demand, social, and embedded learning are currently being used.
The Leadership Development Factbook includes case studies and examples from companies such as Aetna, United States Air Force, Ameriprise Financial, Cisco Systems, GE, Lee Hecht Harrison, NBC, Pfizer, Sun Microsystems, and Toyota.
For more information, download the complimentary audio overview, table of contents, or executive summary.
Members: The Leadership Development Factbook is available at no cost.
Non-members: Non-members can purchase the report for $595.
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| The Importance of Measuring Informal Learning |
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Changes in technology, the workforce, and business climate have put an increased emphasis on informal learning. Informal approaches – learning on-demand, social learning, and embedded learning – are being incorporated into formalized programs. Informal learning is now viewed as an integral component of a well-rounded learning function. In fact, 72% of recently surveyed learning professionals believe informal learning delivers greatest learning impact.
As organizations increase their use of informal learning, unavoidably they are faced with the complex challenge of measuring the value and impact of these programs. Therefore, it’s important to determine the adoption, utilization, and satisfaction of your informal learning programs in order to identify what you can do to increase their effectiveness.
When creating your measurement process, ask yourself the following: Is your process easy to understand and implement? Does it deliver reliable, credible, and actionable information? Is it flexible to implement and change over time? Is it inexpensive to operate and maintain? Is it relevant to your organization’s specific strategies?
For more on measuring informal learning, tune into the recording for Metrics for the Modern CLO, a recent Chief Learning Officer magazine webinar hosted by Josh Bersin. You’ll hear a discussion of measurement strategies, new tools to facilitate measurement, and the metrics that matter most to your business. This highly popular webinar set a new attendance record for CLO magazine.
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| New Research Highlights |
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 Leadership Development Factbook 2009: Benchmarks and Analysis of Leadership Development Spending, Staffing, and Programs
This report provides the industry's most comprehensive source of benchmarking statistics on corporate leadership development spending, staffing, and programs.
Members: Download today.
Best Practices in Onboarding a Multi-Generational Workforce
The purpose of this report is to give readers an understanding of the challenges, strategic actions and technology solutions available when onboarding and engaging baby boomers, Generation-X, and Generation-Y employees.
Members: Download today.
Strategic Leadership Development: Textron's Journey to Talent Mobility
Textron's multilevel leadership strategy, competencies, and curriculum model.
Members: Download today.
Join our research community to access these reports
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| Talent Management Newsletter |
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 Bersin & Associates' Talent Management newsletter highlights research on: leadership development, performance management, competency management, recruiting, succession planning and the evolution of integrated talent management systems. In each newsletter you will find actionable research you can immediately apply. Subscribe today!
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| Analyst Corner |
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Social Learning Environments: Focus on the Positive
David Mallon
Senior Analyst
When learning professionals think about creating new social learning environments, the first things they often consider are the ways social learning can go wrong. Loss of productivity. High expenses. Difficulty in managing content. Security and protocol issues.
But the truth is this: all the negative stuff you’ve heard about social learning environments is overblown. Companies that have social learning environments in place have found that the common objections are, for the most part, unfounded. Productivity losses and costs are not really causes for concern. Many high producers share information on their own time, and social learning environments are not very costly.
And in reality, security and privacy risks for social learning are not as great as they are in today’s traditional environments. For instance, you can’t control the information communicated in an employee phone call or in a personal Facebook posting. In a social learning environment, you can see and immediately fix any content issues.
Most employees are very concerned about their own personal reputations, which naturally leads to self-policing. Employees want their peers to find value in the expertise and knowledge they are sharing. Consequently, most employees take great pains with content they post and limit controversial content issues. Companies can also further regulate content by creating a process to identify questionable content and correct invalid information as needed.
A great real-world example of an effective social learning environment is British Telecom’s Dare2Share program. The social learning environment allowed field techs to share knowledge, watch training videos, and solve customer issues. Though Dare2Share didn’t replace formal training, it created an additive space where learners could meet each other’s needs faster than through the formal training programs.
Social learning environments allow learners to share expertise, solve problems, and augment their formal training, while creating incredible value within the organization. So focus on the positives and reap the benefits!
For more information on social learning environments, check out our industry study, High-Impact Learning Practices, and the case study, Sun Learning eXchange Empowers Learners. You can also learn more at the 2010 ASTD TechKnowledge in January, where I’ll be presenting a session on steps to take to build a social learning environment and options available.
We welcome your comments and thoughts on this topic; please email info@bersin.com to share.
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