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The Best Corporate Universities: MLGW
Carolyn Turman, Chief Learning Officer for Memphis Light, Gas and Water, is the driving force behind MLGW University, launched in 2006. In this podcast interview with Human Resources IQ's Allan Hoving, Turman, winner of the IQPC 2009 CUBIC Award for Corporate University Leader of the Year, discusses:
- gaining the support and involvement of 100% the executive leadership team
- exceeding customers’ expectations even under adversity
- establishing Executive Council and “Schools of Learning”
- maximizing technology and resources
And more!
Discover how MLGW University ensures that its curriculum is aligned with the strategic plan and adds value to the organization through their talent management and executive development process.
- Training a New Generation of Leaders
Delaware North Companies Inc (DNC) is a leading global provider of hospitality and food services, with operations in the lodging, sporting, airport, gaming and entertainment industries. Generating over $2 billion in annual revenue, the family-owned company employs over 50,000 people worldwide. In this Human Resources IQ podcast interview with Allan Hoving, John Kist, Senior Manager of Talent Development for Delaware North Companies discusses how the company developed cost-effective global learning throughout the organization in order to develop a highly diverse workforce, including:
- leveraging the entire leadership program at different levels for virtual and in person components
- expanding the front line supervisory training to focus on both soft skills and building operational strength in the organization
- aligning The Pinnacle Program for management and leadership development with DNC business strategies, with an aim to recognize, develop and promote talent from within the ranks of the business.
Find out how a training organization can become fluid in order to provide effective learning solutions as a one size approach or singular modality simply does not work.
- Translating Results to ROI & Learning Effectiveness
Learning and development didn’t exist at Nuance until Linda Landry, Senior Director of Global Learning and Organizational Effectiveness joined the organization. Since then, Nuance has grown from offering no formalized corporate education with a budget of zero to a full-service corporate university staffed by seven with a significant budget.
Like many organizations, Landry was under the gun to prove value to her top level executives. So when it came to translating results of learning and of Nuance University to show the return on investment, Landry and her team had to illustrate where their dollars were being absorbed and where they were being defrayed.
In this podcast, Landry discusses with Human Resources IQ, best practices for:
- Demonstrating your overall value to the business
- Keeping your funding and even increasing your allocated budget
- Running a cost effective business aligned with business goals
- Improving your metrics programming so that it aligns with what executives care about, and upgrading processes for maximum effectiveness.
- Running Training Like a Business
Today’s internal training organization faces unprecedented challenges and opportunities. Scarcer economic resources, a troubled economy and senior level managements demanding monetized results from training programs.
The key activities of running training like a business involve abandonment of the obsolete and the unproductive, aligning training with the new corporate agenda, making outsourcing decisions, improving individual and organizational productivity through both training and continuous learning via new technologies such as Web 2.0 and social media and determining what to measure and how to measure it.
- Running Training Like a Business: Delivering Unmistakable Value
Training is central to business success, and organizations world-wide have ramped up their investments in training and development to leverage return on investment. Many business leaders say that too often training operates like something separate from the business. It is important to transform training from running as a function to running like a business. When doing so, organizations can deliver the kind of value that results-minded executives recognize, appreciate, respect and increasingly demand.
The concept of running training like a business is to make training more effective and efficient in order to help businesses achieve their goals. Training organizations that fail to keep up with business face a battle for survival; and companies that can’t deliver valuable training to employees may in turn find themselves fighting for survival in the markets they serve.
Running training like a business reduces and may eliminate fixed costs for training and development and yields much more efficient forms of training activity. That frees substantial corporate resources for business leaders to invest in enhancing the core competencies of their companies.
Listen as author Ed Trolley moderates a panel of executive learning officers who discuss the key concepts of running training like a business and how they have been this applied to organizations.
Panelists include:
Ray Stevens, Staples University
Martha Soehren and Dan Gallagher, Comcast Cable
Annette Thompson, Farmers Insurance
- Aligning Learning Initiatives with Organizational Business Strategy
Training and learning provides an opportunity for your talent to grow within the organization and really become an integral part of the business. While developing these opportunities for growth and development, it is imperative that the learning objectives are directly aligned with the corporate strategy and business challenges. By connecting your workforce with the overall business goals, successful organizations will remain ahead of their competitors.
Horizon House, Inc., a not-for-profit organization that supports adults with disabilities and their families, has developed their learning organization in a manner where all of their 1,200 employees have the opportunity to continue their learning and take part in the growth of their career and the success of the organization.
The learning function is designed to reflect a diverse workforce and community, where employees must undergo the culture and organizational value orientation program followed by a 60-90 day onboarding process. Once the employees complete their initial training with the organization, they obtain the ability to enhance their learning via informal and formal means offered by Horizon House, Inc.
According to Damian Salas, Director of Training for Horizon House, Inc., in order to have a successful learning organization, you must involve many individuals in the process. The key to linking strategy to learning initiatives is to make sure that C-Level executives are involved as much as possible. By including the executives along with the employees, together they can develop a learning curriculum that identifies the organizations objectives, provide timely training to accommodate these and find ways to reduce the cost.
Salas discusses with Human Resources IQ the objectives, execution and benefits of the learning organization within Horizon House, Inc.
- Corporate University Leadership Drives Organizational Goals
Aligning corporate university initiatives with organizational goals helps increase the bottom line. Rick Tift, executive director of the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility, discusses their Command University initiatives that has been successful and led to the runner-up position for IQPC's Cubic Awards Corporate University Leader of the Year 2008.
- Talking Corporate Learning with Peter Marchesini from inVentiv Health
Peter Marchesini is the Chief Learning Officer at corporate learning and training strategies. He is a panelist at the upcoming Corporate University Week taking place from November 16-19th in Lake Buena Vista, Fl.
- Strategies to Empower your Employees: Talking with Michael Lux from CA, Inc
- Driving Innovation in Corporate Learning: Talking with Mary Ann Bopp, Manager, Career Development, IBM
Mary Ann Bopp, Manager, Career Development, IBM Corporation will chat with us on the path to innovation in corporate learning and development. Ms. Bopp recently co-authored a book entitled, "Agile Career Development, Lessons and Approaches from IBM" with colleagues Diana Bing and Sheila Forte-Trammell. Ms. Bopp will be speaking at IQPC's 11th Annual Corporate University Week, taking place in Lake Buena Vista, FL, from November 16-19.
- Using Web 2.0 for Employee Development, An Interview with Bob Rock, Director of Training and Development for Thomas Cuisine Managment
Bob shares his companies innovations in using online tools to train employees and enhance their leadership development.
- Implementing a Low Cost Solution to Maximize Training and Learning Development
During this economic crisis, training is usually the first to have cut backs and budget restraints. However, ACI has increased their efforts by partnering with Bellevue University, which has allowed ACI to leverage the skills of their employees and match that with the overall organizational goals. Tricia Danielsen, Director of ACI University, shares how the partnership has helped leverage continuous learning within their organization.
- Maximizing Learning and Development Strategies during an Economic Recession
Today's internal training organizations face unprecedented challenges and opportunities. In an economy teetering on recession, companies must respond swiftly and strategically to the scarcity of economic resources, generational shifts in the workforce, new business demands and technological advancements in the training industry. It is more important than ever that the value of training is tangible and involves all operational business partners and stakeholders in its development and delivery. Katherine Mehr speaks with Linda Landry, Senior Director, Global Learning and Development for Nuance Communications on training within an uncertain economy.
- Behind the Scenes at Sears Learning Organization
In this podcast Debbie Graye of the Sears Holding Corporation presents a case study on her company's continuous learning program.
Even in this economy, leveraging learning and development for employees is critical not only for their individual success, but for the organization's strategic plan as a whole.
At Sears Holding Corporation, which employs 350,000 employees, their learning organization is comprised of a broad corporate university, also known as Sears Holding University. Sears Holding University supports the enterprise learning and development needs. However, on a more departmental level, specific skills and knowledge courses are offered and required so that employees can do their jobs more effectively.
According to Debbie Graye, Director of Learning and Development for Sears Holding Corporation, their learning and development initiatives are tied directly to their strategic planning efforts. This helps them determine where they are and areas they need to grow over the next couple of years.