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• Getting Analytical to Drive Business Results

  Karen Northon on January 17, 2012 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: analytics, talent management

  Check out the video interview posted on TM Magazine’s site, “Use Analytics to Impart Change.” It’s a brief but interesting interview in which Richard Walker, of General Parts International, Inc., discusses the changing role of analytics in talent management, and the correlation between analytics and business outcomes.

  Kim Lennon, a Senior Product Manager and expert on Analytics at SumTotal, offers this perspective:

  The world of analytics has shifted emphasis over the past 2 decades – from looking at the past to looking at the future.  Predictive analytics is causing a paradigm shift within organizations, allowing stakeholders to effectively answer questions such as “what is the best that can happen?” versus previously only focusing on the “what”, “where” or “when” things happened. 

  High performing organizations are combining quantitative along with qualitative analysis, benchmarking, and predictive analytics to anticipate and address business opportunities.  The time has come for management to no longer be forced to shoot-from-the-hip in making critical business decisions.

   

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• Where and when do you learn how to lead?

  Karen Northon on January 16, 2012 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: HCM (2), leadership development, learning management, performance management, succession planning

  There’s a great article on CLO Magazine’s website, “The Real Education Gap,” in which author Sandi Edwards, of the American Management Association, discusses how and where leaders acquire what they dub the Four C’s of leadership: critical thinking, communication skills, collaboration and creativity.

  More and more organizations are turning to technology solutions to address leadership/employee development, such as performance management, learning management and succession planning software.

  How does Human Capital Management technology play a role in developing leaders in your organization?

   

• Cutting the Cord on Learning

  Karen Northon on January 13, 2012 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: field guides, HCM (2), learning (4), mobile, smart phones, tablets, training (2)

  Mobile technology is an increasingly critical element in effective Human Capital Management, particularly for organizational learning. According to research from the analyst firm Bersin & Associates, more than 1.3 billion mobile phones are on the market today, and tablets, like the Apple iPad, are steadily replacing traditional devices like desktop PCs and laptops. This all equates to a tremendous opportunity for organizations to extend their reach and delivery of learning content at a lower cost, and more quickly than ever before.

  Mobile learning technology offers orgnizations many benefits, including:

  • Immediate reach to employees who don’t have easy access to a computer – such as those in retail and manufacturing.
  • Direct training opportunities for remote employees
  • Easy training delivery to customers and partners outside the organization
  • The ability to repurpose existing content, and thereby reduce administrative costs
  • Centralized reporting for all training/learning activities.

  In our HR Field Guide, 5 Tips to Effective Mobile Learning, we offer five ways to create great content and a user experience that, together, can make your organizational learning program more effective and efficient.

  Download 5 Tips to Effective Mobile Learning here, and get on to the path of limitless learning for your organization.

   

• Overexertion costs businesses $12.5 billon a year

  Karen Northon on January 12, 2012 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: learning (4), regulatory compliance (2)

  And employees “Struck by Object”? $4.64 billion a year. 

  I confess, I chuckled while skimming the injury category titles in Liberty Mutual’s Workplace Safety Index – “Bodily Reaction,” “Fall on Same Level.” But I nearly choked on my morning joe when I saw the rather astonishing dollar impact of workplace injuries.

  In “Top 5 Workplace Injury Causes Make Up 72 Percent of Direct Workers’ Comp Costs,” Workforce Management Magazine’s Roberto Ceniceros writes about the Safety Index in more detail. You can read the article here.

  The high cost of workplace injuries can be a significant factor in an organization’s decision to invest in a technology solution to deliver consistent and accurate delivery and tracking of training/learning to improve safety. This need is amplified for organizations that must meet regulatory requirements.

  You can learn more about organizational learning and regulatory compliance, by reading our white paper The Value of a Learning Management Compliance Solution.

   

• From Combat to Corporate – The Value of Military Experience

  Karen Northon on January 12, 2012 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: hiring, job candidates, recruiting

  As a military veteran, I always enjoy reading articles that highlight what the military does best – train leaders. In an article today in TM Magazine online, James M. Fraleigh, freelance writer, and Courtney L. Vien, senior editor at the Apollo Research Institute, discuss the translation of military experience into the civilian workforce, as well as a recent Apollo study that polled 831 participants “employed at the managerial level or higher who were regularly involved in recruiting across a broad range of industries.”

  The Apollo study found, for example, that “Ninety-two percent of respondents [employers] agreed that leadership abilities make veterans strong candidates for positions requiring authority… They listed teamwork, striving for results and planning/organizing as the chief leadership skills military service develops.

  Check out the full article on TM Magazine’s website, http://www.talentmgt.com. Very worthwhile read!

   

• “Integration” is the word for 2012

  Karen Northon on January 11, 2012 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: integration, learning (4), trends, white paper

  As we move into the new year, most organizations will have to continue to find new and innovative ways to do more with less - which means working smarter. According to Bersin & Associates research reported in “Pillars for Performance: Integrating Learning and Talent Management,” organizations with effective integration of learning and talent systems are three times as likely to have strong employee results and 100 percent more likely to have strong business results.

  In our white paper, Top Learning Trends for 2012, we discuss the benefits of integrated learning and talent management, including improved bottom-line performance, increased data accuracy and smarter personnel decision making.

  Download this white paper.

   

• MD Physician Services Joins SumTotal Customer Family

  Karen Northon on January 10, 2012 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: development, learning (4), physician training, regulatory compliance (2), training (2)

  MD Physician Services provides a multitude of services to Canadian physicians, from financial advice to practice management services. In their search for a Learning Management solution that could, in the words of Daniel Labonte, VP Strategic Initiatives for MD Physician Services, “handle our complex certification and licensing tracking requirements – straight out of the box,” SumTotal proved a perfect fit. 

  “We believe the SumTotal solution will be a real game changer by helping us to better serve our internal customers, and is a real win for us all,” said Kevin Judge, Learning & Development Leader for MD Physician Services.

  Read more about how MD Physician Services made this critical business decision.

   

• What Makes Your Organization So Different?

  Karen Northon on December 6, 2011 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  

   

  One of an organization’s greatest differentiators is how it manages its workforce. In the latest issue of LX Briefing, a publication of the American Society for Training & Development, SumTotal CEO John Borgerding discusses how an integrated and strategic approach to Human Capital Management can give your organization the edge it needs to excel in the marketplace.

  Read John’s article, this issue’s “Hot Topic,” here.

   

• Succession Planning Success

  Karen Northon on October 28, 2011 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  

  In “Succession Planning: 5 Costly Errors to Avoid,” SumTotal HR expert Richard Oyen goes beyond the basics of Succession Planning and talks about the five most common mistakes organzations make when mapping out a plan for the future of their ogranization’s leadership.

  Learn how to avoid these mistakes, create and maintain a comprehensive succession plan and about the critical role of unified Talent Management in developing the future leaders of your organization.

  Read Richard’s article here.

   

• Young & Rubicam Selects SumTotal to Drive Company’s Global Strategy

  Karen Northon on October 10, 2011 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  

  We are thrilled to announce today that Young & Rubicam Brands (Y&R) has selected SumTotal to build core business disciplines and drive learning strategy at Y&R Advertising and Wunderman, two of Young & Rubicam Brands’ preeminent global marketing communications companies. Leveraging SumTotal’s software platform, Young & Rubicam can now better support their diverse employees across the globe and improve customer achievement with a centralized approach to managing their talent.

  “We wanted strong core functionality to house, manage, assign, track and measure learning.  But, the front end was just as important, particularly because of the creative nature of our business,” said Cindy Zimmerer, Senior Vice President & Director of Learning at Y&R Brands. “We needed a positive user experience as well as the flexibility to organize and design the site that would reflect our companies’ values, belief and branding. SumTotal met all of these needs.”

  Read more…