NFL Has A Classic Talent Management Dilemma

The NFL has an ongoing dispute with the NFL Referee’s Association over a new labor contract and it’s a classic talent management dilemma. On the one hand, the NFL is taking a posture that will give it leverage over the Referee’s Association and subsequently, the Player’s Association. However, pursuing a labor strategy is never that… Continue reading »

View full post

Delivering Happiness

Ken, our VP of Engineering, recently recommended that I read Delivering Happiness, written by Tony Hsieh, the CEO of Zappos. A little emtrain background . . . Zappos was probably emtrain’s 10th or 11th customer to sign up for our training service. They signed up long before harassment training was legally mandated and back when… Continue reading »

View full post

emTRAiN is launching a new training tool this summer!

emTRAiN likes being on the leading edge of training design and technology. We were the first (or very early adopters) to shoot video vignettes and insert them into our web-based compliance courses. We were the first to design a compliance learning management system that generates litigation ready training reports that demonstrate every mouse click a… Continue reading »

View full post
NFL Has A Classic Talent Management Dilemma Delivering Happiness emTRAiN is launching a new training tool this summer!

Sep
26

NFL Has A Classic Talent Management Dilemma

by Janine Yancey

The NFL has an ongoing dispute with the NFL Referee’s Association over a new labor contract and it’s a classic talent management dilemma. On the one hand, the NFL is taking a posture that will give it leverage over the Referee’s Association and subsequently, the Player’s Association. However, pursuing a labor strategy is never that simple and any strategy has direct and indirect consequences, which also must be evaluated.

Here, the direct consequences are the lockout and the resulting use of temporary referees that lack experience. You could also say that a direct consequence was the crazy result in Monday night’s Seahawks vs. Green Bay Packers game where Green Bay intercepted the pass but the temporary referee gave the touchdown to the Seahawks. In any event, the indirect consequences include negative publicity and loss of business reputation for the NFL and perhaps a safety violation claim from the Players Association since they are now voicing their concern about their safety with the temporary referees officiating the game.

Given the chaos, it seems that the NFL did not quite think through their talent management strategy

Tags: ,

Leave comment

Jul
27

Delivering Happiness

by Janine Yancey

Ken, our VP of Engineering, recently recommended that I read Delivering Happiness, written by Tony Hsieh, the CEO of Zappos. A little emtrain background . . . Zappos was probably emtrain’s 10th or 11th customer to sign up for our training service. They signed up long before harassment training was legally mandated and back when they had about 100 employees.

I loved the book and I highly recommend it to training professionals! Tony’s personal story and experience at LinkExchange is very interesting, but even more compelling is his description of building the Zappos culture and their philosophy of hiring entry level personnel and providing a corporate university to train people in their current roles as well as provide a broad curriculum so all employees have various career paths at Zappos. By educating and grooming entry level employees, Zappos can do a better job of “molding” people to the Zappos culture. Regardless of employees’ personal backgrounds, if there’s a unified company culture, the workforce is bound to experience more teamwork and productivity and less conflict. In fact, training professionals may want their C level execs to read this book to better appreciate the value and ROI of fostering a strong training program that helps build the company culture.

Check out the companion website.

Tags: , , , ,

Leave comment

Jun
28

emTRAiN is launching a new training tool this summer!

by Janine Yancey

emTRAiN likes being on the leading edge of training design and technology. We were the first (or very early adopters) to shoot video vignettes and insert them into our web-based compliance courses. We were the first to design a compliance learning management system that generates litigation ready training reports that demonstrate every mouse click a learner makes in our courses — hundreds of data points as compared to three data points (start, stop and total run time) that is shown by the average learning management system.

Once again, we’re pushing the envelope and bringing new tools to the training world. Later this summer, we will be launching a new monthly subscription service that allows customers to use our 200+ workplace video vignettes in their classroom workshops OR to insert them (via embed links) in their own eLearning courses. We have video vignettes on all types of HR and business compliance topics, and we’re now adding vignettes on leadership and productivity issues too, such as customer service, motivation and communication strategies. Pricing will be pay per view or monthly subscription.

We’re looking for Beta customers to help us perfect this service. If you’re interested, please email us at info@emtrain.com

This post has no tag

Leave comment

May
02

A Training Matrix for Learning Objectives

by Janine Yancey

It seems to me that many training professionals don’t really map out their various learning objectives for different work groups and analytically determine a master schedule and delivery plan for training activities. Maybe I’m totally wrong and off base here, but it does seem that many trainers have 1-2 compliance courses they like to teach (in person) and maybe 1-2 leadership or professional development courses they also like to teach . . . and that’s the extent of their planning or analysis. The other day I was reading up on cognitive versus behavioral learning objectives and a logical training matrix suddenly clicked into place for me. Cognitive learning objectives are when you need people to learn a bunch of information or procedures, and it’s basically a “data dump.” Behavioral learning objectives are when you need people to learn specific skills or model certain behavior, which usually requires role playing and hands on coaching. Training topics can easily be classified as either cognitive or behavioral. From there, we can say that traditional face to face or online webinars are best suited for behavioral learning since it’s more hands-on and eLearning is a great solution for cognitive learning since people can go at their own pace and it’s available 24/7. Once you identify and classify your leaning objectives, and match them with the most appropriate delivery method, you can start to create a training matrix, which will help you streamline and maximize your training operations.

If you’d like to hear more on this topic from a panel of experts and receive some helpful material, join us for a complimentary webinar on May 23rd at 11 PST. Just click here to register.

This post has no tag

Leave comment

Apr
18

Oracle says Google’s own emails show guilt

by Janine Yancey

In case you haven’t heard, Oracle and Google are in trial right now with Oracle claiming that Google violated its copyright and patents connected to the Java programming language that Oracle purchased when it purchased Sun Microsystems. The trial opened on Monday in San Francisco and Oracle cited Google emails as prime evidence that Google took its intellectual property to gain an edge in the lucrative android market, at the start of a high stakes trial (meaning billions) between the two tech giants.

In its opening statement, Oracle projected Google emails concerning the use of Java in the android phones onto a big screen for the jury to read:

“My proposal is that we take a license that specifically grants the right for us to Open Source our product,” Rubin (a Google executive) emailed.

Oracle then highlighted an email from then Google CEO, Eric Schmidt to Rubin:
“How are we doing on the Sun deal?” Schmidt asked in his message. “Its (sic) it time to develop a non-Java solution to avoid dealing with them?”

By August 2010, Google still hadn’t been able to find any satisfactory alternatives to Java, according to an email that Google engineer Tim Lindholm sent to Rubin.

“We have been over a bunch of these, and think they all suck,” wrote Lindholm, who worked at Sun Microsystems before joining Google. “We conclude that we need to negotiate a license for Java under the terms we need.”

However, later on, Rubin sent the following email: “I’m done with Sun (tail between my legs, you were right),” Rubin wrote to Schmidt. “They won’t be happy when we release our stuff.”

When I see these emails, I think of a course we launched for a big tech company last summer which taught managers what to say or not say in emails and what types of communications will get a company into trouble in litigation. Let’s just say if the Google team had taken the training, their competitor wouldn’t be using their emails against them right now in the first day of trial.

Do your team a favor and either train on our Code of Conduct course (which includes a section on litigation protection), OR, launch our complimentary Code acknowledgement mini-course, which showcases your company’s Code of Conduct. Click here to request either.

Tags: , , , ,

Leave comment

Apr
02

Helpful eLearning Checklist

by Janine Yancey

I checked out a post yesterday in an eLearning discussion group and found this very helpful eLearning checklist. At emTRAiN, we’ve been creating eLearning for 12 years now and some of these points we had to learn the hard way through learner feedback over the years. We agree with most of the points made in this checklist with the caveat that some of these ideas are not really applicable to compliance training. Unlike other training, compliance training has a legal as well as educational purpose which tends to put a unique spin on principles such as testing and assessment. However, in all, this is a helpful checklist when creating your own eLearning courses.

The Ultimate eLearning Design and Development Checklist

This post has no tag

Leave comment

Mar
29

Technology is Changing the Necessary Skill Set of HR and Training Staff

by Janine Yancey

As organizations increasingly rely on new learning technologies to train and communicate information, it makes sense to review the ideal profile and skill set of individuals staffing the HR and Training functions. We are clearly in a transitional phase any many traditional trainers are clinging to the old way of doing business, and insisting on instructor-led, classroom workshops. Aside from being problematic from a logistical and compliance perspective (See A Case Study for Training Documentation), many employees are no longer receptive towards traditional training methods. People expect to learn and find information through mobile devices, social learning networks and collaboration tools. If HR and Training staff lack comfort or proficiency in new learning technologies, there will be a negative impact in terms of staff reputation and esteem throughout the organization. So, to help teams identify the right candidates for HR and Training teams, we’ve outlined some key strengths and skills that are needed in the Modern Training Professional and compared them to skills required of the Traditional Classroom Instructor.

Traditional Classroom Instructor Profile (Partial List)

  • Creative
  • Strong subject-matter expertise
  • Strong classroom teaching skills
  • Entertaining; and
  • Good classroom management skills

Modern Training Professional (Partial List)

  • Proactive and Resourceful
  • Quick learner of new technology applications
  • Strong multi-tasking skills
  • Creative
  • Great graphics aptitude
  • Entertaining
  • Ability to work without live audience feedback (for webinars)

This post has no tag

Leave comment

Mar
14

Another Merger: Sonar 6 Merges with Cornerstone

by Janine Yancey

Last week, Sonar 6, a small performance management company, announced it was merging with Cornerstone to become Cornerstone’s performance management system for small businesses with 500 employees or less. Over the years, we’ve met some of the Sonar 6 crew and they seem like a sharp and very nice team. Congratulations to them and best of luck with the Cornerstone team.

Maybe I’m overreacting a bit but the pace and number of mergers in the HR and Talent Management Field is a bit dizzying. As a customer, you may be partnering with vendor A and a month later, you find yourself hooked up with vendor B. What if you don’t like vendor B? Call me old fashioned and maybe I’m being a bit simplistic, but I’m starting to really appreciate that emTRAiN has grown organically through the years and we’re employee owned rather than owned by investors who need to “flip” us in a few years to get their money out. It just seems like no one is interested these days in building long term businesses, which ultimately has a negative impact on the customers.

Tags: , , , ,

Leave comment

Mar
08

Documenting Compliance Training

by Janine Yancey

HR is all about documentation. You document a performance discussion. You document disciplinary actions. You document agreed upon goals. It’s interesting how, when it comes to compliance training, both HR professionals and trainers forget about the idea behind documentation. Last Thursday, I was speaking to a group of compliance managers and I asked them why we document HR actions. I received answers such as: “To have a record.”  ”To cover ourselves.”  ”To avoid factual disputes.” These are all good answers. Why then, when it comes to compliance training are practitioners even thinking of handling that through live training? If you ever get a government agency audit, inquiry or claim, you’ll be asked to show your relevant compliance training.  If you show a power point presentation (assuming you have it) and a sign-in list (assuming you have the signatures you need), that only gets you part of the way there.  It shows you did some training but it still leaves open a lot of questions (time spent in class, time spent per topic, class discussions, were learners present during entire class, etc.).

When it comes to compliance training, you ultimately need to prove you did it.  If you’re training in a format that makes it difficult for you to prove, you’ve just wasted time and resources as shown in the situation highlighted in this case study.

Tags: , , ,

Leave comment

Feb
29

EEOC’s Strategic Plan

by Janine Yancey

Last week the EEOC approved its Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2012-2016.  The Plan contains three strategic objectives and strategic objective two is “Prevent employment discrimination through education and outreach.” The EEOC’s stated mission is to reach employees and job seekers and inform them of their workplace rights.  The EEOC plans to target education and outreach activities as well as improve leverage of the Internet and their social media presence.  Certainly, the EEOC’s website is much more informative than it was several years ago.  As discussed in other blog posts and white papers, the current EEOC leadership is focused on education and training and are more rigorously scrutinizing employers’ efforts to inform employees of their workplace rights.

Stay tuned for more developments and scrutiny on employers’ workforce training efforts and do not be surprised if the EEOC leadership starts to regulate compliance training.

Tags: , ,

Leave comment

Older posts «