Criteria:
Criteria for skills and assessments can be established through focus groups of “experts” within the organization and external to it.

Establishing criteria:

• Executives and/or strategy group will create a list of grouped competencies for each level of organization
• Executives and/or strategy group will determine the percentage of time spent at each competency grouping
• Executives and/or strategy group create a base list of skills, knowledge, and experiences that they believe increase the performance of individuals based on the identified competencies.
• Review list with groups of people from the following teams:
  * Compensation
  * Human Resources
  * Other senior leaders
  * Front-line leaders
  * Group effected by skills approach

Initial testing development:
In order testing to be acceptable and defendable in court for employment purposes, it must possess the following forms of validity:

• Face Validity – Do the questions read well? Can they be understood?
• Content Validity – Can this be learned somewhere? Is the content of the test within the training?
• Construct Validity – Can the content of the questions be used in the working environment?
• Criterion-related validity – Do those who are successful in the organization do well in the areas being tested?

If organizations use an outside agency to create the assessments, they will mostly cover the first three levels of validity and can provide documentation to that effect. This documentation should be requested. For the last piece, organizations can conduct it on their own, usually over a one-year period or contract an outside organization to do so.

If organizations use an outside agency to create the assessments, they should also look to that organization to establish a recommended proficiency level for each assessment.

Future testing implementation:

Allowing individuals to test for a skill after joining the organization may cause the following questions to arise within the effected group:

• Will I have an opportunity to learn this skill here?
• Will I need to learn this skill on my own?
• Will I be compensated for my labor while learning this skill?
• What level of competency will I need to demonstrate in order to prove proficiency within this skill?
• Who determines whether I pass or fail?
• How often can I take the assessments? (Recommendation would be every 6 months but no more than three times within a 2 year period.)

If an organization chooses to construct the assessments internally, the following criteria must be in place in order to complete the levels of validity mentioned above:

• General and specific learning objectives
• Sample and population sizes large enough to conduct a statistically valid analysis from the data.
• Time in which to conduct pilots and revise questions based on the four levels of validity. This could take between 3 to 12 months.
• Team of 2-3 analysts who create assessments and analyze training evaluation data based on the following:
  * Satisfaction
  * Knowledge
  *Application

More later on culture and a skill-based organization…

Progressing through Change:
The progression of a culture is determined by the ability of the organization to manage change effectively. In order to do so, the following items are recommended prior to implementation and even some points of development:

• Class for leadership on change management
• Discussions with leaders around impacts of change to the individuals, teams, and partnerships
• Class for leaders on communication
• Opportunities for the leaders to demonstrate the ability to adapt to change and lead their teams through change while managing resources

Initiating Continuous Learning:
While criteria for pay and employment may change, one piece should remain constant, the employees ability to learn. As the criteria expands to include skills outside the current expectations, new learning opportunities should be developed or researched in order to accommodate a continuous learning process. The following is a recommended path to facilitate this process (we are already headed here):

• Conduct a needs analysis of organization to determine:
  * Learning styles (Complete)
  * Commitment to organization (Complete)
  * Commitment to learning (In progress)
  * Desire of individuals to advance within organization (In progress)
• Provide a learning plan for each individual that covers the grouped competencies within each role
  Measure success of initial implementation through focus groups with specialists, leaders, leader-of-leaders, and executives.
• Share impact of set learning plan with organization
• Provide training and facilitated discussions to leaders helping them create individual learning plans for themselves. (This is a partnership between our organization and OD…OD started down this path during the last Leadership Summit.)
  Request leaders share plans with their teams and have individuals create plans using the leader plan as an example.
• All training/learning events and assessments should be tracked through a common system (i.e., OnTrack). This would include all new hire, reinforcement, and leader training events.
  * Naming conventions for classes are needed for each Competency and location
  * Responsibility for class creation, tracking, and reporting should be assigned to one member of the local teams and a global resource
  * Rosters for each class should be generated prior to class and closed within 48 hours of the event.

Compensation:
Compensation has a bigger impact on culture than it does on performance. Professional compensation analysts and Human Resource professionals, skilled in budgeting, research, and the current job market should be used to determine what will:

• Encourage applicants to apply
• Provide candidates the opportunity to advance
• Allow for the most effective labor budgeting to occur
• Increase internal transfers
• Decrease external attrition

Purpose of Corporate Universities:

Corporate universities may be set up to assist an organization with:

• Organizing training
• Initiating change within an organization
• Determining impact and ROI of learning within an organization
• Establishing a common culture
• Develop and retain employee

Important Components Prior to Development

Company Core Values – These should drive common areas of learning within an organization and represent the culture and important measurement points within and organization.

• Organizational/Leadership Competencies – These competencies are usually developed to apply at a leadership level. Common competencies of leaders are important to delivering on the core values of the company. An assessment/survey of leaders within an organization would help establish and create and validate organizational/leadership competencies. There are many tools and many competency models available. Determining the top 5-7 competencies based on your core values is the most effective.
• Technical competencies – These are gathered for each area of expertise within an organization. Each role, each department within an organization has specific areas of strength that are important to delivering on initiatives and performing daily activities.
• Learning Audit – This helps an organization understand where, when, and by whom training is being delivered throughout the organization. Results of this audit will enable an organization to understand areas of overlap and uniqueness while aligning each learning activity to corporate values, organizational competencies, and technical competencies.

Structuring a Corporate University Content
Structure and support are important to the success of a corporate university. The following structure, aligned to core values as well as organizational/ leadership and technical competencies, is preferred to deliver a positive learning experience:

• Cultural Learning Events – This grouping contains any heritage, history, and traditions within and organization. These sessions would align heavily to the Company Core Values. Repetition of these values should be prevalent throughout. This would be typically owned by the corporate university and an instructional design team partnered with a global delivery team.
• Leadership Learning Events – This category aligns to the organizational / leadership competencies established within an organization. These classes are meant to provide up to three possible levels of delivery and development of leadership competencies, basic, intermediate, and advanced. This would be typically owned by the corporate university and an instructional design team partnered with a global delivery team.
• Area of Focus Learning Events – These types of learning events would be specific to each business unit within an organization (i.e., finance, administrative, information technology, etc.). Alignment to the technical competencies for each area of focus will assist a team in performance management and development of team members, providing the opportunity to grow within the department. This would be typically owned by the local trainers and a local delivery team with support from the corporate design and delivery team.
• Regulatory Learning Events – These types of activities are typically required by federal, state, and local agencies. While content based on standardizations from an outside source is important, alignment to core values and competencies is needed to make these relevant to the individuals and the organization. This would be typically owned by the corporate university and can be designed by an instructional design team partnered with a global delivery team. However, these would be good candidates for purchasing external resources. Local specifics may be needed if there are variations by team and location.
• Developmental Learning – These types of learning events usually consist of blended learning activities that align to organizational/ leadership competencies and core values. Most of these activities are done on an individual’s own time. This would be typically owned by the corporate university and can be designed by an instructional design team partnered with a global delivery team. However, these would be good candidates for purchasing external resources.

Structuring a Corporate University People
Board of Regents – This is a team of individuals who would act as a filter and approval board for new and existing content. The leader would be a full-time, executive role. While the remainder of the team would consist of representatives from each Area of Focus/Department within an organization. This enables buy-in and alignment to core values which assist in a more positive return on learning investments.

Keys to Delivery
Once the people and content structure are set, components that aid in delivery are important to delivering on expectations and enabling a positive return on investment.

• Learning Management System – This is an electronic means by which all learning within an organization is captured.
• Content Management System – This would be an electronic system in which all content is stored as reusable learning object based on topic.
• Evaluation Tool – This tool would help measure the success and impact of each learning event on satisfaction, knowledge, application, and ROI levels.
• Corporate University Design and Delivery Team – While local trainers are important, many topics are consistent within teams. Through a global team, consistency in delivery and measurement would be enhanced.

The best time to ask for feedback is toward the end of the session. Notice the word choice…”toward” the end. It is never a good idea to have your survey stand between your paticipants/students and their life.

The second part pulled it through. From catalysts to empowerment, I found more value and direction. It not only provided ideas, but activities as well. Lists were created and action plans set. If you are a new professional, exam the details within. If you are a seasoned executive, remind yourself and your staff of where your strengths lie and allow them to grow.

While it does not truly tell you how to integrate your core strengths with that of another individual or, more importantly, your entire team…you have to pay much more money for their personalized or team course for that…it does provide direction on career development based on your identified strengths and shares insights on how managers can lead and interact with team members with particular strengths. Good resource for a team or individual. However, as with all assessments, balance good intent with common sense.

Training With A Beat*

“Music holds amazing power over us. While it permeates and gives rhythm to our lives, its rarely used effectively in classrooms. Training with a Beat is a lively introduction to understanding that power, and applying it to learning. This practical “how-to” guide is written with the musical layperson in mind. The author reveals in straightforward language why music is a critical learning resource, explains the necessary concepts and terms, and concludes with vivid examples of practice and a list of suggested resources. He provides all the background and tools to enable trainers and educators confidently to use music to improve learning.”

Lenn can engage any audience…check out his website and materials at Offbeat Training.

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