Metrics That Matter March/April 2019 Updates

With the unemployment rate at an almost 50 year low, recruiting and retaining top talent has become increasingly competitive across industries. To succeed, companies must find a way to reliably demonstrate that they offer an experience unique from their competitors.

Employee development provides this opportunity.

L&D plays a critical role in the hire-to-retire lifecycle, equipping employees to succeed in their current position as well as preparing them for the next opportunity. Investments in Talent Development form the foundation for any sustainable strategy to build, engage and retain a high performing workforce.

Explorance is proud to partner with organizations improving the engagement and performance of their workforce through formal and informal training. Via a robust, business-centric methodology including statistically-validated measurement, MTM helps our clients move beyond efficiency metrics to demonstrate the effectiveness of their talent development programs. By actively managing learning effectiveness and job application, L&D departments maximize their budget and deliver a higher return on investment back to the C-Suite.

The 2019 LearningElite Awards

All our clients are dedicated to improving the operations and culture of their businesses from the employee-up, and we see their efforts result in tangible impact every day. That’s why we are especially thrilled when we see them recognized and rewarded across the L&D community.

Annually, LearningElite recognizes organizations paving the way in learning and development. Applicants are ranked by a wide-ranging group of senior experts in the field on five categories: learning strategy, leadership commitment, learning execution, learning impact and business performance results.

Through strong governance, partnerships with stakeholders, optimized learning technology and established evaluation methodology, each winner exemplifies a commitment to strategically developing their workforce and delivering significant business impact.

Please join the Explorance team in congratulating the 2019 Learning Elite Winners:

• BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina
• CVS Health
• Erie Insurance Group
• Janssen Pharmaceutical
• KPMG
• OptumRx
• Siemens
• TELUS International
• Texas Health Resources
• Veterans Affairs Acquisition Academy

We pride ourselves on our partnerships with organizations that are leading our industry forward, and it is our privilege to work with these incredibly dedicated teams. Congratulations again on your well-deserved recognition!

The 2019 MTM Impact Symposium

Explorance was thrilled to welcome our clients to Tucson, AZ for the return of the MTM Impact Symposium! For three days talent analysts, strategists, and leaders from across the globe shared challenges, best practices, and perhaps one or two tequila toasts.

Our theme for the year was “Build Your Impact Story,” featuring keynote speeches from Patti Phillips (ROI Institute), Katharine Aldana (Verizon Wireless), Doug Stevenson (Story Theatre International), Brad Watt (Colgate-Palmolive), Michelle Braden (WEX), and Dave Vance (Center for Talent Reporting). In addition to our keynote speakers, we were honored to facilitate presentations from over a dozen organizations. Sessions covered a range of timely L&D topics, from partnering with HR (Cox Communications) to creating a feedback culture (BP) and building executive engagement (PPD).

The Symposium emphasized the importance of running L&D “like a business,” through strategic management of the function and marketing our contributions across the enterprise. L&D must move beyond reporting the number of training hours delivered or number of clicks/views in a content curation portal to the business impact of our programs. Executives need to know value, not volume.

To this end, Dave Vance stressed the importance of partnering directly with stakeholders to set specific goals for training. Without a clear understanding of the business priority behind the request, we won’t be able to confirm whether were successful. Through validated measurement strategy and focused success criteria, L&D can establish the credibility necessary to build these relationships and deliver impact back to the business. When managed with the same rigor as other departments, L&D can drive business performance from top-line growth to bottom-line profitability.

Once achieved, the challenge then becomes sharing a compelling story for our audience. Two of our guests, Doug Stevenson and Brad Watt, highlighted methods L&D teams can use to build their messaging.

Doug focused on making a presentation memorable and engaging through emotion and imagery. He put it quite simply, “Logic explains. Stories persuade.” In other words, don’t drown people in content and figures. Go beyond the metrics by focusing your presentation on the message behind the data, set the context, and focus your story around your audience.

Brad Watt discussed how L&D can use marketing tools to build the right story for the right group. Coming from the world’s largest brand, he explained that Colgate-Palmolive achieved their global status by giving customers a reason not to just buy, but to buy-in. L&D teams serve a variety of customers, from the C-Suite to the learner. It’s essential to tell the story in a way that is relevant and compelling to the listener. Whether you are providing a quarterly analysis to your CLO, addressing your learners, or providing information to recruiting, understanding your audience and what is important to them is the first step to any strong story.

Effective learning programs provide a competitive advantage to any organization and it’s essential that we demonstrate our contributions to the business and employees. Strong data is essential, but it isn’t as valuable without a compelling story to showcase it. After all, when it comes to attracting and retaining high performers, they need to know what your company provides.

We hope you’ll join us for next year’s Symposium in amazing New Orleans!