Training Industry Quarterly - Fall 2012 - (Page 44)

trACKING treNDs | ken tayLor effecTive organizaTionS uTiLize Learning-enaBLing TechnoLogy TechnoLogy: SupporTing key iniTiaTiveS T echnology has transformed the way we learn and it’s up to organizations to keep up or risk being left behind. It plays a vital role in supporting key change initiatives across the organization and studies show that the most effective organizations utilize learning-enabling technology more often than their ineffective counterparts. Training Industry, Inc. recently completed two studies to better understand the best practices for the training organization when working on broad-scale change initiatives and on strategic initiatives specific to sales. Both studies showed that less than 26 percent of learning leaders felt their organizations were very effective at supporting important change initiatives. This clearly shows there is vast room for improvement. Across both studies, the organizations that were effective at supporting change initiatives acknowledged three critical areas to consider when implementing training: • Partnering with or purchasing from a company or individual with experience in the type of change that your organization is trying to implement; • Customize the content to goals and learner needs; • Communicate more often and ensure buy-in support. We analyzed what essential skills learning leaders were seeking from the marketplace to support their program. As Figure 1 illustrates, the top three skills were subject matter experts (55 percent), design and development support (55 percent) and sourcing of technologies and tools (54 percent). These three skills correlate with the best practices that effective organizations deemed critical for supporting change initiatives. emerging technologies Technology is instrumental at accelerating learning by making it accessible at the point of need. In our study on supporting strategic initiatives in sales organizations, learning leaders were asked which sales tools and technologies their companies currently use or plan to use for training purposes. As Figure 2 shows, mobile learning is currently one of the least-used technologies to support sales training. However, mobile learning is the leading technology that sales organizations plan to use in the future, with 35 percent of learning leaders citing this option most often. This trend is not isolated to this one study. Mobile learning also showed to be an emerging technology in our study on great training organizations, where it had the highest planned use rate among other technologies (25 percent). In fact, it was the only technology in which planned use exceeded actual use (20 percent). Figure 1: Essential Skills Sourced from the Marketplace subject matter experts Design and development support technologies and tools Delivery support reporting and measurement support strategic planning support program management other 55.1% 55.1% 53.7% 35.1% 26.8% 25.4% 22.0% 2.4% 0 20% 40% 60% percent of respondents, N=205 44 Training Industry Quarterly, Fall 2012 / A Training Industry, Inc. magazine / www.trainingindustry.com/TIQ http://www.trainingindustry.com/TIQ

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Training Industry Quarterly - Fall 2012

Training Industry Quarterly - Fall 2012
From Where I Sit: Learning Technology Market Segments
Table of Contents
Ad Index
Guest Editor: Supporting the Business of Learning
The Coherent Enterprise
Tracking Informal Learning with Tin Can
Can Your People Trust You?
5 Critical Skills to Survive Tomorrow
Expert Education: Training, Technology & SMEs
Cloud Transition: More to Consider Than Just Security
My Training Dashboard? Which One?
5 Gaming Elements for Effective e-Learning
Let's Get Multi-Platform Training Right
Casebook: Colorado Secretary of State's Office
Tracking Trends: Technology: Supporting Key Initiatives
Tweet Suite
Company News
Closing Arguments: Must-See Technology

Training Industry Quarterly - Fall 2012