COMMUNICATING YOUR LEARNING ORGANIZATION'S PROGRAMS

From the desk of Kortny Williamson...

While watching the U.S. Men’s swim team take gold in what was one of the most historic races, I couldn’t help but notice the enthusiasm by the members of the relay team standing on the pool deck. Sure, the racing was phenomenal, but what struck me was the excitement and from-the-heart passion in the expressions of Michael Phelps, Cullen Jones, and Garrett Weber-Gale as anchor Jason Lezak raced the fastest split time in Olympic history.

Your organization’s employees aren’t a part of the U.S. Men’s swimming 4x100 relay team, but what if you could get that same reaction from them when it comes time for employee training? You can. It’s called marketing and learning organizations everywhere are gaining quality reputations because of it.

“If you build it, they will come.”

Not true. As convenient and cost-efficient as it would be, you cannot just build a learning organization with well-designed courses and expect employees to automatically be excited about it. There needs to be some form of communication and marketing tactic to not only inform and persuade employees, but also to make them want to enroll as opposed to mandating their attendance.

Successful learning organizations develop and implement innovative communications and branding strategies to encourage learning. These marketing efforts attract clients to the learning program, and also raise its profile in the organization over a sustained period of time. Additionally, learning organizations research and analyze the internal “market” for learning amongst employees and their managers.

Almost all learning organizations create a brand to enhance its marketing strategy, providing a cohesive look and feel to how it presents itself and its offerings across all company functions. Websites, e-mails, company newsletters and the like are used to deliver a consistent message that is carried through the learning, and this constant communication plays a huge factor in gaining interest in the learning organization’s programs.

According to the CorpU 8th Annual Benchmarking Study, traditional tools for marketing L&D – open-house rallies, e-mail, word of mouth, and brochures and flyers – are still preferred in many organizations. As they grow in size and maturity however, learning organizations are beginning to take a more strategic approach to how they market learning to the company’s different audiences. The figure below shows the most commonly used methods for communicating learning opportunities.

Senior leaders play essential roles in the task of communicating a learning organization’s vision, mission, and purpose. Not only does this achieve the visibility and acceptance required to be successful, but it also is a way of subtly marketing learning that engages employees and enables learning to be part of a company’s competitive advantage. The CorpU 8th Annual Benchmarking study found that 41% of senior management always or often promotes the learning organization at company-wide meetings (Figure 3-1).

In an interview with CorpU TV, Sr. Development Center Consultant - Human Resources Julie Olsen describes how Memorial Health’s CEO focused on five major themes that would make Memorial Health a great place to work. Using word-of-mouth, he visited each department within the organization to make it clear that the values were not just the “whim of the month."

Memorial Health

”Is it easy to be recognized for the success of my learning organization’s marketing efforts?

Absolutely! Many learning organizations like Caterpillar, Mars Inc, MasterCard and Tenaris have been recognized for their display of innovative marketing tactics and success through the CorpU Annual Awards Program, demonstrating:

• Methods that communicate the value of the corporate learning unit to employees, stakeholders, suppliers and customers, as well as prospective employees and investors
• Methods that maintain awareness of the learning unit and the role technology plays in marketing the corporate learning unit’s services and products
• Development of a unique brand identity (Ex: slogans, icons, merchandise, newsletter, mascots, etc…)
• External interest or recognition of its services through its marketing efforts
• Metrics that demonstrate the impact of marketing efforts

Here are some innovative approaches CorpU awards winners have taken to encourage learning within their organizations.

Regional Healthcare Organization

Serving a customer base of more than 12,000 employees and additional consulting services to regional affiliate hospitals, this regional healthcare organization’s (RHO) innovative marketing and branding techniques allowed them to more accurately define and strategize organizational learning and development for the system in an effort to align with business strategy.

Marketing strategies were initially introduced to heighten awareness and create a “buzz” about the benefits of using the new online learning, and included a virtual learning world, a brand logo, promotional items, and a course catalog. The website serves as a portal to the LMS, as well as a one-stop informational resource for all organizational development and learning activities. The president and CEO starred in a one-minute streaming video about how important learning and education is to achieving the company’s mission.

Within a year, RHO had a 96% completion rate for its e-learning across all entities in the healthcare system. The introduction to e-learning and the marketing that surrounded it stimulated further interest within the learning organization, resulting in a substantial increase in requests for e-learning course creation.

Office Supply Retailer

For this Office Supply Retailer (OSR), a simple three-pronged marking strategy has been more than effective in building its brand and earning a reputation for quality and results. The first prong is the communication that is woven into internal, business, and external communications. These marketing efforts begin even before someone becomes a company employee, with space on the company’s external website telling the story of the learning organization. Regular contributions about learning on the company’s internal portal and in printed communications such as the weekly newsletter help spread the learning organization’s message. The most powerful marketing communication, however, is word-of-mouth.

Creating a brand logo is the second prong of the approach. The logo is used in promoting the learning organization on posters, flyers, binders, and so forth. The new hire orientation binder is branded with the logo and new hires receive a branded lunch bag, while posters with the logo and slogan are hung up in break rooms. The learning organization’s material isn’t just branded with the logo, but portray a look and feel that is clear and identifiable.

The third prong of the approach is creating awareness and understanding of the value of learning. This is a high priority and the learning team communicates regularly with all stakeholders to make sure the value is understood and the messages reinforced.

Generating Olympic-sized excitement…for training.

It’s hard to create excitement over training programs if they aren’t marketed to employees and if other stakeholders don’t understand the value of what you do. Following the example of past award winners, however, is a good place to start – especially when it comes to applying for the CorpU Annual Awards program. After all, what better way to successfully market a learning organization than to have it recognized for its achievements by the oldest, most prestigious learning awards program in the industry?

Kortny Williamson, CorpU Research Analyst