How do you deliver a key message, which could be perceived as formal, corporate and perhaps even alien to employees on the ‘shop-floor’? How do you turn it into an interesting and engaging message – a message which is not only one-way from employer to employee, but also received by the employee and acted upon and resulting in a desired change in behaviour?
In the past 12 months, we have seen an increasing interest from clients seeking our help in making the intangible tangible – making the corporate vision a part of every employee’s daily routine. Sometimes, a traditional classroom session may still be the right answer. Recently, however, our clients come to us with a need to get key corporate messages through to its staff quickly and consistently to large audiences – often to a client’s entire global population and in a number of local languages. The cost and manpower required for such a roll-out in traditional classroom-style would be considerable.
So how do you get key messages across in a quick, effective and cost effective way? How do you teach your staff to abide by a set corporate culture? How do you teach a global workforce to demonstrate corporate values and behaviours?
A good start would be to align such values and criteria to a performance process – linking them into employees’ daily roles and activities.
But what happens when someone underperforms and does not live by such values or does not absorb and change in tune with new culture directives?
What learning resources can you equip line-managers with to enable them to provide effective, consistent and immediate learning and development opportunities to their direct reports when a need for improvement in any such area has been identified?
How can line-managers be empowered to coach and support their direct reports to improve, take ownership of and achieve the results that are expected from them? For a new manager lacking experience in people management or handling difficult conversations, it can be a daunting task. Perhaps even a task they fear to the extent it does not get done at all?
We are working with our clients to design training for such situations – helping line managers from top to bottom turning their organisation’s vision into reality – whether locally or globally. Always on the hunt for practical and cost effective ways of doing this, we are making use of learning technology where appropriate to do so. Easy and cost-effective ways of reaching large audiences with a consistent message in their own language could be via short videos, animations or bespoke eLearning for example.
Line managers and employees can click and launch their learning in their own time to get a better idea of how to alter their behaviour or better demonstrate a core value in line with corporate culture. By using technology and at times humour, if appropriate, delicate and intangible messages can be brought to life by fictitious characters and offer a clear and visual demonstration of best practice or desired behaviour – all in a non-threatening, non-judgmental and informal setting.
Video is generally the cheaper and quicker option, which can generate fantastic results through relatively little input.
Bespoke eLearning is a slightly bigger investment and usually requires a longer turnaround time. On the other hand it can offer more flexibility for interaction with the viewer. By suggesting further resources depending on a viewer’s input or answers, a relatively individual learning path can be offered via a fully electronic learning tool. It can be rolled out to large audiences with a consistent message, in local languages if required, to be accessed in a time that suits the learner.
To support any video or eLearning, you may also wish to provide access to an online just-in-time resource library or online learning portal, complete with self-directed learning tools, hands-on exercises, interactive self-assessments, articles, quick tips, templates and such like. All of which can be made to dovetail into any eLearning or traditional learning you provide and more importantly offer your line-managers an immediate support tool and somewhere to go to for information and practical tips on how to coach and performance manage their direct reports.
By combining a variety of tools such as video, bespoke eLearning , online resource libraries and traditional learning into one unique blend conveying your key messages, you can make those messages clearer, stronger and more accessible to employees who are trying to interpret and apply the steady stream of corporate messages and directives cascading down to them.
