Feeling safe and secure is fundamental to doing our best work. There are a lot of factors that help us feel safe at work, including our ability to be ourselves in the workplace. In this issue, we are spotlighting partners who teach us how to be safe and how to help others feel safe, in a variety of ways.   

Looking for ways to help your employees to continue to learn? Check out our 12 Months of Learning Calendar. The partners highlighted below are featured in our May and June playlists focused on staying safe at work, increasing productivity, LGBTQIA+ awareness, and mentorship. These playlists are a great way to keep your employees engaged and committed to a culture of learning in your organization.  

What content partners should you check out this month?

Thomson Reuters has been a trusted source of truth for years and they bring that credibility to a suite of compliance and regulation courses. With over 750 titles in the Content Hub, Thomson Reuters covers topics from anti-bribery and fraud prevention to code of conduct and the California Consumer Privacy Act. Though they are based in Toronto, Canada, they offer region-specific and global courses. Their courses range from 5 minutes to 2 hours, with the majority between 30-60 minutes.  

In addition to the gamified Information Security and Cyber Risk Awareness course, check out: 

Australian-based content provider ViaUp offers high-quality, often whimsical (but still serious and substantial) health and safety eLearning experiences. Featuring animated videos, their 21 courses are refreshingly modern, especially in the health and safety space. All their courses are under one hour, with most them between 15 and 30 minutes.  

ViaUp’s Office Ergonomics course, hosted by a crash test dummy, is a crowd favorite. Other great courses include: 

Bullying, Harassment and Discrimination (US) 

Blue Ocean Strategy (a suite of three courses) 

Founded in 2009, US-based Enspark features titles focused on leadership, human resources, general management, people and communication skills, HR compliance, computer science & engineering, and personal development. They have 100 titles available in the Content Hub, 28 of which are in languages other than English (including Chinese, Polish, and Turkish). All but one of their courses are under an hour in duration. 

Top titles from Enspark include a 10-part Digital Transformation series as well as: 

Be Proactive! Inclusion Starts with You 

Gender Identity: What Does LGBTQIA+ Mean? 

What new content partners have we added to the Content Hub?

This new content provider, based in Singapore, provides instruction on leadership, management, business skills, marketing, and more.  

They offer 250+ courses ranging from 15-30 minutes. 

Emeritus offers book summaries from leading authors and longer courses from experts in their field. 

This India-based content provider expands our topic coverage in marketing, sales, communication, and health and safety. 

They offer over 600 courses ranging from 2 to 74 minutes. 

OneHourLearning courses use animation and practical examples to engage learners. 

Based in the US, this new content provider brings new options for customers looking to provide sexual harassment content to their employees. 

They offer high-quality video-based content that covers state-specific requirements, as well as global sexual harassment courses. 

EasyLlama uses a fresh approach to emphasize the importance of creating a safe environment in the workplace. 

What great new content have our current content partners added to the Content Hub?

Check out some new offerings from current content partners! 

Packt – New courses on coding languages, including Kubernetes, Java, and Git. 

Mi-Crow – Updated Microsoft 365 content. 

Chart – New courses on Project Management and Time Management in Spanish, French, and Portuguese.  

BSI – New Retail Excellence Suite including Customer Service and Sales courses.  

What’s Shannon’s favorite course right now? 

Whether it’s decisions about people or about projects, understanding why we are making those decisions and the biases that may be playing a role is important to ensure that we get it right. I recently took Debiasing Techniques, which walks through how to recognize your unconscious biases and challenge your decisions to make sure they were being made with the right criteria. I love the gamification that Symmetra uses in their courses to create engaging content about topics that can often be tough to tackle, like sexism, diversity and inclusions, and bullying and harassment. 

False

In May we're focusing on staying safe at work, increasing productivity, LGBTQIA+ awareness, and mentorship. In this update, check out our partners who teach us how to be safe and help others feel safe in various ways.

The Go1 Content Insider - May 2022 edition

In May we're focusing on staying safe at work, increasing productivity, LGBTQIA+ awareness, and mentorship. In this update, check out our partners who teach us how to be safe and help others feel safe in various ways.  

Written by guest blogger Laura Overton, award-winning L&D Analyst and co-founder of Emerging Stronger. Laura is an experienced international speaker, author and facilitator with a passion for exploring, challenging and sharing. She believes that the role of learning leaders in the changing workplace is to unlock the potential of business and people.

The spaces where we work have changed forever. Workers are no longer constrained to a single location. We work in the office, in coffee shops, with clients, at home, in the back yard, at the factory or shop floor. Increasingly, the ideal workspace has become a mix of all of the above — whatever suits the job at hand.

The glue that keeps us connected across all these spaces is enterprise collaboration and, more importantly, the technology that enables this collaboration. Recently, Gartner revealed that 80% of workers used team collaboration tools such as Slack in 2021, up 44% from 2019.

These tools create environments that allow us to stay connected, keep sharing, and keep projects on track across the wide range of spaces where work occurs.

Collaborative environments create fertile ground for learning

The same tools also have the potential to allow us to keep learning: from mistakes, from trial and error, from solving challenges and creating ideas, and from each other. As such, these collaboration tools have become fertile ground for learning.

According to the Mindtools for Business Learner Intelligence study released in May 2022, 7 out of 10 workers think community environments such as Slack and MS Teams are either useful or essential for addressing work-related challenges. 

What’s more, 85% of workers learn by turning to colleagues for support, while 86% learn by collaborating with team members. Given this, staff have found ways to make learning flourish in online collaborative environments.

And it’s working. For the first time in the 8-year history of Mindtools’ study, more workers prefer online learning (41%) than face to face learning (34%). These findings represent a massive sea change and one that L&D leaders should keep in mind.

If enterprise collaboration systems are already creating fertile ground for staff to learn, and staff are increasingly comfortable embracing digital technologies, are L&D teams ready to dig in?

In my view, the role of L&D is clear. We use our expertise to help individuals, teams, and organisations be equipped and ready — for today’s challenges and tomorrow’s opportunities.

Historically, the spaces in which we operated restricted our ability to achieve these objectives. When L&D activity is confined to the classroom and the LMS, our approach to supporting learning is also restricted.

Plus, cultivating one type of learning over and over again in the same spaces can be counterproductive, just as planting the same crop in the same soil can stunt growth.

We’ve shifted our old models of face-to-face learning delivery into virtual learning, thereby increasing our skills in using MS Teams or Zoom to deliver virtual classrooms. However, by keeping everything else the same, we still struggle with attention spans and Zoom fatigue.

We’ve tried to encourage ‘self-directed learning’ by pumping online content into the digital spaces where people are working so that knowledge is available at the point of need. However, learners often struggle to separate the wheat from the chaff, giving up when they become overwhelmed with choices.

Some teams have focussed on ‘social learning’, using enterprise collaboration platforms to establish specific communities of practice and encourage user-generated content to help teams help each other. Yet, once again, we run into the problem of struggling to maintain interest or momentum.

While these approaches are valid for cultivating learning in collaborative environments, they only represent one facet of the learning process. Learning is complex and can’t be constrained to a single model, technology, or approach.

So, how do we dig into the opportunities that collaborative learning environments provide?

Instead of asking what communities can do to support learning, let's go back to first principles to explore what’s important for learning to flourish.

Connie Malamed has curated 10 definitions of what learning is. One that resonates with me is that learning is the process of “Acquiring knowledge and skills and having them readily available from memory so you can make sense of future problems and opportunities.” The process of learning is tough and takes time!

Learning isn’t just about access to knowledge, it’s the slow journey of shifting from novice to expert, from knowing about something to practising it and ultimately mastering it.

Typically, our L&D interventions start with supporting new knowledge. We focus on courses and content because our physical spaces and time boundaries have constrained our interventions to the very start of the learning process, leaving the rest to chance.

Online collaborative environments create new opportunities to support the full flow of learning —  from knowledge acquisition to practice, mastery, and new habits.

They also create places to enable individuals, teams, and organisations to learn from each other through communities of practice. 

At Emerging Stronger, we see new workspaces as the terrain in which deep learning can take root. But, to cultivate learning in those spaces, we need to get back to the basics of understanding how learning grows.

In the next article in this series, Michelle Ockers will explore the biggest myths that stunt learning growth, as well as how to lean into learning science to harness everything that collaborative workspaces have to offer.

This article is Part 1 in a series of blogs written by the Emerging Stronger team, each exploring the theme of workplace communities. Be sure to take a look at the other articles in the series, including:

Part 2: Applying learning science to workplace communities by Michelle Ockers

Part 3: Enabling L&D to develop and nurture learning that delivers a rich harvest by Shannon Tipton

Want a step-by-step guide to cultivating learning in workplace communities? Download our latest toolkit from Emerging Stronger for insights on:

Sowing the right seeds to stimulate learning

For more insights, subscribe to the Go1 newsletter to stay on top of all the latest L&D trends. Or, you can book a demo today to find out how Go1 can help with your team’s learning needs.

Award-winning L&D analyst Laura Overton explores how enterprise collaboration systems are creating fertile ground for staff to learn. And how L&D teams can be ready to dig in and best cultivate these learning spaces.

Cultivating learning in workplace communities

Award-winning L&D Analyst Laura Overton explores how enterprise collaboration systems are creating fertile ground for staff to learn. And how L&D teams can be ready to dig in and best cultivate these learning spaces. 

Live from Learning Technologies 2022, Ollie Browning, VP of Sales EMEA at Go1; Marc Zao Sanders, Founder and CEO of Filtered.com; Lori Niles-Hofmann, Senior Learning EdTech Transformation Strategist; and Rosemary Hoskins, Global Capability Leader at AstraZeneca, gathered to discuss and debate how businesses can close current skill gaps and be prepared for the future. 

The first question posed on the stage set the tone for an energetic debate, '‘what did we get right and what did we get wrong when it came to skills and upskilling people?’ 

Marc is the first to reply stating that he believes that L&D as an industry expertly tackled the digital transformation of upskilling, especially with the pandemic. What should have originally been a two year evolution, was condensed into a couple of months. L&D professionals were able to help employees transition with remote working and online collaborations seamlessly, facilitating the work from home process at speed. However, Marc also points out that as the pandemic pushed forward mental health started to decline amongst employees, L&D leaders faced more obstacles than expected which is not to be dismissed. In the case of AstraZeneca specifically, Rosemary felt her L&D team excelled at identifying skills their team might need in the future and is proud to share this with the audience. 

Next the panel discussed the following question, ‘should organisations be offering more beyond giving employees the opportunity to learn and grow?’ 

The group concludes that developing skills ultimately comes down to thinking about culture. It was recently found that employees voted that ‘opportunities to learn and grow’, ‘a sense of belonging’, ‘organisational values’, ‘support for well-being’, and ‘collaboration’ were the five key factors that created a great workforce. Rosemary specifically emphasises on the importance of ‘opportunities to learn and grow’ as well as ‘collaboration’ among employees. She believes L&D platforms are crucial, but feels it’s important employees understand a learning culture goes beyond just a curated content library. Rosemary claims that one of the main ways people learn comes from actually doing the work or interacting with fellow employees and learning from them, rather than just theory. Marc and Ollie further support Rosemary’s point and are in agreement that online learning content is not a standalone solution. The pair note that curated learning content is more beneficial for employees when it's combined with peer engagement. Not only does the added level of networking help personalise and make the content unique, but it also further helps an organisation understand the skills and needs relevant for their business. 

The rest of the sessions leant on poll questions, which each panelist and the audience took turn in answering: 

In one word, how would you describe your upskilling strategy? 

To Ollie, upskilling strategies are ‘unscalable’. Rosemary supports this and says that upskilling strategies are ever evolving and dependent on the future, which, though we might want to think otherwise, is often very uncertain. Marc feels that ‘data’ is an important word to keep in mind. He feels data is crucial in helping a company make the right decisions and is a great medium to help convince and strengthen arguments. 

What is your relationship with talent like?

Ollie notes that most organisations are not typically aligned with talent which is something that needs to be worked on. It’s been proven that when they communicate with their organisations, employees feel more fulfilled and successful in their roles and, they can help leaders better understand what their people actually need. 

Why do employees stay longer at organisations with internal mobilisation?

It’s been found that employees at organisations with internal mobility stay almost twice as long. For this reason, Rosemary suggests companies look at the long term and hire based on career not role. This is because employees feel more fulfilled when they are able to take the skills they learned and grow within their company, rather than staying stagnant in the same position. Marc believes for there to be efficient skills and internal mobility, an organisation needs to have an understanding of the skills already in place. Businesses need to know where employees currently excel and the hidden skills they could offer. 

What does a good content curation strategy look like?

A good content strategy stems from a personalised skills framework, says the group. Organisations need to rely on data and employees to help them determine which skills are relevant and beneficial to the industry they are in. Not only does this give organisations an advantage by creating long term skills, but it also helps them determine where they are lacking. A skills framework helps determine which content is accessible and which meets the needs of the workforce. 

Throughout Learning Technologies 2022, we ran six panel sessions over two days with an amazing lineup of specialist guest speakers of L&D analysts, researchers, and practitioners. Keen to catch up on all the fun? We've put together a wrap up of the event, including a recording of Ollie and David's session.

From the expert panel at Learning Technologies, we discover how a relevant, scalable and future-proofed learning strategy impacts the sustainability of an organisation.

Closing current and future skills gaps

From the expert panel at Learning Technologies, we discover how a relevant, scalable and future-proofed learning strategy impacts the sustainability of an organisation. 

Our Product, Design & Engineering teams recently held an epic hackathon that levelled up from previous years. The event was mostly virtual with teams taking part from around Australia, Vietnam, and the US. Their challenge was “Go-Gamify” - be inspired by games and gaming technologies to solve a problem for Corporate E-Learning.  

The winning team was the Voodoo Gurus consisting of Jasneet, Tara, Pete, Vivian & Isabel. Their winning pitch was a stand-out as they had designed and validated a new Corporate E-Learning product!  

The winning team - Jasneet Kaur, Tara Hickman, Pete Skalkos, Vivian Nguyen & Isabel Cheung

Graduate Developer Isabel Cheung started at Go1 in March 2022 and couldn’t believe her team had won!  

“The Hackathon was a great learning experience for me and it helped me grow closer with the people in my team. At first, I was shocked by the win, especially as a grad dev who is very new to the whole software developer experience. It was a very intense two days but full of fun, learning and laughter!” 

Team 3D Interactive Learning won both ‘Most Innovative’ and ‘Crowd Favorite’ awards with their virtual learning metaverse created in just 2 days!  

Other prize categories went to ‘Best Technical Application’ and ‘Most Finished Product’.  

Our next event is due to be held in November 2022. If you’d like to get in on the fun... we’re hiring!  

Pete Skalkos, Vivian Nguyen & Isabel Cheung holding the hackathon trophy

Our Product, Design & Engineering teams recently held an epic hackathon that levelled up from previous years. Learn more about the fantastic event here!

Go-Gamify Hackathon  

Revealing the winners of the Go-Gamify Hackathon...  

This podcast is part of the Go1 Love of Learning campaign, where we focus each month on a specific theme. For the month of May, we’re shining a light on topics such as mindfulness, wellbeing, stress awareness and management and psychological awareness. 

Welcome to episode 34 of the Learning with Go1 podcast! In this episode, our host Craig Hamill is joined by Gemma Glover, L&D Manager of iAM Learning, to discuss the importance of mental health awareness in the workplace and how iAM Learning is supporting learners in this space.  

We know that upskilling, training and development can support creating a mentally healthy workplace. So, what can we do today to make a difference tomorrow?  

“One takeaway we both share is that talking about mental health should not be only talked about during mental health awareness week but should make people reflect on whether we as individuals and organisations are doing enough. It is so important to check in on our friends, family and colleagues. I firmly believe that we can do more as organisations and particularly for our children who have so many pressures in life. It is ok not to be ok; %#@$ I’ve been there!!” 

Without further ado, let’s dive into some of our fave highlights below. 

iAM Learning is an off-the-shelf eLearning provider of characterful content driven through the power of animation, characters and stories. Using the art of storytelling, they bring their content to life to engage learners and provide memorable learning experiences. In the video below Gemma introduces iAM Learning and what they’re all about. 

About iAM Learning

Coping mechanisms are the strategies people often use to help maintain their emotional wellbeing. In the video below Gemma talk us through one of her personal strategies for staying mentally healthy. She highlights the power of purpose and doing something that boosts self-esteem and self-worth.  

Having a purpose

Making a conscious effort for wellbeing 

How many times have you said, ‘this week has gone really quickly', and then when you’ve gone to reflect on what you achieved you realised you’ve done nothing for yourself? It can be easy to get stuck in a cycle of work, family, friends, work, etc; but it doesn’t have to be that way. 

In the video below, Gemma and Craig talk about the idea of making a conscious effort with yourself. This can look like scheduling things in your calendar (like going for a run or reading a book) to ensure that you are still making time for yourself and achieving a work-life balance that's best for you. 

Making a conscious effort

Are you putting yourself first? Are you making consistent time for your own wellbeing, not just when things hit the fan, but every day? Whilst often neglected, Gemma reminds us that we need to invest in ourselves and our own wellbeing before we can help anyone else, referring to the iAM Learning course ‘Being Kind to Yourself’ as a helpful resource. 

Making time for your own wellbeing

If you haven't already, you can listen to the full podcast here to learn more.   

Want to hear more? Browse the full Learning with Go1 podcast library on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or Spotify to help expand your knowledge of all things L&D. And hear how other organisations are navigating through this ever-evolving landscape.   

🎧 Welcome to episode 34 of the Learning with Go1 podcast! In this episode, our host is joined by Gemma Glover, L&D Manager of iAM Learning, to shine a light on mental health awareness in the workplace.  

How iAM Learning is supporting mental health awareness in the workplace 

🎧 Welcome to episode 34 of the Learning with Go1 podcast! In this episode, our host is joined by Gemma Glover, L&D Manager of iAM Learning, to shine a light on mental health awareness in the workplace.   

If you’ve spent enough time in the learning and development sphere, you’ve likely come across the acronym SME. Add it to the long list of L&D jargon. SME stands for Subject Matter Expert, used to refer to someone who is an expert or thought leader in their field. While many of us probably like to think we’re experts, those select few who truly earn the title of Subject Matter Expert are incredibly valuable in the L&D world. As such, SMEs are in high demand in 2022. 

At Go1, our thirst for knowledge is never truly quenched, meaning we love SMEs. So, we thought now was the perfect time to explore the ins and outs of subject matter expertise. We’ll start by defining SMEs, before moving on to the key characteristics of SMEs, the significance of SMEs for L&D, and tips on identifying and engaging SMEs in your team.

Ready to become an expert on Subject Matter Experts? Start here. 

In L&D, SME stands for subject matter expert. As the name suggests, an SME is someone with a high level of knowledge and expertise on a certain subject (or subjects). This acronym shouldn’t be confused with the other common definition of SME, meaning small-to-medium enterprise. 

As eLearning Heroes explains, “​​SME is really just a fancy way of describing someone who is an expert in his or her field. It’s the person in an organisation who has the most knowledge or skill in a specific topic.” 

Or, as Indeed puts it, “[SMEs] are professionals who have advanced knowledge in a specific field. As an authority in a particular area or topic, they are uniquely qualified to provide guidance and strategy. SMEs are especially in high demand in workplaces requiring a technical approach to operations and culture.”

Put simply, SMEs can be anyone with a high degree of knowledge in a particular field, from a new hire in accounting to an expert witness in a high-profile court case. You probably have several subject matter experts in your team — perhaps without even realising it! After all, most people have a few specialist subjects. You just need to find their areas of expertise to unlock a well of wisdom. 

As Indeed’s definition alludes to, SMEs are particularly valuable in workplaces that require highly-specialised knowledge. For example, if you need to create a learning module on developing workplace cultures but don’t know the first thing about the subject matter, you would generally turn to an SME. This example applies to almost any learning course where you are unfamiliar with the subject matter, which is why SMEs are in such high demand in L&D. 

Other examples where SMEs might come in handy include: you could be researching a historical novel and turn to an expert to ensure you have the most accurate information. Or, you might open a new jewellery shop and hire a digital marketing SME to help with your SEO. Basically, SMEs are used across industries, from law and human resources to architecture and customer support and everything in between. Any time you need specialised, technical knowledge, an SME is likely to follow.

To summarise, SMEs come in handy in any scenario where you are asked to complete a task but are unfamiliar with the particulars of the subject matter.

Now that we understand what SMEs are, it’s worth analysing the skills that set SMEs apart. Obviously, being an SME is predicated on broad expertise in a particular field. However, we’ve identified four additional traits that make successful SMEs stand out: 

 A love of learning is arguably the most valuable characteristic of any Subject Matter Expert. A thirst for knowledge and continuous, lifelong learning keeps SMEs at the cutting edge in their area of expertise, continually adding to their deep well of knowledge. 

It’s excellent to be a fountain of knowledge in a particular field, but communicating your knowledge to others is equally important. As such, well-developed communication skills are vital for SMEs to share their wisdom with stakeholders. 

Going hand in hand with communication skills, collaboration is also essential for successful SMEs. Examples include guiding team members in their content planning and creation, openly sharing knowledge and experience, and actively participating in course development and other projects. 

As a subject matter expert, you likely have a vast well of knowledge. But parsing that knowledge to share only the most relevant aspects requires adaptability. Therefore, thinking quickly on your feet and adapting your expertise to fit different briefs and situations is essential for successful SMEs. 

What is the significance of SMEs for L&D? 

Now that we’ve defined what it takes to be an SME, it’s worth asking, what is the significance of SMEs for L&D? SMEs are essential to create accurate, engaging L&D content. Given the breadth of topics L&D professionals have to cover, it is almost impossible to be an expert in everything. Enter, SMEs. 

As Training Industry explains, “since we don’t have the ability to read minds, enabling us to learn quickly from experts, we must settle for subject matter experts (SMEs), who can help us understand what employees need to learn to reach the desired outcomes and how to sequence that training effectively.” 

Picture this: you have to create three learning modules; one on compliance training in the construction industry, one on upskilling a remote team, and one on mental health and wellbeing. While you might have a basic understanding of each of these topics, it is unlikely that you are an expert in all three. So, you turn to Subject Matter Experts in each area and lean on their knowledge to ensure the content you create is accurate, in-depth, and engaging. As eLearning Industry puts it, the primary role of an SME is to be “the main source of knowledge. They’re the person everyone on the team turns to for clarification and insider expertise.” 

Or, as Dashe & Thompson say, “leveraging subject matter experts is one of the best ways you can ensure the information you are providing to learners is accurate, effective, and impactful.”

As a result, SMEs are the lifeblood of L&D teams. They’re the ones who hold the expertise that we need to disseminate and impart to our learners. Without SMEs, many L&D teams would be grasping at straws, unable to fulfil specialised content requests. 

How to identify and engage SMEs in your team

Often, organisations engage external Subject Matter Experts and thought-leaders for projects. However, as mentioned, you probably also have SMEs in your team, sometimes without even knowing it. Identifying and engaging these ‘hidden talent’ SMEs can be the key to taking your L&D team to the next level. For instance, you might discover your HR leader is also an SEO expert, or someone in accounting is familiar with compliance regulations in a specific sector, thanks to a previous job. 

There are many ways to identify SMEs in your team. Although, it can often be as simple as striking up a conversation, finding the subjects people are most passionate about, and letting them talk. You'll probably learn something new.

From there, it is a matter of engaging your SMEs and translating their knowledge into high-quality learning content. There are several ways to approach this process. A few tips include:

Set goals from the outset and offer your SME a clear structure (establish expectations and deadlines, decide on ways to track progress etc.) 

Communicate the key learning objectives of your training program

Develop an ongoing relationship with your SME 

Open a clear line of communication and ask lots of questions 

Avoid L&D jargon and acronyms your SME may be unfamiliar with  

Offer your SME the right level of support — remember, they might be a Subject Matter Expert, but that doesn’t mean they’re necessarily an expert at creating learning content 

Give examples of high-quality L&D modules to shape their expectations and understanding of what you’re looking for

Value your SME’s time and show appreciation for their expertise

Finally, above all else, practice your active listening skills to ensure you’re not missing any crucial pearls of wisdom. According to eLearning industry, active listening is your best friend when working with SMEs. As they explain, “reflect on what they are telling you and ask them specific questions about their material: Why did they choose these particular images?  What are the design elements in their presentations that they like the most? How do they feel about converting their case studies into engaging, fascinating, interactive eLearning experiences? Show interest in your Subject Matter Experts’ work and make sure that it is clear you respect where they are coming from.” 

In other words, SMEs are indispensable to a successful L&D program, so be sure to treat them as such. Next time you need to create a piece of learning content, remember the manifold benefits of engaging an SME.

For more insights, be sure to subscribe to the Go1 newsletter to stay on top of all the latest L&D trends. Or, you can book a demo today to find out how Go1 can help with your team’s learning needs.

At Go1, our thirst for knowledge is never truly quenched, meaning we love SMEs. So, we thought now was the perfect time to explore the ins and outs of subject matter expertise.

What is a Subject Matter Expert (SME) for L&D?

At Go1, our thirst for knowledge is never truly quenched, meaning we love SMEs. So, we thought now was the perfect time to explore the ins and outs of subject matter expertise. 

At the heart of it, learning and development is really all about building skills for our organisations and the people who work in them.  

So how can L&D professionals best connect and engage with the business to build future skills? 

In this webinar, Organisational Learning Strategist Michelle Ockers is joined by Go1’s Katie Graczer to unpack the challenge of building skills for an unknown future. 

As Michelle says at the beginning of the webinar: 

“There’s a conundrum of needing to build skills, when we’re not exactly sure what we’re building skills for, or what type of skills are going to be needed into the future. But we can tackle this with evidence-informed approaches. We can draw on what’s worked; what’s demonstrated to work in skill-building, in order to respond and scale in a way that is actually going to be effective and build impact – even though we may not know what the future holds for roles in our organisation.” 

As Michelle explains, the Emerging Stronger team believe there are five principles that L&D leaders can apply, to best connect and engage with the business to build future skills: 

Each of these five principles is explored in depth throughout the session. To get you started, we’ve captured some of the key takeaways from the conversation here.  

When managers within the business aren’t equipped with the skills to have crucial conversations around topics such as cultural awareness or diversity, L&D teams can be left to pick up the slack. This highlights the importance of connecting and engaging people with high quality resources and content. 

From her experience talking with L&D leaders, Katie highlights some of the biggest challenges L&D and HR teams face today. 

The challenges of L&D right now

When it comes to scaling up future-fit skills, technology plays a crucial role in the growth of L&D.  

In the video below, Michelle stresses the importance of viewing technology as an enabler rather than a saviour of learning. She explains that when we look at technology’s role through a different lens, it can only be a hindrance if not planned or used properly. 

Is technology a help or hindrance?

With more organisations adapting to a new way of working, the focus is now more about analysing the new environment and changing the way current skills are applied - rather than simply learning new skills.  

Here, Michelle explains that it’s all about context and changing the perspective.  

Changing the way skills are applied

Keen to learn more about how you can get ahead of the curve with skill-building in your organisation? 

All five principles are highlighted and explored in detail throughout the session - watch the full webinar and get started in applying them to your role and organisation.  

You can also download a free eBook, created by the Emerging Stronger team, to learn more about these five important principles derived from high-performing L&D teams. 

What’s driving the skills agenda? And how can L&D get ahead of the curve? 

For L&D teams, proving business value has often been a tricky proposition. You know the work you do is valuable. Your learners know the work you do is valuable. However, measuring and reporting on that value is often a different story. While the work that L&D teams do is critical, it can often be subjective and difficult to quantify in terms that business executives respond to, leading to significant disconnects between L&D teams and the rest of the organisation. 

One potential reason for these disconnects is that L&D teams have been taking the wrong approach to measuring business value. As learning technologies become more sophisticated and empowering learners becomes increasingly essential, many experts argue that L&D teams should focus less on measuring return on investment (ROI) and more on measuring return on expectation (ROE). 

We’ll dig deeper into this debate by asking if L&D teams should measure ROE more than ROI. We’ll start by explaining the terms ROE and ROI in an L&D context, before moving on to the advantages of measuring ROE over ROI for L&D teams. 

In an L&D context, ROE stands for return on expectations. Return on expectations should not be confused with the other common meaning of ROE, return on equity. 

According to Learning Pool, “d​efining return-on-expectation is a process where learning professionals ask questions to clarify and refine the expectations of the key business stakeholders, so that they are satisfying these expectations whilst realistically achieving results in training. It’s about converting often generic expectations into observable, measurable success outcomes that the overall business values.”

Similarly, Training Zone explains that ROE is valuable by “ensuring that training objectives are strategically relevant to the organisation in the first place, clearly defining the expectations of the outcomes of the training, and then evaluating against both the training objectives and the agreed expectations.” 

Therefore, ROE is all about reducing the disconnect between what business leaders expect and what L&D teams deliver, thereby increasing the strategic relevance of L&D teams’ key deliverables. ROE means taking a more comprehensive approach to measuring L&D’s impact by aligning programme evaluation with organisational goals. As LinkedIn explains, measuring ROE “allows us to move away from a purely financial lens and instead evaluate a programme’s success more holistically.” 

Largely, the idea of ROE centres around the Kirkpatrick Model. First coined in the late 1950s by Dr Donald Kirkpatrick, the Kirkpatrick model is used in L&D circles worldwide to analyse ROE and measure the effectiveness of training programs. 

While the model has undergone some minor tweaks over the years, the basic four-step program remains the cornerstone of measuring ROE for L&D teams. These are: 

1. Reaction: Measure learners’ reaction to the training material to gain insights into the quality of the learning material and whether it is the right fit for a specific learner. Ask yourself, did learners enjoy the training? To what degree did learners apply themselves to the material? 

2. Learning: Next, you need to measure how much information learners absorbed and retained so you can evaluate this against individual learning objectives. Ask yourself, did learning transfer occur successfully?​​ Did participants gain the intended knowledge and skills from the training materials? 

3. Behaviour: This level is all about measuring the impact of your training. In other words, has the training actually influenced learner behaviour? Ask yourself, are learners applying the information they learned on the job?

4. Results: Finally, you can measure the broader impact of your training. By this stage, you should have a firm grasp of the ROE of your training program. Ask yourself, did the training improve learner performance and achieve the desired organisational outcomes? If not, what lessons can I take to improve next time?

While there are many advantages to following the Kirkpatrick Model of ROE (more on these later), Training Check summarises the key benefits, explaining, “by progressing through each of the levels, training evaluators can build a ‘chain of evidence’ which links learning directly with organisational performance.” 

For example, by ensuring learners are responsive to the training in step one, you can ensure they take information onboard in step two, which feeds into behaviour change and tangible results in steps three and four. 

By managing expectations every step of the way, you will gain a clearer picture of what your learning program achieved and be able to clearly communicate these outcomes to executives. 

In contrast to ROE, ROI is likely an evaluation model you are already familiar with. ROI stands for return on investment and is one of the most common metrics businesses use to measure success.

As Investopedia puts it, “return on investment (ROI) is a performance measure used to evaluate the efficiency or profitability of an investment or compare the efficiency of a number of different investments. ROI tries to directly measure the amount of return on a particular investment, relative to the investment’s cost. To calculate ROI, the benefit (or return) of an investment is divided by the cost of the investment. The result is expressed as a percentage or a ratio.” 

Nevertheless, many industry leaders posit that it is time for L&D teams to move on from ROI and look toward other metrics. In a recent article, Reworked proposed that ROI is a “dead metric” for L&D teams. Similarly, People Management put forward that calculating ROI for L&D is “like finding a needle in a haystack.” Others have expressed similar sentiments, as many L&D leaders are all too familiar with the challenges of attempting to quantify their work via ROI.

With this in mind, now might be the perfect time to transition from ROI to the greener pastures of ROE. 

For more insights into measuring ROI for L&D teams, check out our article on Improving ROI metrics to showcase L&D’s value.

The advantages of measuring ROE over ROI for L&D

For L&D teams, proving business value has often been a tricky proposition. We’ll dig deeper into this debate by asking if L&D teams should measure ROE more than ROI.