Where do I start with designing an Associate Development program/process?

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Permalink Reply by Jamie MacPherson on April 22, 2009 at 7:00am

Camille

First question I have is what is 'recruiting through position evolution'?

In terms of the program i would involve senior managers in asking them how they would like this population to develop between now and the end of a program. It's also helpful to get some clear tangibles measures for any quailities or behaviors that are identified that they want to develop. This can inform which activities and topics to include and builds buy in from them. Also would be good to be clear what amount of time can people give to dedicated development work....is it 5 days in a year for example. Getting their view too of what development actually looks like might fill in the gap when it comes to addressing the belief 'that no development is offered'.

Hope this helps as a start
Jamie
Lane4

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Permalink Reply by Lisa Bradley-Mitchell on April 22, 2009 at 7:46am

Camille,

My first question is what performance problem/gap/challenge are you tasked with solving? Is there an organizational goal or metric that is being missed by your department that warrants the request for development? For example, is the goal increased employee retention or improved customer satisfaction? Is there a future state that has been envisioned by the requesters or senior leadership that your program will prepare people to achieve? The answers to these questions should help you understand the end state and give you a basis from which to define the development priorities. It will be paramount for you to clearly define what's been requested and to ensure that your understanding matches the vision of the requestors.

Secondly, define factors to which you can link incremental success/progress by considering if there are key result areas, competencies, behavioral anchors, career development models, etc. to which the program can be linked. Additional questions that can't be overlooked include the issue of budget - How much has been allocated for this endeavor? as well as your available resources - Do you have the required resources (content, designers, project managers, developers, etc.) to accomplish the goal at the level of quality and within the given time allotment?

As Jamie has suggested, make sure that you have senior leadership’s input, commitment and participation in the program to ensure ongoing alignment between the program and the organizational goals.

Lisa

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Permalink Reply by Donna B. Yurdin on April 22, 2009 at 9:18am

Camille - I would agree with what has already been said. In addition, I would add that you should approach this in stages and not try to "change the world" all at once. Start out with answering the questions posed with the most important being what is the organization trying to acheive in this effort, what is the department's role in the organization's success and it's goals to get there, what is the competency profile for department employees and how do they stack up against the profile. When you have these answers, you can begin to put together a development plan for the individuals. This development plan can continue to operate with some informality but may need some hardwiring to the organization through coaching or mentoring. The good news is that the organization is interested in developing its associates.

Best of luck,
Donna

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Permalink Reply by Stephen Frenkel on April 22, 2009 at 9:44am

HI Camille,

I see on your profile that you manage a learning and development team for a finance department of a large mutual fund company. I believe Jamie and Lisa provided you with excellent advice in terms of the need to probe internally for input on what needs you have (along with prioritization) as well as getting buy-in from senior leadership.

In terms of answering your question about where to start (which admittedly is difficult without knowing the answers to the questions Jamie and Lisa provided), I can share what we've found and done with others (especially in the financial industry) looking to begin a formal development process.

Just about every position involves communication, problem solving, negotiation (of sorts) and decision making. Whether you're developing sales reps, customer service teams, sourcing/procurement, project managers, HR or senior leadership, they all require the core skills mentioned above. These basic skills of effective communication/negotiation, lay a solid foundation to build on and will actually help with the internal strategic conversations about where to go next and what's needed, not to mention the everyday discussions/decisions that are a part of your business.

This is where we've started in associate development programs. From there, our clients have either dug deeper to enhance these core skills and address particularly challenging scenarios, or moved on to hone and develop additional position-related skills.

The added bonus of starting off this way is that everyone in the company develops a common language and approach through a shared experience (the training and exercises). This consistency has proven beneficial in terms of supporting both internal and external relationships - particulary long-term working partnerships.

I've attached a one-page overview of the initial service we offer our financial industry clients. All of our programs are customized to address our clients' industries as well as they're specific goals and challenges. I hope this is helpful.

Best,
Stephen Frenkel

ps. I'm glad to see you work for a company that understands the value of professional development. Take a look at an article that was published this month in CLO Magazine (print and online) that I think will be helpful to you as you look for training programs and providers - www.clomedia.com/talent.php?pt=s&sid=2604&mode=preview

Attachments:

• 0024 MWI Negotiation Overview.pdf, 139 KB

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Permalink Reply by Becki Nelson on April 27, 2009 at 9:55am

Start with questions - and keep it simple.
Ask the one who assigned you this project, and any other leaders directly affected by it:
- If the project is successful, what would they expect to see as a result?
- Are there any measurements or numbers that these leaders already use to measure success of their business operations?
- how might this project improve those?
- what do they expect of the program: how long it will take, how much it will cost, how many resources/people it will take to develop?

ask department leaders, front line "star" associates, and some new associates
- what skills, talent or capabilities contribute to improving associates' ability to perform successfully against this definition and the chosen measurements/numbers?
- who succeeds at which skills and who needs to improve? (this is "the gap")
- what instructional objectives, approach, techniques and timelines would best address these gaps?

Once you have some answers, you can define clear project goals and the required skills and skill gaps, set a project scope, draft high level instructional objectives (instructional action plan), identify a target audience, and assess resource needs (budget, ftes, design/development skills, facilitators, etc.), possibly even identify people ("star" associates who can teach) who can work on the project with you.

Sounds like a great project!
Becki Nelson

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Permalink Reply by Greg Sales on April 27, 2009 at 10:56pm

Camille,

This is quite a task you have facing you. My suggestion would be to start by determining the minimal competencies you expect of you your associates as they move through different levels in your organization. With this set of (hopefully) hierarchical information, you can begin to develop rubrics for determine how you can assess an associates progress toward each desired level of development. The rubrics could involve a combination of observation, tests, task performance, etc. Once you have the method of evaluating individuals development identified, then you can begin putting activities (e.g., training, mentoring, increasing job responsibilities) in place to help build the competencies you expect. Sharing the competency model, rubrics and plan will solve the perception that no development plan exists.

Good luck,
Greg

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Permalink Reply by Robert Gimbl on April 28, 2009 at 12:08am

In developing an associate program, we started with the first day as Orientation followed by senior management speaking on the vision and values of working in the company. We then did three days on classroom training on the skills needed to be able to start a great career. In the finance arena we had a four week program, in Hr we had a two week program.
Let me know if I can be any help.
Cheers
Rob

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Permalink Reply by Camille Attell on April 28, 2009 at 10:40am

Thank you everyone for taking the time to respond to me. You have all added so much to my knowledge base about this process. I am excited to not only begin developing the program, but to share with my leadership team the value of social networking, another aspect of L&D that I am hoping to influence within my company. This is the first time I ever blogged with a question and I am thrilled about the response I received. Again, thank you all so much for sharing your knowledge with me.

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Permalink Reply by Bill Wilson on May 5, 2009 at 11:46am

Camile

I gather from your post that you are talking about a program that would start with a new hire and then take them through their "life" with the company. Is that correct?

If so, I think you need to start with a high level map of what that "life line" looks like. You are a step ahead of most if you have management bought into this being a development process rather than a training program.

Start at the new hire end and figure out what it takes for a new hire to be successful in the first 90 days. Our design approach - which I would be happy to share with you off line - is based on measurable business outcomes and is focused on the behavior necessary to support the business. If you focus first on the behavior you can then break the behaviors down and look at the skills, knowledge and attitude necessary to support the behavior. This is a much stronger approach than trying to start with the knowledge and skill.

When you have the new hire on the right path you can then start looking at what new behaviors this person needs to acquire to advance in the organization and what it takes in terms of KSAs to support those behaviors. At this point you can really start looking a blended approach - delivering the Ks through eLearning and looking at a variety of strategies to get the Ss and As in place.

One thing that is critical in this process is to involve a cross section of folks - tenured associates, new associates, supervisors and manager in the process of defining the behaviors necessary for success. That will be an interesting challenge. Until you can get agreement on that you really can't move forward with anything that will be seen by all as successful.

You also need to look at the managers/supervisors to make sure they have the skills to observe for and coach to the successful behaviors you identify.

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