Bersin & Associates, a leading talent development research and consulting firm, has just released a new Research Bulletin on learning transfer.
The report, authored by Bersin senior analyst, Janet Clarey, emphasizes that learning transfer—the process of applying new skills and knowledge from training to the job—is essential for learning to produce business value. The report also notes that “having a process in place to support transfer of learning is often missing in the design of corporate L&D.” “Based on our research,” Bersin concludes,¹
This finding is consistent with the research by Fort Hill that led to the publication of The Six Disciplines of Breakthrough Learning: “The Fourth Discipline that characterizes high-impact learning organizations is that they drive the transfer of learning back to the work of the enterprise. They do not leave it to chance or individual initiative. Instead, they put in place systems and processes to actively encourage and manage the transfer process.” ²
Until recently, however, providing support for learning transfer was a time-consuming, mostly manual process. That is certainly a contributing factor to Bersin’s finding that “more than one-quarter of learning leaders say improving transfer of learning support is a significant challenge.”
Fortunately, there are now alternatives that make support for learning transfer efficient, scalable, and economical. The Bersin report goes on to profile the leading learning support tool from Fort Hill, ResultsEngine®, and three examples of organizations that have used ResultsEngine and the 6Ds® process to boost the impact of their learning programs.
ResultsEngine is an easy-to-implement, software-as-a-service tool that automates the learning transfer support process. A dashboard of key metrics, such as the progress learners are making toward their goals (see Figure 1 below), provides learning leaders with key insights into the critical post-program application period, so that they can focus on business outcomes.
At Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, according to the Bersin report, “The focus on business outcomes has meant L&D is now able to get behavioral changes and show ROI. A recent coaching skills program resulted in more employee engagement and optimism, as well as a 50 percent improvement in skills over those employees not using ResultsEngine®.”
A major pharmaceutical company highlighted in the report implemented ResultsEngine—(formerly Friday5s®) after a leadership development program. “This follow-on, the company found, was much easier with the Fort Hill software than when it had tried to do post-program support manually.” Even more important, “The ROI reported by participants using ResultsEngine was almost 50 percent greater than for the same program without it.”
The full Bersin report is available for free download on our website under Articles. To learn more about how you can boost the results of your learning programs with ResultsEngine and the 6Ds® process, email us at: info@forthillcompany.com.
At this time, I’d like to invite you and your colleagues to join me for our upcoming complimentary webinar, “Turn on the Results; Plug the all new ResultsEngine into your Training Programs,” to be held this Wednesday, August 10, 2011 at 12:00pm EDT.
References
¹ Bersin & Associates (2011). How to Support and Improve Learning Transfer Using Fort Hill Company’s ResultsEngine®. Research Bulletin 6(29) June, 2011.
² Wick, C, Pollock, R and Jefferson, A (2010). The Six Disciplines of Breakthrough Learning: How to Turn Training and Development into Business Results. San Francisco: Pfeifer.
