Manila Times workplace columnist and ASTD member Moje Ramos-Aquino gave quite a hat tip to ASTD in her March 13 column. She highlighted the book Presenting Learning by ASTD President and CEO Tony Bingham and co-author Tony Jeary. Moje also promoted the upcoming international conference being held May 16-19.

Moje suffered through Typhoon Ondoy last September with significant damage to her home. It's nice to see her back at work and of course I'm thrilled with the positive write up she gave ASTD. 

Tags: ASTD, conference, presenting learning, tony bingham, tony jeary

Categories: ASTD in the News

Future success for any business depends in part on who is leading the business, yet according to new research from the American Society for Training & Development (ASTD) the majority of companies admit their efforts in succession planning are weak.

As the global economy struggles out of the recession it is incumbent on business leaders to identify key positions, critical knowledge and skills, and the talent needed to meet short- and long-term goals, as well as put in place a working process for developing and advancing employees in the succession pipeline. Despite this demand only 14 percent of companies surveyed by ASTD said their organization’s succession planning efforts were successful to a high or very high degree.

ASTD surveyed leaders from 1,247 organizations for its new study Improving Succession Plans: Harnessing the Power of Learning and Development. Key findings include:

• Fewer than half of companies (45 percent) have a formal succession planning process in place.
• 72 percent say succession planning addresses positions at the vice-president level.
• Most companies look internally for sourcing. Only 17 percent say they look externally to feed their succession pipeline to a high or very high extent.
• 76 percent rely on nomination by a senior leader to guide the organization’s choice of potential leadership talent to a high or very high extent.
• Many companies are involving learning professionals in succession planning activities.
• There is a significant correlation between funding for succession-related development and success in the planning process.

The study also offers recommendations for creating metrics, candidate selection, and key practices to cope with barriers to effective plans. A “Lessons Learned” section shares some of the wisdom gained from study respondents.

Improving Succession Plans: Harnessing the Power of Learning and Development is free to ASTD members and may be downloaded from the ASTD Store at www.store.astd.org.

For more information on succession planning consider attending the session "Talent Management According to Shakespeare" at the 2010 ASTD International Conference & Exposition.

Tags: succession planning, ASTD, research, leadership development, talent pipeline, talent management

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ASTD's new Professional Partner program is creating buzz in the training and development industry. Three new companies have joined the recently launched program - a new initiative designed to increase training professionals’ awareness of the many tools and resources available to them that help to advance the profession, and encourage employee learning and development in organizations.

The new partners committed to connecting with the ASTD community are:

• National Conference Center, one of the largest and most technologically sophisticated meeting facilities in the world, The National Conference Center creates a friendly, manageable meeting and learning environment for every group. Conference rooms and guest rooms are grouped together in self-contained wings, providing an individual meeting community for participants. The National Conference center combines the advantages of a powerful infrastructure with the conveniences of an intimate environment.

• Hogan Assessment Systems, Inc. is a research-based consulting firm that uses personality assessments to help companies select employees, develop leaders, and identify talent.

• Development Dimensions International helps the most successful companies around the world close the gap between where their businesses need to go and the talent required to take them there.  DDI partners with companies providing a comprehensive yet practical approach to talent management that ensures a close connection of its solutions to client strategies.

ASTD Professional Partners have made a commitment to provide service and content to ASTD members and learning professionals, and will be featured in T+D magazine, online at ASTD.org, and at various ASTD events throughout the year.

Tags: ASTD, professional partners, learning and development, professional development, training, DDI, Hogan Assessments, National Conference Center, T+D

Categories: ASTD in the News | ASTD Professional Partner News | Chapters | Membership

ASTD announced today that applications for ASTD’s annual BEST Awards are due March 31.

The ASTD BEST Awards recognize organizations that demonstrate enterprise-wide success as a result of employee learning and development.  Winning organizations use the learning function as a strategic business tool to get results. Award winners show that they are BEST at Building talent, Enterprise-wide, Supported by the organization’s leaders, fostering a Thorough learning culture.

Companies who win a BEST Award will:
• Be honored for their contributions and identified as among the BEST in the world
• Establish the organization as a leader recognizing learning has an enterprise-wide role
• Share innovative ideas with peers in the industry at the Learn from the BEST conference
• Teach others to embrace learning and development as a strategic initiative.

The top five recent BEST Award winners include: Sun Microsystems, MTR Corporation, SCC Soft Computer, DPR Construction, Inc., and BB&T.

More information about the BEST Awards, and an application due March 31, 2010, can be found at www.astd.org/best. 

Tags: ASTD, BEST Awards, workplace learning and development

Categories: ASTD in the News | Chapters | Government | International | Membership | Public Policy | T+D

Learning executives continue to be optimistic about the outlook and expectations for the learning function according to the latest measurement by the American Society for Training & Development (ASTD). The Learning Executive Confidence Index (LXCI) for the fourth quarter of 2009 remained stable after significant growth across the second and third quarters. The current LXCI surveyed 271 learning executives about their expectations in four areas: impact on corporate performance; ability to meet learning needs; status as a key strategic component; and availability of resources. It is modeled on the CEO Confidence Indices reported by Chief Executive Magazine and The Conference Board.

Learning executives (LXs) revealed plateauing scores in key indices in the fourth quarter, suggesting a continued sense of optimism in most key areas. The overall LXCI decreased only 0.5 points in the fourth quarter, from 60.7 to 60.2. The LXCI is measured on a 100-point scale. Outsourcing is anticipated to increase, with 25.1 percent of LXs reporting that their utilization of external providers would increase, compared to 24.2 percent in the third quarter of 2009 and 17 percent in the second quarter. The effects of the economy continue to be evident among LXs, as a significant majority indicates the current economic conditions will impact the learning function. Conversely, only a small proportion (9.9 percent) of LXs indicates it will have no impact on the learning function in the next six months.

Other highlights of the LXCI for fourth quarter 2009 include:

• Two of the four major indices (impact on corporate performance and status as a key strategic component) decreased slightly in Q4, while the other two (ability to meet learning needs and availability of resources) registered only minor increases. This pattern highlights that expectations are stabilizing after reaching their highest on record in the third quarter.

• Nearly three-quarters of LXs anticipated funding for workplace learning to increase or remain the same in the next six months, an increase from the third quarter.

• A majority of LXs who anticipated a decrease in their learning expenditures over the next six months predicted an improvement in their organization’s learning and development expenditure from the third quarter of 2011 onwards.

ASTD’s Learning Executive Confidence Index was launched in August 2008 and is designed to assess the outlooks and expectations of learning executives for the next six months.

To find out more about the LXCI, go to http://www.astd.org/content/research/LXCI.htm.

Tags: learning executives, research, confidence index, economy, outlooks, expectations, learning function

Categories: ASTD in the News

Providing great customer service is critical for the success of any business. So why do some companies think that "customer service" = pushing buttons and listening to recorded messages? Those companies need to get a copy of the latest book from ASTD Press: 10 Steps to Successful Customer Service. It provides a quick and effective check up to ensure that customer service professionals at all levels focus on key practices that keep and create satisfied customers.

This book examines the challenge of creating spectacular customer service, and provides a complete outline for developing customer-oriented practices within an organization. Written for customer service professionals from frontline providers to executives, these Ten Steps can help jump-start a successful customer service program. 

In 10 Steps to Successful Customer Service author Maxine Kamin provides a thorough background in the philosophy of customer service and includes tools like worksheets, checklists, tips, and exercises. Kamin, an expert in customer service, has consulted with Fortune 500 companies, universities, governments, and other organizations. She facilitates customer service training programs nationwide.

To find out more about 10 Steps to Successful Customer Service, visit www.store.astd.org

Tags: astd press, 10 steps, customer service, maxine kamin

Categories: ASTD in the News | Books

In a post last week, I mentioned that the winter 2010 issue of The Public Manager was ginning up some excellent media coverage, including a nice article in the Washington Post. Today I'm sharing the link to an interview on FedNews Radio with one of the contributors, Alan Balutis.

Click here to listen to the interview.

The winter issue of The Public Manager spotlights the personnel and performance management agenda of the Obama administration. Eleven articles in the Forum series examine a broad range of topics and are written by a team of experts who contributed to the journal in late 2007 and early 2008 analyzing the wide array of challenges that awaited the incoming president.

Topics covered in the current issue of The Public Manager include: a review of what is currently happening in the reform efforts; human capital; telework; management implications of the future workforce; the emerging technology agenda; the debate within the acquisition community; government direction on performance management; intergovernmental cooperation; a review of how the administration’s team is trying to reshape the way government works; and recommendations to achieve transformation.

Tags: the public manager, personnel, performance, fed news radio, alan balutis, washington post, obama administration

Categories: ASTD in the News | Government | Public Policy

ASTD surveyed 1,179 companies and found that 79 percent of them say they face a skills gap. 79 percent! 

Communities, states, regions, and entire nations pay a heavy price when workers lack the right skills for critical jobs. While the skills gap has always been a concern for organizations, the global recession complicates an already perplexing issue. Recognizing the extraordinary circumstances, ASTD conducted new research and the results are published in a new white paper that features skills gap survey findings and includes impact of the recession, Web 2.0, and the surge of millennials in the workplace.

The paper is titled Bridging the Skills Gap: New Factors Compound the Growing Skills Shortage. It can be accessed for free at www.astd.org/publicpolicy.

The new paper analyzes the multi-layered dimensions of the skills gap in today’s economic climate including the impact of the global recession, the retirement of Baby Boomers in the workforce, Web 2.0 technologies, and the surge of the millennial cohort into the workforce. It includes the results of ASTD’s 2009 Skills Gap Poll taken by 1,179 organizations. Case studies from eight leading companies are also included. 

Bridging the Skills Gap: New Factors Compound the Growing Skills Shortage outlines a six-step action plan to help organizations and individuals deal proactively with the skills gap.

“Recent economic challenges have forced public- and private-sector organizations to execute their strategies with more precision than ever before, and do it with fewer resources, especially people,” says Tony Bingham, ASTD President and CEO. “Many senior executives are struggling to close skills gaps within their organizations. The Action Plan identified in this white paper provides a process for leaders, managers, and learning professionals to use to successfully manage this challenge.”

Learning professionals are strategically positioned to identify the skills and competencies their organizations possess and those needed for the future. The white paper includes eight case studies from Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, EMC Corporation, IBM, McCain Foods Limited, NVR Inc., Steelcase, and the Tennessee Valley Authority. These organizations’ case studies provide best practices to address skills gaps.

Tags: astd, skills gap, research, public policy, computer sciences corporation, csc, deloitte touche tohmatsu, emc corporation, ibm, mccian foods limited, nvr inc., steelcase, tennessee valley authoriy, tva, tony bingham

Categories: ASTD in the News | Chapters | Government | Membership | Public Policy | Research

In today's issue of The Washington Post, Federal Diary writer Joe Davidson calls out some content from the forthcoming issue of The Public Manager in his reporting abou the Obama administration's personnel efforts.

The article "Obama personnel policies draw generally high marks" contains the following quote:

"It's about that time when performance evaluations of Barack Obama's first year as boss-in-chief begin coming in.

It helps when the evaluators are a nonpartisan group of experts who know something about the area on which they judge the president. Fortunately, that's the case with several articles on Obama's management agenda -- written by a team of analysts, including industry and former government executives -- that appear in the winter 2010 issue of the Public Manager, which will be available Friday at http://www.thepublicmanager.org. This quarterly journal is published by the (sic) Bureaucrat Inc., which describes itself as "a not-for-profit organization chartered and devoted to furthering knowledge and best practice at all levels of government."

"The authors don't have a dog -- or a donkey or an elephant -- in the fight over Obama's reputation. They're Democrats and Republicans who push a good-government agenda."

The winter issue of The Public Manager will be released tomorrow, January 15. An Interview on Federal News Radio's show "In Depth with Francis Rose" will tomorrow.

For more information on The Public Manager, go to the website www.thepublicmanager.org.

 

Tags: the public manager, president obama, personnel, government, the bureaucrat inc., federal news radio, washington post, joe davidson, federal diary

Categories: ASTD in the News | Government | Public Policy

ASTD Press is launching a new book that is just what business leaders need for challenging economic times! 

Tough economic times demand more, not less attention to talent management. The expertise and trend-setting practices of six industry giants are contained in the new book, Talent Management: Strategies for Success from Six Leading Companies.

Edited by Larry Israelite, vice president and manager of human resource development at Liberty Mutual Group, Talent Management is a road map to cultivating a highly responsive, high-performance, sustainable organization that meets its business targets. This resource-rich book features the expertise and successful strategies of prominent industry leaders: Cisco, McDonalds, Avon, Liberty Mutual Group, Ciena, and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. Chapters focus on management’s role, the impact on processes and practices, links to business results, the impact on company strategy, current research on the topic, and software selection.

Talent Management also:
• describes a key shift in the dynamic between employer and employee and explains how a focus on talent can enable organizations to achieve remarkable things.
• lists 10 tips for moving toward a talent-driven culture.
• provides insight into different ways that organizations define talent management and implement talent management initiatives, allowing readers to draw lessons that are applicable to their own companies.

Talent Management: Strategies for Success from Six Leading Companies is endorsed by  several leaders in the learning and development field, including Eliot Masie who says, “The best part about this book is the fact that it humbles those of us who have ‘grown up’ in this industry thinking we ‘know it all’ … many of the best practices shared in this book emulate true innovation and current trends in talent management not seen or heard before … [the book] provides real and practical examples that you can implement right away to help drive talent management strategies in your organization.”

For more information about Talent Management: Strategies for Success from Six Leading Companies, visit http://store.astd.org/. To schedule an interview with Larry Israelite, call 703.683.8192.

Other ASTD resources in talent management include: The Talent Management Playbook, and the ASTD research report Talent Management Practices and Opportunities. All of these resources can be found in the ASTD store at http://store.astd.org/.

Tags: talent management, astd, astd press, book, business strategies, eliot masie, larry israelite

Categories: ASTD in the News