“If you cannot measure your processes, you cannot improve them!” A sentence that burned itself into my memory like chili burning in the throat. The moment I heard that in 2010, I thought to myself: There must be some truth to that. After all, it came from a person whom I greatly admired at the time for their history, professional success, and know-how. We call him Peer, an entrepreneur around 50 years old, who secured a professorship at my university after selling his logistics company. A man who, with his teaching style, did not exactly choose the established “teaching” approach, yet was probably the only one remembered. But why is Peer still relevant to me today?
Even in an extremely volatile and fast-paced economic world, there are things whose universal validity and relevance are not lost. During our last consultation on the topic of “Revising the Learning and Development Strategy” at a medium-sized company, which we call Grantler AG, this was once again proven true.
DESPAIR IN THE TRAINING DEPARTMENT
But from the beginning: The first step for this came about in the classic way as a result of contacting our sales team. Karin contacted us with a slightly desperate email. As the HR manager, she described that the company, with approximately 890 employees, had invested a great deal of money in a strategic realignment of the L&D process about 3.5 years ago. In the course of this, among other things, an LMS was rolled out and a large number of training courses were converted into WBTs (Web Based Trainings) – a task that had tied up a large part of the available resources in the training area within the last few years since its introduction. The reason for contacting Swissteach: “Unfortunately, the whole thing isn’t really getting off the ground – or rather, not anymore.” After an initial euphoria throughout the workforce, there was now massive disillusionment and frustration with training and further education, according to Karin. But nobody could explain it. After all, they had done everything possible to exploit the full potential of the company. Had they miscalculated?
After initial online meetings with Karin and her two team leaders, Rainer and Frank, it quickly became clear: We can help here! Due to the pandemic, the company had been forced to adapt to home office and online meetings. The fact that online training would also be conducted as a result was thus also established, which also raised the question of whether an LMS would be beneficial. They had hoped “to be able to manage the online aspect better with more system,” according to Frank.
It was May 12, 2024, when my colleague and I had our first on-site appointment with the training managers in beautiful Oberstrudingen. It quickly became clear that the level of frustration had significantly increased since our joint phone call. To help the company and the team as quickly as possible and to have an inventory at hand, we gradually began to examine the background of the L&D process.
THE OBJECTIVE – WHERE SHOULD THE JOURNEY LEAD?
First exciting point: When the idea of an LMS came up at Grantler AG, the motivation was huge. There were so many possibilities that promised enormous potential for improvement for the company. And so, after defining the 20 most important requirements, they decided on the manufacturer that offered the best ratio of fulfillment level and price. The resulting coordination with the service provider and programming department took up Karin and her team’s full attention for the following six months – so much so that the most important task in the course of the realignment of L&D completely disappeared from the radar: The objective of the revised process! What did the company want to achieve with training & further education using an LMS? Faster onboarding? More employee satisfaction? Integration of suppliers into further education? And above all: How should the future L&D process support the core processes and objectives of the company?
In 2022, all these factors receded into the background due to the sheer amount of detailed work involved in process mapping on the digital platform. During the conversation with Karin, it became apparent that there were indeed connections to the company’s overall strategy, but these were not documented and could not be explained spontaneously or trivially. This immediately explained Karin’s second problem: the lack of management support. If it is not known where and in what form training and further education specifically “pays off,” how can budgets, resources, and investments be planned and approved? The basis for decision-making was missing, and so it was clear where we needed to start first.
ALL DIGITAL – THE KEY TO HAPPINESS?
Due to the high time pressure at the time, no planning could be carried out regarding the number and selection of trainings that were to be converted from in-person to online courses. It was important to first get the system into operational use. After all, numerous employees also had to be trained in administration and handling. Once this was done, a strategic decision was to be made regarding the selection of trainings. Small spoiler: This decision had not been made by then. After two colleagues had been trained on a selected AUTHORING TOOL in 2023, the conversion of the first trainings could begin. And of course, they started where the company’s obligation and the pain were greatest: with mandatory trainings for every single employee, such as occupational safety.
Gradually, more and more trainings were converted in increasingly shorter periods, as a learning effect naturally set in with the handling of the authoring tool. “The two responsible content managers are worth their weight in gold to us today. Without them, we wouldn’t be where we are!” said Karin. A fact that could not be disputed. However, the whole thing had taken on a life of its own. Thus, each of the approximately 75 managers in the company could “order” the digitalization of training content, which the two content managers promptly took on. Meanwhile, there was a large number of WBTs, whose creation was less about making employees’ learning processes more flexible than about the fact that these trainings could also be conducted from home. Employees were encouraged to undertake further training after “work was done.”
The result: Employee motivation plummeted. Who would want to complete training after work, surrounded by family? Numerous complaints had already been received by Grantler AG’s works council. Here too, immediate action had to be taken due to the urgency – step two of our meeting on May 12, 2024.
A SYSTEM IS GOOD – AND WHAT ABOUT THE SURROUNDING PROCESSES?
The learning process itself could be optimally implemented after the introduction of the LMS. What was learned was verified through short tests and gamification elements and, upon successful completion, documented and stored with digital certificates. However, individual process components remained exactly as they were before the LMS was introduced: the administrative processes. Here too, we returned to the two content managers. They were routinely contacted via email if a change or digitalization of training content was desired. These “orders” were collected in tabular form and divided between the two individuals according to effort, topic, and operational area.
Similarly, until then, new training content arising from revised legal situations or changes in the company’s controlled processes had to be communicated manually internally. Process owners sent emails throughout the company to present the process change to as many relevant departments as possible. If things went optimally, HR and the content managers were not forgotten. Unfortunately, this was not the case in 20% of all instances. Delays, discontent, and rework loops were the norm until, after an indefinable period, finished and consumable trainings actually emerged. An immense, resource-intensive effort that heavily burdened the training department. Point 3 on our to-do list: Since the administrative processes surrounding the LMS were immense in scope and had not undergone any efficiency review until then, it was necessary to ensure that information truly reached where it was needed. And not just at some point, but at the right time.
The solution for this: A workflow engine! This could be adapted and designed absolutely individually to the specific circumstances. Of course, we were aware that this was not a two-week task, but in the medium and long term, it brought massive relief in the training area and precisely mitigated the pain points described above. The final tests of the workflow system were already completed in November, and the entire system was put into operation. The result: The classic 80-20 approach. 80% of all orders for changing or creating trainings can now be processed stably and automatically. Only 20% of all orders require “special treatment” due to their nature. Trend: Sharply decreasing!
WHERE DOES GRANTLER AG STAND TODAY?
Anyone who assumes that Swissteach, as an LMS provider, focused on selling Global Teach® during the consultation is mistaken. We were engaged as a consulting service provider and enabled the company to identify its areas of action together with Swissteach. With Karin and her team, we were also able to determine that Grantler’s existing LMS perfectly matched the company’s requirements – an extremely important basis for the continuation of our cooperation.
May 12, 2024, was followed a week later by a one-day workshop with Grantler’s responsible management member. Based on the existing corporate strategy, precisely those areas were identified where training and further education provided strategic advantages. In this context, it was also further investigated with which metrics this could be continuously monitored. The result of this day: Karin now holds a target system of defined KPIs. The management member made a significant contribution to the development and knows these correlations precisely. Based on the KPIs, the performance delivered by the L&D process can be precisely read. Input comes from the LMS itself, which provides the necessary data basis. In a prepared format, the entire thing can be conveniently read from Karin’s dashboard in the morning. No more flying blind!
Using a workflow engine, our new product “Global Teach® Flow,” we were able to kill several birds with one stone: Firstly, the order system for changes or creation of training concepts was set up as a classic request-approval process. The prerequisite for an order is now that the respective applicants actually demonstrate the added value from the learners’ perspective – a line of thought that was previously insignificant and thus non-existent. Approval is granted by Rainer, the team leader of the Content and Course Architecture department. He coordinates the request with the specialist department both in terms of content and necessity. Secondly, all Excel and storage lists for the content managers were eliminated. The workflow engine now also provides an overview of the order backlog. No more chaos!
And the best part: It has now become apparent that such a request-approval system is also useful in many other administrative processes. Thus, Grantler AG now also organizes all in-person courses using this tool. Courses are planned, availabilities of external trainers are checked in real-time, and invitations are sent. Even hotels and other resources such as catering or workshop equipment are managed through it.
ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL?
Absolutely! We would not have left the project earlier if things were different. It was very important to us at Swissteach to get Grantler’s L&D process “flying” again. And we achieved that together with a great team at Grantler.
However, one thing is immensely important: Even if the interaction is well organized today and employees are happy to go through training again, one thing is certain: change will continue to require the L&D process to be rethought and modified in the future. And as mentioned: “If you cannot measure your processes, you cannot improve them!”