Employee Learning Week December 7-11

Next week is Employee Learning Week. How will you use that emphasis to give an extra boost to your role in employee education? Here are some suggestions from ASTD that you may be able to implement quickly since you've only got a few days:

·  Communicate learning and development tips to your workforce each day of the week

·  Host a press briefing with the local media (Click here for Media Tips and Talking Points)

·  Help employees create individual development plansto increase and enhance their skills

·  Submit an article about your company's learning efforts to a local newspaper. (Local newspapers love to hear what local businesses are doing. Let them know you are available when they need an expert, too!)

Click here for some ideas implemented in 2007 and 2008.

Retaining Top Talent: Give'em What They Want

If you want to retain some of your best performers, give them what they most desire-the skills needed to leave your company. Paradox? By giving them what they want will make them more desirable to your competition, but will encourage them to stay with you, says an article in the Wall Street Journal. "It's crucial that companies get serious about retention now," say the authors. "And that means giving executives opportunities to take on greater responsibility, broaden their skills and cultivate a network of relationships with their peers. These are the things that executives we have surveyed consistently say they want most from their jobs.

"On balance, a company will keep more talent by helping its executives grow than it would by denying them these opportunities. And as a bonus, its executives will be more valuable to the company itself."

The full article, entitled "How to Keep Your Best Executives," can be found here.

Value in Social Media?

In the November issue of Elearning! Online magazine, there's a fascinating article on how one executive took a transparent approach to a financial shortfall and utilized a combination of social media tools like blogging, facebook and email along with face-to-face events like town meetings to garner ideas from all employees, including those who would be most impacted by the shortfall.

"In March, we discovered we would be $20 million in the hole on this fiscal year's budget (ending September 30th)," said Paul Levy, CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. "I could have laid off 600, but thought there had to be a better way to reduce costs without having to lay off people. I sent out an e-mail note explaining the situation, holding town meetings, asking for suggestions, (to) protect the low income workers. It was a multi-faceted adventure; e-mails. town meetings, chat rooms and blogs." The company ended up laying off only 70 people.