Today’s unsettled political and economic times present many challenges for performance driven organisations. According to the annual Accenture survey of corporate executives, the issue of attracting, developing and retaining high performing people has increased the most in the last 3 years. The business strategies of large organisations, across all industries, are now focussing more on creating measurable improvements in the performance, productivity and sustainability of their people.
In a competitive globalised workforce, learning opportunities can prove crucial when attracting and retaining high performing people. Engagement has never been more important because organisations with skilled and motivated people have a distinctive advantage over growing competition. Optimising learning can be a key success factor; helping to develop high performing people, align company cultures and achieve business objectives.
With the increased emphasis on performance, even the most resourceful and strategic organisations can feel stretched. Learning and development departments have always been expected to remain at the leading edge of technologies, trends and innovations; but this alone is no longer enough. Organisations now want to see a measurable return on investment (ROI) and high business impact from all learning strategies.
This results orientated approach to learning has caused many learning professionals to ask whether their internal departments have the expertise, resource and technology to ensure the engagement and development of their people across all areas. For many organisations, business process outsourcing (BPO) has become vital to their business strategy.
In a 2015 report, Doug Harward, CEO of Training Industry, says that learning BPO is growing with an emphasis on transformation:
“The use of external service providers to develop, deliver or manage training activities is growing at a faster rate than previously seen in the last 5 years… Corporate executives’ expectations on the value of training are increasing, which is generating a renewed interest in using outside companies to drive change and quality of service improvements.”
Outsourcing learning allows for leading edge, creative and cost effective solutions, which is particularly useful for the areas that internal departments don’t specialise in. This approach allows people to receive the right learning, in the most appropriate way for them, in line with the organisations culture, to increase individual performance and produce a measurable business impact.
Learning BPO is often referred to as a Managed Learning Service (MLS), which “provides valuable support to organisations looking for specialist help to source, procure, administrate, evaluate and provide management information (MI) on learning.” By using a MLS, clients can expect to:
- Increase the quality of learning solutions and optimise performance.
- Save time sourcing and administering external training.
- Save money and demonstrate ROI from training budgets.
- Streamline processes and have a single point of contact.
There are two different types of Managed Learning Service: Vendor Specific and Vendor Neutral. The features, processes and objectives of these services are generally the same; however, there are two crucial differences.
- Vendor Specific:
– A training provider first – the MLS is an add-on service.
– Favour own products and training when consulting on and sourcing learning. - Vendor Neutral:
– A Managed Learning Service first – it is the core service.
– Independent and unbiased toward suppliers when consulting on and sourcing learning.
Now Managed Learning Services provides an independent and comprehensive MLS. Since 1997, it has helped many Learning and Development and HR managers to make their L&D departments even more productive and continues to help them flourish under today’s ever-increasing challenges and demands.
The impact of Now Managed Learning Services is clear to see. Clients can save time sourcing and administering learning, save money on the right training, have a single point of contact, have streamlined processes and invoicing; all while experiencing an increased level of performance through great learning solutions. However, it would be impossible to comment on the full extent to which Now Managed Learning Services can transform an organisation. Optimising learning goes beyond measurable business impact, high performance and ROI; it can be felt through the capillaries of an organisation. It can be the difference when attracting, developing and retaining high performing people; people who can make an organisation extraordinary.
The complete range of Now Managed Learning Services are listed below. They can be offered as individual services or altogether in a comprehensive offering. Please follow the links for further details of each service:
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