Elana Varon of the SAP Center for Business Insight recently interviewed me with the topic and questions focusing on different approaches to corporate learning.
The full report, entitled Why Companies Should Invest in Revamping Corporate Learning -- with additional insights from Marcus Schwarz and Karie Willyerd of SAP -- is available at this link. I encourage you to download it. (it's free) My specific responses are below.
[clear-line]
Elana: Do employers have an obligation to train and develop their employees?Pontefract: We consider it a responsibility of TELUS team members to participate in learning. There are a lot of tools we make available. But we’re really trying to take care of our people. It’s not the case that they have to go figure everything out for themselves. The model is for leaders to assist.
Elana: Companies still seem to be very invested in classroom-style learning (both online and offline) rather than in facilitating collaboration. How do they need to change?Pontefract: Companies need to blend that learning model into the corporate culture. Often, marketing or IT is in charge of deciding what collaboration tools employees will use and showing people how to use them. Meanwhile, the learning function within HR is playing catch-up. But the learning function should be leading, or at least working in parallel with other functions.
Elana: What do you think about expanding the role of corporate learning to include the whole ecosystem of business partners, freelancers, and contractors?Pontefract: You have to make a judgment call as to what type of relationship you have with a particular contractor when you decide who should have access to your training programs and whatever informal or social learning opportunities people have internally. But in general, hiring fewer full-time employees and relying more on contractors or freelancers – which many companies are doing today – means that fewer people inside your company are learning the skills they need to accomplish the work.
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We are so proud to have had you at our event. Your talk was a big hit. It moved us. We can’t thank you enough.
Malin Björnell, Salesforce
Dan challenged us to have clarity of purpose, both as individuals and as an organization. He related inspiring stories drawing on his experience in business, technology and academia. As he said, ‘There is no ownership without belonging.’
Christian Pantel, D2L
Fantastic engaging talk for our global partner summit. Thank you so much, Dan!
Barb Kinnard, CEO Response Biomedical Corp
Dan not only brought his presentation to life with his charisma, but also content, style and presentation finesse. Our members were especially interested in his thought provoking and top of mind topic on the future of work and how we’re going to be leading the next generation of leaders.
Cheryl Goodwin, CPA
Dan is a conference organizer’s ideal speaker. Not only did he inspire and energize our group, but he also masterfully adapted his content so it resonated with the audience and our conference theme. As a bonus, Dan is able to nimbly navigate to adjust to a reduced time slot when other speakers went over time without sacrificing the impact of his session.
Director and General Counsel
Dan accomplished what we set out to do, which was not only to be inspirational, but also to leave everyone with tools and food for thought / self-reflection to improve their personal and professional lives.
Elana Varon of the SAP Center for Business Insight recently interviewed me with the topic and questions focusing on different approaches to corporate learning.
The full report, entitled Why Companies Should Invest in Revamping Corporate Learning -- with additional insights from Marcus Schwarz and Karie Willyerd of SAP -- is available at this link. I encourage you to download it. (it's free) My specific responses are below.
[clear-line]
Elana: Do employers have an obligation to train and develop their employees?
Pontefract: We consider it a responsibility of TELUS team members to participate in learning. There are a lot of tools we make available. But we’re really trying to take care of our people. It’s not the case that they have to go figure everything out for themselves. The model is for leaders to assist.
Elana: Companies still seem to be very invested in classroom-style learning (both online and offline) rather than in facilitating collaboration. How do they need to change?
Pontefract: Companies need to blend that learning model into the corporate culture. Often, marketing or IT is in charge of deciding what collaboration tools employees will use and showing people how to use them. Meanwhile, the learning function within HR is playing catch-up. But the learning function should be leading, or at least working in parallel with other functions.
Elana: What do you think about expanding the role of corporate learning to include the whole ecosystem of business partners, freelancers, and contractors?
Pontefract: You have to make a judgment call as to what type of relationship you have with a particular contractor when you decide who should have access to your training programs and whatever informal or social learning opportunities people have internally. But in general, hiring fewer full-time employees and relying more on contractors or freelancers – which many companies are doing today – means that fewer people inside your company are learning the skills they need to accomplish the work.
