Achievement Unlocked: Reduced Time to Productivity

 

Cracking the productivity issue has been a pretty long-term challenge for a lot of our clients. Large product portfolio, high attrition in the industry, complex regulatory procedures – the trials are varied and manifold. The regular complaint has been that longer time to productivity usually always means lesser time at peak productivity resulting is hindered business growth.

Thus, the basic and foremost requirement of any organization is to achieve shorter TTP and here are 5 steps to do the same. All you need is the right LMS.

Step 1: Pre-joining Engagement

The idea is to identify the skills and abilities of each individual right at the time of joining so there is no wastage of time and effort. The information can be captured on the LMS which can then deploy trainings according to the levels at which the employee currently is. A pre-joining training kit which may contain information about the organization, leadership, payroll etc also helps the employees settle down faster with the company with a sense of belonging.

Step 2: Creating Personalized Learning Path

With information gathered and basic training deployed in the previous step, an effective LMS can then assign automated training to a new hire to bring them at par with others in their batch or even move someone to advanced batches if they are ahead of the others. Keeping in mind the different skill levels, talents and learning styles, a good learning management system can create a learning path for individuals based on multiple factors and help them to find what they are good at and truly enjoy doing. This in-turn helps them achieve peak performance faster.

Step 3: Create Immersive Learning Experience

In-depth understanding of the product can be easily delivered through interactive media via an LMS. Trainees can be offered life-like simulations for scenarios, understanding of product combinations and with inputs from sales teams for real questions asked by customers. What they get is an immersive experience and are more confident to achieve peak performance faster.

Small learning nuggets can be sent to the employees at regular intervals, automated through the LMS. This ensures continued and reinforced learning which reduces knowledge loss and creates better customer experience.

Step 4: Segregate Experience Employees from new ones

Segregation of training programs and content based on who the audience is effectively reduces time lost in futile training or retraining. An LMS is again key to this step to achieve desired results. For example, the same product needs to have two deliveries. For basic level folks who need more detailed explanations and an advanced level for whom it can be a quick upskill intervention. As your LMS already has the learning data of each individual, it can help you identify the right kind of training required for a particular individual who is at a particular level of understanding or experience. 

Step 5: Make Learning an Agile Process

A company that has a tradition of agility will always find it easier to handle bumps in the road. Like most things, training processes and systems also experience fatigue and become outdated very quickly. Companies need to invest in an LMS that are built to handle and respond to update needs in an intelligent way. A good LMS will allow deployment of changes, alerts to roles who need to learn or get certified, and also give leadership visibility to the status of certifications, especially those that fall under the compliance umbrella.

Knowledge is very liquid and relative, especially as the typical time in a role gets impacted by attrition, role change or promotions. Leaders need to be able to get more time per resource at peak productivity and the right LMS can be an ideal partner to help organizations achieve their Time to Productivity goals.

At GCube, we have 20 years of experience and 80+ industry awards in learning technologies. To know more about products and services, please do write to us. 

Walking the Gemba Walk and Talking the Gemba Talk

 The discussion started with increasing dealership employee efficiency. As a LMS provider our go-to solution was the OJE feature of our LMS that has proved to be quite effective in managing the said issue, but our auto industry client had a story. They were apparently using the traditional Japanese method of GEMBA walk for their operations team and that got us thinking about how this could be customized for training and process evaluation at dealerships.

Let’s get the obvious questions out of the way.

WHAT IS GEMBA?

Gemba is Japanese for “the real place”. Gemba walks, are an integral part of Lean Management Philosophy.

WHY GEMBA WALK?

Gemba is a real opportunity for your team members and you, to shake up the daily routine, see where the real work happens and build meaningful relationships with workers based on mutual trust.

This beautiful, people-centric working method that is demonstrated in the Gemba walks process required a little customization to be used optimally for dealership servicing department and here’s how it was done.

Designing the Gemba Walk Process – To conduct an effective Gemba walk, it is critical that the managers or supervisors understand the purpose, process, and expected outcome before they start. So, a predefined process, prerequisites, and steps need to be available for them to study and implement which were made available on the LMS for the expectation setting of the workforce.

Adequate Training with Simulations – Using the LMS to train the managers and leaders on Gemba mechanism and objectives through simulations proves to be an advantage. To ensure that the objective of Gemba is not derailed, certain soft skills need to be reiterated at regular intervals through the LMS.

Provision for Process Improvement Submissions – Gemba is an inclusive process which requires all stakeholders to be able to contribute to the betterment of processes. Therefore, the LMS should also be used to roll out a training for basic understanding and purpose of Gemba for all employees. The LMS here plays a very important role by allowing the workers contribute process improvement ideas, which should be reviewed by leaders before starting a Gemba walk.

Idea Validation – All ideas for improvement must be validated, but in a controlled environment. This allows for measurement of results of implemented changes, which can then be reviewed on the LMS before a mass change is implemented in the process.

Training on New Process – Once an improvement is implemented, the new process needs to be explained and the floor must be trained on the changes to the process along with the ‘why’ behind it. Here your trusted LMS becomes a crucial tool. With mechanisms to track all the impacted roles, training roll out and completion status in one dashboard, the LMS supports the end-to-end lifecycle of a Gemba walk.

Toyota has successfully implemented Gemba on their shop floors with leaders who have imbibed the concept into their leadership style. Award-winning Professor of Lean Leadership, Jeffrey Liker, talks about his experiences while writing his book ‘The Toyota Way’. He mentions how George Yamashina, the President of the Toyota Technical Center, wandered everywhere, observed work, asked questions but never gave any advice. Instead, he would identify gaps that needed to be plugged and would send his observations and suggestions to managers without making it a direct order. Toyota has used Gemba to the point that at every level of management, from supervisor to senior leadership, is doing Gemba walks from their perspective, and doing it in a prepared approach, with structured outcomes in mind.

At GCube, we have 20 years of experience and 80+ industry awards in learning technologies. To know more about products and services, please do write to us. 

Cloud-based LMS

Utilizing Cloud-based LMS that Suits Your Corporate Learning Needs

Are you looking for a modern learning management system for your organization, then think of whether to use LMS on the network or deploy a cloud-based LMS? The cloud-based learning management systems are web-hosted training platforms which effectively deliver, track, and report different learning activities. When it comes to corporate workforce training, cloud-based learning systems serve as a viable solution.

Several benefits of using a cloud learning management system include the following:

• Reduced costs

Modern LMSs which are cloud-based do not require separate installation, thereby mitigating overall expenses. These serve as an ideal choice for small and medium-sized enterprises which want to invest for particular LMS features, rather than a complete package.

• Responsive design

The ease to access an LMS is not merely a nice-to-have feature, but an essential need to deliver an engaging experience. Therefore, organizations deploy responsive cloud LMS to deliver learning anytime and anywhere across personalized mobile devices. Consequently, the platform imparts a seamless user experience by aligning the right kind of training content to pertinent business goals. The convenience of modern LMSs supports learning on the go, thereby boosting engagement, knowledge retention, and overall ROIs.

• Improved scalability

Workplace training aims to bridge skills-gaps and enhance the performance of globally dispersed employees. But, this may result in inconsistent training delivery because not every employee gets access to the same training courses and assessments. Therefore, organizations utilize cloud LMS, which is scalable enough to deliver the same training material to employees located at remote locations. The flexibility to learn anytime and from anywhere motivates learners to enhance skills competency, business productivity, and overall training impact.

• Less maintenance

Organizations rely on Information Technology (IT) department to handle the functionality of online training platforms. But, this affects business productivity when the system involves long hours of troubleshooting. Cloud-based learning solutions enable the workforce to access relevant training courses at the point of need. Cloud LMS automatically uploads, delivers, updates, and tracks training content, without involving maintenance from the IT teams.

High scalability, increased ROIs, responsive-design, and reduced costs are some of the significant aspects of an organization to improve retention, drive performance, and attain competitive success. Undoubtedly, cloud-based LMS systems are adequate for the workforce as they can learn at their own pace of time and convenience. While administrators can upload new e-courses, set personalized learning paths, and analyze employee performance to drive measurable results. Technological innovation is the new way to achieve success, and therefore, traditional LMSs are replaced with cloud-based LMSs to meet the evolving learning needs of all.