Elearning! August - September

2013

Elearning! Magazine: Building Smarter Companies via Learning & Workplace Technologies.

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Learning!100 National Archives & Records Administration: Development Transformation FOCUSES ON COMPETENCIES NEEDED TODAY, TO ADVANCE CAREERS TOMORROW Over the past four years, the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has undergone the most signifcant transformation in its 75-year history. It comes in the areas of learning and training, and resulted in the organization being named to the Learning! 100. NARA rolled out a fully automated Electronic Individual Development Plan (E-IDP), which is an end-to-end workforce development capability. Leveraging existing investments in technology, NARA's Learning and Development Division (HL) designed and developed the E-IDP with the input of more than 400 stafers. It was launched in February to provide executives, managers, supervisors and staf with roundthe-clock, anywhere, single-pointaccess to NARA's competency models, competency gap, analysis, training and development needs assessment, and resource repository (including experiential activities, VILT, ILT, e-learning, e-books, and other content that's dynamically linked together). When Mike Fitzgerald was hired as HR Development Specialist in 2007, "the frst thing I wanted to do was a new employee viewpoint survey. So we conducted 65 focus groups across the agency that involved about 1,000 employees. We found that it was necessary to integrate e-learning, web-based training and distance learning and standardizing just-in-time training . It had to be one we could push out to our geographically dispersed locations." Fitzgerald assembled a cross-section 28 August / September 2013 Elearning! team of senior managers to line-level workers, plus stakeholders and specialists. In designing the learning development architecture, the team defned touchpoints for value and levers that translate into customer value to deliver better, faster, more efcient service. Te architecture included competency management and ways to map it. 'Data from across the whole agency, by occupation, by competency…is powerful information to go to the table with.' —Mike Fitzgerald "I also wanted to use existing technology and resources already in place without having to ask for additional funding," Fitzgerald notes. "Tat meant leveraging the existing LMS, which was purchased in 2006." Te key to the agency's new E-IDP is that it digs deeper into existing competencies rather than primarily looking ahead. It is an attempt to help employees understand the "why" and "how" rather than just the "what" of training. "Te old form was a wish list, and that was the problem with individual development plans across the entire government," observes Fitzgerald. "I looked at making it more like paint-by-numbers where each employee and the supervisor have a more balanced approach to their skills and competencies. Today, everything is dynamically linked or embedded in the new form that takes the employee to all the competency models for all the positions that have been created in NARA at any specifed level. You're defning the competencies that need to be enhanced or developed rather than the goal — which helps shape the conversation between employee and supervisor on the here-and-now frst." Te next feld in the two-page form is a repository of resources that are mapped to each of the competencies at each level. So essentially the employee lists his or her needs, and the system reveals competency gaps and developmental priorities. It walks the employee through that process to create a plan. "It's a powerful tool," Fitzgerald says, "exactly the approach that could be leveraged on a government-wide basis." Implementation, conducted in three phases, has been more successful than Fitzgerald ever imagined. "I've got another version behind the scenes that I'm already updating for next August," Fitzgerald notes. "Te evaluation is going to run on a fscal year basis, since we'll also use it to identify trends." Tat's another beneft: giving the learning division enterprise visibility. "We have data from across the whole agency, at every level, by occupation, by competency, to help management make better decisions," he adds. "Tat's powerful information to go to the table with." NARA's E-IDP is what e-government is all about: reducing redundancies and spending, and leveraging investments. "And it's not hard-coded," Fitzgerald concludes. "If Mike Fitzgerald can build this thing, anybody can. It's very fexible, can be updated on the fy and not proprietary." AREA OF CULTURE EXCELLENCE

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