Your bosses finally faced the fact that the organization needs a learning portal, and now you have the green light. Success is not optional, so be sure your new learning portal includes:
- One-stop shop for all programs and related information needs
- Variety of resources and formats
- Single, yet universal point of access
- Network of courses, performance support content and learning contacts
- Enhanced experience for users
“That’s exactly what we had in mind when we planned our integrated learning site for all Xerox people – employees and partners,” says Ron Cowan, manager, Global Learning@Xerox. “We knew we needed a learning portal.”
A portal elevates an organization’s training to a new level: learning.
A culture of learning produces high performance that is geared to business results. In this environment, a learning portal must be high performance too. It’s a massive undertaking, but you will be well-served with these five essential building blocks.
Consider this your best practices To Do list:
Aggregate: Connect the pieces of your organization’s learning resources into a master global network. Set up the home page as the gateway to all learning assets across your company. Populate the users’ point of entry with appealing and helpful section heads to keep them coming back for more. Refresh frequently.
Simplify: Easy does it. Ensure users can get to their learning options with a minimum of effort. Put learning at their fingertips – quick clicks. Promote convenience for users to visit at the times they wish. A learning portal never closes: visit 24/7, 365 days a year. Provide access through many devices. Right-size and compress the content.
Personalize: Deliver meaningful information directly to the users’ homepages. Using HR data, make it easy for them to drive their own “My Learning” according to their needs, such as required and recommended courses, their learning history and next moves. Arrange for functional and regional business groups to populate their learners’ portal views with targeted content, including articles, videos, blogs, and other offerings keyed to their employees’ jobs and interests.
Globalize, Yet Localize: Offer learning in multiple languages. Grow the menu of languages according to geography and preferences. Ensure the gateway pages reflect the variations in languages, and the nuances of culture and traditions.
Socialize: Allow employees to connect, collaborate and learn from one another. Design an interactive forum and community. Enable peers, both locally and globally, to share recommendations and comments. Facilitate user-generated knowledge, success stories, and best practices via text and video, as well as polls and other postings.
“A learning portal is always a work-in-progress,” notes Ron. With that said: These five pillars lay the groundwork for this venue to be in step with your changing and expanding needs.
By Sherry M. Adler, Xerox contributor