Hi All, Got a wee ‘change’ challenge that I’d like to engage the community with- My organisation are currently in the process of deploying a new ERP system, which will impact heavily on peoples ways of working. They will need to learn how to use the system and in some cases may have to learn additional skills/knowledge as their role(s) may change somewhat.
As the L&D guy on project, my main focus is currently on the ‘End User training’ of the system. I’ve done my research and spend some time weighing up how to land this, so it’s as effective as possible. There are plenty of things that come to mind from producing user guides, workshops, floor walking, resources, coaching etc.
Charles Jennings recommends a three-tier approach for system and process roll-outs and upgrades:http://charles-jennings.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/who-needs-training-again.html
1. For change management and high-level ‘conceptual’ understanding of the new environment (the pieces of the puzzle that people need to memorise) such as ‘how will the new system/process help the organisation/team achieve its objectives?’ – use formal training/communication approaches such as classroom, eLearning, corporate comms. channels, newsletter/updates, brown bag lunches etc. etc.
2. For contextual understanding (the pieces of the puzzle with which people need to familiarise themselves) such as ‘what does the new system/process mean for me in my role?’ and ‘what are the major changes that I need to be aware of?’ – use short manager-led briefings, small manager and L&D-led seminars/workshops.
3. For task-based understanding (the pieces of the puzzle for which people need to have easy access at the point-of-need) such as ‘what do I do next?’, or ‘something’s gone wrong, what options do I have?’ – use one of the many performance support approaches.
For me, there is no way you can rely on workshops, 50-page manuals or ‘super-users’ to guarantee successful user adoption, so I’m strongly considering Charles last point!
Now I’m a big fan of performance support and there are some great providers out there (Ontutive, SupportPoint etc) offering Electronic Performance Support System (EPSS) solutions that give the end user in-context moment of need learning, which would be highly useful for someone learning how to use a complex new system. That said, these solutions are often a big investment!
I know that some organisations take another route and use a platform like DPG Community (Jive, Yammer etc) to host their resources/documents, whether that be checklists, user guides or screencasts. At the moment my company doesn’t have a intranet, LMS or any sort of knowledge management platform, so this is also an option. Even though I know social enterprise platforms offer so much more than document storage, it still involves the user having to hunt for what they need to solve their system problem.
So I’m considering my options!
Hope that’s all made sense and really welcome any advice you guys have!
Adam
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