The sneaky elephant
Paul Matthews, founder and CEO of People Alchemy on an overlooked – yet potentially problematic – issue for L&D providers
everyone is aware of but ignoring for their own reasons. But what if there was a sneaky elephant? An elephant that few people are aware of, yet when it is pointed out to them, they see it. But even then, due to its nature, they still don’t see the danger it represents. In March 2017, Josh Bersin wrote: “Our newest research shows that the employees we surveyed rate the L&D department a -8 Net Promoter Score, which is extremely low.” The Net Promoter Score measures your customers’ likelihood to recommend your product or service to their colleagues. In other words, what would they say about you when you are not in the room?
W If your L&D department has a poor
brand or reputation, it will make it very difficult for you to be effective in what
hen we talk about an elephant in the room, we mean a topic that
A good brand will bring people to you but then you must serve them well
you do. You will struggle to create the kind of business impact you would like. When you go shopping, you factor in the brand or any recommendations. It’s no different when employees are customers of any service provided by the organisation internally. This evaluation is such a natural
part of how we decide whether to engage with someone or something that we don’t really notice we are doing it. That is one reason why the elephant is so sneaky! Another is that this elephant has been there all along and the problems
it causes are gradual enough that it doesn’t represent an immediate danger, and it doesn’t make it through the other things demanding our attention. What would the results be if you
got an external person to survey your organisation on what they think of L&D? What do they think you do? This will give you a starting point
to thinking about both your brand and your reputation – many people confuse these two. From an L&D perspective your
brand could be considered your visibility in the organisation in terms of the services you supply. Your reputation, however, is based on their experiences of working with you. You can have a great brand
presence in that everyone knows who you are and what you do. This doesn’t necessarily mean you are liked or trusted. You must work on both brand and
reputation in tandem. Improving your brand is a marketing exercise, whereas a great reputation comes from making sure the touchpoints with your customers are excellent experiences. A good brand will bring people to you, but then you must serve them well when they arrive. Together, brand and reputation
are the sneaky elephant. Do you have one lurking in your L&D room? What do you need to put into your L&D strategy to mandate attention? If you have not yet thought about
the brand and reputation of L&D, it’s high time you did. n
Paul Matthews will deliver his seminar “The fourth sneaky elephant” at 12:15 in Theatre 1 on Wednesday 16 October
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