Sally*, a client of ours in previous roles, is now Director of L&D in the Oil & Gas industry. We touch base about once a quarter, looking for opportunities to partner again.
The organization has grown like crazy, despite being only a few years old. Late last year, their leaders identified employee development as an opportunity for them. They began investing in learning by bringing in a consulting firm to make recommendations. That firm largely validated what the L&D professionals had been hearing. The next step was to connect those ideas to a talent philosophy and learning strategy, so they hired Sally and a few others.
Over the next few months, Sally and her team conducted needs assessments, sent out surveys and studied the learning objectives defined by the consulting firm. The team came up with a list of 5 priorities to tackle:
1. Leadership Development (current leaders)
2. Succession Planning
3. New Leader Development (new hire and new supervisor)
4. Onboarding
5. Performance Management
Naturally, since naming those priorities, conversations with Sally have been more solution-specific. Our discussions center around how important experiential learning and simulations are for the retention of information and application of the learning to their jobs. We’ve also discussed the importance of cultural onboarding as well as nuts-and-bolts orientation.
I’m confident it’s only a matter of time until we partner with Sally again, with leadership development and onboarding being central to our expertise.
*Name changed
