APS Blog

When work suddenly becomes remote, what happens to learning?

Wed, 20 May 2020 12:00:00 Z

The last 6 weeks have seen some pretty seismic shifts in the world of work.

Large parts of the workforce have been uprooted from office environments and are now suddenly forced to adapt to working from home, sometimes in less than ideal conditions.

How has L&D responded? What opportunities are there to continue and to adapt to this new world? I have heard multiple times that this is the moment for leaders to lead and make their mark. But how? What support are they being offered? What exists to help engage them and rapidly develop the skills they may use to not just cope but the thrive?

Elizabeth Howlett has published a couple of recent articles in People Management on how to manage remotely. Interesting reading. Underperforming employees and Learning and Development are two areas of focus.

My question is how much focus is there presently on supporting managers and leaders during this highly important time? How will their behaviour, focus and engagement of others help to increase productivity, keep those around them motivated and maximise the impact this can have for the organisation. Most organisations have a limited capability to deliver effective online development. Of course, we all use Zoom, WebEx and other tools to communicate, but how much is learning-focused? And of that, how much is skills-focused rather than knowledge itself? There is some excellent content out there, however, much is passive and knowledge-based as opposed to having to apply a skill in real-time with real people. Effective leaders must make good decisions quickly, often based on limited information. They must serve as a rallying force that keeps employees on track and be able to have the conversations necessary to engage those around them. Organisations with the strongest leaders are the ones that will survive and thrive.

Harvard Business Review suggests that leaders need to receive feedback, engage in self-observation and practice self-management as part of the development process. Knowing what feedback is needed is critical. Who is observing is also massively important and how and when to practice needs thought and consideration.

Imagine a world where individuals could have a specific development programme that was designed for them. Coaching, individual activities and exercises designed to develop and practice specific skills, feedback and the chance to watch back. What about a small cluster of managers, four or five perhaps, but not enough to make up the normal size of a cohort that would warrant a programme? Maybe even a larger number of managers but with a specific issue and skill to practice in order to consistently execute a particular approach. Challenging…Yes. Impossible…No. Already available.

The ability to effectively blend all these approaches is the key to getting the maximum value from any learning intervention. Of course, there will always be areas that we would prefer to do face to face and perhaps should do face to face. With planning and consideration, most can be adapted to still be engaging and supportive.

With travel retracted and organisations seeing how well many have adapted, the question is likely to be ‘do we need to travel?’ and of course with the economic impact organisations will be looking for cost savings.

We have had some interesting conversations with clients and already piloting programmes with live, virtual skills learning with both groups and individuals focused on a series of short 30-45 minute exercises, aimed at developing specific skills to enhance manager effectiveness.

What support is there to ensure manager and leader success at this critical moment? Virtual development isn’t the future, it is now and with 2020 looking like a pretty tough economic year virtual needs to finds its place and make its mark.

Preparing Leaders For The New World Order: Developing skills in a virtual environment

Tue, 19 May 2020 12:00:00 Z

Advanced People Strategies launch their on-line Skills Development System to enable organisations to assess and develop critical leadership skills.

Going beyond knowledge-focused learning, the system enables leaders to participate in challenging, interactive scenarios in a safe environment to accelerate their performance.

Chris Humphreys, APS Managing Director commented,

“Elite sports and military personnel regularly invest time and energy to practise the skills they need to outperform their competition and give them an edge. At a time, when leaders face unprecedented challenges, we are pleased to bring the latest technology to help overcome barriers that are preventing leaders and their teams from honing their skills for the future”.

APS’s latest virtual Skills Development System (vSDS) technology allows HR/L&D sponsors to choose business situations appropriate to the audience. Practising with real business challenges such as restructuring, downsizing, dealing with challenging people and driving change and receiving appropriate feedback from a professional to accelerate learning. Next-generation virtual master-class programmes and coaching will be added this summer, providing a unique blended learning offer.

The current environment has challenged Learning and Development professionals to innovate and the vSDS offers the following advantages from the usual approaches organisations take:

Fast deployment – there is no need to wait for cohort numbers or availability
Involvement and benchmarking across borders
No travel and accommodation costs vs traditional classroom
Targeted support for HR Business Partners
30-60 minute, focused learning events with minimal business disruption
Customised case studies to stretch leaders’ ability and understanding
Automatically recorded exercises for future review
Easily blended with other development interventions, psychometrics or reporting

APS are UK distributors for Hogan Assessment Systems, providers of world-class psychometric assessments used by over two-thirds of the Fortune 500 companies. The virtual Skills Development System allows users to validate insights from their Hogan Assessments against observable behaviour and hone their skills in a safe environment.

With over 20 years of experience helping organisations implement people development strategies, APS has become established as a trusted partner with their clients. Drawing on world-class psychometric assessments and partnering with highly respected academic leaders, APS create and implement talent management solutions built on scientific principles.

Hogan Assessments Virtual Certification

Fri, 15 May 2020 12:00:00 Z

Hogan Assessment Certification Workshops are now offered Virtually.

In the wake of the pandemic, the team at APS quickly transitioned its previously face to face workshops to the virtual platform.

A Global First

Authorised distributor APS was the first to run a Virtual Hogan Certification Workshop, and the feedback from participants has been 'excellent'. Here are some of the responses APS has received via post-workshop surveys:

"The webinar worked well, with lots of engagement and sharing. What I preferred was the clarity around the 3 assessments and how they are inter-connected."

"Great content, really accessible doing it online, delivered well on it's objectives, good to have real opportunity to practice, excellent materials."

"That it was intellectually stimulating and being able to do this from home was actually really wonderful."

Each virtual UK-based Hogan workshop will be delivered over 2-days, starting at 9.30 am both days. The cost to attend the UK Hogan Certification is £1995+VAT.

The Hogan Certification workshop is required for use of the Hogan Assessment suite.

This course teaches professionals to interpret and apply Hogan’s three core personality-based assessments:

Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI): measures the “bright side” of personality; strengths that facilitate successful performance
Hogan Development Survey (HDS): measures the “dark side” of personality; potential career derailers that impede performance
Motives, Values, Preferences Inventory (MVPI): measures the “inside” of personality; values and drivers that powerfully influence organizational fit and leadership style

Participants who successfully complete the workshop will be certified to use and interpret the Hogan inventories. Insights acquired during this intensive workshop will challenge and change the way you think about human nature, leadership and performance.

Click here to book the Official UK Hogan Certification Workshop