No Future without Education
Subject: Employees
Category: Project
From newspapers to e-journals, from window shopping to online shopping, from gravure to digital offset printing – the transformation to digital is changing everything and in the process calls many things into question. In particular, a shift in attitude regarding change and education is required. With the recent reorganization of Bertelsmann University, the company is making lifelong learning more accessible to all employees. A conversation with Chief Learning Officer Steven Moran, responsible for the Group’s learning strategy.
At Bertelsmann, education is spoken of in conjunction with "learning innovation." What exactly is meant by this: Learning to handle innovation? Or "innovation in learning"?
Steven P. Moran _ Both are good descriptions, actually. In a narrower sense, it’s about working with the employees to make our own transformation possible. To do this, we have to make the necessary changes that promote innovation and learn how to handle it. We want to enable – empower – each and every employee around the world to help shape the transformation of the company, our products and services, and our working environment. This is the starting point for education at Bertelsmann: We have to become even more proactive and creative when it comes to innovation, and integrate it into our business in a value-adding way. And for this we need skills. Already in the midterm, the skills we’re talking about will be very different from what they are today or tomorrow. Companies and their employees need to be more responsive and flexible. In short, Bertelsmann is striving to establish sustainable change in the company’s learning culture.
Why does the learning culture need to change now?
SPM _ Bertelsmann learned an early and painful lesson in how quickly entire industries change in the digital age. The catchphrase for such upheaval is "digital transformation." It is accompanied by changes in the world of work, a world that increasingly requires complex IT skills. But it also involves new products, whose design and production require specific skills. To give you an example: I was working at BMG when the transformation hit the music industry with full force. The music business changed fundamentally, and BMG had to radically adapt itself and its business model. The company moved away from the "traditional" music recording business and toward music rights management. Why? Because the market had fundamentally changed from the sale of physical products to ensuring that rights be administered as comprehensively as possible and monetized accordingly. Being part of shaping that transformation was a formative experience for me. And since then, I know that no one can ever legitimately claim to have "finished learning" – at any point in their life. And it isn’t just our employees who have to change their learning behavior and accept change. As a company, we also have to develop and provide appropriate – and innovative – learning opportunities that reflect the very individual needs of employees
What do you mean by innovative learning opportunities?
SPM _ Digitization is our challenge. But it’s also a big part of our solution. In these digital times, learning has become so much more flexible in terms of time and place.
An example?
SPM _ Let’s say I need to learn about a specific tool for Excel. I could book an Excel course scheduled for eight weeks from now. And on the third day of the course, just before the coffee break, the tool I’m interested in is covered, for say, half an hour. This is how training worked in the past: not particularly effective. Today, I can use an online tutorial tailored to my specific needs on Lynda.com. There are over 8,000 courses on the site – and the number is growing all the time. This is the kind of new learning platform I’m talking about, and it’s already available – for free – to more than 60,000 Bertelsmann employees worldwide. It’s a great new way of learning.
Why does Bertelsmann care so much about education and about training its employees?
SPM _ As a media company, Bertelsmann was caught in the digital transformation very early on. And we were able to draw conclusions from its effects much earlier than other companies. The transformation to digital requires a new attitude regarding both change and education, which are firmly interlinked. And to establish a new learning culture at Bertelsmann, the necessary impetus has to come from the center. And if we take education seriously, we can’t sit by and wait to see what happens. We have to be proactive.
How much of a priority are education-related topics for top management?
SPM _ Bertelsmann has always recognized education as an important factor in its success. Twenty-five years ago, we were one of the first German companies to launch a dual work/study program. And today, with the complete realignment of Bertelsmann University, we’ve created a central learning platform for employees and managers.
How has Bertelsmann University changed?
SPM _ Bertelsmann was a real pioneer in the area of "corporate universities." For nearly 20 years now, Bertelsmann University has been an important think tank for our Group. This underscores the fact that education is part of our company’s DNA. At the beginning of 2015, we sat down with a blank piece of paper and thought about how education needs to be organized at Bertelsmann in order to realize our aspiration to make "learning innovation" sustainable and active across the Group – for every employee, on every level. The "new" Bertelsmann University is set up in such a way as to include much of our already successful in-house training programming under a shared roof.
Could you describe the setup in more detail?
SPM _ The new Bertelsmann University is comprised of four "campuses": Individual, Function, Leadership and Strategy. Individual means that I have a specific need as an employee. For example, I want to use the Excel tool mentioned earlier. These course offerings are usually available digitally and video-based. The Function campus systematically advances the professional development of our employees in specific business functions: human resources, finance or IT, for example. The Leadership campus revolves around individual leadership skills, often using coaching. The Bertelsmann Employee Survey is integrated into this campus, as it primarily evaluates employees’ satisfaction with the management. Finally, the Strategy area handles the classic think-tank functions: identifying and communicating, as an organization, the competencies and capabilities that are our long-term strategy focus.
"Digital First!’ doesn’t mean ‘digital only’: If an educational offering works better in a physical world, it will not be randomly replaced with a digital one."
Steven Moran
So, will this new world of learning and education be entirely digital?
SPM _ Our orders are clear: "Digital First!" But that doesn’t mean "digital only." If an educational offering works better in a physical world, it will not be randomly replaced with a digital one. Take coaching – just as an example – or in other circumstances when personal interaction and reflection are called for. We’ve also seen that for learning groups – such as those at the online academy Udacity, in which Bertelsmann owns a stake – meeting offline at certain junctures in the learning process can be very useful. Younger employees, for instance, tend to manage the transition from online to offline and back very smoothly. For them, there is no longer any separation between the analog and digital worlds. Here they are far ahead of some of us more seasoned folks. Training at Bertelsmann is to be "more efficient, more effective and more flexible than ever before," thanks to digitization.
What are the main advantages of the new structure?
SPM _ It really is impressive just how quickly we can provide high-quality learning opportunities once we’ve identified a new need. This is in great contrast to the much more complex and lengthy process of organizing a seminar somewhere every time we have a new issue. You need a venue, a fixed date and locally available instructors – all of which have nothing to do with the actual learning.
What are the most sought-after vocational training topics among employees?
SPM _ Some of the most popular digital courses in the Group currently include such diverse topics as "Customer Service Fundamentals," "Learning to Be Assertive," "Outlook 2010: Effective Email Management" and "Time Management Fundamentals."
Who is allowed to use the services, and how often? Are the offers intended exclusively for professional development?
SPM _ The resources of Lynda.com can also be used privately. And here, the boundaries are blurred between professional and private life, for instance with language training. At the end of the day, a company always benefits when employees seek further training.
What role does the Bertelsmann "peoplenet" play in corporate training?
SPM _ All our additional educational offers are centralized and bundled on the Bertelsmann "peoplenet," our Group-wide HR IT platform. Employees can apply to their supervisor for authorization via "peoplenet" to use the desired measures and also book the courses directly.
What have you learned about education in the company in the last year?
SPM _ Education is fundamentally critical for the future success of Bertelsmann – fundamental in identifying and delivering the necessary skills and competencies for putting our business strategies into action. And other companies also need many of the solutions we’ve identified for our Group – we’re not the only ones who are confronted with substantial structural change. So, if we create products that support our flexibility and sustainability, they’ll probably help others as well. And of course, as a media company, Bertelsmann has excellent access to education-related topics and formats. So, it’s very exciting that this market has opened up for us – internally and externally. And we intend to be at the forefront of shaping its future.
Read more about education and other corporate responsibility topics in the magazine "24/7 Responsibility" .
