The Next Generation of eLearning
an Answer the Insurance Industry has been looking for
Didn't know there was a question
Anybody who has had the responsibility of staff development understands the difficulty of that task. The larger the staff and more diverse their backgrounds, the less likely any developmental program fits anyone very well.
Background
Most departments within insurance carriers, brokerage firms or agencies are proficient at training and educating people in their own operation, at the lowest levels, function-by-function. The daily procedures, operating principles and specific functional tasks are either written down or effective on-the-job training is easily picked-up.
As you move up the organizational hierarchy, past the basic processing and administrative roles, the difficulty of staff development significantly increases. Here, professional associations and accrediting bodies (actuarial, underwriting, claims, loss control) kick-in and offer specific courses and certifications that provide not only professional development but also useful measuring tools for acquired expertise.
The closer the area is to a line operation - versus a staff area - the easier it is to set up effective on-the-job training programs specific to the professional specialties. For the people that remain in a single function, the progression from clerk to analyst, or to supervisor and then to manager really seems to be an acceptable path........ but is it?
If an organization is going to grow and prosper, that is not good enough. The brighter and more ambitious people must be given opportunities to expand their expertise beyond the scope of their functional area. They need to further their knowledge beyond their own organizational unit. Look more closely. You will find that most people don't understand how the business organization operates outside of their own area. Or worse yet, they really don't understand exactly where their area fits into the big picture.
As you move up the organizational hierarchy, there is a growing need for middle management whose responsibilities span multiple basic insurance functions. That only intensifies at the more senior levels.
Add the fact that many organizations bring in 'new blood' from outside of the industry to fill vital managerial roles. Now you have an even more diverse population - with middle management personnel, or even senior management levels that need to have access to professional development opportunities. Those applications are the hardest to even define, much less deliver.
Interesting, but how does that fit into my real world environment?
Put yourself in any of the following roles: - the senior executive responsible for one (or more) of the general staff or support functions for the entire corporation (general services, budgeting, corporate planning)
- the executive in-charge of the risk control / loss control function
- the executive responsible for account service teams (the company staff that interfaces with policyholders and clients)
- the executive in-charge of underwriting small, medium and/or large accounts
- a B or C level manager with a couple of hundred people under your command
- the senior executive in human resources in charge of learning and development, etc.
At first, you might not see the similarities of these responsibilities. However, the successful execution of each of these roles requires a very broad scope and a long term staff development plan. These are the positions whose staffs run into the most diverse situations during the course of daily operations. The smarter those staffs are; the more productive either the operation is - or the better service they provide the policyholder or client.
Can there be success without effective staff development? Yes - because many other factors are involved, in particular - the ingenuity of these executives. But, a more highly developed staff increases the likelihood of cross-fertilization and collaboration for mutual success.
If the goal is staff development, how best do you go about accomplishing it?
First, let's look at the four major historical problems with learning and development execution in the real world. - High out of pocket costs (course or seminar costs, travel, lodging, per diem)
- Removes people from their daily responsibilities
- Timing of most training and developmental activities does not coincide with what they are currently working on; and by the time that topic comes up, much of the training is forgotten
- Minimal knowledge transfer. Formal training, individual by individual makes transference of knowledge to colleagues very difficult
While it would be easy to enumerate these four bugaboos of learning and development or provide anecdotal examples, these are the issues that have always plagued any staff development efforts. None of these are new. There are many partial solutions to address any one of the the 'Big Four' - and some that partially address more than one at a time. But until now, none of these partial solutions handled the 'Big Four' very well at all.
Although there will still be a need for certified, formal programs, the proper application of eLearning technology lessens the costs and addresses the time away from the workplace.
For the continuing education of the functional programs and general staff development for insurance industry staff, including executives, technology now has the answer. This answer addresses each of the 'Big Four' head on - and, can actually go much further in many environments. - Not only drastically reduces out of pocket costs, but can actually result in a net savings (through increased revenues and savings from the cost reduction in operations).
- People not only stay on the job - they become more productive. Learning and development takes place under the complete control of the participant, or in some cases directed and controlled by management.
- It is always relevant to current operations - not only improving current operations but also increasing the probability of knowledge retention.
- Office teams, or cross-functional support teams, can have access to the same material at the same time, supporting real-time knowledge transference.
The Solution
One of the best new generation technologies for eLearning is contained in the various implementations of one or more of Libraries and Directories Inc's (LAD) seven niche online libraries. While all seven contain risk management and safety categories and resources, the rmLibrary.com and TheSafetyLibrary.com are the primary references for insurance carriers, brokerages and agencies.
Each internet library consists of thousands of resources, indexed five different ways: - Main library categorization structure ( each library has its own categorization scheme and do to the subject matter there is a good deal of overlap between those two libraries )
- Special Resources ( resources cut across all categories by type of resource (checklists, laws and regulations, manuals, tool box talks, etc.)
- Professional Guides (organized walk-through for different professions )
- Hot Topics (a cross-section of the main categories centered on a specific topic area)
- What's New (identification of the additions and updates to the libraries in the last 30 and 60 day periods )
The Libraries act as reference tools, providing quick access to thousands of categories and tens of thousands of resources - from white papers and statistics to laws and regs to templates and forms. Whether working on a project, addressing a policyholder's inquiry, or working on specific continuing education studies, the libraries provide a one-stop shopping reference that is open 24x7, as long as you have access to the internet.
The basic libraries have been used by major insurance carriers, brokerage firms,agencies, consulting firms and corporations of all sizes since October, 1996, when the rmis.com resource library first debuted on the internet.
If management wants to lay out a specific learning track, they can use our gateway to act as a communication board to its groups members.
If there are multiple groups, each with their own priorities and agendas, each group can be set-up with its own gateway.
The LAD Gateways can be thought of as business communication and application tools that are customized for any need.
There are many ways to customize your learning center to fit your particular requirement: - create gateways to provide syllabuses for different groups
- add an activity monitoring utility to your learning centers so that you can verify that staff is performing the continuing education activities as planned
- incorporate quizzes into the continuing education efforts
- provide discussions forums so that staff can collaborate on ideas, ask questions or work on specific projects together
- incorporate some of your company's own resources into the libraries thus providing the perfect consolidation reference source
Summary
The proper use of technology comes as close to allowing you to "have your cake and eat it too" as it can get. - reduced costs
- increased productivity
- 'just in time' learning and execution
- group collaboration as needed and desired
- applies to individuals, groups or even projects
- works for all levels from beginner to senior executive, each selecting the area and level that applies to them
- accessible 24x7 from work, home or on-the-road (or a client's site)
- range of implementation from totally an informal learning environment to a programmed education and training tool
Didn't know there was a question
Anybody who has had the responsibility of staff development understands the difficulty of that task. The larger the staff and more diverse their backgrounds, the less likely any developmental program fits anyone very well.
Background
Most departments within insurance carriers, brokerage firms or agencies are proficient at training and educating people in their own operation, at the lowest levels, function-by-function. The daily procedures, operating principles and specific functional tasks are either written down or effective on-the-job training is easily picked-up.
As you move up the organizational hierarchy, past the basic processing and administrative roles, the difficulty of staff development significantly increases. Here, professional associations and accrediting bodies (actuarial, underwriting, claims, loss control) kick-in and offer specific courses and certifications that provide not only professional development but also useful measuring tools for acquired expertise.
The closer the area is to a line operation - versus a staff area - the easier it is to set up effective on-the-job training programs specific to the professional specialties. For the people that remain in a single function, the progression from clerk to analyst, or to supervisor and then to manager really seems to be an acceptable path........ but is it?
If an organization is going to grow and prosper, that is not good enough. The brighter and more ambitious people must be given opportunities to expand their expertise beyond the scope of their functional area. They need to further their knowledge beyond their own organizational unit. Look more closely. You will find that most people don't understand how the business organization operates outside of their own area. Or worse yet, they really don't understand exactly where their area fits into the big picture.
As you move up the organizational hierarchy, there is a growing need for middle management whose responsibilities span multiple basic insurance functions. That only intensifies at the more senior levels.
Add the fact that many organizations bring in 'new blood' from outside of the industry to fill vital managerial roles. Now you have an even more diverse population - with middle management personnel, or even senior management levels that need to have access to professional development opportunities. Those applications are the hardest to even define, much less deliver.
Interesting, but how does that fit into my real world environment?
Put yourself in any of the following roles:
- the senior executive responsible for one (or more) of the general staff or support functions for the entire corporation (general services, budgeting, corporate planning)
- the executive in-charge of the risk control / loss control function
- the executive responsible for account service teams (the company staff that interfaces with policyholders and clients)
- the executive in-charge of underwriting small, medium and/or large accounts
- a B or C level manager with a couple of hundred people under your command
- the senior executive in human resources in charge of learning and development, etc.
At first, you might not see the similarities of these responsibilities. However, the successful execution of each of these roles requires a very broad scope and a long term staff development plan. These are the positions whose staffs run into the most diverse situations during the course of daily operations. The smarter those staffs are; the more productive either the operation is - or the better service they provide the policyholder or client.
Can there be success without effective staff development? Yes - because many other factors are involved, in particular - the ingenuity of these executives. But, a more highly developed staff increases the likelihood of cross-fertilization and collaboration for mutual success.
If the goal is staff development, how best do you go about accomplishing it?
First, let's look at the four major historical problems with learning and development execution in the real world.
- High out of pocket costs (course or seminar costs, travel, lodging, per diem)
- Removes people from their daily responsibilities
- Timing of most training and developmental activities does not coincide with what they are currently working on; and by the time that topic comes up, much of the training is forgotten
- Minimal knowledge transfer. Formal training, individual by individual makes transference of knowledge to colleagues very difficult
While it would be easy to enumerate these four bugaboos of learning and development or provide anecdotal examples, these are the issues that have always plagued any staff development efforts. None of these are new. There are many partial solutions to address any one of the the 'Big Four' - and some that partially address more than one at a time. But until now, none of these partial solutions handled the 'Big Four' very well at all.
Although there will still be a need for certified, formal programs, the proper application of eLearning technology lessens the costs and addresses the time away from the workplace.
For the continuing education of the functional programs and general staff development for insurance industry staff, including executives, technology now has the answer. This answer addresses each of the 'Big Four' head on - and, can actually go much further in many environments.
- Not only drastically reduces out of pocket costs, but can actually result in a net savings (through increased revenues and savings from the cost reduction in operations).
- People not only stay on the job - they become more productive. Learning and development takes place under the complete control of the participant, or in some cases directed and controlled by management.
- It is always relevant to current operations - not only improving current operations but also increasing the probability of knowledge retention.
- Office teams, or cross-functional support teams, can have access to the same material at the same time, supporting real-time knowledge transference.
The Solution
One of the best new generation technologies for eLearning is contained in the various implementations of one or more of Libraries and Directories Inc's (LAD) seven niche online libraries. While all seven contain risk management and safety categories and resources, the rmLibrary.com and TheSafetyLibrary.com are the primary references for insurance carriers, brokerages and agencies.
Each internet library consists of thousands of resources, indexed five different ways:
- Main library categorization structure ( each library has its own categorization scheme and do to the subject matter there is a good deal of overlap between those two libraries )
- Special Resources ( resources cut across all categories by type of resource (checklists, laws and regulations, manuals, tool box talks, etc.)
- Professional Guides (organized walk-through for different professions )
- Hot Topics (a cross-section of the main categories centered on a specific topic area)
- What's New (identification of the additions and updates to the libraries in the last 30 and 60 day periods )
The Libraries act as reference tools, providing quick access to thousands of categories and tens of thousands of resources - from white papers and statistics to laws and regs to templates and forms. Whether working on a project, addressing a policyholder's inquiry, or working on specific continuing education studies, the libraries provide a one-stop shopping reference that is open 24x7, as long as you have access to the internet.
The basic libraries have been used by major insurance carriers, brokerage firms,agencies, consulting firms and corporations of all sizes since October, 1996, when the rmis.com resource library first debuted on the internet.
If management wants to lay out a specific learning track, they can use our gateway to act as a communication board to its groups members.
If there are multiple groups, each with their own priorities and agendas, each group can be set-up with its own gateway.
The LAD Gateways can be thought of as business communication and application tools that are customized for any need.
There are many ways to customize your learning center to fit your particular requirement:
- create gateways to provide syllabuses for different groups
- add an activity monitoring utility to your learning centers so that you can verify that staff is performing the continuing education activities as planned
- incorporate quizzes into the continuing education efforts
- provide discussions forums so that staff can collaborate on ideas, ask questions or work on specific projects together
- incorporate some of your company's own resources into the libraries thus providing the perfect consolidation reference source
Summary
The proper use of technology comes as close to allowing you to "have your cake and eat it too" as it can get.
- reduced costs
- increased productivity
- 'just in time' learning and execution
- group collaboration as needed and desired
- applies to individuals, groups or even projects
- works for all levels from beginner to senior executive, each selecting the area and level that applies to them
- accessible 24x7 from work, home or on-the-road (or a client's site)
- range of implementation from totally an informal learning environment to a programmed education and training tool
Employee Management » Informal Learning
Human Resources » Informal Learning
Safety Training » Informal Learning