Last week I had the privilege of attending Harvard Business Publishing’s Partner Meeting in Boston.   The meeting represented over 100 of their clients from top companies around the world.  As I listened to the speakers and conversations over the two-day session, a number of key themes emerged.

Cost-cutting
Clearly, there remains a primary focus on leadership development.   More than ever, companies recognize that it is their leaders that will enable them to endure through such difficult economic times.  With pressures to cut costs (even GE has cut their budget by 10%) companies are re-evaluating their programs and the people that they are sending through them.  Instead of sending 100 leaders through a first level leadership program, companies are hand selecting a smaller number of their highest performers and investing in those who have been deemed their “future leaders.”

Virtual and On-demand
Continuing with that theme of cost-cutting is the need to cut and even eliminate travel.   Companies are looking for highly sophisticated, engaging online programs that are easily accessible and target specific problem areas.  For a long time, online training was perceived as not effective for leadership development.  However, companies like HBP are dispelling this belief and compelling organizations to rethink the value of good online learning.  By using content from well-renowned professors and thought leaders, and then coupling that with social networking and top-notch virtual facilitation, HBP has created a product that its customers really like.

Customization and Integration
A clear message at this meeting was that cost-cutting does not equal less customization.  As a matter of fact, companies, more so, want to make sure that programs are heavily aligned to their business needs.  Organizations would rather conduct two highly customized programs that will have an impact on their leaders and on the business instead of five off-the-shelf generic programs that may touch more leaders but have little relevancy to their business.

Further, companies want their solution provider partners to do a better job of integrating its content with the client’s existing content and programs.  Instead of the programs being separate, companies want them to feel like they are part of their larger leadership development strategy.

Employee Engagement
Keynote speaker, Sylvia Ann Hewlett, spoke about keeping performance up when business is down.  A few years ago, there was what she calls “extreme jobs in good times.” People worked 60 hours per week, had lots of travel, 24/7 access, and a large scope of work.  Most people didn’t mind this and even loved their jobs.  Today we are coping with these same extreme jobs but in bad times.  This is disengaging.  Loyalty and trust is down; stress and anxiety is up; and flight risk has increased 25%.  Further, companies are looking for the best talent.  As a result, the highest performers have the most options and won’t settle for working under negative conditions.  They will leave the company for “greener pastures.”

To address engagement, there are a number of things that a company can do, according to Hewlett.  Among them are:

• Keep lines of communications open
• Offer meaningful non-monetary rewards
• Develop a fair restructuring process
• Recreate pride, purpose and direction

Career Development
Blame it on the economy or blame it on Generation Y, it doesn’t matter - career development is on the tops of minds of employees.  Employees are looking to develop themselves in the context of their individual career demands.  Therefore, programs have to be designed in a way that employees can build the skill sets for successive positions.  Prudential designed a website around two career tracks – a management track and a leadership track.   The management track addresses the needs of newer managers, while the leadership track targets senior level managers and executives.

Figure 1: Prudential Career Tracks

The learning tracks are segmented by employee levels and offer learning opportunities via a number of different mediums.  They are coded with easy to understand terms such as reading, listening, and watching.  Also, learning assets are aligned to specific and current workplace challenges.

I just recently completed a research report on career development, which is due for publication in early July.  Is career development an area that your company is focused on today?  What are you doing to maintain engagement and trust of your employees in this economic crisis?  How has the economy shifted your learning strategy?  If you would like to share what you are doing in any of these areas, feel free to send me an email at kim.lamoureux@bersin.com.  I’d love to hear about it.