Handling a new service

We are about to take on a new set of residential mental health services though a TUPE (Transfer of Undertakings). These services will provide 24 hour residential care support to people with mental health illness. The services were traditionally NHS services and they work differently from the way we do. We've been discussing how learning and development can support them so here are some steps we are thinking of taking:

• Firstly organise a meeting which involves the Learning and Development Manager, Learning and Development Advisor, Manager for the new services and Senior HR Business Partner.
• We identified what a superstar support worker will look like (who works according to our values) and what they should be able to do.
• We identified the skills and knowledge they will need to work as a super star support worker and what learning support they will need. We then decided how the learning will be delivered.
• Some of the ideas we thought of were: buddying with existing workers, the staff in the new services to visit existing services, complete an exploration trivia about the organisation, attend classroom training and complete e-learning courses.

This will be part of their induction planned over a six month period.

Just In Time Learning

In a decade where things change so fast and loads of new information is generated on a daily basis Just In Time learning in the workplace sounds reasonable. With the presence of internet and mobile technology, we will have to develop  new set of skills which enables us to learn while working. Some of the tools we can leverage for Just In Time learning are:

• Search engines such as Google where you can get information instantly.
• Content libraries that can be created to store crucial information that can be accessed easily. For example success stories (and those for when things didn't go well) and work processes can be collated for easy access and learning, meaning people can learn quick from experience.
• Wiki technologies that facilitate people to share knowledge.
• Use of question and answer sites such as Quora.
• Social networking sites which allow people of similar interests to learn from each other.
• Instant messaging apps such as WhatsApp that can be used to ask questions and get answers instantly.

There are much more tools than these but after reading an article by Bruce Tulgan posted in Training Magazine titled, Learning Just in Time, these are my thoughts. What do you think? Do you know of any other tools that can facilitate Just in Time learning?

Some considerations for becoming a valuable learning function

Make sure that whatever training or learning you deliver is critical to the organisation. To do this your training must be directed by business drivers. There are three main ones which are:

• Using learning to reduce risk
• Using learning to reduce costs or decrease wastage
• Using learning to increase revenue

Be in tune with the latest trends in learning principles and technology and how they can be applied to deliver effective learning in your organisation. Trends that you currently need to be mindful of are:

• Mobile learning which provides you with the opportunity to deliver learning in small and quick bits and also provide performance support useful during the workflow.
• Social learning which involves harnessing resources available online, sharing knowledge and collaborative problem solving.
• Learning as a lifelong process for both the organisation and individuals. This is about promoting a learning culture in the organisation.

Run the learning function like its your own business. If the learning function was your personal business how would you run it? You might need to do a SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, Threat) analysis on what you are doing to identify what is working well and areas where you may need to improve.
Promote learning as a strategic resource that supports the organisation to achieve its goals. Make sure you are clear about the ROI (Return On Investment) that learning brings to the business and raise your visibility by continually communicating about the value that learning is adding to the organisation.

Peer Support Training

On the 4th of December 2013 I partook in a Peer Support Training with two other ladies. I was involved in designing the programme which is for peer mentor volunteers who will be supporting people with mental health illness. The volunteers themselves do have lived experience of mental health illness. There were three of them but it still worked out to be a very engaging and worthwhile programme. It was also a pilot so the first signs did look good. Look forward to delivering a much bigger programme.