Chesterfield University

Transitioning Learning from HR to the Organization

Overview

In today's fast-changing environment, the shorter shelf life of knowledge is forcing organizations to continuously update the knowledge and skills of their employees to remain competitive. To maintain that competitive edge, the corporate university concept has become one of the fastest growing models for organizational learning to align educational strategies with business goals. No longer can Human Resource professionals successfully identify the organization's learning needs without involving leaders and key employees. Chesterfield County Government has met that challenge by creating a “corporate university” that is tied to the county's business strategy and eight core competencies.

Corporate Universities are strategic initiatives used by organizations for developing and educating employees, customers, and suppliers in order to meet business strategies. Chesterfield County had created a similar concept, TQI University, in the early nineties to address the learning needs of a total quality improvement initiative and had seen extremely successful results of this endeavor. Due to the size of the organization, training was being delivered by several departments with variation and duplication of curricula in the areas of leadership, customer service and software training. Employees were also unaware of learning opportunities in other departments since little or no communication occurred among departments. As concerns continued to be raised, it became clear that efficiencies and savings could further be gained by bringing the numerous learning endeavors of the county under one initiative and by linking each to the overall business strategy and strategic plan, hence the creation of Chesterfield University.

Chesterfield County recognized that by creating a learning organization several key organizational issues could be met:

• Attracting and retaining employees is key to maintaining a competitive edge and if employees see that their organization offers them further education and career development, they are more inclined to stay.
• By utilizing current technology, learning would no longer be just a classroom option and could address scheduling challenges and unique learning needs that were being raised by employees.
• Communication issues could improve through a greater focus on learning, by encouraging employees to share information and experiences with others across departmental boundaries with the hopes of creating communities of practice.
• By involving leaders within the organization as learners and faculty, organizational information is being shared with the leaders of tomorrow.

After an initial assessment and discussion, it was clear that by creating a unified delivery and focus of learning that Chesterfield County would see greater impact and rewards in many areas of organizational life.

Human Resource professionals brought forth the idea of Chesterfield University in relationship to the existing TQI University, which began in 1996. The concept of a corporate university was presented to key leaders and was supported with great interest. In 1999, a Steering Committee was established to set the initial direction and lay the foundation. This committee was comprised of department directors, assistant directors, members of Learning and Development staff, and other individuals from across the county who were interested in organizational learning. An initial organizational needs assessment revealed duplication of efforts and opportunities to pool learning resources. An extensive benchmarking effort produced ideas and lessons learned that helped build the foundation for Chesterfield University. Chesterfield County benchmarked with many organizations in the private and public sectors including Motorola, First Union, Tennessee Valley Authority, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Bureau of Printing and Engraving. On the local government scene, Chesterfield County is leading the effort in creating a corporate university with only two others known to date.

Creation of core competencies that would be used to build the curricula of the university was the first major initiative. Through benchmarking, employee interviews, surveys, focus groups, and many hours of wordsmithing, a sub-committee identified eight competencies to support the mission of Chesterfield County. They are communication, continuous learning, leadership, planning and organizing, interpersonal skills, flexibility, reasoning, and customer focused service. Behavioral definitions were written for four levels of the organization: frontline, supervisory, manager, and executive. The university's curriculum provides learning opportunities that assist employees in becoming successful in these areas of competence.

These core competencies have become part of the county's annual performance evaluation process. Interview questions will be created to assess candidates during interviews and employees will be evaluated on performance levels as part of their annual evaluations.

As the university initiative evolved, it became clear that the Steering Committee couldn't accomplish all that needed to occur so tactical teams were created to develop several key elements. This allowed individuals with specific knowledge and skills to become involved while being ambassadors of the university concept. Teams were formed to create a communications and marketing strategy, a measurement model, curriculum standards model, instructor development model and to identify desired learning technologies. Several names and logos were created and county employees were involved in selecting the branding for the university as well as communicating this new initiative to employees via various media such as a speaker's bureau.

Chesterfield University is comprised of six schools of learning each lead by a Dean and a Board of Advisors. These include: the School of Applied Business Skills and Technology; the School of Health, Safety and Security; the School of Leadership and Personal Effectiveness; the School of Policy and Procedures; the School of Public Safety; and the School of Quality and Continuous Improvement. The governance of the university is achieved through the Council of Learning, a fifteen-member body, which oversees the operation and effectiveness of Chesterfield University and organizational learning, working in conjunction with the University Dean. This council holds representation from all divisions of county government including Public Safety and the County's School System and includes the Deans of each school of learning. Each school of learning is governed by a Board of Advisors who oversees the creation and delivery of curriculum within a school of learning while monitoring student registrations and course evaluations.

Technology has been used throughout the development and operation of Chesterfield University. A blended approach to learning incorporates an intranet Web-site for use in communicating the concept and current course offerings to employees, an e-mail based training registration system that provides online registration requests and approval and puts learning information and individual training history at employees' fingertips, and online learning introduced this year in cooperation with SkillSoft® Corporation, that brings Internet-based courses to Chesterfield County employees at virtually any time that is convenient to their learning. These courses support core competency learning and meet many employees' required learning. Additionally, a 360° Assessment that was created based on Chesterfield County's core competencies is accessed and delivered via the Internet through a third party vendor, EdgeTraining® Corporation.

The creation of Chesterfield University has resulted in numerous successes and efficiencies for the organization:

• Employees now have a central resource through Chesterfield University for accessing and obtaining the learning that they need in order to be successful in their jobs.
• The implementation of the curriculum standards review form ensures that all courses are linked to one or more strategic goals of Chesterfield County and they address a specific learning need for one or more of the eight core competencies.
• A bi-annual course catalog includes all learning opportunities for employees from each of the six schools of learning, with one central registration system for all.
• Implementation of an automated training registration system, Training Register® , now allows employees to view course descriptions, schedules and locations, as well as request registration and withdrawal for classes, and access their individual training records online.
• Partnerships with colleges, universities, and other learning vendors have been established. These enable Chesterfield University to bring external programs on-site for all employees, such as the Certificate in Public Management from Virginia Commonwealth University, Dale Carnegie® Leadership courses, and a variety of classes for college credit through John Tyler Community College and J. Sergeant Reynolds Community College.
• Online learning has been introduced through a partnership with SkillSoft® , Inc. that provides employees with access to an additional 300 courses and allows employees who have had difficulty attending instructor-led classes, due to schedules and workload issues, to access learning 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, from their computer at work or at home.
• Courses are now offered in a variety of delivery methods that include CD-ROM, paper-based, classroom, and online learning, chat rooms, as opposed to the previous classroom training only, creating a blended learning approach.
• By bringing the training departments throughout the organization together under Chesterfield University, duplication of effort has been reduced.
• Leaders in the organization are now involved directly in the creation and delivery of learning within the organization. Each month over 200 employees are actively engaged in directing learning opportunities for county employees
• Chesterfield University is now a separate department and no longer a part of Human Resource Management. This move has occurred to place a greater emphasis on organizational learning with learning focusing on strategic organizational issues.

Chesterfield County has demonstrated that it values its employees and is becoming a learning organization through the establishment of Chesterfield University. With this innovative approach to learning through shared resources and partnerships, Chesterfield University serves as a model for local government committed to creating efficiencies in processes while recruiting, developing, and retaining the best employees to provide the best services to its citizens.

In the few years that it has been in existence, Chesterfield University regularly assesses the learning needs of the organization and implemented technological improvements that allow greater access to learning and information by employees. It has also brought independent departmental training units into one cohesive university partnership, and has tied all learning to individual core competencies and the strategic business goals of the county. This has been accomplished by involving over 200 employees at all levels of the organization in creating, participating in, and leading learning events, which creates a shared leadership and accountability for learning. Chesterfield University was recognized in 2003 by the Richmond Human Resource Management Association and Chamber of Commerce by being named the All-Star Award recipient for Employee Development and the National Association of Counties for its innovation in employee learning. In 2005 the county's Talent Management Initiative, which is an outgrowth of employee development and the university, was recognized with top honors by three organizations. These organizations include National Association of Counties (NACO), Virginia Association of Counties (VACO), and Virginia Municipal League (VML).