Online networks build time savings into employee education - Asynchronous Learning Network

HR Magazine, Oct, 1997 by A. Frank Mayadas

Planning the transition to employee self-service requires a hard look at processes and employee perceptions, as well as a cost/benefit analysis.

Continuous learning has become a requirement for success on the job. But in today's leaner, flatter organizations, employees are under increased pressure to take on more responsibilities; they also have less time for training and education. Thus, many HR directors are seeking new ways to meet employees' need for education as well as the company's demand for cost-effective, time-efficient training.

One solution for both large and small companies is education-on-demand through cyberspace. Without setting foot in a classroom, employees can learn new skills or sharpen existing ones, while employers reduce travel costs and employee downtime. Just as geographically dispersed teams use computer networks and groupware to develop project goals, share data, discuss analyses and prepare reports without ever meeting face to face, employees are now using networks to take courses, earn certificates and even complete master's degrees.

The technology making that happen is the Asynchronous Learning Network (ALN). The distinctive feature of "asynchronous" learning is that it allows a high degree of interaction among students and instructors, independent of time or place. Participants in a class can be geographically distant and need not be connected to the network at the same time. Course material and assignments for ALNs can be distributed using varied computer and communications technologies, such as the Internet, corporate intranets or LANs, groupware, videotape and CD-ROM. Among the options for discussion and questions are e-mail, listservs, groupware, online bulletin boards and conferencing systems.

Thus, employees taking a course via an ALN can review lecture notes, do homework and participate in team projects at times and in places convenient to them. Some ALNs are being established through collaboration-and computer hookups - with universities.

EMPLOYERS INVEST IN EDUCATION

"The quality of the U.S. workforce matters now more than ever," and "training goes hand-in-hand with productivity, quality, flexibility and automation in the best performing firms," according to a 1991 study by the U.S. Office of Technology Assessment.

The number of employees receiving employer-sponsored education has more than tripled in 12 years. In 1995, 16 percent of the civilian workforce - some 20 million workers - received formal, employer-provided training, compared to only 5 percent in 1983, according to the American Society for Training and Development. A recent survey by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) found that 65 percent of employers say the percentage of employees receiving formal training increased during the past three years.

As employee education levels rise, so do costs. In the BLS survey, 70 percent of employers say spending on formal training also has increased in the past three years, from $47 billion (in 1995 dollars) in 1983 to $55.3 billion in 1995. Of that amount, $26.4 billion was spent on direct costs and $28.9 billion on indirect costs, including wages, salaries and benefits.

TUNING IN TO ALNS

Two examples show how employer-sponsored ALN programs allow employees to earn college degrees while saving employers money.

CIGNA Corp., an insurance company headquartered in Philadelphia, has formed a partnership with Drexel University, also in Philadelphia, to create the first online master's degree program in information systems. The three-year program is offered to CIGNA employees, about half of whom are located in the company's Bloomfield, Conn., facility. Eighteen CIGNA employees began participating in a pilot program in September 1996. The only time the group met was for a two-day orientation program on Drexel's campus.

The success of the Drexel-CIGNA partnership encouraged Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. (MetLife), based in New York City, to ally with Drexel for another ALN-based master's degree program in information systems. The MetLife program began this fall, with 25 employees enrolled from seven company locations.

MetLife recruited candidates for the master's program, which is open to the entire information technology (IT) staff of about 3,000, through its Lotus Notes e-mail and group collaboration system. Francisco Orbe, the company's vice president for IT resource management, a MetLife HR executive, and a representative from Drexel made presentations to more than 110 people in six locations. Forty people applied for the program, and those who did not start in September may start the next session beginning in February.

Applicants ranged from programmers with just six months tenure the minimum time required to be eligible for the company's tuition refund program - to officers and directors.

"One of the things that interested us most about the Drexel program was freeing up the time of busy professionals," Orbe says. "In discussing career development with people in the past, I think all of us had the sense that a lot of people would have liked to go on for advanced degrees, but the pressures of 'hot' projects they are managing didn't give them that flexibility."