Leveraging Engagement to Drive Learning & Career Development

The Next Practices Weekly call series has become a well-attended and wide-ranging discussion for HR leaders each Thursday at 11am ET / 8am PT. On this week's call, Judy Albers, Director, Research Enablement, and Tom Stone, Senior Research Analyst at i4cp, facilitated a conversation with special guest Paul Langlois, Vice President Enterprise Learning, Careers, and Engagement at Ecolab, a global leader in water, hygiene, and infection prevention solutions and services. Here are some highlights from the call:

• L&D at Ecolab follows a federated model, where Paul leads the programs and platforms that span across the entire organization, with L&D teams also exist in each functional / regional area of the company.
• Ecolab's employer brand promise emphasizes development: "With our worldwide reach and ambitious growth plans, you’ll have the opportunity to learn and grow, shape your career, make an impact, and quickly see the importance of your work."
• The talent philosophy at Ecolab has the following four components:
  • We believe delivering results and demonstrating teamwork drive advancement
  • We believe a world of opportunity can be found within our growing company
  • We believe the best teams are diverse and inclusive
  • We believe people develop through experiences
• L&D at Ecolab leverages the popular 70/20/10 model to help explain to business leaders and all employees the importance of experiential activities on the job, coaching, and formal training that is offered. The three key questions that this model drives are (see Paul's slide that details what is offered at Ecolab for each):
  • What experiences can you take to learn and build your skills?
  • What developmental relationships are available for you in Learning and Development?
  • What formal learning is available in Learning and Development?
• In terms of L&D technology, several years ago Ecolab migrated from over a dozen different learning platforms over to Workday Learning to be aligned with their broader use of Workday as their HRIS.
• For Learning content creation, they largely use Articulate and EasyGenerator.
• Career development is the #1 driver of retention and the #2 driver of engagement at Ecolab. In line with this, Ecolab last year turned on Workday Career Hub. The desired outcomes of the platform are:
  • Associates empowered to build their career and own their future with better access, support and visibility to career opportunities and recommendations using one consistent tool
  • Individualized development plans that are focused on building skills and capabilities
  • Managers equipped and actively engaged in sharing and developing talent

• Career Hub provides the following:
  • Networking suggestions, including mentorship matching and connections with coworkers
  • Learning course suggestions
  • Explore possible jobs and career paths based on where others in your role have moved
  • Add activities to your development plan
• And rolling out now in 2023.. An Opportunity (Gigs) Marketplace. This is a new feature in Workday's Career Hub that provides employees with the opportunity to find short-term, part time "Gigs" that are projects or assignments that might interest them and help them learn, grow, and build their skills. (See Paul's slides for more information on this new Opportunity Marketplace platform.)
• In 2023 Ecolab is expanding what was previously a company-wide "development week" into a "development season." There are six critical skill areas identified by the business with learning content and experiences curated to support each.

Links to resources shared on the call:

• Upcoming i4cp virtual events
• 2023 i4cp Next Practices Now Conference - March 27-30, 2023, in Scottsdale, Arizona (and virtual).
• i4cp’s Next Practice Award Finalists (Ten Organizations)
• i4cp's Culture Fitness report - a new resources exclusively for i4cp members