Kristy McCann Flynn of SkillCycle.
For several years now, workplace and employer-funded training have been viewed as an expanding frontier in education with ready-made funding, motivated learners and an army of eager program providers hungry to connect the two. That’s partly why initiatives such as Guild Education, which uses corporate training dollars to pay tuition and other program costs at colleges and universities, has received so much media adoration.
The jury is still out on Guild’s model – whether employers will continue to fund these programs in a time of layoffs, whether the programs end in degrees or valuable certifications and whether these education efforts boost the bottom lines of the companies paying the bills.
But there’s plenty of room to iterate and innovate in workforce, employer provided skills training. And a new, more focused and leaner model may quicky prove both positive and profitable.
Pioneered by long-time HR leader Kristy McCann Flynn through her newly rebranded company, SkillCycle, the model is deceptively simple – linking education and training to specific, identified and individual career development goals. Put another way, the idea is to integrate HR analysis and performance reporting into actual, work-related and career-focused training leveraged against those gaps or needs.
McCann was an HR veteran at places such as Pearson and Constant Contact for years and saw many inefficiencies she knew were fixable. “Pearson had 25 HR systems,” she said. “Constant Contact had a dozen. The ideal number is like four. And right now, all these systems across all these companies have a lot of data, but nothing happens with the data. All these data, forms, culture surveys – it’s all dead data. Nothing is done with it.”
“Then, the learning side, was in a completely different system. Nothing linked. There was no way to take what we knew about our talent and turn it into applicable learning,” McCann said. “We want to bring all these together so we can play offense to really understand where the skills gaps are – to develop and deliver personalized and applicable learning aimed at them.”
The reality of the disconnect between assessment and learning was a lesson McCann says she learned early in her career.
“I remember the first time I got career feedback – I always was told I was too blunt, for example, that I needed to know my audience,” she said. “Those were great points of feedback. But how do I rectify that? So, I was in my head and afraid that any kind of interaction would get me a PIP. Giving people feedback and not giving them the ability to improve, it’s pointless.”
To an observer, it is kind of amazing that HR and performance data isn’t already linked to skills training and education. It feels like a multi-billion dollar inefficiency.
“So, now we’re taking development data, making it active, so we can see where the gaps are and where they need to be filled. We’re no longer just giving a report card without an opportunity to grow with it,” McCann said.
Connecting the learning journey to identified skills gaps in companies is an easy win for corporate success. But, McCann says, it probably benefits the learner every bit as much, if not more.
For those who have skills already but may need more or specific soft skills, McCann says it’s important that “they understand what’s in it for me? What am I going to get that connects to my goals?” When employees do, they invest more, learn more and succeed more often,” McCann argues.
And it’s not just a win for the company by getting their employees to know more and perform better. SkillCycle provides learners with personalized coaching and credentials provided by vetted, respected training and education providers – abilities and certifications they can take with them wherever they go.
As of now, McCann says the company’s sweet spot is mid-sized companies looking to grow – enterprises with 50 to 200 employees. “We can really hone in and help them scale,” she said.
It’s difficult to tell at this point whether SkillCycle is an education company or an HR company or a merger of the two - the human capital development space, as it’s known. And maybe it doesn’t matter. Maybe it’s a classic distinction without any difference. The bottom line for learning is the same. Employees learn more, courtesy of their bosses.
“I don’t consider online learning to be a benefit – this is a tool. Like your laptop or computer, it’s something that employees need to be able to do their job,” McCann said. It would be a big win for skill leveling and life-long learning if every HR manager or C-suite leader felt the same. Even if they don’t yet, maybe companies such as SkillCycle can convince them.
