Prepare to Be Inspired

Welcome to one of the most illuminating and inspiring issues of the year. In the pages that follow, we recognize and report on the innovative companies named to the 2012 LearningElite, Chief Learning Officer magazine’s rigorous, peer-reviewed ranking and benchmarking program. It is a must-read for any organization looking to benchmark its workforce development initiatives against other companies, deploy better learning and development practices, and deliver measurable and exceptional business value.

In its second year, competition increased, with both a growing number of applicants and a distinct uptick in the quality of applications. Forty percent of the 45 domestic and global organizations named to the 2012 LearningElite were first-time applicants. The remaining organizations re-applied in the hopes of raising their benchmark and in the spirit of continuous improvement.

This year’s LearningElite finalists represent organizations of all sizes with varied levels of L&D funding. Seventy-four percent have fewer than 100,000 employees, and 26 percent are enterprise-level organizations.

As businesses shift their goals in response to intense competitive and economic pressures, there is rising recognition that workforce learning and development needs to be a top priority. With the LearningElite program, we offer businesses valuable insight into their strategic L&D functionality and provide powerful benchmarking data that can help lead their organizations to excellence.

Each LearningElite finalist is given a custom scorecard, with year-over-year comparisons, based on five key L&D performance indicators: learning strategy, learning execution, learning impact, business performance results and leadership commitment. These dimensions serve as an integrated framework to manage a learning organization. Organizations often use the scorecard in their strategic planning processes, as well as to help energize and guide their organizational improvement efforts.

I am more convinced than ever that one of the main reasons the LearningElite has achieved such a high level of regard and support is the rigor and integrity of the evaluation process. For 2012, it wasn’t enough for the top organizations to present compelling applications on paper. They also were required to demonstrate leadership commitment to L&D and allow the judging team to further examine issues that are essential components of scoring and role-model determination. During an additional capstone level of assessment, each of the top organizations was required to deliver a two-hour presentation followed by a senior executive interview with the capstone evaluation panel.

This year’s Top 6 deserve kudos for successfully undergoing this intense and in-depth evaluation. So I want to take this opportunity to congratulate them again on their achievement. Top 6 are:

1. General Mills.

2 (tie). AT&T.

2 (tie). Defense Acquisition University.

4. Accenture.

5. McDonald’s.

6. UPS.

Certainly, all of the 2012 LearningElite finalists deserve tremendous recognition and respect. More important, they deserve emulation. Their efforts to create and employ exemplary workforce development strategies and generate innovative future learning and development practices that will carry organizations forward serve as valuable templates for others. As you read about how they align workforce development with organizational goals and achieving measurable business impact, think about how you can use their experiences and insights to facilitate conversation, build a better learning strategy and drive innovation in your organization.

Then, if you haven’t already, make a determination to participate in the 2013 LearningElite and benchmark your enterprise learning initiatives against the best. Look for an announcement soon that applications are open. It is one of the most important and valuable things you can do to assure the continued impact and improvement of your learning organization.

Norm Kamikow

Editor in Chief

norm@CLOmedia.com