In many ways, training is about dealing with challenges, but this may be getting to the ridiculous. Learning professionals in at least one company now are dealing with a trifecta of trouble, a three-way scenario of challenges … and victories.
Let me introduce you to LPL Financial, a San Diego-based company that serves as an independent broker dealer for about 12,000 financial advisors around the country.
Now, meet Andi Campbell, director of education and consulting for LPL. Andi’s in charge of the training and education needs for those 12,000 financial advisors, while another LPL group oversees learning and workforce development for the company’s 2,200 employees.
Andi works with her learners on training topics like technology, leadership, time management and general business/office management. In short, she’s concerned with helping them run their offices as efficiently as possible, which in turn helps support the company’s bottom line.
“The better they do, the more money they’re making, the more assets they have, the better LPL Financial is,” Andi said.
So, how about those three special challenges? Here they are:
• Andi’s learners are spread throughout the country, so she’s disseminating training to Des Moines, New York, Montana and many other locations … simultaneously.
• The average age of the financial advisors is 55, making them not the most tech-savvy talent in the pool. But despite that, 100% of LPL’s training is online.
• The third challenge: It’s the economy, of course. LPL Financial is in the financial sector. Need I say more?
But again, training is about challenges. Andi is all over these.
Starting from the bottom of the list, there’s only so much that can be done about the overall economic situation. The company has reduced its staff – including two on Andi’s team – and her budget was reduced by 30% this year. But Andi and team are doing more with less: They’ve seen an increase in participation of about 40%, with more than 8,000 course completions so far this year. By increasing online training, the company has saved about $100,000 in 2009.
In terms of generational challenges, the differences are admittedly huge. But LPL is bringing on about 100 new advisors each month and offers courses to help them get acclimated quickly and comfortably.
“We also have a good handholding process when people come on board with LPL,” Andi said.
What’s more, the independent brokers have a secret weapon in terms of technology: Many of them have younger office staffs to help them get over the high-tech hurdles.
“It’s a challenge to find a balance between what I feel is right and what our audience can handle,” Andi said. “We’re working on it, we’re working through it.”
That leaves one more challenge, the widespread delivery of learning. Like so many companies in the training business, LPL is getting by with a little help from its friends. The company has deployed GeoLearning’s learning management system to create “a one-stop shop for learning,” and it’s deployed WebEx to deliver online sessions to the various locations of LPL learners.
Of course, dealing with those three challenges leads to at least one more: The issue of time. Considering the alternative, however, heavy workloads can be a good kind of problem.
“I’d say our biggest challenge is our advisors are busy, because they’re coddling their clients right now. Taking time to go to training is not as important as sustaining themselves,” Andi said. “So what we’ve done to overcome that is changed the format, changed the time, created recordings, tried to go more in the self-paced model. It’s not ideal but it seems to be working. At least we’re getting learning out there and people are attending. That’s what matters.”
