Doing It All

Sheila Austin is the vice president of L&D for BlueCat Networks, a provider of intelligent operations solutions that help organizations modernize, optimize, and secure their network infrastructure. She joined the global technology firm in 2018 as a department of one. Today, she leads an L&D department of 13 professionals who are responsible for training all internal staff, sales enablement, as well as customer and partner learning.

“Before I came to BlueCat, there wasn’t a learning and development function,” says Austin. “The L&D team’s growth demonstrates the positive impact we’ve had on the business.”

Under one umbrella

After joining the organization, Austin saw opportunities to share resources, content, and training programs across its various learner segments. Internally, that includes employees who work on corporate services such as finance, HR, product development, customer support and success, sales, and marketing.

Externally, L&D supports direct customers as well as channel partners that use the company’s technology to expand their own offerings. BlueCat has customers and partners in more than 80 countries and across multiple industries such as retail, healthcare, and finance. Each sector has unique learning needs.

“At the end of the day, we want to make sure that our partners and customers know how to use our products and services effectively so they can transform their businesses. Often, our employees need to know the very same things,” Austin states. “There [are] a lot of crossover training needs for our internal staff and external customers.”

Austin conducted thorough needs assessments to identify information and performance requirements for each learning group. Using those results, she reviewed existing content and programs to determine whether L&D needed to develop additional learning materials and experiences.

“It became clear that much of the content delivered to our internal audience could be used for customers and partners by slicing and dicing and making a few minor additions,” she explains. “So, where many organizations manage training for internal staff, sales, and customers separately, we put all our learning under one umbrella.”

Another major catalyst for the transition was due to the L&D team launching the company’s first learning management system for internal training. When making the case for the platform, Austin realized that customer and partner training also needed a system to track learning.

“It just made better business sense to maintain all learning in one place,” she states.

Up-front metrics

One of Austin’s key goals is to “ground the L&D team in understanding the intention of learning. How do we make sure our learning gives people what they need to do their jobs?” Austin credits her understanding of the value of practical, quantifiable targets to her background in sales. The experience taught her that being able to demonstrate impact requires access to relatable data.

Learner surveys and training scores aren’t enough, Austin notes. For instance, a leadership development program may require access to exit interviews and employee engagement surveys from HR. As another example, product training initiatives must incorporate customer satisfaction and Net Promoter Scores.

Enter a thorough needs assessment to uncover specific learning requirements and enable Austin to understand stakeholders’ broad expectations as to how learning affects business outcomes. In addition, the needs assessment outlines explicit measurable targets at the start of any project.

“What do you want people to be able to do? What behavior change are we seeking?” Austin asks. “For example, just because we developed and delivered training for solution architects, [does that mean they can] conduct a demo on that product after training? What percentage of training participants can conduct a demo a month later? What’s a good conversion rate from demo to sale?”

Austin adds: “Sometimes, the metrics that L&D tracks aren’t the same as what the lines of business can offer or need.” A needs assessment that uses business metrics Austin can consult early in a project timeline, including during discussions with subject matter experts and business leaders, “makes a big difference,” she says.

Further, because the L&D department includes sales enablement, Austin has greater access to certain types of data than other L&D functions—and she uses it to her advantage.

Keep existing technology center stage

Every TD leader has experienced an internal client or L&D team member saying, “Hey, I need to do XYZ. A new tool promises great things.” But, according to Austin, “jumping in and buying something doesn’t always make sense.”

Instead, Austin’s team is often “already using a tool that performs the same functionality if we just turn on a specific feature. So, we’re always looking at our existing tech stack first as opposed to acquiring something new. I think that should always be your first step. There’s usually a good opportunity to easily expand your capability with what you already have.”

The approach is particularly important as more people clamor for artificial intelligence. Austin acknowledges that it’s easy to become distracted by AI technology’s potential capabilities and benefits. But many tools either already have AI or have plans to add that functionality, so she advises other TD leaders to test the waters and gain proficiency in AI by using their existing suite of technologies.

Austin also urges other organizations “to ask whether that function makes sense for their learning [and] development plans. Just because you can turn on a certain AI feature, doesn’t mean you are ready and should flip the switch.”

The L&D team has quarterly business reviews of its existing suite of technologies and tools to evaluate whether solution providers have released system updates or upgrades that serve BlueCat’s goals.

Communication leads to credibility

Whatever the program or development objective, Austin believes “L&D is in service to the organization. I consider the organization our business partners. But they’re also our customers. … So, just as someone in sales would go back and prove to their customers how a product or service has improved their business, L&D needs to proactively communicate our value.”

That imperative starts as early as the program development process. For example, when working with SMEs, the L&D team “makes sure to proactively discuss with them how the learning they’re helping create will have affect the bottom line.” When delivering a program, the team tells participants how the new information and skills will help them perform better on the job, highlighting specific achievements such as being able to close more sales, more effectively resolve customer complaints, or develop products faster.

To share the L&D function’s accomplishments and value, Austin uses a semimonthly email that BlueCat’s CEO sends out to all staff, Good News Friday. Every two weeks, she asks the L&D team: “What have you done to move the business forward?”

“Out of 13 people, one of us—and hopefully many of us—should have made a positive impact,” she asserts.

For instance, a piece of good news may be that “L&D implemented a product training, and the company has seen a 15 percent increase in pipeline development during the last six months.” She also suggests giving a public recognition to any SME who provided input to the training program’s development.

“Those little wins add up,” Austin says.

As a result of proactively communicating her team’s impact, “Leadership and employees don’t question what the learning and development team is doing or how we’re adding value to the business. Ultimately, if employees are making an impact, so is the L&D function,” Austin states.

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