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Nels Wroe is director of product solutions Americas for SHL PreVisor. He has worked with clients around the world to design and implement assessments throughout the hiring cycle.

Nels Wroe

August 2012 - TD Magazine

Innovations in Talent Analytics

December 2022 - The Buzz

“Soft skills are interpersonal skills that give us the ability to get things done, and hard skills are quantifiable and teachable,” wrote Brandi Fowler, a LinkedIn News reporter. “Hard skills are the first things recruiters and hiring managers look f

The Most In-Demand Hard and Soft Skills

L&D’s Hidden Data GapEvery business function is expected to show its value beyond a doubt, and learning and development (L&D) is no exception. Yet, a bleak reality often holds L&D teams back. Our recent Zensai report in association with ATD reveals that only 4 percent of organizations excel at using learning data to make strategic business decisions. Yes, it really is that low.This number represents more than companies missing a few metrics; it points to a much deeper issue where many organizations are totally lost about what valuable learning data they already possess, or precisely what data they need to collect to demonstrate real impact. The consequence? Learning initiatives remain stuck in their own little bubble, making it a struggle to connect directly with the bigger picture and prove tangible return on investment (ROI). It also eats up time and money, keeping businesses from growing and succeeding.Before you can effectively measure the impact of your learning programs, you need to understand your starting point. This is where a solid learning evaluation audit comes in. A measurement audit is a systematic review of how you’re currently collecting data, tools you’re using, and your reporting capabilities. It’s not just about identifying what’s missing but also uncovering hidden gems of data you might already be seeing but not fully leveraging.As Jess Almlie, principal of Almlie Consulting highlighted in the Zensai and ATD report, “You may have more data than you think you do. You need to be conscious about organizing it, tracking it, monitoring it, and communicating it well.”For example, let’s say a large healthcare provider frequently updates its compliance training to stay on top of regulations. For years, their L&D team has focused on tracking completion rates in their learning management system (LMS), believing that meant everyone was following the rules. However, a measurement audit might reveal that HR also tracks incident reports related to noncompliance. And maybe the operations team is evaluating how staff are actually using the new safety steps. If the L&D folks found all this out, they could start connecting the dots—sussing out behavioral changes and safety outcomes, proving the impact of their training, not just its delivery. Without an audit, these connections remain unseen (and L&D data gaps only get wider).Where to Begin: Your Gap Analysis RoadmapKicking off a learning evaluation audit doesn’t require a massive overhaul. It’s better to start with a targeted gap analysis, figuring out where you are now compared to where you want to be. Ask these important questions:What are you measuring now? Document all the learning analytics you’re getting, like course completion, quiz grades, surveys, even casual chats. Be honest about its depth and relevance.What do you want to measure? Think about the business problems L&D is trying to solve. Do you want to reduce employee turnover, increase product adoption, or make customers happier? Figure out what performance data points that would show success for these.What matters most to your executive team? Your measurement strategy needs to match what the big bosses care about. What are your CEO, CFO, or department heads being held accountable for? Frame your desired L&D insights around these HR metrics and business outcomes.What High Performers Do DifferentlyOrganizations proficient in measurement and evaluation don’t rely on guesswork. The Zensai and ATD report shows that these high-performing organizations use at least four or more distinct data sources for their learning evaluations, including business data and employee performance reviews. They don’t just gather this data; they regularly reassess their measurement strategy, so it stays relevant and insightful.By combining data from the LMS, performance reviews, sales figures, and employee engagement surveys, these organizations get clearer L&D insights and better business alignment and can pinpoint how specific learning initiatives directly influence critical key performance indicators (KPIs). This allows them to tell a compelling story of learning impact that resonates with stakeholders and secures more funding. Basically, they prove that learning is a smart investment, not just a cost, with real results.Razor-Sharp Solution: Powering Insights Where Work HappensConducting a thorough measurement audit might sound like a headache, especially if your data’s all over the place. But, good news! HR tech these days can make it a lot easier. Tools like Learn365 help pull together key learning analytics and performance data that’s already hanging out in your Microsoft 365 environment.Learn365 supports this process by putting learning right where people are already working—like Teams, Outlook, SharePoint, and Power BI. This seamless integration makes learning more accessible and adopted. Plus, the resulting insights and performance data become more readily available and interconnected. This smooth data flow helps L&D leaders understand the true learning impact of their programs and make smarter decisions without spending hours wrestling with spreadsheets.Are You Measuring What Matters—or Just What’s Easy?We can all agree that the time for guesswork in L&D is over. A learning evaluation audit is the indispensable first step toward performance-driven talent development. It helps you close L&D data gaps, refine your measurement strategy, and ultimately, prove the strategic value of learning.Don’t miss the opportunity to transform your L&D function into a business powerhouse. Download the Zensai and ATD report to guide your internal audit. You’ll see firsthand what leading organizations are doing to connect learning with performance and create lasting success.

Strategic L&D Starts Here: Why Every Leader Needs a Learning Measurement Audit

When we feel like we’re being micromanaged, there’s usually one of two possible reasons for your coworker’s behaviors:They don’t fully trust you because you aren’t consistently reliable.They are stressed because of pressure being put on them, and they’re transferring that stress to you.Regardless of the reason, however, here are some tips to help you manage the situation:Reflect on Your BehaviorOrganizations are littered with people who think they are high performers and yet are perplexed why they don’t get promoted as quickly as they believe they should. Such employees commonly feel they are being slighted and wronged. And yet most of them have a career-limiting habit that they don’t see or aren’t willing to see.Are you consistent at doing what you say you’ll do, when you say you’ll do it? If trust is what makes or breaks a team, then getting stuff done is the currency of trust. I’d challenge you to dig deep and ask yourself:What’s my role in this?Do I see a pattern of people in my life checking up on me?Am I constantly making excuses for why I can’t finish commitments?Let me be clear—I’m not saying this IS your issue. But I’m not sure that it isn’t either. I don’t say this to try to demean you, but to wake you up to a new view of yourself. We all need this in our lives. I once received feedback that my tendency toward persuasion was abrasive for many of my colleagues. Tough news to hear, but it was vital tough love.Master Your Stories and Bring It UpIt’s better to address the pattern you’re experiencing than continue to suffer through it. But you need to start by checking your emotions; your frustration is likely coming from a story you’re telling yourself that this coworker is micromanaging you. Since the problem of coming up with ugly stories takes place inside your own mind, that’s also where the solution lies. Those who are best at holding Crucial Conversations tell themselves a more balanced story. Instead of asking, “What’s the matter with that person?” they ask, “Why would a reasonable, rational, and decent person do that?”By asking this humanizing question, you should gain a few other possible explanations for the checkups, and you’ll be more effective talking about the issue.Once you’ve checked your story and calmed your emotions, just be candid. Say something like, “Hey Juan, I’ve noticed with the last few assignments I’ve taken on for you that you check in on me almost every day, even though we agreed on a due date. I had every intention to finish by the date we agreed. But when you check in on me, it makes me wonder if you think I will finish on time. Can you help me see your side of things?”Use Checkups and CheckbacksSometimes, the other person is so stressed that their worry drives them to become a nag. They may trust you, but the stakes are so high for them that they want to guarantee nothing goes wrong. While it’s understandable that someone might get to this point (we’ve all acted ineffectively because of stress), it’s also detrimental to others. So, to those who are giving the assignments, you need to know the difference between a checkup and a checkback and use them correctly.Do a checkup when you’re giving the assignment and are nervous or have questions. Say something like, “Since this is such an important project, I’m wondering if we could meet next Wednesday at 10 a.m. to review how it’s going.” In this case, you are in charge of the follow-up.Use a checkback when the task is routine and has been assigned to someone who is experienced and reliable. Now that person is in charge. He or she offers suggestions, “How about we follow up at our next scheduled meeting?” or “The deadline is two weeks from today. Could we meet next Thursday, fifteen minutes before our team meeting, to touch base?”To get results AND maintain healthy relationships, both checkups and checkbacks can be helpful.

What to Do When You Think You’re Being Micromanaged

If you’ve been following the news in recent weeks, you’ve most likely seen the upheaval of the global financial markets. Many of our 401ks have become 201ks. Much of the turbulence and volatility is due to uncertainty. Uncertainty wreaks havoc. Uncertainty is the ultimate productivity killer (and mood killer). It’s the number 1 cause of workplace stress and anxiety too. When people don’t know what’s coming next, whether it’s a market downturn, a restructuring, or even just a shift in priorities, they often freeze. Fear and ambiguity lead to distraction, disengagement, and second-guessing. Great leaders know that uncertainty is inevitable, and more importantly, they know how to lead through it. Leadership isn’t about waiting for stability, it’s about creating clarity and momentum even when the path ahead is unclear. This week, let’s look at what leaders can do to keep their teams engaged, focused, and moving forward, no matter the circumstances.Reinforce Clarity and PrioritiesWhen uncertainty rises, leaders must double down on clarity. A lack of direction creates hesitation, and hesitation leads to stagnation. The best leaders make sure that their teams know exactly what to focus on, even when things are shifting.One way to do this is by clearly defining Team Key Results (TKRs), the critical outcomes that matter most. In uncertain times, teams often feel overwhelmed by competing priorities. By simplifying the focus to just a few TKRs, you create a stabilizing force that keeps everyone aligned. If everything feels like a priority, nothing actually is. Your job as a leader is to cut through the noise and define what success looks like right now.Communicate More Uncertainty breeds assumptions, and assumptions are dangerous. Without clear communication, team members fill in the blanks with worst-case scenarios. Leaders who proactively communicate early, often, and transparently reduce anxiety and build trust.Leaders provide context, not just commands. Instead of simply assigning tasks, they explain the why behind decisions. People are far more likely to stay engaged when they understand how their work contributes to the bigger picture. Even if you don’t have all the answers, being honest about what you do know (and what you don’t) creates a sense of psychological safety.Create Stability Through RoutineWhen the external environment feels unpredictable, leaders can create internal stability through structured routines. Regular check-ins, weekly progress updates, and consistent team meetings act as anchors, providing a sense of normalcy. These aren’t just about status updates, they’re opportunities to reinforce priorities, celebrate wins, and address roadblocks.Moreover, predictable cadence beats crisis mode. When teams operate in reactive mode, they burn out quickly. Establishing stable processes, whether it’s a structured weekly meeting rhythm or a standard way of handling shifting priorities, allows teams to focus on execution instead of constantly recalibrating.Keep Momentum With Small WinsIn uncertain times, big, long-term goals can feel overwhelming or even impossible. That’s why effective leaders break work down into manageable pieces, creating opportunities for quick wins that build confidence and momentum. Progress (even small progress) creates a sense of control.Ask your team: What’s the next best action we can take? When people feel powerless, action is the antidote. By focusing on what can be accomplished today, this week, or this month, you keep energy high and prevent paralysis.Guide With Resilience and OptimismYour team takes its cues from you. If you show signs of stress, uncertainty, or doubt, they will mirror it. However, if you project confidence, resilience, and optimism, they will follow your lead. Optimism doesn’t mean ignoring challenges; it means acknowledging reality while keeping people focused on solutions. The best leaders create a sense of possibility, showing their teams that uncertainty isn’t a reason to stop moving but an opportunity to adapt and grow.Leading Through UncertaintyUncertainty is a constant in leadership. The best leaders don’t wait for things to settle before taking action—they create clarity, structure, and focus even in the most challenging times. By reinforcing priorities, communicating transparently, maintaining stability, celebrating small wins, and leading with resilience, you can keep your team engaged and moving forward, no matter what’s happening around them.Now, take a moment to reflect: Where does your team need the most clarity right now? The sooner you provide it, the sooner you can turn uncertainty into momentum.

Leading With Clarity in Uncertain Times

Every year, Gallup releases the State of the American Manager, its analysis of the current condition of managerial expertise. The latest results, released December 2017, contained several new conclusions, but the grim fact remains: Little has changed with the state of management in the United States. The sobering news:One-third (35 percent) of managers are engaged in their work.One in five managers (18 percent) has the “high talent” needed to succeed in their roles.Bad management costs the U.S. economy anywhere from $319 billion to $398 billion in lost productivity annually.We all know that bad managers wreak havoc on employee performance—either by not developing their teams and enabling accountability for results, or by simply creating an environment where employees don’t want to come to work. In fact, Gallup reports: “Managers account for at least 70 percent of the variance in employee engagement scores across business units. Gallup’s study of employee engagement found that just 30 percent of U.S. workers are engaged, demonstrating a clear link between poor managing and a nation of ‘checked out’ employees.”Yet, the most somber news in the Gallup analysis may not be that the state of management is in disarray. More worrisome is Gallup’s conclusion about the innate nature of good managers: Only a certain number of managers are born with the capacity to manage others and, as a result, companies should focus more heavily on selection of managers rather than the development of them.“If great managers seem scarce, it’s because the talent required to be one is rare. Talents are innate and are the building blocks of great performance,” the report states. “Gallup’s research reveals that about one in 10 people possess high talent to manage. Though many people are endowed with some of the necessary traits, few have the unique combination of talents needed to help a team achieve excellence in a way that significantly improves a company’s performance. These 10 percent, when put in manager roles, naturally engage team members and customers, retain top performers, and sustain a culture of high productivity.”It's an odd conclusion to make because it defies the fundamental understanding we have about human development and the ability for people to change in a positive, progressive way. What’s more, taking such a static view inherently limits many people by default into managers or nonmanagers, ignoring the capacity for people to develop their skills.So, are there some leaders who are just bad managers and can never be that great? Sure. But I would argue that a majority of individuals can be great—with the right tools, culture, and framework. That’s where ATD can set the right approach with its ACCEL model, a framework for the core skills managers need to be successful: accountability, collaboration, communication, engagement, and listening and assessing.ACCEL revolves around establishing a culture (from the CEO to every manager on down) where learning and improving is the focus. And rather than focusing only on an individual’s strengths, ACCEL encourages managers to develop in five core areas, which might be areas that they currently are not considered strong.Some might say this notion is folly, because having a talent for managing is simply innate. But ATD believes that everyone has the capacity to become better—where weaknesses can become strengths, with a focused effort on culture and learning as a priority.Think about it: If every executive focused their efforts on improvement of their team, wouldn’t they see improvement in performance? Wouldn’t their results also improve? Indeed, in the end, your business certainly isn’t static, so why should your view of people be?Learn more about our ACCEL model at www.td.org/accel, and make sure to check out our ATD/Yale Foundations of Management Excellence program, which is based on our ACCEL model.

The (Still) Sad State of the American Manager—and What We Can Do About It

The year 2007 represents a watershed moment for Louisville-based Signature HealthCARE, a leading provider of long-term nursing care. Not only was it the year that a buyout of its predecessor, Home Quality Management, enabled the creation of the new company, but it was also when the company marked its transition to becoming, in its own words, a “learning organization.”For president and CEO Joe Steier, who wrote an award-winning doctoral dissertation at the University of Pennsylvania on the leaders-as-teachers concept, the importance of learning could not be understated. Yet despite establishing that culture early on, it became clear to Steier and other executives at Signature that they still faced challenges. In particular, they lacked a strong leadership development and succession planning program; without one, they could do very little to ensure the longevity of the leadership pipeline—a critical element for an organization with 143 locations in 11 states and nearly 24,000 employees.They weren’t alone. According to ATD research, only 14 percent of organizations describe their succession planning as effective, and less than half of all organizations have a formal planning process in place.The good news was that Signature didn’t have to start from scratch: The company already had a leadership program in place. However, it didn’t have a development program for new leaders, and the current program for experienced leaders needed an update. So Steier, along with Mary McNevin, chief learning officer, and Brian Muleller, community learning manager, sought to change that. One of the first things they stressed was a focus on data.

Signature: Using Data to Develop Leaders

**No one said that earning a living in the 21st century is going to require less education. It’s going to require more.”_—Ed Gordon, Future Jobs**_Few experts refute the notion that the United States is falling behind globally in the area of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education. In a sense, the United States is ceding its scientific and technical leadership. Consider a few stats: U.S. ranks 24 out of 40 countries in applying math concepts to real world problems.Only 15 percent of U.S. undergraduate degrees are in science and engineering, compared to 38 percent in South Korea, 50 percent in China, and 67 percent in Singapore. Even more striking, is the fact that the U.S presently ranks 10 around the globe for citizens earning a college education, with South Korea, Canada, and Russia in the top ranks. The magnitude of this issue intensifies when you factor in the increase in minority populations in the United States, only 60 percent of which complete high school, 12 percent earn undergraduate degrees, and 10 percent complete graduate degrees. Why are these numbers low? To start, many blame the Great Recession and recent financial woes in the United States. Others fault the increasing costs of higher education. Indeed, few can argue that earning a college degree today has become equivalent to going into a lifetime debt. Clearly, to compete on the global stage, more cost-effective education is required. But the problem is more deeply rooted than these fairly recent developments. Many students are simply not prepared to enter higher education. There is little doubt that major local, state, and federal cuts to education budgets—both at the first and secondary levels—are having an impact on student readiness at the college level. Even worse, those that do receive a higher education aren’t always prepared to enter the workforce. Some experts claim that nearly half of employers are having a difficult time finding qualified college graduates to hire. A 2014 Gallup poll, sponsored by the Lumina Foundation, revealed that 14 percent of Americans—and only 11 percent of business leaders—strongly agree that graduates have the necessary skills and competencies to succeed in the workplace. In addition, one study found that 33 percent of college grads in 2011 did not demonstrate a large increase in cognitive gains over the years. Stats like this obviously trouble employers. Bottom line: These individual and societal choices are adding up—and defining the current and future capabilities of the U.S. workforce—how employees and organizations can learn, evolve, adapt, grow, and produce results. How the U.S. proactively plans for these challenges and opportunities will determine how it competes globally. With the ever-changing technologies, the growing Knowledge Economy, and the need for advanced thinking and creative workforce solutions, organizations that invest now in education will reap benefits in the long run. But pursuing education improvements in K-12 and higher education to increase STEM skills isn’t enough. Instead, organizations must proactively partner and engage with education institutions to adequately prepare future workers. The good news is, per the Gallup/Lumina poll, that a grand majority of business leaders (88 percent) would like greater levels of collaboration with higher education institutions. In the end, while affordable and effective education is an important imperative for society (and thus government), business may have to step up if they want to achieve global success.

Wanted: A More Educated—and Prepared—Workforce

As a globally recognized futurist and expert on innovation, Lisa Bodell ignites new thinking at every event with high energy, humor, and audience engagement. She is an award-winning author and CEO of futurethink, serves as a global council member of the World Economic Forum, and has helped thousands of senior leaders ignite innovation at companies including Bloomberg, Pfizer, and Lockheed Martin. Rated as a top speaker at Google’s client events, Lisa brings her message to nearly 100,000 people each year in more than 30 countries. She wrote the bestselling book  Kill the Company: End the Status Quo, Start an Innovation Revolution, which won the 2014 Axiom Best Business Book Award and was voted Best Business Book by USA Book News and Booz & Co. Her new book, Why Simple Wins: Escape the Complexity Trap and Get to Work That Matters, will be released October 2016. Lisa has appeared on NPR, FOX News, and in Fast Company, The New York Times, and WIRED. She is a frequent contributor to strategy+business, Forbes, and Harvard Business Review. Lisa is an adviser on the boards of the Association of Professional Futurists, and Novartis’ Diversity and Inclusion Board in Basel, Switzerland. Lisa has taught innovation and creativity at both American and Fordham Universities. For more innovation news and ideas, follow Lisa on Twitter at @LisaBodell.

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