Video production: Andrew Kennedy Lewis
Judy Whitcomb, chief human resources and learning officer for Vi, a national developer, owner and operator of resort-like senior living communities, says having a learning council at the company sets the tone for aligning learning with the firm’s business objectives.
Read the full transcript of Whitcomb’s interview below:
The learning and organizational department exist to deliver business and employee results. And, by the way, employee results are part of the business.
One of the areas we’ve been successful in is establishing a learning council. The effect of having that learning council is we have executives in the organization that set the tone for our business objectives.
We also have functional leaders, whether it’s from our nursing area, our culinary, our sales, our marketing, our IT, our maintenance areas. And all of those leaders are part of our learning council as well as individuals and leaders from our field locations. That allows us to effectively look at the organizational challenges, opportunities, what we need in the future, and then, prioritize as a learning council, what’s important, and look at those limited resources that all organizations have, and help prioritize.
It also creates greater ownership in the organization. To ensure that everything we do as a council is aligned effectively with the business. And are the initiatives we’re tackling – are they driving right business results?
And then I think, one of the most important things that we do as a learning organization is proactively sharing the results of our learning initiatives.
