How a Corporate University Works

By Kevin Wheeler
© 2005, Global Learning Resources, Inc.

Ideally a corporate university operates at three levels:

Level 1: Talent Planning and Strategy
Organizations are already finding it a challenge to determine who its best employees are, how to reward and retain them in flatter and less profitable organizations, and how to make decisions about whether to develop or train a person or hire someone from outside who already has a skill. For the first time human capital is actually more important to profitability than are machines or financial capital. Although firms may have deep pockets and modern manufacturing plants, they will most likely not be successful unless they produce exactly what consumers demand. Knowing who potential customers are, what they want, and how to produce it with the greatest efficiency are all essential to success.

A deep understanding of the global labor market, of which skills are readily available and which are not, and of internal capabilities and gaps is vital to cost-effective decision making. As the focus on people intensifies, organizations find that that paying ineffective employees, not being able to find the best people in the open market, and not understanding how to develop the capabilities that are lacking are severe constraints to profitability and market success.

The corporate university is, at least partially, responsible for ensuring that people have the skills they need in anticipation of market and product trends.

Level 2: Research
Data and general knowledge about the marketplace, internal performance, competitor performance, trends, and the potential impact events may have on the organization is indispensable to creating useful development activities. The corporate university should collect, interpret and disseminate information about global trends, emerging issues, potential threats and opportunities, and consumer interests. This research and data gathering function is often left to the marketing or strategy development departments. However, the corporate university can act as a partner in gathering and interpreting the raw data. They also need short-term tactical information about immediate corporate goals and need tools to determine if there is a gap in the knowledge and skills required to achieve those goals and how big that gap is.

Level 3: Development Activity Design and Implementation
Driven by the need for transferring skills to a widely dispersed and busy workforce, the corporate university needs to translate research data, new skills and other information to the workforce. It has to discover and implement the fastest and most effective ways to do this.

This may be through traditional classes and courses, but even when this is the case, the content may be delivered electronically through e-learning or via the web in the form of web-seminars or streaming video. There is an increased need to find ways to deliver content anywhere and at anytime.

The knowledge transfer may also take place by assigning employees to projects or teams that stretch their skills. The team may have a learning expert, or coach, embedded in it to help this transfer take place in a more conscious and deliberate ay than is often the case with the usual level of experiential learning.

Learning may also occur through email and on-line discussion that can be facilitated by experts who add commentary and provoke thought through questioning.

The corporate university experiments with better approaches to delivering knowledge and to transferring skills, trying to choose the method that best meets the organization's needs and satisfies the learning style of the employee.