Department of Transport, Victoria
Enhancing Learning & Development opportunities for new starters at the Department of Transport and the role of Learning & Development in enabling a culture of learning.
Project Overview
I have a hunch that new starters are not driving their own learning due to the lack of awareness of Learning & Development opportunities. This does not provide a solid foundation for building a culture of learning at the organisation when learning and development opportunities are not being effectively communicated as a key benefit of their employment at the Department of Transport during their onboarding experience.
Details
Role: UX Designer
Client: Learning & Development Department at Department of Transport, Victoria
Tools: Figma, Miro, Department of Transport’s internal documents
Objectives and Goals
To support the team’s strategy of driving a culture of learning in the organisation, I have conducted this case study to understand the organisation’s current learning climate amongst new starters at the Department of Transport. This case study is conducted in two parts – through the lens of the Learning & Development team and new starters.
The aim is to understand the Learning & Development opportunities available, the level of communication and engagement, and methods of communication with the new starters. I would also like to understand their learning habits and their attitude towards learning and development.
The Task
Presenting the Learning & Development team at the Department of Transport with a case study that includes insights, opportunities and areas of improvement to be implemented to program developments, communication methods and channels.
Understanding the role of Learning & Development
As we become increasingly virtual and dispersed stemming from the pandemic, Learning & Department can help to build a values-based culture and a sense of community.
It can motivate and engage employees to provide them with opportunities to learn and develop new skills. Research also suggests that lifelong learning contributes to happiness and a deeper sense of fulfilment.
The Learning & Development team’s role is to consult, design, develop and deliver on all Department of Transport learning initiatives in partnership with the organisation. Their aim is to develop a reputation as a partner who uplifts capability and motivates high performance.
They are proud to say that they know learning, but they also recognise that their team members across the organisation are subject matter experts in their respective fields. Together we will identify common objectives – bringing in the right people with the right skills to deliver diverse learning offerings to our diverse audience.
Learning & Development’s Goal/ Strategy:
Currently, they are in the GROW phase of the implementation of a 3-year roadmap, the department is striving to move towards the DRIVE phase in the implementation of an overall Learning & Development strategy.
This includes partnering with different areas of the business to co-design and deliver learning and development outcomes that will:
Drive a thriving Learning and Development environment where learning is self-directed, assigned, varied, just in time, and current.
Drive organisation’s active participation in non-formal modes of learning
Drive how learning and development support career pathways
Drive best practice decisions
Drive a culture of learning in the organisation
Research
A workshop was conducted with the Learning & Department team to reaffirm through a series of activities, from the team’s perspective:
the current Learning & Development opportunities available
how Learning & Development opportunities are communicated to new starters
when these opportunities are communicated to new starters
The activities were conduction in virtually and in person with 4 Learning & Department team members. Their answers are documented below.
Activity 1: Current Learning & Development opportunities available
Activity 2: How Learning & Development opportunities are communicated to new starters
Activity 3: When these opportunities are communicated to new starters
Findings and Insights
Insight 1: Location, location, location
Knowing where new starter opportunities and resources are housed is crucial to understanding their user flow and where their main interaction lies. They create an opportunity for the team to direct their focus on areas of improvement.
From this, we can see that the opportunities are predominantly housed in the organisation’s SharePoint page.
Insight 2: The human touch vs digital discovery
We can see a clear disproportion between how many face-to-face (virtually or in person) interactions a new starter experiences vs self-reading and discovery they do via the organisation’s digital channels.
Insight 3: Communications
From the information provided by the team, I’ve documented the new starter’s journey and at what point in their journey they would receive information on Learning & Development opportunities. This is supplemented with information from Onboarding Journey Map created for new starters.
We can see that their exposure to Learning & Development is concentrated within the first 3 months. Subsequent touchpoints are ad hoc and dependent on them signing up for events or self-discovery on SharePoint.
Opportunities
Having clean, clear and concise communication channels
Housekeeping exercise and restructuring of the Learning & Development SharePoint pages since the documentation proves that most of the information and resources created by the team for new starters are housed here.
The purpose of this exercise is to create user-friendly learning experience for new starters. It’s important that they access information in bite-size form and is easily located.
Areas of improvement to be considered are:
Information Architecture
Language – make sure that abbreviations in new starter guides are kept to a minimum. System lingo that might be familiar to seasoned team members would not be familiar to new starters. (E.g.: The phrase “Legacy systems” in the New Starter Guide)
Aesthetic and minimalist design - making sure to keep the content and visual design focused on the essentials. Ensure that the visual elements of the interface support the user's primary goals
This is also an opportunity to streamline and simplify the new starter’s touch points. This would include restructuring the overall user flow of the Learning & Development SharePoint pages and the other channels a new starter is receiving information from (e.g.: manager’s emails, team briefings, people leader newsletters etc.) Consider where the new starter should be directed to with one main page being the “hero” landing page and phasing out/ redirecting other pages to the “hero page”. Analytics of the pages will need to be analysed and pages that does not perform well will be considered for removal/redirect.
Based on the structure and resources available within the team, the removal of redundant pages would reduce time spent on tracking changes and making multiple amendments/ updates to different pages. It would also reduce the number of pages with outdated information that might lead to confusion amongst new starters and their managers.
Adding a personal touch improves employee onboarding
New starters take their cues from those around them. They will rely heavily on how their colleagues talk to one other, prioritise their work, take or don’t take initiative, and the behaviours they exhibit. If they see their managers and teammates actively seeking out learning opportunities, they’ll take that as a regular workplace activity as much as the morning coffee run. If, from day one, they see Learning & Development programs as a regular part of the workplace, understand the full scale of opportunities available to them and are being communicated on the value of learning, they will carry that notion throughout their tenure and, in turn, impart that knowledge onto future employees.
Research has shown that being systematic in onboarding brings new employees up to speed 50% faster, which means they’re more quickly and efficiently able to contribute to achieving desired goals – in this case, contributing to a thriving learning culture. Effective onboarding also dramatically reduces failure rates and increases employee engagement and retention.
Therefore, it is important for the team to connect to new starters. The onboarding experience should be designed to not only take them through orientation (e-learn modules, new starter guide and the basics of the job) but also help the new starter build and establish meaningful relationships with the Learning & Development team and other team members.
In Insight 2, we can see how much the new starter is left to discover Learning & Development opportunities digitally and on their own vs. face-to-face interactions. This is an opportunity for the department to add a human touch to the experience.
As part of their onboarding experience, one of the mandatory attendances is a Corporate Induction or Executive Induction. These are 2–3-hour long sessions that detail everything the new starter need to know about the Department of Transport. A quick summary of the opportunities and introduction to the Learning & Development team. Is this summary enough to inform and educate the new starters? Or would they benefit from a dedicated session where they can have the opportunity to ask questions, explore areas of development and get them thinking about capabilities they would like to achieve.
Areas of improvement to be considered are:
A 30-minute “get-to-know-you” session with the Learning & Development team – This can be an informal catch up with new starters for them to get to know the team and discuss in further detail what are the different opportunities available to them. Think of it as a Learning & Development speed dating session.
Learning & Development Roadshows – This is an opportunity for the team to join in different department’s team meetings and introduce different programs and opportunities that is relevant to the respective teams. (E.g.: Joining in the Design and Wayfinding’s Design Jam sessions every fortnight to introduce LinkedIn Learning creative courses related to design thinking/ new certifications)
A change in language in changing mindsets
Consider the narrative - What is being communicated consistently to new starters during the first few months of their journey.
I’ve spoken to my network of interns from the Digital Jobs Program on their new starter experience. When asked about what they understand about Learning & Development, Tracey Ma, Innovation Specialist at the Department of Transport has this to say, “I guess after e-learning modules... I don’t hear from them.... so, I am not sure”. This is consistent with other responses received.
This also corresponds with the insights from the workshop. The new starter first and constant interaction with Learning & Development is with regards to e-learning modules enrolment and reminders to complete them. This might not be conducive to building a positive connection with the Learning & Development team.
Areas of improvement to be considered are:
Changing the lingo when communicating to new starters. Communicate value first rather than communicating compliance during manager touchpoints, inductions, and newsletters
Implementing the areas of improvement in Insight 2
Next Steps / Future Development
Rolling out the next phase of the research – through the lens of the new starters.
A survey was developed to understand the awareness and effectiveness of Learning & Development opportunities from the perspective of a new starter. The answers from the survey will help understand their touchpoints with Learning & Development, how frequently they engage with the different opportunities, their learning habits, and their attitudes regarding learning and development.
Link to survey: https://forms.microsoft.com/r/QiSbuMUnCQ
The survey send-out should be a continuous effort to ensure that the team is consistently looking for improvements and understanding the needs of the new starters.
Develop a user flow based on the results from the survey – Where is new starters getting information on Learning & Development from and where do they go from there? creating a streamlined user flow based on the responses.
If given the opportunity, I would like to conduct a UX workshop with a group of new starters to interview them on the experiences. The workshop will also include a usability testing on the Learning & Development SharePoint page and Learning Corner page to understand their interactions on the page and document their process when searching for opportunities.