For the past 9 years the ‘Towards Maturity Benchmark Study’ has been investigating how organisations in Europe embed innovative learning practices, and the impact those practices have on learners and the organisation.  This year the study is being extended to the Asia Pacific and provides a chance to understand more about the learning practices within organisations in our region that excel in business agility,  efficiency,   employee engagement   and general business impact!

I first heard about this study through El-Net  (the E-Learning Network of Australasia, disclosure: where I am a committee member).  As someone who looks at how learning and development practices which have traditionally occurred face to face (eg. coaching) can (or can’t) be delivered online, in my day to day role,  I was interested in what organisations in our region can learn based on the Euro experience.  

Anyone who has attended a conference and heard about the challenges faced by different professionals as they try to incorporate technologies into learning practices will appreciate that many of us face similar issues and can certainly learn from each other!

As a result of the benchmarking to date, Towards Maturity (the independent, not for profit organisation who run the study) have developed a framework which outlines six measurable activities that improve the business impact of learning technologies at work. They also regularly produce research reports such at their latest on “Learning Innovation for Leadership Development” based on the data they collect.

While these reports and resources are already valuable, I’m looking forward to seeing what kind of information is produced the other side of the Asia Pacific benchmarking… 

What tools or information do you currently use to benchmark your organisation against others when it comes to incorporating learning technologies?

Towards Maturity are partnering with ElNet to target companies to participate in the survey from the Asia Pacific region. In 2011, 73% of participants reported that just taking part in the study had given them new ideas to improve the impact of their learning services.  If you would like to take part visit http://www.elnet.com.au/index.php/benchmark  Participating companies will obtain free personalised insights into their own strategies benchmarked against world wide best practise.