As L&D Manager for CastUK, Eva doesn’t just talk the talk, she walks the walk of modern, progressive L&D, focusing on business performance outcomes and creating learning experiences that combine digital and face-to-face. Hear Eva’s stories about her progress and her principles of Learning & Development in practice.
 
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Did you have an idea of how you wanted your L & D function to run?

I wanted to move away from classroom-based training and to establish what great looked like for the company.  We explored what sort of skills we needed and what were the skills people already had.
Every skill needs to be tackled differently and when you are addressing reality you are able to achieve real results.
People are afraid of experimenting and trying something new because at some point failure is guaranteed but what you do with the lesson learned is what makes the difference.
I was open to challenge and they were prepared to challenge, this combined has enabled us to change.

What have you done to broaden and challenge the expectations of what L & D looks like?

I wanted to initially to understand what the challenges were across the business for differing individuals.
Learning has to be hard fun; people should be doing something different to what they do in the workplace
Using role-play in the training room enables individuals to learn from their mistakes in a safe environment.
We underestimate people’s need for autonomy, to be able to go through things at their own pace and develop true understanding.

Can you explain how you have saved time in induction with digital solutions?

The induction is not shorter, but the approach is different. Anything that is knowledge or content-based people access themselves digitally at their own pace.
The digital solution is curated content- some of which is created internally capturing the knowledge within the company, it’s the ‘how to’
The face to face sessions are opportunities to summarise and check the understanding.

You are have been exploring automation with digital resources, how is that developing?

It is useful to be able to target various groups with different content and send it out when it is needed.
The Looop solution allows me to be more timely, proactive and efficient with my time.
If we don’t understand what people are trying to do when they are facing critical points of failure, unfamiliar situations or challenges then we can’t support them.
Go out and do it, give it a try and see how it works for you, get into that experimenting mindset
It’s about solving the real problems out there, being curious and using technology as your tool.

 
BEST MOMENTS
‘The biggest challenge in L & D is capturing what works’
‘The want and will to constantly review their own performance and understand it’
‘You are making an assessment based on readiness through observation’
‘If you are results-driven you are not precious about content, you view it as a tool to achieve the results’
 
ABOUT THE GUEST
Eva Adam
Eva Adam is L&D Manager at CastUK, a recruitment consultancy specialising in sourcing executive and management level roles.
 
Whilst Eva is relatively new to L&D, having spent time before in operational and management roles, she is clear about the impact she wishes to make with her practice and leadership and has successfully sold this vision to her stakeholders. 
 
You can connect with Eva via:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eva-adam-25947787/
 
ABOUT THE HOST
David James
David has been a People Development professional for more than 20 years, most notably as Director of Talent, Learning & OD for The Walt Disney Company across Europe, the Middle East & Africa.
As well as being the Chief Learning Strategist at Looop, David is a prominent writer and speaker on topics around modern and digital L&D as well as an active member of the CIPD L&D Advisory Board.
 
CONTACT METHOD
Twitter:  https://twitter.com/davidinlearning?lang=en
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidjameslinkedin/
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