In these times of political, economic and social challenge, it is at the heart of Cegos corproate values to support NGO staff, managers and volunteers across the globe. We strongly believe in sharing our learning where it can have the greatest impact - we will continue to do so, in parallel with our commercial activities
1. Cegos eLearning modules contribute to creating greater health
impact globally
Cegos SA has announced their support and partnership with LINGOs (Learning for
International Non-Government Organizations) to provide a range of practical eLearning
modules for international humanitarian relief, development and conservation
organizations.
Eric Berg, Executive Director of the LINGOs organization comments:
"Over the next five years, our member NGOs need to identify and develop thousands of
key personnel and volunteers worldwide. With Cegos’ generous donation of its suite of
highly practical and powerful elearning modules, we can deliver high-quality, cost-
effective personal and professional development & online training to in-country and
expatriate staff and volunteers of our member agencies."
As part of this humanitarian commitment, Cegos is providing PSI (Population Services
International) – a member of the LINGOs organization - with their world class suite of
multi-lingual elearning modules, to help support PSI’s learning and development
strategy globally. Cegos elearning modules cover a range of personal and professional
development topics such as project management, management development, change
management, interpersonal and team skills and much more.
Marie-Laure Curie the Learning and Performance Manager responsible for the
worldwide deployment of PSI’s L&D strategy is keen to stress the positive impact these
modules are having…..
“By allowing us to deploy Cegos eLearning modules to our most needy employees –
those in developing countries around the world -Cegos have helped us provide our staff
with high-quality training materials that they otherwise would not have been able to
access. The modules don’t just allow us to “fill a gap” – they are practical, they work
and they are receiving a great reception from all our teams – we are extremely happy
with the learning they deliver, and the feedback of how the learning is actually applied
and implemented”.
Marie-Laure continues,
“What is important to our organization is that these modules have an impact on our
peoples’ performance and personal growth – they provide learning, they build
2. knowledge and allow for the practice of new skills immediately following. This suite
covers many priority topics for PSI staff and the fact that there is instant multi-lingual
capability “built in” to the Cegos elearning solution, offers us a huge benefit in terms of
multiple role outs across many parts of the world.”
To highlight the importance of Marie-Laure Curie’s comments, it is useful to understand
further the PSI context. As it began operations, the Learning and Development team at
PSI faced a number of complex challenges. PSI has offices in 67 developing countries;
these countries have varying degrees of connectivity to the Internet; they operate in
dozens of languages; and they work in many types of demanding environments. In
addition, PSI’s global staff asked the L&D team to help them improve their skills faster,
more effectively and at a lower cost. PSI therefore decided to look at the potential
opportunities in the growing field of eLearning.
Coming from the Operations side, the team of four L&D professionals at PSI plunged
into the field of e-learning, not really knowing at first how to start or run an online
university, how to do so on a small budget or how to convert classroom content for use
in online training. After conducting a review to identify best practices, they discovered,
through LINGOs (Learning for International NGOs), the possibility to deploy the Cegos
solutions. PSI were relieved to discover that there was a group of experienced people at
LINGOs and within Cegos who cared genuinely about helping NGOs get access to
world-class learning opportunities at little or no cost.
PSI quickly became highly knowledgeable around the deployment of elearning and its
measurement. Their first e-learning pilot involved 24 managers from PSI India and ran
from July through September of 2009. The goal was to make sure eLearning was the
right fit and to test various Learning Management Systems (LMSs) including one that
PSI built themselves. Based on findings from this pilot, PSI then created a more
comprehensive LMS site and piloted it with 12 countries in eastern and southern Africa
during the first six months of 2010. This second pilot was a real success. During those 6
months, 192 participants enrolled in 194 courses. 83 courses were completed and
participants reported 98% usage of skills. This is testament to the L&D team at PSI and
their insistence of measuring impact of all forms of elearning on behaviors and skills in
the field. Something many major corporate institutions still fail to do
PSI soon realized that in order to successfully launch PSI University globally, they need
to make multilingual content available to the staff, The biggest challenge was to find a
way to provide content in French and Spanish. PSI did not have the financial resources
to translate courses or to buy courses, and -- with the exception of some Harvard
courses that were available in Spanish, none of the many courses made available to
PSI from other suppliers through LINGOs were multilingual.
Marie-Laure Curie adds:
“The Cegos partnership with LINGOs was the key to addressing the needs of our many
non-English-speaking colleagues. It is only after we added several CEGOS courses to
3. our catalog that we were able to launch PSI University (http://learning.psi.org) globally
on August 7, 2010”
Marie-Laure goes on to explain:
“Seven months after the launch, PSI-U is considered a real success. Over 1670 of our
staff members (96% of which are local employees) are currently enrolled in a course.
Our course catalog, which is based on the needs of each country’s platform and is
linked to our HR competency model, currently offers a range of 49 online courses, some
of which are CEGOS’ and some of which are PSI’s”
Marie-Laure adds:
“CEGOS courses are extremely popular amongst our staff because they are high-
quality, concise, multicultural and multilingual. 358 CEGOS courses have been
completed to date by PSI employees and we currently have 637 staff enrolled in a
CEGOS course. The average star rating for CEGOS courses is 4 out of 5 and the
average skill use for all CEGOS courses on PSI-U is an impressive 94%!”
One of the key areas of PSI deployment for the Cegos elearning modules has been
Haiti, following the aftermath of the earthquake in 2010. The large humanitarian efforts
continue, and PSI is at the heart of activities there. Specifically focused around Mother /
Child health issues and support, PSI staff have been required to develop their skills as
they go. Katia Petit, one of the program assistants working for PSI, has been required
to conduct presentations at PSI offices and within local communities. Katia enrolled on
the Cegos elearning courses focused on writing skills specifically to help her become
more organized and effective during her preparation and delivery of the key messages
she needed to communicate. There was immediate benefit as Katia explains:
Katia Petit PSI Haiti office
Program Assistant, HIV and MCH (Mother Child Health)
“Most of the time, I was always lost during a presentation because I didn’t organize my
ideas and make a plan with specifics steps. The results: I looked confused and couldn’t
convince people especially because I didn’t use arguments adapted to the concept.
With the Cegos course on Writing Techniques, I learned how to elaborate my
presentations, to choose the right argument, to be methodological and to distinguish
what is important and what is superfluous. I encourage people to take this course, it’s
really helpful!”
4. In Malawi, Franklin Allan John, Senior Branch Operations Manager, PSI Malawi
made it his priority to work through a number of
elearning modules, as part of his development and for
the development of and interactions with his staff.
Franklin’s key motivation was the application of the
learning. It needing to be highly practical to allow him to
develop his management style and day to day
operations and interactions. His feedback is thorough
and shows directly the benefits of the Cegos elearning
modules to personnel in these geographies and the
immediate impact they can have.
1. Balancing the dual roles of People Manager and Technical Expert.
Delegating tasks and authority appropriately. While staff working with me believed that
the technical areas were solely my responsibility, e.g. Branch Financial reports, they
can now appreciate the process of delegation. The Branch Accountant can now
confidently start and complete the process and only let me check progress.
This certainly helped to improve my communication to motivate staff to do their best. It
has also encouraged me to use different communication formats ie: meetings, individual
face to face, postings on the board and discussion groups. The reaction has been
positive from the staff themselves.
2. How to write an effective email.
This is where I got to know that clarity does not necessarily mean quantitative
explanation. Qualitative explanation depends on how the objective of my
communication (email) is set out.
Simple and straight forward headings will help the reader understanding my point, and
my write up has also been properly directed to the person I am addressing, in the same
way thinking about the reader’s interpretation of the choice of words and chronological
order of events. Immediate impact!
3. Making a Success of your First Management position
Notably, I took the course when I was changed to supervise peers. This was the time I
got the inspiration on how to handle peers, maintain the relationship and at the same
time be seen to be controlling and making higher level decisions. While peers were
required to recognize my position change, I was also to be conscious of everybody’s
needs and expectations. This is possibly where I fought a winning battle in the early
days by taking into consideration all suggestions put forward by staff I met.
Creating early buy in from the staff and my peers during the change would have been
far more difficult I had not used the knowledge gained from this course. I am happy to
say that there is a solid and trusted relationship among the staff at the three branches I
now manage.
5. 4. Managing stress
This is where I am still getting the best, by doing the simple exercises to manage stress
which include, knowing and accepting that I am really operating under stress, then
taking breaks and use the breathing exercises.
While the current working environment demands working under pressure always, I now
work more peacefully, knowing that stress is harmful and that it really need to be
minimized. I can now better work under pressure without necessarily getting stressed
out as much as I used to.
5. Preparing & Structuring the annual performance review
Ever since I completed the course, I have confidently and successfully conducted
several structured annual performance reviews. My staff involved have all commented
positively on the approach.
With a leading role in Branch operations, I have learnt and applied a lot of techniques in
listening and giving feedback (80% listening and 20% talking) beyond the annual
reviews. This has helped me to move away from the leave-alone-then zap approach
many managers still use.
6. Handling Difficult Situations in Performance Review Interviews
Isn’t getting rid of difficult staff the simple and right way to operate? This was probably
my crude thinking before. Since I took the Cegos elearning course I realized that there
are probably many difficult situations encountered during review interviews which
cannot be sorted out just like that. The techniques I have used, show them the positive
side, motivate them, show them a bigger picture and recognize their efforts.
Motivating the negative attitude staff always proves really difficult. I was met with such
staff that strongly resisted a requirement for a change in behaviour, some even refusing
to recognize me. I discovered, from this course that I also contributed by distancing
myself from them and reacting negatively to the attitude. To-date, am still working on
changing staff attitudes from negative to positive-thinking and acting, but doing so in a
more considered and objective way thanks to the learning I gained from these modules.
Marie-Laure Curie of PSI concludes:
“CEGOS courses are clearly helping PSI staff everywhere gain or develop skills that are
key to increasing the impact of our programs that improve the health of poor and
vulnerable people in the developing world. We would like to thank CEGOS and its
employees, especially Pascal Debordes and Jeremy Blain, as well as LINGOs – your
support has been critical to helping us achieve our mission.”
6. In addition to Marie-Laure Curie’s and Katia’s comments, PSI gathered further feedback
directly from the field – across three continents! The learners were overwhelming in
their praise of the Cegos eLearning modules – they felt these modules finally offer the
kind personal development they need, and that helps them grow their skills on the
ground. A powerful combination.
Here are comments provided by PSI staff members on various CEGOS courses:
Writing Techniques:
“This course was easy to understand because of the practical exercises.
The combination of reading materials, voice and practical exercises have made this
approach very interesting (not boring) and effective for learning”. Research staff from
Zambia
“The course is very interesting, i learned several good techniques such as how to be
convincing and which argument employed depending of the context, recipient. I
encourage people to take it!!” Staff from Haiti
Writing Minutes:
“Ce cours a été très intéressant. J'ai pu prendre connaissance des subtilités et
techniques essentielles pour noter les informations les plus importantes pour la
rédaction d'un compte rendu concis et clair et fidèle.”. Staff from Benin
Preparing and structuring the annual performance review:
“This course helped me in clearing many things in my mind which is related to annual
appraisal review activity. as i have already done it four times in my past 04 years of HR
career but still i think i can do much more progress in this activity. Building a strong
bounding with employee through appraisal activity and giving them trust and make them
motivate is a good approach.”- Local manager from Pakistan
“Je me croyais une habituée de la conduite de l'entretien annuel. Mais après ce cours,
j'ai compris qu'il y a beaucoup d'erreurs à éviter que je commettais. Je le recommande
vivement à tous les managers.” Local manager from Benin
Preparing and structuring an oral presentation
“This is the first course of PSI University I've attended. I found it very helpful and very
interesting. I need to make an oral presentation to the donor and key stakeholders this
Friday. I was very worried but I feel much better after completing the course. I know
what I should do now” - Staff from Vietnam.
7. “The course is amazing and it has made me ready and secure to prepare and structure
an oral presentation which was my weak point when addressing clients from institutions
on certain topics I had to present. Now I am ready to put into use what I have learned
and the skills in my future assignments. Staff from Malawi
Managing stress
“The course has helped me to identify my own restrictive messages and provided
possible antidotes to these messages. By practising what I have learned, including the
various breathing techniques will help me to manage work/life stress better”. Staff from
Kenya
Customer relationship
“Customer relationship is a very good course, it has helped me as a professional driver
to relate well with Pace staff / PSI partners as well. I strongly recommend it to every
member of staff”. Staff from Uganda
8. ABOUT LINGOs
LINGOs is a consortium of leading international relief and development organizations
dedicated to sharing learning resources and experiences aimed at alleviating poverty
and suffering and effectively responding to humanitarian emergencies around the world.
Members include Care, Save the Children, Habitat for Humanity, Catholic Relief
Services, World Vision, Mercy Corps and many others. LINGOs also engages Partner
Companies working in technology assisted learning and related learning fields to
provide expert help and support for the LINGOs mission. Headquartered in Seattle, WA,
LINGOs can be found on the web at www.lingos.org.About PSI:
Population Services International (PSI) was founded in 1970 and is a leading global
health organization with programs targeting malaria, child survival, HIV, reproductive
health and non-communicable disease. Working in partnership within the public and
private sectors, and harnessing the power of markets, PSI provides life-saving products,
clinical services and behavior-change communications that empower the world's most
vulnerable populations to lead healthier lives.
PSI has an uncommon focus on measurable health impact and attempts to measure its
effect on disease and death much like a for-profit entity measures its profits. PSI
estimates that its programs implemented in 67 countries in 2009 directly prevented
nearly 150,000 HIV infections, 3.5 million unintended pregnancies, almost 270,000
deaths from malaria and diarrhea, and 40 million malaria episodes.
PSI established the Learning and Performance (L&P) department on September 1,
2008. The role of the department is to lead, coordinate and support learning and
development efforts for all 8,000 PSI-affiliated employees around the world. Its goal is to
assist our employees and our global network of affiliate organizations in becoming more
effective and efficient in our work so that we can achieve greater health impact. This
goal is in direct support of PSI’s 5-year strategic plan.
http://www. psi.org
http://learning.psi.org
About Cegos
Cegos was set up in 1926, and is now an international leading player in professional
training. In 2010, the company generated revenues of €180 million. Its consultants have
expertise in all areas of skills management and development, including human
resources, management and leadership, performance and organization, individual and
collective effectiveness, sales and marketing, project management and the deployment
of large-scale training systems all over the world. In 2010, Cegos provided training to
more than 200,000 people worldwide. Cegos operates from 30 countries and employs a
staff of 1200.
www.cegos.com
www.elearning-cegos.com