August 7, 2000

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E-Learning Is For Soft Skills, Too

Procter & Gamble set to roll out online program to teach employees nontechnical Skills

By Sandra Swanson

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rocter & Gamble Co. is betting that technology provides an effective way to teach nontechnical skills. The company will roll out its RapidLearn program for more than 110,000 workers on Aug. 17, giving them online tools for developing both technical and nontechnical soft skills such as leadership, teamwork, and management.

SkillSoft Corp. and NetG U.S. will be among the providers of more than 60 soft-skill courses. Soft skills make up about half of the RapidLearn offerings, while IT and business training account for the rest. P&G's investment in online instruction for soft skills underscores a growing interest in that area. International Data Corp. predicts that U.S. spending on online soft-skills training will outpace online IT education by 2003. Many of the reasons behind online IT training-convenience, cost, and flexibility-also make E-learning attractive for soft skills, says IDC analyst Cushing Anderson.

Cost saving was a consideration, but not the primary goal of the program, says Larry Green, the leader of P&G's RapidLearn project. "The main driver is to get the learning people need, when they need it, in just the right amount," he says. The program is designed to let employees drill down and access specific information. For example, a P&G employee who needs to understand a business term can spend 30 minutes online instead of two days in a brick-and-mortar class on business principles.

This cherry-picking approach to learning may prompt companies to re-evaluate whether it's necessary to put employees through an entire course. Says Green, "As a business leader, do I really care if my people complete a course, or that they went in and got skills they needed to do the task at hand?"

When there are no instructors to consult, online courses may leave students with unanswered questions. But with the dizzying pace of change in business, E-learning's immediacy overshadows that drawback. "The ability to get an 80% solution today is much more valuable than obtaining a 100% solution in a class that's available in three months," Green says.

P&G has no intention of closing the door on its classroom training, however. Says Green, "We're looking at E-learning as a supplement to classroom training."

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