Posted by Caveo Learning ● November 3, 2015

HR VP Talks Gamification, Social Learning, and Training ROI

Jasiel LegonThis is part of our ongoing series, Interviews with Learning Leaders.

Jasiel Legon is vice president of human resources for Oportun, a consumer credit provider. Before joining Oportun in 2012, he served in the same role for Popular Community Bank Inc. Legon holds a master's in human performance improvement from Roosevelt University, and has two professional certifications: Senior Certified Professional from the Society for Human Resource Management, and Senior Professional in Human Resources from the Human Resources Certification Institute.


What was your path to get into the talent development field?

I fell into it, as many learning professionals do. My background was sales and sales leadership. My manager thought I had good people management skills and asked if I would like to cross over to training. I was up for it. I always liked the coaching part of managing people. So I flipped from being a leader of business to leading a training organization. Even while leading training, I was looking for relevance to the business. I looked for ways we could transform the training experience to be just-in-time, realistic, and very applicable to the business. We kept a pulse on the business and worked at making things relevant.

You recently got a master’s in human performance improvement. What motivated you to get it?

My passion is learning. And I needed to further my skills, become a professional practitioner—a specialist. It helped me to make a difference and tied my work experience together. It helped me to be a better strategist and added to my credibility.

What is your philosophy on being a learning leader?

I’m not just in charge of people, but I am a business leader. And people make the numbers. You have to speak the language of business. They don’t want to learn organizational development, so you have to speak their language.

What advice do you have for how learning leaders can better connect with the business?

Relevance.

I am blessed to be a key stakeholder and at the table with the execs. I participate in meetings that are not directly HR- or training-related. I am in business meetings, reviewing P&Ls and data. I need to know how we are doing and I need to show I’m not just in charge of people. I am a business leader, and empowering people makes the numbers.

Advice I would give to others is, if you are not invited, ask to be invited. Talk to the organizer and let them know you are interested in the business and would love to attend—maybe not all, but some. Let them know that you want to better understand the business and what impacts the bottom line so you can make better decisions, have better learning interventions, and see how the business is changing. In order to be relevant, you must have a pulse on business. Define the reason—the ROI—for you to be there. This shows you are being a proactive partner, versus passive.

Is there a learning organizational structure you prefer?

Don’t be afraid to be bold. I recently moved sales training under the VP of retail. I kept the corporate training under the HR umbrella (leadership development, 360° assessments, enterprise-wide training, and compliance training). Now the VPs have the authority over training their people, with a dotted line to HR.

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What changes are you seeing in the workforce?

Our workforce is changing and we are hiring a lot of Millennials. We find them to be young, eager, educated, and having high expectations of their employer. We want to make sure they know how they can develop as a professional—how to utilize their school knowledge and put it into their business life. We work to keep them engaged. We are headquartered in Silicon Valley, and it is a competitive job market. Unemployment is less than 2%. It is rewarding to see young people come in and eager to grow as people.

How are you leveraging technology?

Learning management systems are changing drastically. There is more of an eye on gamification, and the old, bland “assign-a-course” LMS is becoming a dinosaur. The new generation needs a different learning experience. They have grown up with technology. We are in the process of changing our talent platform to Cornerstone OnDemand.

We have changed the courses to shorter modules—short bursts of learning. We are changing from the old 30-minute courses with slides and slides and slides. We have chunked the learning and made it self-paced. Now, when people have downtime or free time, they can go in and do it themselves. We don’t impose a deadline; we reward completion. Scores are published, and they can see how other employees are scoring—who is at the top, who is not. There are different game themes that keep it interesting. They learn products, features and benefits, service standards, how to handle the customer experience, policy, and procedures. We are a Silicon Valley company, so we have to innovate!

The platform includes a social learning aspect. There are chat rooms, and employees can blog and share best practices. Managers can upload from iPhone a video of a demonstration, record a best practice modeling behavior, or record a manager message of the day. With 165 branches in 7 states, the leader message can be heard. There is peer-to-peer learning, it is just-in-time and relevant, and people can comment.

Any advice you would give others who want to progress in this field?

You have to stay on top of it. Read LinkedIn articles, keep the toolbox sharpened. We can very quickly become irrelevant. Share relevant items with your team and managers. Show the CEO, COO, and other business leaders what is working in amazing companies and business trends. It keeps you at the top of the funnel, and the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

Topics: Interviews with Learning Leaders