U.S. Office of Personnel Management - Ensuring the Federal Government has an effective civilian workforce

Individual Learning Account Pilot Initiative

A Learning Tool for the 21st Century

Lessons Learned in the Individual Learning Account Pilot Initiative

Although there were different ILA plans, goals and objectives established by the agencies, several common implementation Lessons Learned emerged. Consideration of these Lessons Learned is critical in developing strategies for successfully implementing ILAs.

Need for ILAs to be related to the agency's strategic goals.  Agencies indicated that this would raise agency awareness for investment in training and highlight how ILAs impact workforce development. Some agencies' pilots required employees to develop a plan in order to participate. These employee ILA plans fostered a more focused approach on the part of ILA participants and greater commitment to what they wanted to accomplish.

Also, management had a better understanding of the connection between the training activities the employees were pursuing and the established employee objectives as they related to the organization's strategic objectives.

Need to plan strategies and mechanisms to measure improved organizational performance and increased productivity. Agencies noted early in the pilot that measuring performance results may require more time than this pilot project covered. However, all agreed that performance measurement mechanisms need to be part of the ILA plan and timed to capture the information necessary.Some agencies provided anecdotal performance results in their initial evaluation reports. OPM will continue to work with these agencies as they continue to use ILAs and collect performance measurement information.

Need for a good marketing strategy.   Early and aggressive marketing of ILAs within an agency is a necessity.The agencies that incorporated marketing as a significant part of their approach, found management, as well as employees, responded more positively. One agency held a kick-off meeting with speakers from management presenting the ILA pilot and actually gave mock "ILA dollars." This agency's pilot also provided counselors to assist employees in developing their ILA plans. When marketing was not done, participant feedback indicated there was insufficient training information, not enough advance notice, and a need for more awareness of training resources.

Need for ILAs resources to be defined, understood, and available before starting. When beginning to use a new tool such as ILAs, agencies suggested that it is important to provide an advisor for the participants and make the ILA resource available to the participants up front. Some agencies were still unsure of the extent of their ILA resources as they began the ILA pilot implementation process. When the resources were defined early, agencies committed to what they would provide and employees understood the availability and requirements for use of the ILAs. There was general consensus that ILAs using dollars would fare better with central funding within the agency and access to resources that could grow to run the program as the implementation of ILAs grew in the agency.

Need for culture change to implement ILAs.  The agencies emphasized that implementing innovative tools like ILAs reflected a culture change for many organizations. It should be understood that this is a shift from emphasis on management directed training to joint collaboration. Inherent in this shift is shared accountability between management and employees for workforce development. Several agencies encountered supervisor resistance to joint determination of what is necessary for workforce development. Some agencies addressed this issue by focusing on educating first line supervisors. Ultimately, many agencies may need to adjust how they approach learning and development in order to embrace and fully benefit from the value of ILAs.

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