Help! We are growing!

 

Updated 4/19/23

It is flattering when others in your organization recognize the success you are having with digital credentials, yet it can feel a little unnerving when they ask to join your program. How do you manage that? This post will help you consider steps you can take proactively and what you can do reactively.

Start with good governance

Guess what our most successful customers share? A love of governance. It is not a 4-letter word! Good governance puts the structure in place before you begin your credential system and allows you to grow and scale comfortably in the future. What goes into a good governance plan?


Common elements of good governance 

Goals – Take care to articulate what you hope to achieve with your badging program. If your goal is to recognize skills and a new unit wants to document years of service, you might have a conflict. It helps to have this stated publicly to reinforce the overall purpose.

Membership and roles – This is the “who’s who” of your badging program, and we recommend a team approach. Even in organizations where you may be a generalist who handles it all, it would help to have representation from: 

  • IT to help with any single sign on or integration work; 
  • Learning and Development colleagues to see how your current catalog of learning activities could be recognized with badges; 
  • HR or Talent to advise you on current or future workforce needs; 
  • Marketing and Comms representatives to help you with both the design and execution of targeted promotional materials;
  • Subject Matter Experts who help with content areas. They often know the ins and outs of skills that canbe recognized with badges;
  • Advisory/Industry representatives to vet your ideas and secure support for your earners;
  • Supporting players who will interface directly with earners

What would those “governors” do? When new requests are forwarded or the program is up for renewal, governors are the people who ensure the integrity of the program. Do new requests fit appropriately? Is the current structure meeting your needs and advancing your goals? A strong governance document will document the responsibilities of this group.

Vocabulary – Take the time to define your lexicon so you have a shared understanding. What is a badge versus a credential? Are you offering certificates? How would those be different from a badge? There is no prescribed language, so you get to decide in the context of your organization.

Basic Guidelines and Minimal Standards - Whether you refer to this as a framework or standards or guidelines, somewhere there should be agreement on what a credential represents. For example, some common standards relate to assessment (e.g., no credentials without formal assessment). Other standards might specify how an organization distinguishes between levels of proficiency.

Policies and Procedures – How often will the governing team meet? Who will handle the day-to-day operations? How should others request new credentials? Who decides when a credential should be updated? What are the mechanisms for asking for access to the platform? The best governance documents itemize each of those questions and more. Our guide will help you think through the details you should capture.

A template for governance is linked here!

How to bring newcomers up to speed

There are several ways to get newcomers acclimated, but this comes down to training and documentation. 

The documentation will be an easy task if you have published it in your governance plan! Write it for the future.

Training is available in a couple of ways. 

  • You could ask for access to an entire pathway which takes a user from governance through template creation, issuing, promotions, etc. 
  • You could also ask for access to an abbreviated course for new admins. It cuts to the chase on template creation, issuing, and day to day activities.

If you find you need more help with explaining what badges are about, who they benefit, and who Credly is, we have a set of slides you could use as a starter. (See this support article.)


Permissions

The platform allows you to segment newcomers based on role and access. For example, you would like to partition your account based on collections and assign access accordingly. Or someone needs access to issue badges that are centrally created and managed so you restrict their editing capabilities. If you have questions about how to set this up, our staff can talk you through the nuances.


The subscription

You may need to increase your subscription depending on how much you grow. This is usually an effortless process. If a new group will issue more badges, you could internally charge back for their use.


In real life

Rouxbe Online Culinary Training had a series of food preparation credentials that were recommended for credit through the American Council on Education. Seeing the success of those, Rouxbe decided to broaden into two new plant-based certifications. Before they did, they revisited their governance guide to ensure consistency with branding and leveling. The guide also laid out a pathway for approving the idea, developing the template, and marketing the program.


Another example in real life

Pearson (Credly’s parent company) issues badges for internal learning and development. To start their process, Pearson defined success metrics and designed a framework to articulate types of achievements tied to existing proficiency standards. 

Pearson defined a Badge Advisor role, responsible for upholding the framework, creating enablement resources for potential new programs, and onboarding new programs into the badging system. 

The onboarding process starts with a form-based application. After reviewing, the Advisors work with new program owners to ensure alignment with the framework, and that the program owner has the resources they need to launch their badges. 

Ultimately, the Advisors hold program owners accountable for maintaining the program and tracking success metrics. The program owners have support creating valuable credentials, and Pearson benefits from having a consistent, scalable approach!

 

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