The learning mission is fairly universal. It has infinite nuances related to company and industry, but learning should somehow help people work smarter and perform at optimal levels. The structure of the learning organization and how it’s governed, however, are as varied as the products and services different companies produce.

Health insurance provider and care facilitator Health Net Inc. embarked on a discussion and evaluation of learning governance, and it built a model to operate from as a precursor to an enterprisewide learning management system purchase scheduled for early next year. This model will help the company create efficiencies, break down silos and generally leverage learning as a strategic activity, one that will put the right stakeholders in the right place at the right time.

“As a company, we have business units that are dispersed geographically, as well as units that have very specific, different functions, and from a governance standpoint, in order to truly leverage the system in a way that we’re hoping will give us what we want, is we can involve the right stakeholders at the right time,” said Andy Ortiz, vice president of talent management, diversity and leadership development. “Part of that process is selecting a learning governance committee and structure that will enable us to really get the most out of the dollars that we spend on learning.”

Suzanne Rumsey, director of corporate workforce planning, said Health Net also is trying to figure out the best way to leverage talent in the organization.

“Health insurance is a very thin margin business,” Rumsey said. “The dimensions upon which you can effectively compete, they all require very strategic management of core talent. Health Net, in its current incarnation, has only been in business probably seven years. We are like a lot of health insurance companies out there, a product of a lot of acquisitions and divestitures. For that reason we’ve had very distributed models around everything, not just learning but finances, performance and those sorts of things. The last several years have been a process of centralizing and standardizing certain processes where it makes sense. In the past two or three years, we’ve started to really look at the talent management landscape. We’re going off the model that we have to have good leaders in place to create an environment where people enjoy coming to work and giving their best every day. We walk that road, but we’ve walked it as far as we can without putting some key tools in place, and that’s where the learning management system comes into play.”