In this article we are going to delve into both the technical aspects and the possible applications of Pathways, Inform People’s module that brings together actions that are beyond the ‘day-to-day’. We know that when developing new business tools, the focus is on making roles and responsibilities clear, tasks easy to action, information available and providing opportunities for continuous performance improvement. We think we’ve nailed this with Pathways. 

Pathways are purposeful, they are about improvement with a goal

A goal that, when complete, will result in the participant having reached a new stage of their employment. This could be as straightforward as a Pathway for essential compliance, learning and policy sign off (available and compulsory for all) or as complex as a management development programme with multiple steps, sign off and reviews.

How are Pathways assigned?

A benefit of the Inform People Virtual PA platform as a whole is that it is ultimately tailorable to you, your business, and your people. When allocating tasks we use permissions built into the platform – we work with you and your expertise to understand who needs to see and do what tasks and we set up rules (based  on Job Title, Locations and tick boxes) that then makes almost everything automatic. 

For Pathways, these are assigned via ‘Filters’ that bring together many aspects of identifying information such as job roles, specific location or business area, attributes, time at the business (based on start date), or even other previously completed actions within platform modules.

These filters allow tasks both in and out of Pathways to be assigned to exactly the people who need to complete them, and if anyone suddenly qualifies for a Filter they are automatically included in it and get access to their tasks and information without hands on manual updates. This automation makes everyone’s days easier and takes the headache out of assigning compliance tasks and learning. 

A Filter example for you to consider:

Pathway – Career Advancement 

Filter Parameters: 

• • Location: Stores
    (this includes any level employee in the Retail section of the Org Structure and excludes Head Office and DC) 

• • Start Date = more than 12 weeks ago
    (this makes sure you are only offering this Pathway to people who have completed their induction) 

• • Job Title isn’t ‘Area Manager’ or ‘General Manager’
    (These people have already achieved this status so do not need to be included)

• • Attribute: Career Advancement Opt In
    (let your rising stars chose if they want to join the Management Career path)

This filter would then assign the Pathway only to your interested team members who want to progress within your company. 

What can Pathways include?

Currently, our Pathway options can contain any of the following:

• • MSCP – our LMS that does a lot more than just learning
    • • Memo
    • • Survey
    • • Course
    • • Policy
    • • Guide or Risk Assessment (we added these later and MSCPGRA is a bit of a mouthful, don’t you think?)

• • Knowledge Base

• • Knowledge Share

• • Event – as an attendee or leader

• • Collections

• • Audit – as an auditor or as a witness

• • Link – to any website or internal Inform People link

However, that’s a very technical way to look at your options. What Pathways can also achieve is more about the cohesive approach – the ‘one place to look’ and ease of tracking completion that allows you to offer your employees a tangible route to growth and achievement. The way our teams work with you when setting up your platform will be to look over your current processes and documents and your plans for how you want to do things differently, then suggest the ways that they fit into our digital solutions – listening to you the whole time. 

Defining a Pathway

Another aspect to consider is whether the development pathway you are designing should be strictly linear or a bit more open to choice in the order that tasks are completed. Each Pathway can be either Strict or Open, this means you could have some Pathways that are locked down so that each task must be completed one after another in a specific order – or you could leave them to be approached in a more ad hoc timeline. Due to the Filters options, it is also possible to lock starting one Pathway behind having fully completed another which provides the option for continuous formal training approaches to be set up with advancement from one to the next being automated by achievement factors. 

How easy are they to update?

Pretty straightforward – though it depends on the size of the change. All changes made to an established Inform People platform are the result of a discussion between your key stakeholders and your client manager. We make the updates to the platform, but you make the decisions. To keep it as clear and smooth as possible for all involved, while still maintaining the complexity of all the options of the VPA, it is a collaborative process.

An example for you to consider:
Personal Development and Retention 

Providing structure through Pathways gives your people a clear approach to their personal career development, making what could be a disparate set of tasks and information into a clear and formatted structure. A clear pattern of actions that build to an achievement. 

This would be used for anyone who is new to a business and those who are progressing up a role such as Managers hired externally and those moving up the career ladder within. 

Your ‘induction’ Pathway could include:

• • Documents and videos on company culture

• • Audits where the new starter needs to be marked as a witness to shadow key actions

• • Events where people with the same role come together to share experiences and ideas

• • Knowledge checks of key information

• • Additional policies for Management tasks (e.g. hiring information)

• • Reviews to sign off progress

As always, the reporting makes your data matter

By grouping actions into logical Pathways, your ability to review completion of actions from multiple modules is then all one place. Just look through the Org Directory’s inbuilt Pathway reporting for overall completion rates and dig into individual actions too. 

By completing non-compulsory but open training pathways you can also identify your keen and capable rising stars who are ready for promotion – automatically generating a list for when roles are made available. This promotes retention as hiring from within is known to increase loyalty. 

Reporting is also linked to your company Organisational Structure which ensures that Managers see their teams, Area Managers see all locations under their area, and if your have Regional or Fascia management then their view is linked to their authority too. This secures and streamlines access to information – giving management clear achievement figures to track and senior management whole company access. Dig into the details to fuel business analysis with additional Insights Reporting too. Your platform comes with the standard setup for reporting but we can build client specific Insight reports to support your goals and data streams too.  

For further reading on Pathways and their potential check out our earlier blogs: 

• • Pathways to support hybrid learning

• • Pathways for onboarding and inductions

• • Pathways for seasonal restricted products

So, what’s next?

If you want to get started setting up your Pathways today, ready to launch in 2024 – just drop us a quick email to info@informpeople.com or call us on +44 (0)161 713 4104 to set up a demonstration or in-person presentation.