Industry Voice: Janet Iglesias

Janet has a storied career in learning and development both in and outside the energy sector. She’s devoted to helping organisations deliver exceptional education programmes, making the most of the expertise and technology at their disposal. She never stops, but we managed to pin her down to hear all about it.

How did you get started in education?

I was approached by the director of my daughters’ school to be a classroom instructor and went on to become the Director of Academic Activities. And it kept growing from there – it’s been 35 years now!

I left education briefly working in Washington DC supporting government contract auditing before moving back to Houston where I joined the learning and development team of a global oilfield services company – and that served as my introduction to the oil and gas world, aside from my Texan roots!

Initially that project was to classify existing technical training content. My role evolved into working directly with a variety of product line specialists to identify and support their learning development needs. That turned out to be a two-year project that launched me into learning solution provider Oilennium, which is how I first met [Reuzer Founder] Ian.

Tell us a bit about your current role and what you love most about it.

I support initiatives to grow Reuzer’s business in the US and liaise with clients on their training development projects.

I love working with clients to help their learners grow their knowledge and skills. It involves asking the right questions to identify how we can make training stronger within these organisations and meet their performance goals. I liaise with our clients from concept to implementation based on their unique needs. We can also support them in measuring the effectiveness of the training.

What’s made you focus on education in the energy sector in particular?

This industry is constantly evolving – it’s so diverse and so dynamic. The importance of meeting training needs and the ongoing challenges to avoid complacency in that training, is something I find interesting.

The professionals I’ve had the privilege of working with in the oil and gas industry are also a dynamic group of people – they have some captivating stories too! They’re bright, committed professionals that love their industry.

But delivering complex information to your workforce in a suitable and engaging experience is challenging. Sometimes there’s a bit of resistance to change, whereas other times a reduction in headcount or travel budgets can mean we need to do things differently and look to a digital delivery option. This means we need to engage with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs).

The SMEs are great at what they do, and have incredible knowledge in their fields, but they’re not digital delivery experts and more often than not – they’re not used to delivering training either. When SMEs are asked to share that knowledge through training, they may need support and tools to support them, and that’s where we can really help make the process smoother enhance the learners experience and ensure retention.

You mentioned resistance, so how has the industry changed? Are people more accepting of new ideas now than earlier in your career?

When I joined the industry, there was hesitance to deliver technical training outside of a traditional instructor-led setting. We’ve learned that digital training can be a game-changer. With some of the new technologies, especially with what Reuzer is doing, everything is so intuitive and practical. Digital training, if it’s done well can be so creative, engaging and cost-effective. There are also so many ways of measuring the effectiveness of training to justify the investment.

Tell us about that. How do you know if training has been effective?

Key ways to measure training effectiveness can be safety reporting, performance reviews and to have prescribed check-ins. For example, after 30 days from launch, get feedback from team leads who are rolling that training out and find out what the learners are saying. It’s so easy to do a survey that gets pushed out to employees to gain actual and honest feedback. This approach can give learners an opportunity to have a voice in their training, and that’s so important. They might say they can do their job more safely, effectively, or competently. Or they might ask for more training or further detail to take them to the next level.

And if we find out learners are struggling with a particular element, we’re able to revisit it and see how we can make tweaks to improve it, or perhaps change the way we’re delivering the training to make it more effective. This can be a challenge when the content is very complex.

But in the long term, if our clients can show the effectiveness of an education programme, they can get more people on board and appreciate the value of good training, which means more capable resources in the future.

At Reuzer, instead of a one-off course we’d prefer to help our clients develop a wider programme, with a variety of solutions all working together for maximum impact.

What does really good training look like?

Good, effective training is something that is engaging, up-to-date and retainable. The word that keeps popping up for me is ‘creativity’. This relates to the way we’re using the technology that we have to attract learners and keep them engaged. Great training understands the audience, has clear objectives and offers them flexibility in how they access it. Learners need intuitive design so they can jump right in – you shouldn’t need a training course on how to take your training course.

Lastly, what are the goals that guide the work that you’re doing. What are you ultimately trying to achieve?

I want to help those who haven’t come into the industry as training professionals but somehow find themselves in a training-related role. I enjoy supporting them in their process of identifying training gaps, setting priorities and delivering great learning experiences to their team.

But I also want to share my knowledge and enthusiasm of education and learning by encouraging others to explore design and delivery methods, and to motivate teams to go outside their comfort zones, and have an open mind in how to meet their learners specific needs.

And I want to continue to build really strong, trusting relationships within the training community and grow my own knowledge and skills. Education is my passion, and the energy sector never disappoints. I couldn’t imagine working in any other industry.