Learning Pathways and Competency Frameworks Consultant

Learning Pathways and Competency Frameworks Consultant for a 11 months contract.
Must Work on W2
Location: Chicago, IL (Remote with less than 25% travel to Chicago, IL. Incurred expenses will be reimbursable )
Duration:11 Months
Industry Experience: Must have Public Health Department
Company Overview
A leading public healthcare system dedicated to delivering comprehensive medical services to the community. With a network of hospitals and clinics, the organization provides both inpatient and outpatient care, ensuring high-quality, accessible healthcare for a diverse population, including underserved communities. Services encompass primary care, specialty care, emergency services, and public health initiatives. Furthermore, our client is deeply committed to medical education and research, training the next generation of healthcare professionals, and conducting innovative studies to advance medical knowledge and improve patient outcomes.
Role Overview
The Learning Pathways and Competency Frameworks Consultant will both design and implement comprehensive learning pathways for critical roles within the organization and support the design of competency models for two core disciplines in the organization. This initiative aims to enhance employee engagement, foster professional development, and bolster organizational resilience. By identifying key competencies and progression opportunities, the consultant will create structured learning development plans that align with both individual career aspirations and the strategic goals of the organization. This role involves collaborating with various departments to ensure the pathways are effectively integrated and communicated, thereby supporting a culture of continuous growth and development, and that the competency model development is informed by stakeholder expertise
Key Responsibilities

• Conduct stakeholder interviews: Conduct comprehensive interviews with key stakeholders to identify and prioritize roles that would benefit most from career and learning path development. This involves understanding the strategic importance of each role, current challenges, and future needs to ensure the career and learning paths align with organizational objectives.
• Review current training and job architecture landscape: Review and analyze existing training and job description or job architecture materials to determine their relevance and applicability for career and learning pathing specific to identified roles. This includes analyzing to glean insights to inform pathway development and evaluating the content, delivery methods, and effectiveness of current training programs to ensure they support the desired career progression.
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• Design and develop custom career and learning pathways: Develop customized career paths and progression routes for prioritized roles and identify the associated learning to facilitate progression, leveraging relevant training modules. This process involves mapping out clear and attainable career trajectories, identifying necessary skills and competencies, and outlining the steps required for employees to advance within the organization.
• Create assessments: Create and implement assessments designed to evaluate employees' skills and readiness for career mobility. These assessments will help identify gaps in knowledge or experience and provide a basis for targeted development plans to prepare employees for their next career steps.
• Validate developed material with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs): Validate the developed career and learning paths with relevant key stakeholders to ensure they are accurate, relevant, and aligned with organizational goals and workforce planning. This step involves gathering feedback, making necessary adjustments, and gaining buy-in from leadership and other key parties to ensure successful implementation.
• Develop customized competency frameworks for a defined organization discipline and clinical/professional area: Conduct interviews with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to gather in-depth insights and review relevant materials and resources to gather information on the required skills, behaviors, and expertise expectations, as well as development milestones for the designated functions within the organization. Create a customized competency framework for each area, ensuring consistency with the existing leadership competency framework.
• Develop assessments: Design self-assessment tools and peer assessments for each competency included in the customized frameworks. These assessments will help individuals, and their peers evaluate their proficiency levels and identify areas for improvement.
• Validate frameworks: Collaborate with relevant SMEs and other key stakeholders to validate the customized competency frameworks. This step ensures the frameworks are accurate, relevant, and aligned with the organization's needs and expectations.
• Assist in learning module development: Support, as needed, the design and development of micro-learning-style training modules related to competencies and skills. These modules will provide focused, bite-sized learning opportunities that are easily accessible and can be integrated into employees' daily routines, supporting continuous development and skill enhancement.

Qualifications

• Strong active listening skills and empathy: Demonstrated ability to understand the unique context, operational nuances and constraints, and strategic needs of the client organization
• Decision-making facilitation: Ability to guide diverse stakeholders to make informed decisions from multiple possibilities and ambiguous, complex scenarios
• Attention to detail: Proven record of developing tailored, comprehensive solutions based on systematic analysis of client needs
• Adaptability and resilience: Ability to remain flexible, patient, and effective in a dynamic environment with evolving priorities and requests
• Persistence and results orientation: Track record of delivering high-quality outcomes and meeting deliverable deadlines, even amidst organizational and client constraints
• Excellent communication skills: Strong writing and verbal communication abilities with impeccable grammar and strong presentation and storytelling skills to articulate insights and recommendations to varied audiences.
• Stakeholder engagement : Experience fostering trust and collaboration with both senior leaders and frontline staff.

Skills and Experience

• Experience in career development, talent management, or organizational development
• Experience with creating and/or refining career paths, competency models, and associated learning pathways
• Experience identifying and developing talent pipelines
• Experience with rapid and iterative content development
• Experience developing assessments, skills gap analyses, self-assessments, and/or peer review instruments
• Ability to interpret and visualize data, draw actionable insights, and create client-facing reports or presentations
• Strong knowledge of career pathing frameworks and leading practices
• Strong knowledge and understanding of job architecture and organizational design
• Strong knowledge of and proficiency with Microsoft Office products, especially PowerPoint, Word, Outlook, Teams, and Excel
• Knowledge of adult learning principles and instructional design

Education
Bachelor's degree, ideally in a field related to human resources, organizational behavior / development / leadership, learning and development, instructional design, healthcare administration, or business administration
Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working with senior leaders or in a corporate environment: Comfort engaging with executive-level stakeholders, influencing at all levels, and tailoring approaches to diverse audiences
• Sector knowledge in healthcare/hospitals: Direct experience or substantial familiarity with clinical or healthcare industry environments and workforce needs
• Experience with learning management systems and virtual training technologies, including e-learning tools
• Advanced degree or relevant professional certifications (e.g., ATD, SHRM, HRCI, instructional design)