“People often think of training as something organizations carry out when they have a problem or if they need to fill a gap. But learning and growing is a lifelong pursuit,” remarks Matisha Montgomery, chief learning officer for the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. “At HUD, your role is not just a job; it’s a career. To be successful throughout your career, you must prioritize continuous learning.”

HUD’s mission is to create strong, sustainable, inclusive communities and quality affordable homes for all. To fulfill that mission, its more than 8,300 workers in 65 offices throughout the US administer federal housing and urban development laws and oversee programs that provide housing and community development assistance.

Foundational programs

Montgomery leads a team that designs and delivers programs focused on developing the durable skills, business acumen, and leadership capabilities of HUD’s workforce. Referred to internally as Talent Development and Workforce Planning (TDWP), the office also directs coaching and mentoring, rotational assignments, succession planning, and organizational development initiatives. Simultaneously, the team tracks the agency’s human capital analytics.

“The work we do is integrated into the employee’s entire career journey from onboarding to exit and everything in between,” Montgomery says. “Any learning and professional development that is central to bettering the whole organization lives with us.”

TDWP recently launched an umbrella initiative called Pursue You that enables employees to access training that Montgomery asserts will “equip them with critical knowledge and capabilities.” For instance, programs offer training related to business skills (such as data literacy and project management) and leadership development (such as communication, emotional intelligence, and change management).

Although the Pursue You initiative already encourages all HUD employees to set aside time weekly for focused training, Montgomery’s team rolled out the Empower Hour program, which inspires employees to spend two hours every quarter exploring other professional development opportunities. TDWP offers several one-hour topic sessions as options for personal development time. Alternatively, staff can use the time to meet with a mentor, read an article or book, or complete mandatory training requirements on topics such as IT security, data privacy, or harassment prevention and awareness.

In addition to launching new initiatives, TDWP has revamped existing programs. The team redesigned the onboarding process into a comprehensive experience called Welcome HOME (HUD Onboarding for Managers and Employees) because “one of the biggest impacts talent development can make for the organization is to help integrate people from day one,” states Montgomery.

HUD’s leadership framework also received a makeover to reflect leadership in today’s changing world. Historically, the bulk of the agency’s leadership development programming followed principles similar to those Stephen Covey describes in 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. However, due to workforce changes brought on by the pandemic such as the switch to a hybrid workforce, the department implemented a more human-centered approach.

“We want leaders to understand that the workplace is different now. They need to think and interact with their teams differently,” Montgomery explains. “There’s no more just sitting in your office and being able to physically see your entire team. Because people are working remotely, leaders can’t have team members stop by their office with a problem or a question. Instead, a manager needs to find other ways to connect.”

The updated leadership framework teaches managers “strategies to build connections, to build bridges between employees so they feel and work like a team and not a bunch of individuals who are operating on their own,” she continues. “It’s focused on teaching managers and supervisors how to be more intentional in their interactions and to lead with empathy, understanding, and respect.”

Establishing a learning culture

Montgomery notes that HUD follows a federated model for L&D. While she leads the team charged with developing employees’ general competencies, program offices manage the technical training critical to specific occupations. For example, the Office of Lead Hazard Control and Healthy Homes trains investigators on technical process skills and scientific knowledge such as how to detect whether lead-based paint exists at a property and how to properly report and disclose the findings.

To ensure that TDWP’s initiatives and the solutions fostered by the program offices complement one another, Montgomery has concentrated efforts on shifting HUD to a learning culture.

That starts with each of the program offices having training officers “who have a dotted line directly back to me,” she describes. “Even though they may work on their own technical training, we still work hand in hand with them on overall programming.”

For instance, HUD needed to establish foundational understanding and content for the agency’s inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility programming, so Montgomery’s team used an existing online catalog of resources.

Then, TDWP worked with the chief diversity officer to develop additional instructor-led modules (both in person and virtual) because, although a lot of DEI expertise existed, accessibility knowledge had a gap in coverage. At the program office level, accessibility issues can surface in the policies, regulations, or contracts with builders or communities.

“We want to make sure all who support the mission of HUD understand that it is everyone’s job to think about accessibility,” Montgomery says, adding that training content must reflect real-world examples that apply to HUD’s mission and work.

For example, a scenario in a learning module may ask about accessibility requirements for builders developing or reviewing grant proposals for a community center. “Often, the first answer is wheelchair accessibility like ramps and wide doors, but what about strobe lights or listening devices? What about braille signage? We need to work with individual program offices to develop the training they can relate to and apply,” Montgomery explains.

But a learning culture is more than having effective employee development programs in place, she insists. It “means that employee learning and development must be something that every organizational leader is thinking about and assessing and tracking against. They’re all accountable.”

To instill such a culture, TDWP works with program offices to develop an annual training plan that feeds into the agency’s broader training plan. That ensures everyone “thinks strategically about how they’re going to execute on their training dollars and where they’re going to make those investments,” Montgomery states.

Reinforcing procedures

TDWP emphasizes the importance of training time with leadership because, frequently, “managers approve someone to attend training and then pull them out to fight a fire,” Montgomery reveals.

To spread the message to honor and value training time, the organization includes such initiatives in leadership performance evaluations. According to Montgomery, “They are accountable to ensuring that people are developed. Also, they cannot just promote one-off trainings, but they must think strategically about the development needs of their workforce and budget resources and time properly.”

It’s not all about training, though; workforce and succession planning are also a focus. Montgomery affirms that “sometimes training is the solution to close a skill gap, but other times there are other solutions to consider. This requires thinking about the skills of the future and skill development from multiple perspectives. Are there skills, knowledge, or capabilities that we need in the workforce that we don’t have enough of or don’t have at all?”

Likewise, she reveals that in the past, when a vacancy opened at HUD, the company’s modus operandi has been to simply backfill the original job description with the same skills at the same level. Instead, TDWP now works with leaders to address several questions:

• Are we using all the available options to skill our talent and build the workforce?

• Are we recruiting for the right skills?

• Do we need to update the role or job description for future needs?

• How many people do we need and at what level?

• Could a vendor-supported function help us get through a short-term need?

• Does the situation call for contracted talent?

The point, Montgomery says, is to “help the organization think through how to best use existing and potential human resources to meet our current talent needs as well as our future needs.”

She remains optimistic because leaders are “making space for talent development” and discloses that “we’ve made significant progress and are well on our way to achieving the learning culture we’re striving for, though there’s still more we can accomplish.”

Montgomery believes communication is the linchpin to building steam. “You cannot overcommunicate to employees and leadership about all the opportunities we provide for them. And we don’t want them to just hear from me, but from every part of the organization and at all levels that learning is open to them and expected from them as public servants.”

Good place to be

Montgomery is positive about the present and the future for HUD. What’s more, she’s proud of the work it achieves for the US and the work her team performs to support the talent in pursuit of the agency’s mission.

“Everything we do adds value,” she says. “We’re upskilling employees, improving employee experience, strengthening the workforce, and thereby enriching the community we serve.”

Ultimately, she declares that working in TD is a joyful job. “Learning and talent development feel a bit like being Mickey Mouse at Disney World—we strive to create the happiest workplace experience.”

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