Keller Williams #1 Training Company in the WORLD!

THE SOURCE FOR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

www.trainingmag.com $35 JANUARY/ FEBRUARY 2017

2017 WINNERS

Keller Williams Realty’s

View from theTOP The real estate organization lands the No. 1 spot on the 2017 Training Top 125

INSIDE: New York Community Bancorp, Inc.; Leading Real Estate Companies of the World; BNSF Railway; and Sonic Automotive, Inc. | Best Practices & Outstanding Training Initiatives

ADP is a place where you can make a big impact while being yourself.

So bring your big ideas. Bring your love of collaboration. Bring your winning ways. While you bring all that, we’ll bring the training and support you need to help you grow into the professional you want to be.

After all, there’s a reason why we’ve been ranked on Training Magazine’s “Training Top 125” for the ninth consecutive year. #TrueStory

What will you bring?

adp.com/careers Be you. Be great. #hellowork

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contents

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017

VOLUME 54, NUMBER 1

34 26 TRAINING TOP 125 TOP 5

26 34

Keller Williams Realty’s View from the Top

38

LeadingRE’s at Home with Learning

42

The real estate organization lands the No. 1 spot on the 2017 Training Top 125. BY LORRI FREIFELD

38

New York Community Bancorp’s Investment in Training Pays Off An increased training budget and staff helped the ďŹ nancial organization achieve its sales, service, and employee development goals in 2016. BY LORRI FREIFELD The real estate company revamped sales manager selection, which, along with enhanced development of leaders across the company, added up to a year of accelerated learning. BY MARGERY WEINSTEIN

42

BNSF Railway Is on the Right Training Track BNSF Railway worked to secure the safety of its workforce in 2017, and got its employees on board with next-generation leadership development, career planning, and learning technology.

BY MARGERY WEINSTEIN

46

Sonic Automotive Revs Its Leadership Engine A year of excellence in learning was capped off with the creation customer-facing leadership to the next level.

BY MARGERY WEINSTEIN

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training JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017

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FEATURES

52 Training Top 10 Hall of Fame Capital BlueCross; CHG Healthcare Services; and Jiffy Lube International, Inc., are the newest inductees into the Training Top 10 Hall of Fame.

56 Training Top 10 Hall of Fame

112

Outstanding Training Initiatives

Details of the top-scoring Outstanding Training Initiatives submitted by Top 10 Hall of Famers Verizon, EY, and Farmers Insurance.

60 The Training Top 125 Training magazine’s 17th annual ranking of the top companies with employer-sponsored workforce training and development.

112 How to Excel at Identifying and Acquiring the Right Talent

Cognitive systems are a vital part of the solution— they create a new partnership between humans and technology by enhancing, scaling, and accelerating human expertise. BY ROBERT SCHULTZ

DEPARTMENTS

96

Best Practices & Outstanding Training Initiatives

4 Online TOC Web-only content 6 Editor’s Note Keller Williams Moves Into #1

Training editors and Top 10 Hall of Famers recognize innovative and successful learning and development programs and practices submitted in the 2017 Training Top 125 application.

8 Training Today News, stats, and business

106 BYOD at Work

BY LORRI FREIFELD

intel BY LORRI FREIFELD

12 Soapbox How Training Can Help with Ethical Behavior & Compliance BY ROSS TARTELL

Anywhere? Anytime? Anyone? How organizational policies affect the availability of online learning and employee personal device use. BY SAUL CARLINER AND DAVID W. PRICE

14 Soapbox Creating Blended Learning for Small to Medium-Sized Businesses BY ALAN LANDERS

18 Soapbox Enhancing Global Virtual Teams Through Training BY MARJORIE DERVEN

22 How-To Write in Plain Language

106

BY JANET ARROWOOD

24 World View Focus on Jordan

BY JEAN ABINADER

114 Best Practices Win Together, Lose Apart

BY NEAL GOODMAN

118 Training Magazine Events Goodbye, Group E-Learning BY MYRA TRAVIN

120 Learning Matters From Best Practice to Next Practice BY TONY O’DRISCOLL

122 Trainer Talk Making Choices in 2017

BY BOB PIKE

124 Talent Tips Talent That Fits Like a Glove

BY ROY SAUNDERSON

128 Last Word Addressing Mistakes

BY MICHAEL ROSENTHAL 2

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Training people is challenging.

Engaging them shouldn’t be.

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online contents

www.trainingmag.com Your source for more training tips,

trends,

and tools

On www.trainingmag.com, the online home of Training magazine, you’ll find these Web-only articles. Send your feedback to lorri@trainingmag.com.

Are Your Red Flags Turning Away Good Job Candidates?

It is now a job seekers’ market, so to continue to attract the best talent, a company must build on practices that develop a strong reputation as a good employer. https://trainingmag.com/are-your-red-flags-turning-away-good-jobcandidates

Communicating with Your Millennial Team It’s important to set quantitative goals rather than simply give direction, so Millennials learn it’s not enough to “follow the recipe.”

It’s also crucial to explain how those goals contribute to the company’s overall business goals. https://trainingmag.com/communicating-your-millennial-team

8-Step Process to Discover Yourself No matter where you are in terms of self-awareness, and whether or not you know your true purpose in life, these eight steps will prove invaluable in your search for a better life and a better you. https://trainingmag.com/8-step-process-discover-yourself

Company Culture and Business Evolution 6 tips to get you started crafting an organizational culture that makes employees feel respected, empowered, and humanized by company leadership. https://trainingmag.com/company-culture-and-business-evolution Interested in writing an online article for www.trainingmag.com?

E-mail Editor-in-Chief Lorri Freifeld at lorri@trainingmag.com.

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editorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s note

Keller Williams Moves Into #1

K

Lorri Freifeld lorri@trainingmag.com 6

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TRAINING EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Brent Bloom, VP, Organization Effectiveness and L&D, Applied Materials Vicente Gonzalez, Senior Director, Global Training, MAXIMUS Raymond D. Green, CEO, Paradigm Learning, Inc. Bruce I. Jones, Senior Programming Director, Disney Institute Nancy J. Lewis, former CLO and VP, ITT Corporation, and former VP, Learning, IBM Marc Ramos, Learning & Development, Google Fiber Ann Schulte, Director/Global Practice Leader, Procter & Gamble Ross Tartell, former Technical Training and Communication Manager - North America, GE Capital Real Estate

TRAINING TOP 10 HALL OF FAME Tina Ayres, Learning Strategist, Booz Allen Hamilton Kenneth Barber, Manager, Learning and Development, Jiffy Lube International, Inc. Cyndi Bruce, Executive Director, KPMG Business School â&#x20AC;&#x201C; U.S. Gordon Fuller, Global Design & Development Leader, IBM Center for Advanced Learning Daniel J. Goepp, Managing Director, Learning & Development, PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP Antonia Hock, Vice President, The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center Glenn Hughes, Senior Director, Learning & Development, KLA-Tencor Corporation Steve Krupinski, Senior Vice President, Human Resources and Facilities, Capital BlueCross Scott Millward, CLO, Farmers Insurance Myra Pettis, Director of Educational Service, SCC Soft Computer Robin Renschen, Director, Learning and Development, McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. Zach Sumsion, Manager, Learning & Development, CHG Healthcare Services Lou Tedrick, Staff Vice President Workforce Development, Verizon Nicole Roy-Tobin, Director, Best Practices & Innovation, Deloitte

2016 TOP 5 EMERGING TRAINING LEADERS Bryon Ellington, Chief Learning OfďŹ cer, Keller Williams Realty, Inc. Maria R. Gomez, Manager, Leadership & Professional Development, Novo Nordisk, Inc. Bobby Moreira, eLearning Training and Development Lead, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Sushant Patnaik, Manager, Training, Aeris Communications Ingrid Urman, Head, TenarisUniversity Learning Methodologies and Regional Network, Tenaris

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3+272*5$3+ %< 3$75,&( $5*$17

eller Williams Realty, Inc., recaptured the No. 1 spot (up from No. 2 last year) on the 2017 Training Top 125, while New York Community Bancorp, Inc.â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s investment in training and development earned it the No. 2 spot. The Top 5 was rounded out by Leading Real Estate Companies of the World; BNSF Railway; and Sonic Automotive, Inc., at Nos. 3, 4, and 5, respectively. In addition, Capital BlueCross; CHG Healthcare Services; and Jiffy Lube International, Inc., were inducted into the Training Top 10 Hall of Fame after earning a spot in the Top 10 for four consecutive years.

Some 23 new companies broke into the Top 125 this year. The majority of the companies are in the ďŹ nance/ banking, health/medical services, insurance, business services, and hospitality industries.

Here are some overall statistics from the quantitative analysis of the winning 2017 Training Top 125 applications: s 4HE MEAN REVENUE WAS BILLION 5 3 AND BILLION WORLDWIDE 4HE MEAN TRAINING BUDGET WAS MILLION REPRESENTING PERCENT OF PAYROLL 4HE mean amount of training cost savings was 12 percent. s 4HE MEAN NUMBER OF TOTAL EMPLOYEES TRAINED PER ORGANIZATION INCLUDING INdependent contractors and franchisees) was 34,815, with 25,160 trained in the classroom and 64,516 trained online. A mean of 641 courses were offered as instructor-led sessions; 3,853 were offered as online self-paced modules; and 215 were offered as virtual instructor-led classrooms. All of the 2017 Training Top 125ers have a technology infrastructure. s 4HE AVERAGE NUMBER OF FULL TIME AND PART TIME TRAINERS WAS AND

respectively. s 3OME PERCENT OF 4OP WINNERS HAVE A TUITION REIMBURSEMENT PROGRAM A mean of 11 percent of eligible employees made use of tuition reimbursement programs in the last year. Median spend on tuition reimbursement programs WAS

s 3OME PERCENT OF WINNERS USE EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION SURVEYS WHILE ALL USE competency maps and personal/individual development plans. Some 76 percent tie managersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; compensation to the development of their direct reports. s /N THE EVALUATION SIDE PERCENT OF APPLICANTS UTILIZE 2ETURN ON 6ALUE PERCENT UTILIZE 2ETURN ON )NVESTMENT PERCENT UTILIZE "ALANCED 3CORECARDS AND PERCENT UTILIZE 3IX 3IGMA 4HE +IRKPATRICK ,EVELS OF %VALUATION ARE MORE WIDELY USED ,EVEL PERCENT ,EVEL PERCENT AND ,EVELS AND PERCENT s 4HE AVERAGE LENGTH OF EMPLOYEE SERVICE WAS EIGHT YEARS AND THE AVERAGE TURNOVER RATE WAS PERCENT s )NTERNAL CANDIDATES lLLED A MEAN OF PERCENT OF JOB OPENINGS WHILE EMPLOYEES referred a mean of 27 percent of new hires. The median number of new employEES HIRED WAS PERCENT OF THE ORGANIZATION S WORKFORCE See p. 60 to see the rankings. Congratulations to all of the 2017 Top 125 winners!

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news, stats, & business intel

by Lorri

by Lorri Freifeld Freifeld

Products & Services >> Becoming a Better Leader >> Tech Talk p. 10

be far from easy. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s why Software Advice surveyed nearly 200 corporate LMS users to learn what prospective buyers should know entering 2017 (http://www.softwareadvice.com/resources/lmsuser-trends-2016/). Hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s what we found out.

The most signiďŹ cant challenges users have faced with their LMSs are: s $IFlCULTY LEARNING THE SYSTEM REPORTED BY 61% of users) s 4ECHNICAL BUGS s )NTEGRATION WITH OTHER SOFTWARE Buyers need to vet LMS vendors thoroughly to learn what training and support options they offer IN ORDER TO AVOID THESE HURDLES $IFFERENT USER TYPES in an organization (e.g., content creators, learners,

By Brian Westfall, 4FOJPS .BSLFU 3FTFBSDI "TTPDJBUF 4PGUXBSF "EWJDF administrators) also should demo the system to A NEW YEAR USUALLY MEANS NEW BUDGETS. Many organizations right now determine how easy or hard it is to pick up. ďŹ nally can upgrade their learning management system (LMS) platforms $EVICE USAGE IS ALSO IMPORTANT $ESPITE MANY or purchase digital training software for the ďŹ rst time. However, with LMS vendors promoting their systemâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mobile so many options available, the decision on what system to choose can capabilities, only 9% of administrators and learners said they accessed their organizationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s LMS on a mobile DEVICE )F MOBILE IS IMPORTANT TO

By Jason W. Womack, MEd, MA your employee training proXXX UXJUUFS DPN KBTPOXPNBDL ] XXX 8PNBDL$PNQBOZ DPN TQFBLJOH gram, ensure your vendor can deliver mobile-optimized content. (Hint: Responsive design .BOZ PG ZPV SVO GSPN NFFUJOHyUP NFFUJOH )PX BSF ZPVS NFFUJOH QSPDFTTFT does not equal mobile-ready.) %P QFPQMF ZPV NFFU FWFS PWFSDPNNJU )BT BOZPOF VOEFS EFMJWFSFE )FSF T B )F MOBILE ISN T IMPORTANT DON T UIPVHIU FYQFSJNFOU GPS UIF OFYU XFFL %FmOF B NFFUJOH BT iUJNF UXP PS NPSF pay big bucks for bells and whispeople talk, and one or more person walks away with a task.â&#x20AC;? tles you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t need. e-mail or a phone call.

In 2013, Aaron Gouveia wrote at Lastly, if youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve done your due t &TUJNBUF UIF UJNF OFFEFE GPS FBDI Salary.com that â&#x20AC;&#x153;too many meetingsâ&#x20AC;? was diligence and selected a good-ďŹ t remaining topic. the biggest distraction employees faced. â&#x20AC;&#x153;In LMS for your organization, donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t t 3FTFSWF PG UIF NFFUJOH UJNF GPS UIF an effort to get things done, people gather worry about buyerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s remorse. . * / 4 .PTU *NQPSUBOU /FYU 4UFQT

to talk about what needs to get doneâ&#x20AC;Ś inefďŹ ciently.â&#x20AC;?

More than 90% of users in our Most Important Next Steps I met with (no pun intended!) a client who survey said their LMS has had a Generally, one-hour meetings begin about wanted to revamp the way he plans for, positive effect on things such as ďŹ ve minutes late. Schedule 40 minutes for manages, and follows up on one-to-to-one training content organization the actual meeting to have time to answer meetings. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I know they could be better,â&#x20AC;?

(96%), training efďŹ ciency (93%), these questions at the end: he said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I just donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know where to start.â&#x20AC;? and even job performance t 8IP XJMM EP XIBU CZ XIFO He decided to begin at the end.

(92%). This tells us that, in most t 8IBU EJE XF /05 UBML BCPVU %P XF t 3FWJFX UIF TVDDFTTGVM PVUDPNF GPS FBDI cases, LMS platforms ultimately OFFE UP MBUFS

meeting. are meeting buyer needs. Happy t )PX DBO XF BTL GPS IFMQ XIFO XF OFFE JU t *EFOUJGZ 0/& UPQJD UP CF IBOEMFE WJB LMS hunting!

The Lowdown on LMSs

Productivity Coachâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Corner

Meeting? Save 15 Minutes for M.I.N.S.

TO SUBMIT NEWS, research, or other Training Today tidbits, contact Editor-in-Chief Lorri Freifeld at lorri@trainingmag.com or 516.524.3504.

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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017 training

www.trainingmag.com

Partnerships&Alliances

Exodus of Expertise A NEW REPORT reveals most

traditional training programs aren’t capturing and sharing knowledge from within the ranks of the workforce, and are letting valuable and costly knowledge walk out the door when employees leave.

Through a survey of more than 500 full-time employees at companies with 500 or more employees, speachme (http://www.speach.me/) explored contemporary employee training programs and uncovered where the training process is faltering.

Survey findings include:

82%

of employees share important information in person with their colleagues, which means that information is not being formally captured. of employees have not been trained by the individual they were replacing. of employees have had a colleague leave the company with knowledge or skills that were not documented. of employees say they could create better employee training content themselves compared to the training they are provided.

68% 61%

47%

The Boss Factor By Bruce Tulgan www.rainmakerthinking.com | Twitter @brucetulgan | brucet@rainmakerthinking.com

What are employees looking for in a boss?

Here’s what our research shows: Low performers are looking for a boss who is hands-off and tries to treat every employee the same. They want a boss who doesn’t know who is doing what, where, why, when, and how; a boss who doesn’t keep track; a boss who ignores performance problems. They want to be left alone to hide out and collect the same paycheck as everyone else, regardless of their low performance.

High performers want a boss who is strong and highly engaged; who knows exactly who they are and what they are doing; who lets them know their work is important. They want a boss who spells out expectations clearly; who teaches them the best practices; who warns them of pitfalls; who helps them solve small

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problems before they fester and grow; and who rewards them when they go the extra mile.

What about the vast majority of employees who are somewhere in the middle between high performance and low? You will get out of them exactly what you put in: If you are hands-off and treat everybody the same, you are treating your employees like low performers. You will under-manage most of them into a slow downward spiral. And you will attract more low performers who want to “work for you.”

If you are strong and highly engaged, you are treating your employees like high performers. You will manage most of them into a steady upward spiral.

And high performers will beat down your door for the chance to work for you.

>> Brainshark, Inc., and Highspot, Inc., entered into a strategic partnership to deliver a complete sales enablement solution. The partnership combines Brainshark’s content creation, training, and coaching capabilities with Highspot’s content management, customer engagement, and analytics capabilities. >> KentuckianaWorks, the workforce development board for the greater Louisville region, partnered with The C2 Group to create the Career Calculator. The Web application uses real-time labor data to help students and job-seekers make decisions and identify potential career opportunities. >> SurePeople and Baird Group formed a strategic partnership to provide full-scale technology services and health-care industry expertise designed to improve employee engagement and positively impact the patient experience. >> BlueBottleBiz partnered with Knowledgemotion, a London-based edtech company behind a large video library for education: boclips.com. With the 500 titles provided through the partnership, BlueBottleBiz members have access to brief informational videos covering business planning and reporting, engagement, marketplace trends, sustainability, and more. >> ManpowerGroup formed a partnership with LearnUp, a career management platform that provides pre-hire skills development and virtual coaching for entry-level workers.

Online assessment and short interactive training modules using reallife scenarios and linked to actual, open roles will help people understand and acquire the skills they need before they apply for a job and provide coaching support once in the role. training JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017

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Products&Services >> LiveH2H launched a new free enterprise-grade interaction platform that offers an end-to-end videoconferencing solution for businesses and other organizations to meet their videoconferencing needs, including recruiting and interviewing, hosting Webinars, conducting internal and external online meetings, as well as corporate trainings, and other online interaction experiences. >> Allego, a mobile video sales learning platform, released Allego 4.0, which includes the “Flash Drills” feature—a new reinforcement learning capability that helps sales reps better retain knowledge through the game-like use of flashcards and spacedrepetition learning. Sales managers also can create courses—structured curriculum learning that follows an automated syllabus of video and e-learning content—within a single integrated platform. >> AchieveForum announced four new digital learning offerings for mid-level managers: Dilemma Management, Adapting to Constant Change, Influencing Outcomes Through Others, and Delegating for Shared Success.

Each AchieveForum solution includes assessment and measurement capabilities. >> Comparably introduced “Career Matching,” a platform that monitors the tech job market for career matches, salary data, and company ratings. >> Linux Academy launched an open, no-cost edition of its user community (the community previously was available to members only). Users have access to select courses, how-to guides, study groups, and student-created notecard decks.

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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017 training

FRONT-LINE MANAGEMENT 101

Becoming a Better Leader Only 5% of managers feel ready to do their jobs when they start. Think about it.

Next time you see your doctor or dentist, do you want to take a chance that they are the 1 in 20 ready to do their particular job on you? This series will focus on this unique and quietly powerful group of new and frontline managers (NFL-M) with tips on how to improve your skills as a manager and to train and support other managers.

There is significant power in developing this group as more than 50% of employees quit their jobs because of their immediate manager. The first step in developing a manager? Their desire to learn. Without a manager’s openness to feedback and acceptance of the continual need to grow, even the best trainers cannot help.

I once had a great employee—one of

>> Chatlight launched an LED light that attaches to any smartphone, tablet, or computer to augment the lighting available during online video chats and live video streaming. Developed by a professional photographer, Chatlight is designed to cast the optimal amount of light, making users look like they’re filming in a professional studio. >> Articulate released Articulate 360, a new subscription offering for e-learning developers that provides apps, content, and services that make it easier to create multi-device e-learning, source high-quality course assets, collaborate with stakeholders, and grow e-learning development skills. Articulate 360 also includes the all-new Rise, an app for creating inherently responsive courses.

By Ashley Prisant Lesko, Ph.D.

those natural-born leaders.

He was an individual contributor at the time, but I could see more. With a little time and development, he could have moved up, but instead he let his attitude guide him. Eventually, it led him right out the door.

It was hard for me to watch him ignore good advice (my own, as well as others’); to see him let emotion—not logic—guide him. I realized then that you only help those who want to help themselves become managers and leaders. Why don’t we help each other become better leaders this year? Let’s get started.

Have a manager horror story you want to share that was key to developing who you are or what you believe now as a leader? E-mail me at: ashley@squarepegsolutions.org.

>> Cerebyte announced the availability of UrSof, its new online learning platform for neuroscience-based selfdiscovery and self-directed learning. >> Remote-Learner, a provider of e-learning solutions for the corporate, education, and government markets, launched its new Altitude theme to the Moodle Community. Altitude updates the appearance and functionality of a base Moodle installation, bringing it in line with current standards of mobile access and user expectations. New features include Action Block, giving users quick access to important internal site pages or external resources; My Course Menu, which offers easy navigation between a user’s own courses; and Site Alerts, which keep users informed of course and site news.

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Solve workplace issues on everyday topics like: Microsoft® Windows® Google Security and more.

soapbox

How Training Can Help with Ethical Behavior & Compliance Creating an ethical and compliant organization requires a holistic approach that includes understanding the organization’s structure, culture, leadership, and learning methodologies. BY ROSS TARTELL, PH.D.

associate professor of Psychology and Education at Columbia University. Dr. Tartell also consults in the areas of learning and development, talent planning, and organization development. He received his M.B.A. in Management and his Ph.D. in Social Psychology from Columbia University. He formerly served as Technical Training and Communications Manager – North America at GE Capital Real Estate.

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BUSINESS CULTURE MAKES A DIFFERENCE

LRN, an ethics and compliance consulting firm, has done extensive research into the type of organizations that perform best. LRN’s “2016 HOW Report,” based on data collected from 16,000 employees in 17 countries, shows that self-governing organizations—those whose employees are inspired by a desire for significance and are encouraged to act as leaders regardless of role—“outperform across a broad spectrum of key outcomes.”

LRN examined three business archetypes: Blind obedience: These organizations assume employees are unmotivated and require close supervision. Managers and supervisors are

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017 training

Percentage of Organizations Scoring High for Each Organizational Archetype

Performance Indicator

SelfGovernance

is currently adjunct

Informed Acquiescence

Ross Tartell, Ph.D.,

required to control workers. There are many formal rules and little delegation of authority, and control remains firmly centralized.

Informed acquiescence: These organizations are characterized by good management and are process driven. Employees are motivated by performance-based rewards and are expected to fulfill their roles.

Self-governance: These organizations assume employees are happy to work, are self-motivated and creative, and enjoy working with greater responsibility. The organizations are characterized by purpose-inspired values and are led with moral authority, core principles, and social expectations.

The chart below shows how organizations that are “self-governing” outperform on key business and compliance measures.

Blind Obedience

C

ompanies pay a heavy price for ethical and compliance breaches—and the frequency of these transgressions and the financial penalties seem to be increasing. Wells Fargo, Volkswagen, and Barclay’s Bank are only three of the most egregious recent examples. Wells Fargo employees opened 2 million deposit and credit card accounts without their customers’ knowledge—resulting in $185 million in federal and state fines. Volkswagen built a system that cheated on emissions tests in violation of the Clean Air Act—and was fined $14.7 billion. Barclay’s Bank reached a $100 million settlement with the District of Columbia and 42 states for manipulating the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR), which banks use to set consumer lending rates.

Each of these organizations is a successful business with a long history of professional management. Why couldn’t they perform ethically and avoid such significant fines? Many companies consider such financial penalties as the cost of doing business. But as Paul McNulty, former deputy attorney general of the United States, has noted, “if you think compliance is expensive, try non-compliance.”

Increase in market share

34%

73%

94%

Increase in business results

41%

81%

98%

Increase in customer satisfaction

42%

85%

99%

Observed misconduct

69%

27%

4%

Reported misconduct

28%

66%

92%

Lack of retaliation

23%

68%

92%

Misconduct Indicator

Source: LRN’s “2016 HOW Report,” p. 17.

www.trainingmag.com

TAKE THE HOLISTIC VIEW OF ORGANIZATIONS

While the three LRN archetypes are behavioral, organizations are much more than thatâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and a Training professional needs to take in the â&#x20AC;&#x153;big picture.â&#x20AC;? A holistic view is composed of not just the behavioral and interpersonal sides, but also the formal organizational structures. As Quality guru W. Edwards Deming noted, â&#x20AC;&#x153;A bad system will beat a good person every time.â&#x20AC;?

Deming emphasized that not only are the intentions and culture of an organization important, but the formal underlying structures and processes shape how people work together and relate to each other.

Given the magnitude and pervasiveness of ethical and compliance violations, what might be done to help ensure success?

The holistic view integrates several different perspectives. The core starts with concepts presented by New York University Stuyvesant P. Comfort Professor of Law Geoffrey Parsons Miller. He speaks to the impact of market and environmental forces that create biasesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; and these biases skew the understanding of objective reality. Professor Miller identiďŹ es three fundamental areas that can affect ethical and compliance behavior: s +NOWLEDGE AND SKILLS s #ULTURE AS EXEMPLIlED BY AN ORGANIZATION S leadership, values, and norms s 3TRUCTURE COMPOSED OF FORMAL ARRANGEMENTS that are embodied by the changing regulatory environment, performance incentives, and THE ORGANIZATION S MARKET WHAT IS THE TRAINERâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S ROLE?

Often, the Training professional is asked to provide compliance training. And although compliance training is critically important, we MUST TAKE NOTE OF 0ROFESSOR -ILLER S CAUTION â&#x20AC;&#x153;Teaching can only provide knowledge and skills. In legal ethical practice, I can teach you THE RULES BUT ) CAN T TEACH YOU TO BE ETHICAL v .OT MUCH CAN CHANGE A PERSON S MORAL COMPASS BUT THE LESSONS OF EXPERIENCE CAN SHAPE values, deepen judgement, engrain the organizaTIONAL CULTURE AND EXPAND THE RANGE OF ETHICAL choices available to an individual.

That is where the Training professional can MAKE A DIFFERENCE 4RAINERS ARE EXPERT AT INTEgrating people into the organization and helping them internalize the culture, the formal strucTURES AND THE EXPECTATIONS FOR BEHAVIOR Trainers know how to create a blended www.trainingmag.com

approach to learning that uses a range of methodologies: s )NFORMAL ON THE JOB EXPERIENCE BASED PROJECTS AND PRACTICE ACCOUNT FOR APPROXImately 70 percent of what an individual needs to know in order to be successful. s #OACHING MENTORING AND DEVELOPING through others account for another 20 percent. s &ORMAL LEARNING INTERVENTIONS AND structured courses provide the remaining 10 percent.

The trainer also knows that job aids and performance support systems can minimize the need for training, while ensuring good performance.

Developing leaders is another core area where 4RAINING PROFESSIONALS CAN USE THEIR EXPERTISE to make a difference. The role of leadership can never be underestimated in creating a culture of performance, ethics, and compliance.

Trainers need to employ a signiďŹ cant level of PERFORMANCE CONSULTING EXPERTISE 4HE DIAGNOsis of probable causes and how to shape culture CAN BE COMPLEX AND POLITICALLY CHALLENGING 4HIS requires the Training professional to use a broad organizational perspective and take an approach that identiďŹ es stakeholders and leverage points FOR CHANGE AND INTEGRATES THE ORGANIZATION S FORmal structures, social systems, and leadership.

Sheryl Smikle, former Compliance Learning and Communications senior manager at '% #APITAL PROVIDES AN EXAMPLE FROM HER EXperience to illustrate the importance of the integration of structure and leadership to focus the messages that shape organizational culture and direction. â&#x20AC;&#x153;On one level, you need to be able to provide the rationale for the reports, controls, rewards, and follow-up,â&#x20AC;? she says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;But the real key is leadership and culture. When there is ambiguity at the top, when they give lip service, employees will see it.â&#x20AC;?

TRAINER AS PERFORMANCE CONSULTANT

To truly make a difference, the Training professional needs to take a performance consulting perspective. Creating an ethical and compliant organization requires a holistic approach THAT INCLUDES UNDERSTANDING THE ORGANIZATION S structure, culture, leadership, and learning methodologies. Because trainers have a unique perspective about people and the capacity to take a holistic approach, we make vital contributions to creating an organization that is ethical, compliant, and successful in the marketplace. training JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017

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soapbox

Creating Blended Learning for Small to Medium-Sized Businesses For a small L&D department, everything is important and needed now.

The key for them to make blended learning programs work is ensuring a proper sequence of learning events/activities. BY ALAN LANDERS

I

’s not too difficult to put together learning and development (L&D) programs if you have a large staff and sufficient funding.

However, it’s a different story when you are responsible for L&D in a small to medium-sized business where you may be a one-person, do-itall Training department. That’s especially true when it comes to creating an integrated blended learning program (BLP).

Alan Landers is

WHAT IS BLENDED LEARNING?

CEO of FirstStep

ATD says blended learning consists of: “learning events that combine aspects of online and face-toface instruction.” That’s a very limited definition.

Other sources say there isn’t a single definition

Communications, LLC, and BPO with operations in Islamabad, Pakistan.

He is an executivelevel organizational development (OD) consultant with more than 35 years of experience. He also serves as president of FirstStep OD & Training.

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of blended learning. A comprehensive blended learning program (BLP) may include as many as eight components. The table below presents each component of a blended learning program and how it is used.

APPLICATION OF BLENDED LEARNING COMPONENTS

It’s likely that an L&D professional in a small to medium-sized company may have access to all eight components of a BLP. That’s not the problem. The problem is time. A one-person or small L&D department is waist deep in an alligatorinfested swamp. Everything is important and everything seems to be needed now. The key to

8 Components of Blended Learning COMPONENT

DEFINITION

PURPOSE

ILT: Instructor-Led Training

In-person, face -to-face facilitated activities designed by an L&D professional

To build and enhance interpersonal skills that require practice and feedback

OJT: On-the-Job Training

Demonstrations and instructions provided by a qualified person from the workplace

To teach specific job skills

Online Learning Materials

E- learning, Webinars, videos, surveys, tests, etc.

To teach basic or key concepts, processes, policies, etc.; and to establish or assess knowledge of same

Online Reference Materials

Policies, procedures, diagrams, maps, infographics, etc.

To provide company directives and processes

Structured Study Activities

Assigned activities: e.g., research, report writing, journals, etc., to be completed individually or in groups

To provide additional learning opportunities and, in some instances, opportunities for relationship building

Social/Informal Learning

Incidental learning that takes place at or outside of work during social interactions

To teach norms, values, ethics, and reinforce beliefs among employees at all levels

Coaching

Management skills development sessions provided by a more experienced, qualified person from the workplace

To build or enhance management/ leadership skills

Mentoring

Career development sessions between a senior manager and a protégé; may be someone within the organization or outside of it; may be formal or informal

To provide career guidance and networking opportunities, as well as influence career progression

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017 training

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BEHIND EVERY NUMBER IS A PERSON

When off-the-shelf training products reach their limits, Brella Learning delivers. Video, Mobile, and Web Production. With a focus on the needs of the individual learner, we help companies develop memorable digital solutions.

Custom Digital Learningâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Made Simple brellalearning.com

soapbox making BLPs work is ensuring a proper sequence of learning events/activities.

1. Start with an organizational assessment. The goal is to determine what knowledge, skills, or attitudes are the most essential to the organization’s success. For example, are sales lagging? Is customer support below expectations? Is productivity low? Is morale low? Are employees engaged?

Meet with management to determine what is most important and focus on that. Establish priorities by setting levels of importance. The highest level must be those factors directly affecting finances. It’s understandable that all are important.

L&D will earn respect if it can solve problems that influence financial returns.

2. Assess employee competencies. There are two questions to ask to determine competencies: 1) What must the employee know well? 2) What must the employee do well? Make a list of the development needs of each employee in the department with which you are working. Call your list the department’s “DNA” for its employee “development needs assessment.” (It’s easy to add a question about attitudes, but don’t. Focus on knowledge and skills.

Changing attitudes is difficult and takes a lot of time. Increasing knowledge and building skills is less time consuming and less difficult.)

3. Start with OJT. Every organization has several, perhaps many, highly skilled, knowledgeable employees. These are the company’s subject matter experts (SMEs). Teach them how to do on-thejob training (OJT). Using the department DNAs, assign SMEs appropriately.

Start with those employees who are closest to being fully competent. After they are 100 percent competent, work with the newbies. Don’t waste time with those who are already skilled.

4. Utilize online materials to support the BLP.

Notice the verb is “utilize,” not develop. The best place to find free materials is YouTube. In fact, YouTube has a university! Find videos that are relevant and appropriate for the skills that need to be developed. Create a list of titles and links.

5. Assign structured study events. Direct targeted employees to the online materials and have them watch the content. Provide a simple assignment assessment form, which is to be completed and returned. These consist of three to five questions that cover the key points of the online training.

Employees must be paid for watching the videos. Most videos are three to 10 minutes in length.

Assume 10 people are in the BLP and they make $15 an hour. Each one is assigned to watch a fiveminute video. That will cost the company $28.13, 16

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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017 training

assuming you pay them time-and-a-half for overtime. Think about how much time it takes to create and edit a five-minute video. Multiply that times a trainer’s or instructional designer’s hourly salary. Which is the better deal?

The point is, try to use generic resources that are already available for free. Think of these online resources as prerequisites. That allows L&D staff time to create company- or job-specific training that can be used multiple times.

6. Upload company reference materials to a company Intranet. This doesn’t have to be fancy and

it doesn’t require a learning management system (LMS). Those are nice, but can be added after the mission-essential BLP is completed. The materials must be current and accurate. Make sure they are available by Web-enabled phones (almost everybody has one). It may cost a couple thousand dollars to have a Web designer create this for you, but that’s not expensive when long-term results are considered.

7. Design and conduct ILT. Utilize the resources of the company’s SMEs as instructors. SMEs know the technicalities of specific jobs. The L&D professional can co-facilitate to ensure learner engagement. Coach the SMEs to help them build their presentation skills as needed.

Rather than spending a significant amount of time trying to create slide decks or e-learning modules, simply make video recordings of the SME demonstrating the skill, process, or technique he or she is teaching. There is no need to add audio. The SME can add narration during the ILT session. Make a video recording of the SME’s presentation and upload that to reinforce what was presented in class. It probably will be necessary to replace the audio track on the video with one that is clearer and easier to understand.

8. Consider coaching, mentoring, and social learning to be “nice-to-haves.” In a one-person shop, pro-

gram development should be the priority. Expand your OJT to create a coaching program. Don’t worry about mentoring unless the goal of the BLP is to improve leadership skills. Social learning takes care of itself in small companies.

THE BOTTOM LINE

There may be some heretical ideas here. But when you’re up to your butt in alligators, you need to: 1) Get out of the swamp and… 2) Stay out!

By concentrating on the basics, focusing on helping the company compete successfully, and satisfying customers, L&D will prove its worth to those who matter. Qt www.trainingmag.com

WHY DO COMPANIES CHOSE SNI FOR NEGOTIATION TRAINING? 1. Proven Professionals

3. Customized & Interactive

2. Applicable Tools

4. Proven ROI

soapbox

Enhancing Global Virtual Teams Through Training A model using three Ps—Purpose, People, and Process—with Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) as the overall framework, provides a common language for teams to discuss their strengths and challenges, and to self-diagnose problems. BY MARJORIE DERVEN

M Marjorie Derven is managing partner with HUDSON Research & Consulting, Inc. (www.hudsonrc.com), which designs and delivers strategic talent management and Diversity & Inclusion solutions, often

uch of today’s work is accomplished in global virtual teams, but how effectively is training preparing these teams to succeed?

As an expected way of operating to accomplish results in most large organizations, global virtual teams are increasing as a result of globalization, technology, and competition for scarce talent. The stakes are high for these teams to deliver, but too often, they are not fully effective due to complexity, lack of team cohesion, competing priorities, and other factors. Training can play an important role in driving performance to a higher level.

Determining high-priority training needs— through research comparing high- vs. moderate-performing global virtual teams, and assessing what courses and curricula already exist that may be curated and repurposed—will ensure that the learning solution and modality (whether instructor-led, online, video-based, e-learning, job aids, etc.) within each unique organizational context will produce the desired results.

within global virtual teams. Her firm has

ANYTIME, ANYWHERE TRAINING

developed research-

With technology as an enabler, Training professionals can design and deliver solutions that can be accessed anywhere, anytime, so global virtual teams are prepared with essential knowledge and skills. Small private online courses (SPOCs) discussed in the November/December 2016 issue of Training (https://trainingmag.com/trgmag-article/livelearn-and-prosper-spoc) can be leveraged to provide assessments, interactive labs, and meetups through Google hangouts.

Emphasizing on-the-job learning, as the 70:20:10 approach refers to (http://insights.ccl.org/articles/leading-effectively-articles/the-70-20-10-rule/), applies here as a rule of thumb. Design and deliver just-in-time training, job aids, discussion guides, interactive workbooks, video-based learning, and blended learning to provide “best fit” approaches to global virtual teams that can be accessed by team members or by the team as a cohort as needed to build alignment and effectiveness.

based custom global team training solutions. Derven is a senior fellow at The Conference Board.

As with all training initiatives, obtaining executive sponsorship is necessary—this is particularly important for global virtual teams, because work is being conducted in a decentralized way. Without organizational support, the training will not be fully accessed or applied.

Technology also can be harnessed to create a repository for organization-wide best practices and lessons learned for effective global virtual teams, helping to foster a learning culture.

A MODEL FOR GLOBAL VIRTUAL TEAM SUCCESS

Understanding the success factors for global virtual teams is essential to guide planned training initiatives. Based on research on high-performing global teams, I created a model (see Figure 1 below) using three Ps: Purpose, People, and Process, with Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) as the overall framework.

The model provides a common language for teams to discuss their strengths and challenges, and to self-diagnose problems. The examples noted are a starting place only; the needs of your organization for global virtual team development may differ and should be confirmed through needs analyses.

A Model for Virtual Team Success

© HUDSON Research & Consulting, Inc.

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Because global teams are inherently diverse, differences and similarities should be acknowledged and harnessed as a source of innovation and new ideas.

To be fully effective, virtual global team leaders need to be sensitive to how cultural backgrounds and biases can inďŹ&#x201A;uence the level of participation from team members. Diverse cultural norms shape attitudes about assertiveness, hierarchy, conďŹ&#x201A;ict, and timeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;all of which may directly affect the quality of team member participation. An inclusive virtual team values and promotes the contributions of the full team, instead of relying only on individuals who are more outspoken or represent the dominant culture at headquarters.

To promote diversity and inclusion (D&I) for your global virtual teams, offer modularized learning that focuses on: s 5NDERSTANDING AND VALUING CULTURE differences s )NCLUSIVE LEADERSHIP s !CTIVE LISTENING s #REATING AN ENVIRONMENT OF LEARNING AND discovery PURPOSE: THE WHY

Global virtual teams are formed to accomplish an organizational goal (e.g., launch a new product, solve an organizational process, create a new application) to produce a desired result. The Purpose element of the model helps drive virtual team motivation, establish critical project milestones, and keep progress front and center. It also underscores the context of how the global virtual team purpose ďŹ ts into larger enterprise goals.

There are two elements to Purpose: 1. #LARITY AROUND THE hWHYv 2. Obtaining commitment and alignment The ďŹ rst element lends itself to online learning, including customizable templates; the latter involves active interaction and discussion.

Here are examples of job aids and online tools that can help with Purpose: s 4EMPLATE FOR !GILE 0ROJECT #HARTER s *OB AID FOR LINKAGE BETWEEN ENTERPRISE GOALS AND the global virtual team s 0RIORITIES WORKSHEET FOR GLOBAL VIRTUAL TEAM goals (to be revisited as needed, particularly during major change) s $ISCUSSION GUIDE TO EXPLORE PRIORITIES AND purpose s )NTERACTIVE WORKBOOK TO DElNE INTERNAL AND EXternal stakeholder expectations and needs s 4EMPLATE TO DElNE SHORT

DAYS AND longer-term agreed-to deliverables and associated accountabilities. www.trainingmag.com

PEOPLE: THE WHO

Building trust is foundational to effective performance, and must be fostered intentionally due to the lack of face-to-face contact. As reported in Harvard Business Review, lack of trust is a leading cause of virtual team dysfunction (https://hbr.org/2015/10/ global-teams-that-work) due to reduced opportunities to interact in person, with cultural and language

Global teams are inherently diverse, so differences and similarities should be acknowledged and harnessed as a source of innovation. barriers compounding geographical distance.

Trust includes perceptions about intentions (team members feel they are on the same side), information (team members have conďŹ dence about timeliness, accuracy, and reliability), and interactions (free ďŹ&#x201A;ow of communication, coupled with good judgment).

Training tools can build connections by proxy, CREATING A hVIRTUAL WATER COOLERv EFFECT Equal participation, which helps to create psychological safety as described by Amy Edmondson of the Harvard Business School (http://www.forbes. com/sites/worldeconomicforum/2016/04/12/is-yourteam-in-psychological-danger/2/#da857ca71dc8)

promotes positive interactions and free ďŹ&#x201A;ow of ideas while creating a more conducive environment in which innovation can ďŹ&#x201A;ourish. In fact, The #ONFERENCE "OARD S RECENT RESEARCH (https://www. conference-board.org/publications/publicationdetail. cfm?publicationid=7126) shows that organizations

that are inclusive are four times more innovative than others.

As such, organizations should provide training tools that will build connections to foster active and engaged participation among all global virtual team members, such as: s )NCLUSIVE 4EAM ,EADER 'UIDE WITH VIDEO examples s 6IRTUAL PROlLES WITH PHOTOS INCLUDING INTERESTS

talents, preferred communication and conďŹ&#x201A;ict styles, and time zone s #OMMUNICATION STYLE ASSESSMENT THIS CAN be developed as a custom tool or using the MBTI personality assessment instrument, for example) s #OMMUNICATION GUIDELINES TEMPLATE training JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017

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19

soapbox ESCALATION WHEN NEEDED s $ISCUSSION GUIDE FOR DElNING THE GOVERNANCE model s $IAGNOSTIC SUCH AS THE (UDSON 2ESEARCH #ONSULTING -ODEL FOR 'LOBAL 6IRTUAL 4EAM 3UCCESS FOR ADDRESSING TEAM CHALLENGES

(including frequency, methods, expected response times, etc.) s 2ULES OF ENGAGEMENT INCLUDING PARTICIPATING FULLY LISTENING WITH RESPECT USING TEAM MEMBERS TIME THOUGHTFULLY E MAIL ETIQUETTE ETC PROCESS: THE HOW

+EY ELEMENTS FOR 0ROCESS FOR EFFECTIVE VIRTUAL TEAMS INCLUDE SPONSORSHIP AN AGREED TO GOVERNANCE MODEL DElNED ROLES RESPONSIBILITIES AND ACCOUNTABILITIES RISK MITIGATION PROCESSES ACCESS TO SHARED TECHNOLOGY AND A CONmICT RESOLUTION PROCESS &RAMING CONmICT AS AN EXPECTED PART OF TEAM FUNCTIONING PROMOTES GREATER TRUST ON THE TEAM AND ENHANCES COMMUNICATION THAT HAS BENElTS BEYOND THE IMMEDIATE ISSUE OR CHALLENGE (ERE ARE TOP TRAINING SOLUTIONS TO ENHANCE TEAM Process: s 4EMPLATE TO CREATE A DECISION RIGHTS MODEL HOW DECISIONS ARE MADEÂ&#x2C6;WHICH SHIFTS ACCORDING TO SPECIlC SUB TEAM WORKSTREAMS s *OB AIDS FOR TECHNOLOGY USAGE WHEN TO USE EACH TYPE AND GUIDELINES FOR DOCUMENT SHARING s )NTERACTIVE WORKBOOK TO DElNE A CONmICT RESOLUTION MODEL AND GUIDELINES ABOUT

TRAINING AS A SOURCE OF ADVANTAGE

7HEN ADDRESSING THE LEARNING NEEDS OF GLOBAL VIRTUAL TEAMS IT MAKES SENSE TO EMPHASIZE ONLINE LEARNING WITHIN A PORTFOLIO OF BLENDED LEARNING SOLUTIONS )NSTRUCTOR LED TRAINING ),4 IS A POWERFUL WAY TO BUILD INCLUSIVE BEHAVIORS AND OTHER SOFT SKILLS WHEN USED STRATEGICALLY BUT TRAVEL TIME AND BUDGETS OFTEN MAKE ),4 LESS VIABLE 0ROVIDING ONLINE TOOLS TO LEVERAGE $IVERSITY )NCLUSION 0URPOSE 0EOPLE AND 0ROCESS HELPS BUILD HIGH PERFORMING GLOBAL VIRTUAL TEAMS THAT CAN ACCELERATE INNOVATION GROWTH AND ENGAGEMENT &OR MORE ON THIS TOPIC LISTEN TO THE 7EBINAR RECORDING h-AXIMIZING 'LOBAL 4EAM %FFECTIVENESS 4HE 2OLE OF 4RAINING v ON DEMAND AT http://www.trainingmagnetwork.com/ t events/790?gref=tmag-tw Q

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Congratulations U.S. Postal Service Learning and Development Team!

N

ancy L. Rettinhouse, the vice president of Employee Resource Management for the U.S. Postal Service, congratulates her employees for their dedicated efforts toward making history in the training world. She’s thrilled with their ranking among Training magazine’s Top 125 leading organizations! This achievement further demonstrates our commitment to invest in our employee’s development and the future of the U.S. Postal Service. We are #PostalProud of you.

U.S. Postal Service — a great place to start your career.

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how-to

Write in Plain Language You have written in plain language if your audience can understand what you wrote, what you are trying to achieve, and what you want from themâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;after a single reading. BY JANET ARROWOOD

W Janet Arrowood is president of The Write Source, Inc. and author of â&#x20AC;&#x153;Plain Language, Please: How to Write for Results,â&#x20AC;? published by Rowman & LittleďŹ eld. She is an international trainer in the areas of writing in plain language, writing proposals, and general technical writing. Contact her at janet.c.arrowood@ gmail.com.

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riting effectively means writing your materials or Web content using plain language and focusing on the needs and goals of your audience. Everything you produce or present should be audience-driven and written in the clearest, simplest language possible.

Documents written in plain language get better results than materials written to â&#x20AC;&#x153;impress.â&#x20AC;?

Have you ever known someone who refused to read the newspaper or a newspaperâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Web content because it was â&#x20AC;&#x153;too easyâ&#x20AC;?? Probably not.

But those same people probably donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t read your professional journal, unless it is in their area of

expertise, because it is â&#x20AC;&#x153;too hard.â&#x20AC;?

So how do you write in plain language? Three simple steps: 1. Understand and assimilate the principles of plain language. You have written in plain language if your

audience can understand what you wrote, what you are trying to achieve, and what you want from themâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;after a single reading. See the chart at left.

2. Identify your actual audience and target your actions to their needs and goals. We tend to write

documents as if we are the intended audience. If your audience doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t â&#x20AC;&#x153;seeâ&#x20AC;? themselves in your document, they are far less likely to respond the way you expect. Audiences may not have your PLAIN LANGUAGE EXAMPLE level of expertise, so they need you to PRINCIPLES simplify your written content.

Use active voice Active: We elect a President every four years.

Note that simpliďŹ cation is NOT versus passive Passive: Presidents are elected every four years. â&#x20AC;&#x153;dumbing down.â&#x20AC;? It takes thought and hard work to ensure you write Use ďŹ rst/second First/second person: We/you effectively so your audience will reperson versus Third person: It/they/them/one spond appropriately. It is worth your third person time to spend a few minutes to deterShort, simple sentence: We use our Website Write short mine and write down: to provide feedback to our clients. sentences with s 7HY ARE YOU WRITING THE DOCUMENT fewer adjectives Long, complicated sentence: The companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s s &OR WHOM ARE YOU WRITING IT recently updated and enhanced Website is and adverbs s 7HAT DO YOU WANT THEM TO DO AS A regularly utilized to provide information and result of reading it? feedback about product and other requests s 7HAT ARE THE KEY POINTS YOU WANT to our clients, customers, and users. to address?

Keep this information in front of Use introductory No introductory clause: The provisions of clauses with Rule 40 apply to all applications except as you as you write. Your document care noted in Section B. will stay â&#x20AC;&#x153;on messageâ&#x20AC;? and be audiIntroductory clause (weakens the ence focused. statement): Except as noted in Section B, the provisions of Rule 40 apply to all applications.

3. Create, revise, and â&#x20AC;&#x153;testâ&#x20AC;? your document. Documents need structure,

Use minimal prepositional phrases

No prepositional phrase: Use Prepositional phrase: Make utilization of

Properly place modiďŹ ers

Properly placed modiďŹ er: While walking down Main Street, I saw a statue of Dr. Jones.

Improperly placed modiďŹ er: I saw a statue of Dr. Jones walking down Main Street. (Really?!)

Create easy-tofollow layouts

Use bullets, tables, and simple ďŹ gures to convey information.

planning, organization, and revision to ensure they are written in plain language. How do you do this? s #REATE AN OUTLINE WITH KEY POINTS before you start to write. s 'ET MANAGEMENT BUY IN BASED ON the outline and key points. s 7RITE YOUR DOCUMENT s 2EVIEW EDIT AND REVISE IT s 4EST IT BY HAVING SOMEONE ELSE read it. Qt

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Classroom training: $455 per employee Video training: $49 per employee

$BO ZPV BęPSE not to train with video?

Management training. New employee onboarding. Sales coaching. Product training. Social learning initiatives. Safety, compliance, and regulatory courses.

For most companies, training and development programs aren’t limited by how much there is to teach. They’re capped by how much you have to spend.

We can help. At Panopto, we take the cost and complexity out of video learning. Our software makes it easy for your team to create high-quality training videos, and then share them securely with employees on any device. With Panopto, your employees get a hub for all of their on-demand learning needs, and you get a better return on your training investment.

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Video learning made easy

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world view

Focus on Jordan Effective training techniques in Jordan include emphasis on learning by doing, visual rather than text reinforcement, strong teacher leadership, and redundancy to reinforce learning. BY JEAN ABINADER o talk about training in Jordan is to confront difďŹ cult challenges that are only getting harder to solve. The labor situation is compounded by three factors: 1. Job migration dominates most high-tech jobs, which are moving to the UAE and other Gulf countries where the pay is better, working conditions more supportive, and there are enough employers if you have the right skills.

2. There are approximately 100,000 foreign nationals, primarily from Egypt and South Asia, who are doing jobs Jordanians did just 30 years ago, from semi-skilled and unskilled tasks in construction, agriculture, and maintenance to domestic help. Their low pay scale and willingness to work long hours is welcomed by Jordanian employers concerned with their bottom lines.

3. The educational system is not keeping up with market demands. The technical, vocational, education, and training (TVET) sector is under-resourced, with limited capacity to produce skilled graduates ready to compete in a limited labor market. This deďŹ cit is compound-

T

Jean AbiNader is senior advisor, Middle East/North Africa, at Global Dynamics, Inc. (www.globaldynamics. com). He has designed and delivered training across the Middle East for 30 years.

companies to work with international donors to equip locals and Syrians with market-ready skills.

Many Jordanians and Syrians already have some knowledge of English, so that makes it a bit easier, but that doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t mean they can comprehend training manuals or upper-level educational texts.

Some quality government and private community colleges have solid curricula and instructors, but the demand for their services is inconsistent, and donor funding could become problematic without demonstrated results. There are plenty of subsidies to support job readiness; anyone coming into the market needs to know the terrain.

For example, there are conditions in the Jordanian economy that diminish the threshold for successful outcomes: low minimum wage, poor public transportation, variable health care, and cultural considerations regarding work environments and types of work. A case in point is a model textile factory that employs only Jordanian women trained for six months, given day care, dormitories, a clinic, transportation, a fair work schedule and salary, and other factors. It has never been able to retain more than 25 percent of its Jordanian employees.

They just didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t like working in a factory, despite the favorable conditions.

Effective training techniques are similar to those of other Arab countries: emphasis on learning by doing, visual rather than text reinforcement, strong teacher leadership, building positive relations with students and their families, and redundancy to reinforce learning. CertiďŹ cations and recognition along the way are much appreciated.

Opportunities exist for training companies to work with international donors to equip Jordanians and Syrian refugees with market-ready skills. ed by the stress on the public systemâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;which has middle-class parents increasingly turning to high-priced private alternativesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and the weight of supporting hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees, 80 percent of whom live in towns and cities.

TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES

What does this mean for the training professional or company entering Jordan? Today, there are tens of millions of dollars being spent to support its economic growth to stabilize the impact of the Syrian refugees and the drain on the host communities.

This has created multiple opportunities for training 24

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FACTS TO KNOW

s -ORE THAN PERCENT OF THE POPULATION IS under age 30. s 4HE HIGHEST UNEMPLOYMENT RATES ARE AMONG university graduates. s 7OMEN ARE WELL EDUCATED AND COMPETITIVE s %DUCATION IS HIGHLY PRIZED That said, without job opportunities, Jordan will continue to only have short-term subsidized solutions. Qt www.trainingmag.com

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2 Park Avenue, Suite 300 New York , NY 10016 (212) 697-1355

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#1 KELLER WILLIAMS REALTY, INC.

Keller Williams Realty’s View from the TOP The real estate organization lands the No. 1 spot on the 2017 Training Top 125. BY LORRI FREIFELD eller Williams Realty, Inc., moved into the Training Top 125 penthouse, landing the No. 1 spot for the second time in three years and earning its induction into the Training Top 10 Hall of Fame after four consecutive Top 10 rankings.

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“It’s an honor to join the ranks of such great organizations with such committed Training leaders,” says John Davis, who serves as co-CEO of Keller Williams with Chris Heller.

“I have to admit we’re actually going to miss thinking about and working through the Training Top 125 application next year because our company has gained so many insights into the training we’re offering and the best practices that leading organizations like those in the Training Top 10 Hall of Fame have modeled. They’ve helped us elevate our training game. Hopefully, we can provide that same positive example to other organizations that are looking to grow and create opportunities for their people.”

Cultivating a Growth Mindset Keller Williams certainly knows something about successfully growing its people. “We recalibrate our percentage goals from year to year, but the buckets remain the same—agent count, production, and profitability. That’s our model,” Davis says. “Growth fuels production. Production boosts profitability. And profits help our people fund their lives.”

For 2016, Davis says, “we set ambitious goals of increasing our agent count and production by 20 percent, and having 26

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100 percent of our franchise offices profitable for the year.

Through November 2016, we had already surpassed our agent growth goal for the year, our agents’ production was up 20 percent, and 99 percent of our franchise offices were profitable for the year.” www.trainingmag.com

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team then created this easy-to-use tool so agents could enter the take-home pay they want to ďŹ nish the year withâ&#x20AC;Śand the program would calculate from that goal the speciďŹ c daily activities (such as buyer consultations or listing appointments) they need to accomplish to keep on pace for their goals,â&#x20AC;? Davis says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;In less than two months, our local leaders facilitated 116,000 goal-setting conversations with our associatesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and since that time, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve hit all-time monthly records every month in every major production category we track. More important, our agentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; production is growing four times the rate of the overall industry.â&#x20AC;?

Keller Williamsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; greatest training challenge last year was a direct result of its growth. In the last ďŹ ve years, the organization doubled in size (to more than 150,000 real estate agents), thanks to a companywide training initiative and strong execution at the local level. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Our challenge was not simply to train these new members of our family but to boost the production for all of our associates,â&#x20AC;? Davis says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We met the challenge by being clear about our vision, by making sure weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re speaking â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;one language,â&#x20AC;&#x2122; by integrating our tools and training across all platforms, and by focusing on our most leveraged business activities.â&#x20AC;?

All Keller Williams leaders focus on the same four conversations: appointments, gross recruiting, net recruiting, and proďŹ t. â&#x20AC;&#x153;For the last ďŹ ve years, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve placed the most emphasis on the ďŹ rst conversation: doing the activities we know drive results,â&#x20AC;?

Davis says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Now, as a result of the success our people have achieved and the standard of excellence theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve set, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re concentrating more on that second conversation and the conversion skills our leaders need to be more effective and efďŹ cient in their roles.â&#x20AC;?

Adds Co-CEO Chris Heller, â&#x20AC;&#x153;We know from experience that everything rises and falls on leadership. So weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve made KELLER WILLIAMS EXECUTIVE TEAM, major investments in our C-level from left: Mo Anderson, Vice Chairman of team. After hiring our ďŹ rst Chief the Board; John Davis, Co-CEO; Gary Keller, Co-Founder and Chairman of the Board; Learning OfďŹ cer a few years ago, we Davis notes that one of the simplest, most Chris Heller, Co-CEO; and Mary Tennant, added a Chief Innovation OfďŹ cer, Member of the Board. effective things Keller Williams did last year Chief Technology OfďŹ cer, and Chief was create a Career Growth Initiative calculator. The idea Products/Strategy OfďŹ cer in 2016. Together, theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re building originated with Keller Williamsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; CFO and general counhighly skilled creative teams that are providing the platform sel during a staff brainstorming session. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Our Innovation agents and consumers prefer.â&#x20AC;? www.trainingmag.com

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#1 KELLER WILLIAMS REALTY, INC.

KELLER WILLIAMS TRAINING TEAM: Stacia Thompson, MCA Driver; Dianna Kokoszka, CEO, KW MAPS Coaching; Jay Papasan, VP, KW Publishing; Bryon Ellington, Chief Learning OfďŹ cer; and Leslie Vander Gheynst, KPA Driver, with members of the Keller Williams Training Team.

Connecting Anytime, Anywhere One such platform is KW Connect. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Here, in one placeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; accessible anytime, anywhereâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;we not only have all of our training programs and materials, but weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re making available to all of our associates user-generated content from some of the top real estate professionals in the world,â&#x20AC;? Heller says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;KW Connect has quickly become a one-stop shop for every training resource a real estate agent could need to succeed at a very high level,â&#x20AC;? Davis adds. â&#x20AC;&#x153;This stable, secure platform is accessible only to Keller Williams agents.â&#x20AC;?

The platform brings together the best features of learning management system (LMS) and Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) platforms; social platforms such as Facebook and Instagram; and video and content-sharing sites, such as YouTube and Vimeo. Features include: s 5SER GENERATED CONTENT FROM MORE THAN

associates, including executives, who can easily upload videos, audio ďŹ les, and links s ! h&OLLOW -Ev FEATURE FOR USERS TO FOLLOW TOP associates and executives and receive notiďŹ cations when new content is posted s ! 1 ! FORUM WHERE AGENTS CAN ASK QUESTIONS GIVE answers, and vote on response helpfulness 28

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s 5SER RATINGS AND COMMENTS FOR ALL content, which surfaces the best ideas s !LL +ELLER 7ILLIAMS TRAINING resources for instructors and students in one place s ! SEARCHABLE COMPANY WIDE calendar, enabling associates to REGISTER FOR PLUS ANnual instructor-led training (ILT) classes offered anywhere 5SERS HAVE BOTH THEIR OWN PROlLE AND channel, where they can curate Keller Williams content, their own uploads, and other usersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; uploads, and then combine them into sharable playlists. OfďŹ ce managers can create tailored training programs for new agents or other UNIQUE GROUPS 5SERS CAN TRACK CONTENT consumed on their channel and even restrict access to certain content, so agents with teams, for example, can create proprietary team training programs.

5SERS ACCUMULATE POINTS FOR INTERACTION FOR EXAMPLE IN THE 1 ! FORUM

to earn higher site status as experts, making them more likely to receive client referrals from other agents. ! NEW h-EGA VERSUS -EGAv WEBISODE series leverages the platform by pairing up the top â&#x20AC;&#x153;mega agentsâ&#x20AC;? in the company in friendly competition. Each uploads a three-minute video explaining their approach to a common real estate challenge. Keller Williams promotes these videos in company-wide e-mails, inviting associates to rate them; victors then advance to battle other winners. This fun way for agents to learn techniques from top agents has become VERY POPULAR WITH THE hBATTLESv AVERAGING VIEWS !GENT ACTIVITY AND ADOPTION EXCEEDED THE YEAR ONE CONTENT upload goal in just six months. On an average day, Davis says, associates watch more than 624 hours of online training!

Making the SHIFT The biggest external factor that impacts Keller Williams AGENTS BUSINESSES IS THE HOUSING CYCLE (ELLER NOTES h!ND while no one can predict exactly when the market will shiftâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;or how severe it will beâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;we do know what the next INEVITABLE PHASE OF THE CYCLE IS !ND THAT S WHY WE RE PREPARing our agents so intensively right now to not only survive the market shift, but to thrive. This includes revisiting our SHIFT Curriculum that proved so successful during the last market downturn and updating it and adapting it to new modes of social learning.â&#x20AC;?

Keller Williams Cofounder and Chairman Gary Keller sent A FAMOUS h3()&4v E MAIL TO +7 5NIVERSITY INSTRUCTIONAL www.trainingmag.com

We know what success looks like.

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s you-shaped.

When it comes to growing a great career and achieving your potential, we know that better matters. Better learning, development and support to help you get where you want to be. And where better to get all this than from a Training Top 10 Hall of Famer, where leaders build leaders by leveraging technology to deliver effective, efficient learning.

Find out more by visiting verizon.com/LearningAndDevelopment

Verizon is an equal opportunity employer/disability/vet

#1 KELLER WILLIAMS REALTY, INC. designers in 2007 at the onset of the worst crisis in U.S. real estate since the Great Depression. “The market has created a need for timely and tightly focused courses that agents can dig into quickly for answers on what to do RIGHT NOW. The 12 topics they struggle with RIGHT NOW are …” the e-mail explained.

Before the SHIFT, all an agent typically had to do was stick a sign in the front yard, and a home sold almost immediately, with multiple offers for well over list price. The industry ballooned from 800,000 to 1.2 million agents. But many had never experienced tough markets or developed the foundational skills needed to thrive. And then overnight, the SHIFT began weighing down the businesses of what ultimately would be hundreds of thousands of agents unwilling or unable to adapt.

But Gary Keller knew there were opportunities for those willing to learn. In a series of emergency writing sessions in late 2007, he and Keller Williams executives partnered with Keller Williams instructional designers to create the Breakthrough to Mastery series. The team worked over the winter holidays to launch these 12 just-in-time self-study courses in January 2008.

The downloadable guidebooks were supplemented with online modules, including Keller-led interviews of top agents.

Each course trained on a different “tactic” that successful agents were using to adapt, ranging from selling foreclosed bank properties to expense management.

At the time, KW saw a large drop in its training material sales because agents were slashing their budgets. Knowing agents needed training to adapt quickly, Keller Williams took action. “First, in Tactic 2: Expense Management, we teach agents to budget for training,” Heller says. “More importantly, Keller Williams made the decision, beginning with this curriculum, to remove training barriers by offer-

FAST FACTS Total number of employees and independent contractors⁄franchisees trained overall annually: 180,304 Average length of employee service: 6.5 years Percentage of job openings filled by internal candidates: 84.6% Percentage of new hires referred by employees: 79.9% Total number of employees and independent contractors⁄franchisees trained annually via instructor-led classroom sessions: 180,304 Total number of employees and independent contractors⁄franchisees trained annually via online, self-paced study: 78,480 Number of courses offered as instructor-led classroom sessions: 345 Number of courses offered as instructor-led virtual classroom sessions: 492 Number of courses offered as online-self-paced modules: 2,855

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ing all of our training materials for free.”

To make this content even more accessible, in 2009, Keller Williams turned each of the 12 guides into one- to three-hour instructor-led training classes, for monthly delivery by leaders and top agents in its franchise offices, rebranding them the “SHIFT curriculum.” It also created a traveling one-day SHIFT seminar led by Keller and other top Keller Williams executives. More than 31,000 associates attended nearly 70 tour stops over 18 months—and they only paid for lunch!

“Today, the SHIFT training that began as a reaction to the Great Recession allows us to quickly react to the economic shifts some of our markets now are experiencing again,” Heller says. “Earlier this year, 245 of our offices in these markets attended a virtual ILT series on the SHIFT curriculum, and began holding hundreds of SHIFT training classes each month in their offices.”

While industry sales in many markets have slowed or even gone backward over the last year, this training has helped Keller Williams’ sales climb an average of 2 percent per month in 2016, contributing to 20 percent higher agent commissions. As a result, Davis says, Keller Williams is attracting agents looking to thrive in tough markets, contributing to a net increase of more than 20,000 agents and record profitability for its local franchise offices.

Reinforcement, Retention, and Recruitment A central tenet of Keller Williams’ belief system is “Success through others.” Notes Heller, “Our headquarters team is deeply engaged with what our agents and local leadership teams are doing in the field. Every week, our employees take part in the same growth calls our agents and local leaders are on—and then as teams and small groups, they discuss the call and brainstorm additional ways we can support our associates in the field. We also have a constant stream of associates visiting our headquarters building in Austin to take classes at our on-site learning center. They interact with our headquarters team and tour our corporate facilities, which is just one more way we ensure open lines of communication for ideas, suggestions, and feedback.”

Davis adds that in all of Keller Williams classes, “we hit the pause button periodically to check comprehension and share aha’s with the group. The key is turning those aha’s into action. So in all of our classes, we also develop specific action plans. And we strongly encourage our associates to join one of our coaching programs because we know how powerful it is to have an accountability relationship…and the impact that coaching has on the results our people achieve.”

Heller notes: “We’re the only company I know of where every agent has a weekly opportunity to take part in a coaching call led by one of our top executives. Our commitment to leadership starts at the top. All of our top executives teach in the field. Our top regional leaders serve as master faculty, and our local team leaders and productivity coaches are teaching training classes in their market centers every day.”

In his book, “The ONE Thing,” Gary Keller recommends asking what he calls the focusing question: “What’s the ONE www.trainingmag.com

#1 KELLER WILLIAMS REALTY, INC. thing I can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?” For real estate agents, Davis says, the answer is: “Do the activities!”

That’s why Keller Williams incorporates “real-play” into its training courses. “Agents don’t just learn what they should do, they get on the phone and talk to consumers,” Davis says.

“Real-play demystifies what they’re hearing in the classroom and contributes directly to the growth of their business. They get positive reinforcement of the lessons they’re learning and see immediate, tangible results.”

TRAINING TIPS “Find what’s effective. And model it,” Keller Williams Realty, Inc., Co-CEO Chris Heller advises other companies looking to improve their training programs. “For us, that means looking to our top agents in the field, asking what they’re doing and how they’re doing it, and then developing and scaling solutions that benefit our entire associate base.”

As for cutting costs, Heller says, “our mantra is ‘Lead with revenue.’ When we develop effective training, our entire company benefits, and that allows us to invest in new training programs and initiatives.”

Keller Williams’ training plays a major role in its agent recruitment. “We invite competitors and prospects to our training,” Davis says. “Whether it’s a lunchtime class in a local market center or one of our major weeklong training events such as Family Reunion or Mega Camp, we strongly encourage our agents and local leaders to invite guests to attend. We want to make clear to potential additions to our family our deep commitment to training and what they can expect if—scratch that, when!—they choose to join our team.”

Heller says Keller Williams is excited by the innovation and technology the organization is developing and how it’s going to help agents and consumers. “A decade from now, the way consumers search for and buy homes and the insights agents are able to provide will be almost unrecognizable from the process today,” he notes. “Our success at keeping our agents at the forefront of this evolution, helping them differentiate themselves from their competitors, and providing an extraordinary customer experience will be determined by how well we train our people.”

Training is at the core of everything Keller Williams does, Heller stresses. “Every day—from live trainings in our regions and franchise offices to virtual and on-demand learning— we’re teaching our agents the skills and strategies they need to grow their businesses, which puts money in their pockets, makes our offices more profitable, and gives us more profits to share with the associates who are helping us grow.” Qt

Happy to be here We are honored to be named to Training magazine’s list of top trainers for the 17th consecutive year.

At Edward Jones, we see learning as an investment in the future of our firm – and our clients.

To learn more about the Edward Jones way of doing business, visit www.careers.edwardjones.com.

MKTT 7046D-A © 2016 EDW WARD RD D D. D. JO JO JON ONES & CO O., L.P. ALL RIGHTS TS R RES SERVE ERVED D. Mem e ber SIPC

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www.trainingmag.com

NYCB

Always On Point NYCB is proud to be a 2017 Training Top 125 Award Winner.

TOP 5

Proud to be recognized as a Top 5 winner among such a distinguished group of companies for training and employee development.

myNYCB.com

Strength, Stability, & Service

#2 NEW YORK COMMUNITY BANCORP, INC.

New York Community Bancorp’s Investment in Training Pays Off An increased training budget and staff helped the financial organization achieve its sales, service, and employee development goals in 2016. BY LORRI FREIFELD ew York Community Bancorp, Inc.’s increased investment in employee training and development has paid dividends, including earnings of $130 million, 96 percent customer satisfaction ratings, 2.6 percent lower turnover than the industry average, and a spot in the Top 5 of the Training Top 125 for the first time.

N

“Our leaders recognize that in addition to offering competitive products and services, we must continue to leverage and enhance the skills of our valued employees in order to survive in today’s crowded marketplace,” note Second Vice President – Instructional Design Manager Joelle Divine and Employee Development Officer Tracy Robinson. “New York Community Bancorp views training as a positive investment toward that goal, and as a result, we increased our training budget by $230,966 (5 percent) in 2016. In addition, top executives at New York Community Bancorp have shown their commitment to improving the overall knowledge and proficiency of the professionals within the organization by increasing our number of full-time Training professionals by 10 percent.”

The organization’s 2016 strategic goals, Divine says, were centered on what drives business results: s 3ALES Focus on developing a sales force that builds customer relationships in order to increase sales. s 3ERVICE Deliver an industry-leading service experience by focusing on key attributes that win and retain customers for life. s %MPLOYEE $EVELOPMENT Enhance employee engagement with career planning, growth, and development opportunities.

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“Our training plan is determined by the Executive Management Team, based on the organization’s strategic plan and direction,” Divine explains. “The corporate director of Employee Development & Training (ED&T)—a member of the Executive Management Team—reviews key training initiatives monthly with the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Administrative Officer to determine how our deliverables are aligned to, and support, the organization’s goals.”

Selling Points A professional and effective sales approach is critical to support New York Community Bancorp’s corporate sales goal.

As such, ED&T offers a variety of sales training programs unique to the organization, including: Introduction to Relationship Selling, Tele-Consulting—Planning and Making the Call, Event-Based Selling, Building and Retaining Customer Relationships, and Effective Coaching.

Divine says successful application of the key sales skills and actions learned have resulted in increased deposits of $98 million and a 15.01 percent return on average tangible stockholders’ equity. Additionally, loans distributed rose $2.7 billion to $35.8 billion, representing an increase of 8.3 percent.

The Building Business Customer Relationships (BBCR) course is a blended approach of self-study and classroom www.trainingmag.com

to collect customer information.

These forms are utilized when the employee is planning a sales call or following up with a customer after the initial sale. By continuing to assess and review customer needs, Divine says, additional cross-selling opportunities are identified, resulting in a 3 percent increase in sales for existing business customers.

Upon completion of BBCR, participants return to their retail centers and share the skills acquired throughout the curriculum with other employees.

Service Commitment

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New York Community Bancorp’s Every Customer Every Time (ECET) program introduces participants to the organization’s service philosophy, Customer Service Model, and Service Standards. “We have implemented valuable tools to measure NEW YORK COMMUNITY BANCORP, INC., Leadership our success,” Divine says. “A Voice team, from left: Claudette Nunez, Senior Vice President – Director, Employee Development; Joelle Divine, Second of the Customer (VOC) program Vice President – Instructional Design Manager; and was created for front-line employees Robert Gillespie, Executive Vice President – Corporate where external surveyors perform Director, Employee Development. mystery shops at our retail locations, posing as regular or potential customers. Results are reported weekly to management, and training. Participants are introduced to the following: employees receive the appropriate coaching, training, and s )DENTIFYING DESIRABLE BUSINESS CHARACTERISTICS Participants support to correct behavior that is not consistent with our are shown the importance of considering such characteristics Customer Service Model.” as the age of business, annual revenue, number of employees, Year-to-date attribute ratings indicate that the expected location/proximity, profitability, and type of business when tarcustomer service behaviors are met 96 percent of the time, geting potential new small business customers. “This has proven and customer satisfaction ratings have improved from 94 to to be a successful method as the number of additional business 96 percent. products sold has increased by 15 percent,” Divine says.

In addition, Divine says, “we use the VOC surveys in conjuncs .ETWORKING Participants are provided with examples of nettion with ED&T-designed coaching and observation forms to working opportunities they can participate in with the goal of develop coaching plans for our retail branch employees. Our discovering potential opportunities for new business clients. ParVOC program provides decision-makers with actionable inticipants also create individual Centers of Influence, a network of formation to increase profits, improve customer satisfaction, acquaintances/associates who are willing to introduce them to and enhance employee performance. We have seen an increase potential clients on a recurring basis. Divine says application of (95 to 97 percent) in the percentage of employees who meet or this skill is demonstrated by a 10 percent increase in core deposits exceed documented performance expectations, which include for business accounts. s #ALLING ON SMALL BUSINESSES Participants are shown the imcustomer satisfaction components.” portance of reaching out to small businesses in order to illustrate New York Community Bancorp’s Customer Contact how New York Community Bancorp can add value to their comCenter (CCC) plays a vital role in the organization’s serpany and increase their profitability. To generate successful initial vice, profitability, customer retention, security, and overall and follow-up calls with business customers, participants learn success, Divine notes. “Due to the rise in technological adthe importance of planning for both in-person and telephone vances in how customers do their banking, over the last five calls. Results indicate a 29 percent increase in the number of outyears, retail traffic has decreased and the number of cusside business development calls, according to Divine. tomers who call the CCC has increased,” she says. “To that s $OCUMENTING Participants review the internal forms used end, ED&T began working with our business partners in www.trainingmag.com

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#2 NEW YORK COMMUNITY BANCORP, INC. Developing Assets

NYCB EMPLOYEE DEVELOPMENT & TRAINING TEAM: Standing back (from left): Joelle Divine, Second Vice â&#x20AC;&#x201C;President Instructional Design Manager; Melissa Weimer, Training Specialist; Katherine Ebel, Training Specialist, Senior; Ruth Poletis, Training Manager; Martine SaintJean, Training Manager; Tracy Robinson, Instructional Designer; Jessica Covais, Training Specialist; and Matthew McGuire, Training Specialist. Kneeling/sitting front (from left): Gary Cayton, Instructional Designer; Michelle Hettich, Business Analyst; Claudette Nunez, Senior Vice President â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Director, Employee Development & Training; and Teresa Smith, Training Specialist, Senior.

the CCC to develop a curriculum that will provide our employees with the tools and skills they need to help serve and protect one of our most valuable assetsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;our customers.â&#x20AC;?

The Customer Contact Center Hybrid Curriculum consists of two instructor-led classroom training classes. ED&T facilitates the ďŹ rst segment, concentrating on customer service and the host system. To demonstrate their support and interest in the success of all CCC employees, Divine says, top executives lead an open-forum discussion. The CCC Quality Assurance (QA) team facilitates the second segment, focusing on additional CCC supporting systems.

Once both segments of the curriculum are complete, participants are transitioned to New York Community Bancorpâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s formalized approach to mentoring (nesting). Through this method, they work in pairs with an experienced mentor within the CCC. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Mentors and mentees are paired up through a strategic approach, which accounts for individual learning and communication styles,â&#x20AC;? Divine explains. â&#x20AC;&#x153;This experience includes observation, guided/supervised production, job-partnering, and independent work. The use of checklists, application/practice, coaching, feedback, and scheduled signoff points to validate progress and accomplishment round out the structure of mentoring components. Nesting continues until employeesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; skills and abilities are brought to the point where they are prepared to work independently.â&#x20AC;?

Results achieved since the rollout of the program in March 2016 include: s PERCENT OF CUSTOMER CALLS RESOLVED AT lRST CONTACT s PERCENT INCREASE IN AFTER CALL PRODUCTIVITY s PERCENT DECREASE IN TIME IT TAKES TO ANSWER A customerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s call s PERCENT DECREASE IN NUMBER OF CALLS ABANDONED s PERCENT DECREASE IN CALL HOLD TIME s PERCENT DECREASE IN NUMBER OF CALLS ESCALATED TO management 36

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To maintain ongoing success, New York Community Bancorp focuses constant attention on the growth and development of its employees, Divine says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We enhance employee engagement with career planning, growth, and development opportunities. We offer a Professional Development Plan (PDP), a guide for career planning, and development to assist employees with their career goals.â&#x20AC;?

This program outlines the requirements of each job/role, and provides additional and innovative resources available for use at any time to help develop a new skill set, and equip employees with information needed to move to other positions as they become available within the organization. As a result of feedback collected from the end-users, Divine says ED&T added 12 new modules and resources to the program in 2016.

To demonstrate the organizationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s commitment to its employees and their development, an introduction video, featuring three top executives, outlines the PDP and its components.

In the last year, the number of employees who met or exceed documented performance expectations has increased FROM TO PERCENT $IVINE SAYS h3OME PERCENT OF EMployees far exceed documented performance expectations, indicating they are ready for additional responsibilities,â&#x20AC;? she notes. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Furthermore, the organization has less than 10 percent turnover in overall leadership levels, and has been able TO lLL PERCENT OF OPEN MANAGEMENT POSITIONS WITH INTERNAL employees seeking promotions.â&#x20AC;?

Emerging Trends Rapidly advancing technology has had an â&#x20AC;&#x153;incredible inďŹ&#x201A;uence on our training methods and course offerings,â&#x20AC;? says Robinson. â&#x20AC;&#x153;To make sure we are reaching our diverse learning population, we need to offer courses in a variety of formats, including in-class training, in-ofďŹ ce training, Meeting Express, self-study, job aids, online training, and on-demand video demonstrations.â&#x20AC;?

Robinson says New York Community Bancorp is in the process of creating video demonstrations for different functions that employees are required to perform throughout the day.

These videos will be available through a link to an external server that will house all of the videos.

Looking ahead, Executive Vice Presidentâ&#x20AC;&#x201C; Corporate Director, Employee Development Robert Gillespie says, â&#x20AC;&#x153;we expect that the ďŹ nancial services industry will change dramatically over the next 10 years and become even more digital. The pace will be faster, the learning will be more demanding, and the delivery will need to be even more effective. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Our Training professionals will need to be even more experienced and effective in developing and delivering outstanding training,â&#x20AC;? he continues, â&#x20AC;&#x153;including needing to be experts in our ďŹ eld of banking, and as well versed in ďŹ nancial services as possible. Many also will need to be outstanding project managers, internal consultants, and analysts. The broader and deeper our professionals become, the higher the level of impact will be in our bank.â&#x20AC;? Qt www.trainingmag.com

#3 LEADING REAL ESTATE COMPANIES OF THE WORLD

LeadingRE’s at Home with Learning The real estate company revamped sales manager selection, which, along with enhanced development of leaders across the company, added up to a year of accelerated learning. BY MARGERY WEINSTEIN 016 saw Leading Real Estate Companies of the World (LeadingRE) take talent development to the next level.

The company created a program that has allowed its brokerages to better select sales managers, and in the process, improve their companies’ overall performance.

Taking charge of the process by which sales managers are selected has given these companies the power to improve the quality of their managers while spurring sales, and, ultimately, bringing greater service to customers. An eye toward providing employees with comprehensive talent and career development has created a sustainable, high-performing workforce.

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Becoming a MAESTRO at Leadership “Without question, we are most proud of our MAESTRO Leadership Program,” says Vice President of Talent Development Barbara Wichman. During the development and deployment of LeadingRE’s Sales Manager Assessment, which identified key performance indicators to assist its brokers in selecting quality sales managers, the company made the decision to go all in and create a one-of-a-kind talent development program: MAESTRO Leadership. “It is built around the three key pillars discovered during our focus group for sales manager selection: Culture, People Development, and Financial Growth,” Wichman explains. She says the company piloted its newest talent development program with 25 sales managers in 2015.

MAESTRO training consists of three in-person, interactive three-day workshops covering the three pillars of real estate leadership. The program is taught by a team of real estate industry leaders led by Wichman and Leadership Coach Mike Staver. The six-month program includes a behavioral assessment tailored for sales managers, relevant assignments, and Webinars between sessions, pairing with an “accountability partner,” ongoing communication/motivation, and other resources—all designed to empower MAESTROs to apply what they learn to create better real estate sales outcomes.

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regularly posting stories about what they now are doing differently and their results via closed groups on Facebook,” says Wichman. “The MAESTROs are sharing what they learned with their broker and teaching other managers, extending the impact of the training beyond our student base.”

In addition, the company held a one-day workshop exclusively for the broker/owners of MAESTRO students to reinforce what these managers learned, and to maximize the learning experience within their organizations.

LeadingRE collected key performance indicators from the pilot attendees, and compiled year-over-year comparisons to measure the impact of the training: s PERCENT ACHIEVED A PERCENT INCREASE IN AVERAGE number of sides (transactions) per agent. s PERCENT INCREASED TOTAL NUMBER OF SALES ASSOCIATES by an average of 16 percent. s PERCENT INCREASED TOTAL OFlCE SALES VOLUME BY 16 percent. The highest increase in volume was 65 percent. www.trainingmag.com

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Learning Resources at All Levels Leadership development provided through MAESTRO is just one facet of a comprehensive suite of learning resources.

LeadingRE’s talent development resources are designed and available for nearly every role and department within real estate brokerages: leadership, management, sales, marketing, technology, relocation, business development, and customer service.

“This holistic approach sets us apart and helps us deliver on our mantra, ‘Making the best brokerages better,’” says Wichman.

Part of offering learning resources on such a wide scale is keeping pace with evolving learning technology. In 2016, the company incorporated Lynda.com, a video-based learning resource, for online, just-in-time learning. “Our internal staff holds a diverse set of needs and learning goals. With just over 100 employees, we needed to find an option that would give breadth and some depth to the learning needs of all employees,” says Wichman.

The learners leveraged Lynda.com in two ways. The first was to look for courses that supported their learning needs as identified in their development plans, to provide additional learning options for further skill development. The second use was for www.trainingmag.com

LEADING REAL ESTATE COMPANIES OF THE WORLD Talent Development Leaders, from left: Paul Boomsma, President, Luxury Portfolio International, and COO, Leading Real Estate Companies of the World; Cecelia Chott, Executive Director, Content Services; Barbara Wichman, VP, Talent Development; Stephanie Loftus, eLearning Senior Specialist; and Pam O’Connor, President/ CEO, Leading Real Estate Companies of the World.

just-in-time reference activity, which, Wichman says, received a lot of play. Over the course of five months, more than 2,350 videos were viewed with an average viewing time of 12 minutes. “With some of the top courses viewed being Excel and Google analytics, we know folks are looking for answers to questions that affect immediate productivity needs,” she says. “Providing this resource reduces online search time and provides proven quality learning. Additionally, leaders have set up learning tracks for their teams, and have access to analytics that alert them to the progress made by each team member.”

Recognizing CLEAR Success CLEAR values (Collaboration, Leadership, Excellence, Accountability, and Respect) are the cornerstone of LeadingRE’s training JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017

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#3 LEADING REAL ESTATE COMPANIES OF THE WORLD

LEADING REAL ESTATE COMPANIES OF THE WORLD Talent Development, Events, and Marketing teams.

culture, Wichman points out. Introduced in January 2016 as a part of driving an “intentional culture with articulated values,” the CLEAR values are the basis for the company’s internal recognition program, along with a monthly award that is presented to the employee who has most exhibited that value, chosen out of a pool of peer nominations. CLEAR winners receive gift cards from a traveling trophy, which the company even ships back and forth to remote team winners. CLEAR recognition can be given to anyone either in-person or using an online tool. The CLEAR recognition program and monthly CLEAR awards have helped to reduce employee turnover by 30 percent from 2015.

LeadingRE also began having purely social monthly breakfasts to build and strengthen relationships across departments. LeadingRE also sponsors parties for its company volleyball team, part of a city recreational league, and senior managers attend a few games each year. Additionally, the company began a “Lunch with the Leader” program in which a C-suite leader takes a different employee out to lunch each month, and successfully implemented a “Summer Hours” program, giving employees an option for Fridays off.

To ensure the company keeps its pulse on employee engagement, a confidential employee survey is conducted every year, with results first shared with managers, who then share with their teams. “Every year we introduce new benefits or activities specifically targeted to ideas or concerns expressed in the survey,” says Wichman. “Based on the questions we repeated on the survey from 2015 to 2016, 18 of 27 questions showed improvement (a 67 percent increase), with virtually no declining scores.”

Mentoring “Smart Starts” The greatest of learning resources is meaningless without the human touch—namely, the support of a learner’s fellow employees. With that in mind, the company redesigned and redeployed its one-on-one relocation mentor program (“Smart Start”) to incorporate blended learning approaches and enhance long-term results. New relocation directors must be recommended for the program, which includes passing 10 pre-requisite 40

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online courses, earning the Global Relocation Professional (GRP) credential, and participating in monthly calls with an assigned mentor for nine to 12 months for training support.

“We recruit seasoned veterans, and assign mentors to match similar company profiles for the best fit to culture and needs. Because our mentors volunteer significant time, we built in accountability elements, and only full-time relocation staff members are eligible,” says Wichman, who notes that mentee graduates receive certificates and join their mentors and peers for recognition at exclusive conference events and from the main stage. “In 2015, there were 20 Smart Start graduates,” says Wichman. “The referral performance of our graduates in the first full year after completion improves, on average, 150 percent!”

Planning for the Future With effective learning and development created and rolled out across the company, the next concern is succession planning.

“Succession planning and business exit strategies are critical factors in real estate, because many owners are in their 50s, 60s, or 70s, and some do not have family members interested in the business, and don’t have a plan for the future,” says Wichman.

“LeadingRE has many legacy companies spanning generations, including the two oldest brokerages in the industry—Baird & Warner in Chicago and N.P. Dodge in Omaha, both of which are more than 150 years old.”

The company assists succession planning through its CEO Exchange Groups, including one that specifically comprises second- and third-generation family members, and by offering live sessions at its conferences on succession planning strategies.

It also makes an effort to “bring up” younger members of management teams by involving them in LeadingRE activities and groups, so the company is able to informally mentor them. “We work one-on-one with companies to direct them to additional succession planning resources to assist with such decisions, and our CLO has worked with numerous companies to facilitate their decision-making,” says Wichman.

In October 2016, LeadingRE held its first two-day Family Succession Planning Workshop featuring family business consultants, attorneys, valuation experts, and other member brokers who have successfully undergone such transitions. The program was attended by 19 companies that are facing generational transition of their family businesses, for whom this event assisted with planning, communication, advice, and best practices from outside experts and member brokers.

“During the last 12 months, we have provided confidential coaching and ‘brokering’ to 10 member brokerages to support their efforts in succession planning,” says Wichman. “This individualistic approach allowed us to retain 95 percent of known ‘at risk’ brokerages that may have sold to firms outside of the network. Doing this fits our culture, and those of our affiliates, and enhances our network’s value proposition.” Qt www.trainingmag.com

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#4 BNSF RAILWAY

BNSF Railway Is on the Right Training Track BNSF Railway worked to secure the safety of its workforce in 2017, and got its employees on board with nextgeneration leadership development, career planning, and learning technology. BY MARGERY WEINSTEIN t BNSF Railway, ensuring the safety of employees, communities, and customers’ cargo is a core value across the company.

As the largest freight railroad in North America, BNSF employs more than 40,000 people in 28 states and three Canadian provinces.

A

A commitment to learning and development has been central to the company’s success. There’s a strong emphasis on the technical training that equips employees to safely operate a large, complex, and technologically advanced rail network. The emphasis on leadership development is equally strong, with annual training that applies an innovative curriculum and technology to help leaders at all levels of the organization deepen their leadership skills in alignment with the company’s Leadership Model.

Approaching Others About Safety A key recent training advance for BNSF is its Approaching Others About Safety program. Designed for all BNSF employees, it focuses on employees taking the initiative to help each other stay safe. Launched in 2013, and reaching more than 30,000 employees every year, it is the largest training program BNSF Railway has undertaken. “From the start, BNSF has had a long-standing commitment to safety, and has achieved continuous improvement on a wide variety of safety measures,” says General Superintendent of Transportation Douglas Jones. “The focus on Approaching Others About Safety was the next logical step in continuing those safety advances.”

The program’s development, he says, was driven by an ongoing and deep commitment to safety leadership. “At BNSF, we work in a safe industry, but also an unforgiving environment with 24/7 operations and heavy equipment,” says Jones. “At BNSF, nothing is more important than safety—for our employees, for our customers, and for the communities we serve.”

The idea behind the program was that employees themselves were the best people to keep each other safe. With that in mind, the program was 42

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developed with help from employee focus groups conducted with union-represented employees within each functional group—Transportation, Mechanical, Engineering, Intermodal, and Telecommunications. Employees provide feedback on the program design, attend pilot sessions, and assist with the production of relevant videos that are customized to each department and operating craft.

The curriculum each year builds on the year before and captures many facets of safety. The program includes 450 BNSF union-represented employees who train their peers and fellow employees. These trainers are prepared with a 16-hour train-the-trainer class. Training focuses on the exposures that result in 97 percent of injuries, including line of fire/release of energy, pinch points, ascending/descending, walking/path of travel, and lifesaving processes.

“We know that Approaching Others About Safety has fundamentally changed our safety culture, and it is our belief at BNSF that we will operate the railroad free of accidents and injuries,” says Jones. www.trainingmag.com

BNSF RAILWAY LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT LEADERSHIP TEAM, from left: Debra Ross, AVP, Learning & Development; Douglas Jones, General Superintendent, Transportation; Scott Schafer, General Director, Railroad Training Services; Diane Ossenkop, Director, Leadership Development; and Michelle Parrack, Director Learning Delivery & Administration.

In 2015, the injury frequency ratio (a common measure in the industry) was less than 50 percent of the industry average and the lowest in the company’s history.

Virtual Reality for Brake Inspection Training

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Another key area of safety was the company’s recent response to a federal regulation on Brake System Safety Standards.

As a result of this new regulation, BNSF developed a 3-D, e-learning training program, Virtual Power Brake Law (VPBL), which earned a 2017 Training Top 125 Outstanding Training Initiative Award (see p. 102 for more details).

“An innovative and results-oriented training approach was required to address the criticality and complexity of brake inspections,” says General Director, Railroad Training Services, Safety, and Technical Training Scott Schafer.

The learning program uses several virtual reality scenarios to build employees’ proficiency in inspecting brakes. In the course, employees take on the role of avatars in a realistic, three-dimensional, virtual simulation where they perform comprehensive brake inspections on a “consist” of rail cars.

“This program enhances decision-making by testing employees’ ability to both identify and correct malfunctions—many of which prove difficult to demonstrate even in live training www.trainingmag.com

environments,” Schafer notes. “With this training solution, we incorporate all potential defects and functionality, reducing the safety risk that comes from inspections in live training environments.”

The program is seen as a “best-in-class” solution across the industry, Schafer points out. “We have been approached by other railroads that are interested in purchasing this training from BNSF. As a result, we plan to seek a patent for this work,” he says. “While we are early in our implementation, we are proud that this and other safety-focused training contributed to record safety performance in 2015—injuries have been reduced by 17 percent since 2012.”

Exploring Innovative Recruitment Technology While hiring needs vary from year to year, BNSF has implemented new tracking and recruitment processes that help extend the effectiveness of its hiring efforts, as needed.

Approximately 85 percent of BNSF’s employees are in unionized jobs in the field, so typically most of the company’s hiring focuses on union-represented jobs. “One of our greatest recruitment challenges is that we operate in very remote areas across 28 states with small populations and a limited candidate supply to fill vacancies with qualified candidates,” says Assistant Vice training JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017

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#4 BNSF RAILWAY the technical nature of our business, the complex operating environment, and our desire to maintain a strong and cohesive organizational culture, we firmly believe in cultivating and promoting talent from within the organization,” says Ross. “In the years from 2015 to 2018, we will replace 22 percent of our top 500 leaders due to planned retirements.”

In response, BNSF has implemented programs and processes to bolster its talent pipeline.

BNSF RAILWAY TECHNICAL TRAINING TEAM The Internship and Manage(Overland Park, KS), from left: Allen Stegall, Manager ment Trainee (MT) program II Transportation Training; Joseph Mahoney, Manager starts with college and graduate II, Railroad Training; Jean Dotson-Altic, Manager, TTC Administration; Thomas Ondriezek, Director, Training school hires. “Many of our seServices; Lynne Joplin, Director, Training Services; Scott nior leaders began their career Schafer, General Director, Railroad Training Services; as interns or MTs, demonstratand Alexander Franco, Jr., Director, Training Services. ing the success of the program over a number of years. In fact, our CEO started with the company as an intern,” Ross says. “The program has continued to evolve based on the needs of the business, but has always focused on acclimating new leaders to the company, culture, and specialized expertise required for potential career paths across the organization.”

In recent years, the company redesigned its onboarding, internship, and MT training experiences with development and retention as a priority. All MTs participate in an “All Aboard” program when they join BNSF. In this program, they are assigned a mentor who contacts them prior to their first day, connects with them through networking events, and serves as a point of contact throughout the program.

BNSF RAILWAY LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT TEAM, Customer Such programs that develop future leaders are key parts Support Training, and Safety of the company’s succession and talent planning. The proTraining Team (Fort Worth, TX). cess of building tomorrow’s workforce includes regular President, Learning and Organizational Development Debra department-level calibration discussions regarding top Ross. “Because we are competing with local employers within talent. Discussions include individualized accelerated dethese small pools of potential employees, we have taken steps to velopment plans aligned to each employee’s developmental make it easier for applicants to apply for our open positions.” areas and projected career progression. Talent movement For example, the company simplified and streamlined its also is discussed, and developmental moves and promotions hiring process with a new Applicant Tracking System— often are catalyzed through this process. modernizing the job application, replacing paper-and-pencil “These and other development programs ensure we have testing at hiring events with online testing completed with the prepared talent to fill leadership vacancies from within the initial application, and launching online onboarding forms. organization,” says Ross.

“We’ve extended our recruiting reach and targeted more audiResults of the program have been substantial. Thirty-eight ences by leveraging social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, percent of the company’s high-potential talent received a LinkedIn),” says Ross, who notes that BNSF also reaches out to promotion, or development move, in 2015. BNSF’s talent military venues; leverages employee referrals; and uses various bench has enabled it to successfully manage transitions due media outlets, including print and targeted digital advertising. to retirements; with the company reporting an 87 percent In addition, the company has piloted state-of-the-art live and internal fill rate of all non-entry level positions, and a 96 peron-demand video interviewing. Live video interviewing allows cent internal fill rate for vacancies within its top 500 leader potential candidates to interview remotely, but still interview positions. There is a nearly 100 percent success rate for these live with the recruiter and hiring manager. In OnDemand in- internal promotions. terviewing, a potential candidate is able to record and send in “As we reflect on the keys to our success at BNSF,” says Ross, his or her interview at a relaxed pace and convenient time. “several things come to mind—most notably the emphasis on alignment, executive support, and engaging learning and Cultivating Future Leaders talent solutions. The most significant driver is the fact that One of BNSF’s key business strategies is to develop and tran- our leaders believe they are responsible for their talent and sition the workforce for sustained business success. “Due to personally drive their employees’ development.” Qt 44

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#5 SONIC AUTOMOTIVE, INC.

Sonic Automotive Revs Its Leadership Engine A year of excellence in learning was capped off with the creation of a new academy Sonic Automotive, Inc., believes will take its customer-facing leadership to the next level. BY MARGERY WEINSTEIN hen a successful company hits its stride in profitability and delivering superior service to customers, it’s easy to rest on its laurels. But Sonic Automotive, Inc., continues to push for even greater improvement.

Last year saw the creation of a leadership academy, and the tackling of challenges such as lowering turnover and increasing retention rates. A continued commitment to giving learners the tools they need to succeed has resulted in greater growth opportunities for employees. With so many wins, the company’s next step can only be inching ever higher in the level of service it delivers to customers with the support of its dedicated team of Learning professionals.

W

Powering Leaders Working with Customers At some companies, leadership development is concentrated solely on executives who never work closely with customers.

Along with high-level leadership development, Sonic Automotive recognizes the importance of developing the leaders who work closer to the customer. With that in mind, the company created its Fixed Operations Academy. In addition to improving service to customers, the academy helps decrease the turnover of its Service and Parts leaders. “In general, retention of employees in these roles in the automotive industry is challenging (turnover at 70 percent),” say Vice President of Talent Management, Training and Recruiting Doug Bryant, Ed.D, and Senior Training Director Shawn Dingle. “Service and Parts Leaders often are promoted from within and lack 46

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the leadership and management skills to carry out their jobs.”

Sonic Automotive originally did not have any programs in place to provide training for high potentials, or new leaders, in these roles. In response, the organization designed and developed the Fixed Operations Academy. Key components of the academy include: Field Study Program Guide: This serves as a roadmap for the entire training program and as learners’ key resource for the Leadership Academy Program.

Application Labs: These are two one-week, interactive, immersive instructor-led training sessions.

Debrief Webinars: Two, one-hour virtual sessions are conducted after the Application Labs. The Webinars include a debrief discussion during which learners share their experiences as they begin to employ the leadership skills in their job function.

Assessments: Two types of assessments are used to evaluate skill acquisition throughout the training program and determine performance improvement while on the job.

Field Study Guide Activity Completion: Managers are provided a short checklist to verify Field Study Guide activity completion.

The Field Study guides also are collected and reviewed during the second Application Lab week, with random examples of www.trainingmag.com

SONIC AUTOMOTIVE TRAINING EXECUTIVES, top, from left: Dave Petzoldt, Training Director, Fixed Operations; Ray Farrow, Instructional Design Manager; John Perez, Senior Director, Talent Acquisition; Shawn Dingle, Senior Training Director; Doug Bryant, VP, Talent Management, Training and Recruiting; Michael Boulton, Director, Leadership and Organizational Development; Carson Courtney, Senior Training Director, Variable Operations. Bottom, from left: Bonnie Kirby, Training Coordinator; Rachel Welch, eLearning Manager; Marla Schutte, Senior Director, Learning & Talent Development â&#x20AC;&#x201C; EchoPark; Jen Mullin, Organizational Change Director OSOE; and Julie McAlister, Training Manager Guest Experience Center.

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participantsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; experiences shared and discussed with the class.

Action Plan: Each participant identiďŹ es a growth opportunity at his or her store based on the second Application Lab learnings. A full action plan is to be developed within seven days, and the plan implemented within 45 days.

The company has been thrilled with the results, Bryant and Dingle say. One hundred percent of program participants have been retained. From the ďŹ rst session, which ended January 2015, 44.4 percent of participants have been promoted.

The second session ended September 2015 with seven of 24 (29.2 percent) participants receiving promotions since the beginning of the class. The third session had 19 percent promotions as of June 2016.

Accelerating Recruitment and Retention The competition for automotive professionals is stiff, with the market dominated by companies such as Firestone, Bridgestone, and National Tire. Instead of attempting to compete with these companies in recruitment, Sonic Automotive took a different approach. In 2016, the company launched a pilot recruiting program in the Houston, TX, market directed toward attracting students of the Universal Technical Institute (UTI), a www.trainingmag.com

technical school with campuses in eight of Sonic Automotiveâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s largest markets. The school offers what is known as manufacturer-speciďŹ c advanced training (MSAT) courses. â&#x20AC;&#x153;To attract these candidates, we had to come up with a program that showed the students and the placement ofďŹ ces at the UTI campuses we had something special,â&#x20AC;? say Bryant and Dingle.

To attract the best applicants, and get the placement ofďŹ ces to talk about opportunities at Sonic Automotive, the company offered program participants the following: s 3TARTING SALARY OF PER HOUR s BONUS FOR COMPLETING THE lRST THREE MONTHS OF THE program s PER HOUR RAISE UPON COMPLETION OF THE lRST THREE months of the program s PER MONTH TUITION REIMBURSEMENT FOR MONTHS as long as they were employed at Sonic Automotive as a technician s 5P TO IN RELOCATION ASSISTANCE s BONUS AT THEIR TWO YEAR ANNIVERSARY Sonic Automotive also is required to pay the manufacturer

FOR EACH -3!4 GRADUATE HIRED TO ACTIVATE THEIR CERTIďŹ cations. This last expense is part of an existing agreement training JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017

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#5 SONIC AUTOMOTIVE, INC. between the manufacturers and dealers to subsidize the cost of the training by the technical school.

Over the last 12 months, Sonic has hired 29 UTI MSAT graduates into the apprentice program. All of them have remained with the company, and they are responsible for just under $5 million in Parts and Labor gross revenue. The Effective Labor rate (E.L.R.) for these 29 technicians is above average at $115 per hour, and their Labor Gross percentage is above average at just under 80 percent.

Driving Expectations and Achievement The corporate culture at Sonic Automotive is taken seriously, with a conscious effort made to educate employees about the company’s expectations, and then to provide the support needed to help fulfill those expectations. “Our corporate culture is directly linked to our training goals and successes. Our training goals are always to drive business results and reinforce the culture,” say Bryant and Dingle.

The company has four expectations for all of its employees: 1. Promote, protect, and build the brand and guest experience.

“We dedicate the first day of training to our brand and culture, so all employees know what the guests expect, what we expect from them, and what they can expect from us,” Bryant and Dingle explain. “In addition, our job-specific training is focused on helping our associates deliver against our brand.”

SONIC UNIVERSITY Training Team.

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2. Deliver an outstanding associate experience. “Our training also provides layers of collaborative work skill training that impact the guest, as well as peers. This training includes feedback,

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#5 SONIC AUTOMOTIVE, INC. conflict management, perseverance, and maintaining a positive attitude,” they note.

3. Manage, change, and grow the business. “This expectation is about understanding how the business and technology work, and being careful about how we spend money,” say Bryant and Dingle. “We have modules directly linked to this expectation.”

4. Promote a sense of community. The company’s e-learning modules address teamwork and collaboration, which Bryant and Dingle say naturally feeds into an enhanced sense of community.

Fueling Internal Promotions and Advancement The learning and development the company offers is backed up with a commitment to reward employees who meet expectations with growth opportunities. “At Sonic Automotive, our company goal is to promote from within the company, with a minimum of 80 percent internal promotions at the manager level,” say Bryant and Dingle. To that end, they point out, all managers participate in an extensive “Talent Review Process” training annually in which each employee’s performance and potential are discussed. The results of these discussions are incorporated into an individual development plan for each associate. In addition, every executive and supervisor in the organization has identified his or her successor. These employees then are offered specific learning

and coaching resources to prepare them for the “next-level” promotion. As a result, internal promotions at the manager level were at 85 percent in 2014 and 90 percent in 2015.

The Road Ahead The growth and success Sonic Automotive has experienced in recent years has led to a growing training challenge: keeping up with the company’s expanding learning needs. “Our training success has come from having a highly skilled, well-supported, dedicated Training staff. The Training staff conducts all new hire training (more than 3,000 new associates per year), plus trains on any new initiatives within the company,” say Bryant and Dingle. “With our growth, this resource distribution is not scalable, having dedicated trainers conduct all training.”

The solution: The learning that needs to be delivered will be managed differently, with managers taking on greater responsibility. “In early 2017, our focus on training is going to shift from training associates, to training managers to train their own associates,” Bryant and Dingle explain. “More than 1,300 managers will attend train-the-trainer workshops in early 2017, plus their titles will change to reflect their new focus. For example, if a manager’s title was Sales manager, the new title will be Sales and Training manager. We believe this shift ultimately will improve customer and associate satisfaction while decreasing associate turnover.” Qt

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apital BlueCross; CHG Healthcare Services; and Jiffy Lube International, Inc., are the newest inductees

into the Training Top 10 Hall of Fame, joining the ranks of 12 other companies named to the hall since its inception in 2008. These 15 companies held Top 10 spots in the Training Top 50, Top 100, and now Top 125 rankings for four consecutive years. The three new BOOZ ALLEN HAMILTON: No. 9 in 2007, No. 1 in 2006, No. 2 in 2005, No. 4 in 2004, No. 6 in 2003. Representative: David Sylvester, Director, Learning and Development, Booz Allen Hamilton

KLA-TENCOR CORPORATION: No. 9 in 2006, No. 5 in 2005, 2004, and 2003.

Representative: Glenn Hughes, Senior Director, Learning and Development, KLA-Tencor Corporation

CAPITAL BLUECROSS: No. 4 in 2016, No. 3 in 2015, No. 3 in 2014, No. 10 in 2013.

Representative: Steve Krupinski, Senior Vice President, Human Resources and Facilities, Capital BlueCross

KPMG LLP: No. 5 in 2010, No. 2 in 2009, No. 5 in 2008, No. 7 in 2007. Representative: Cyndi Bruce, Executive Director, KPMG Business School - U.S

CHG HEALTHCARE SERVICES: No. 3 in 2016, No. 4 in 2015, No. 4 in 2014, No. 5 in 2013.

Representative: Zach Sumsion, Manager, Learning & Development, Talent Management, CHG Healthcare Services DELOITTE LLP: No. 6 in 2004 and 2005, No. 8 in 2003, No. 9 in 2002. Representative: Nicole Roy-Tobin, Director, Best Practices & Innovation, Deloitte LLP ERNST & YOUNG: No. 6 in 2007, No. 3 in 2006, No. 7 in 2005, No. 8 in 2004, No. 7 in 2003.

Representative: Tal Goldhamer, Chief Learning Officer - Americas, Ernst & Young FARMERS INSURANCE: No. 4 in 2013, No. 2 in 2012, No. 1 in 2011, No. 6 in 2010.

Representative: Scott Millward, Chief Learning Officer, Farmers Insurance

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organizations were formally inducted into the Top 10 Hall of Fame at this year’s Training Top 125 Gala, held January 30 during the Training 2017 Conference & Expo in San Diego. Members remain in the Top 10 Hall of Fame for a minimum of three years. They can choose to remain in the Hall of Fame by adhering to specific guidelines or they can opt to reapply for Training Top 125 consideration.

MCCARTHY BUILDING COMPANIES, INC.: No. 7 in 2015, No. 6 in 2014 and 2013, No. 10 in 2012. Representative: Robin Renschen, Director, Learning and Development, McCarthy Building Cos., Inc. PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS: No. 1 in 2010, 2009, and 2008; No. 2 in 2007. Representative: Katrina Salem, Chief Learning Officer, PricewaterhouseCoopers THE RITZ-CARLTON HOTEL COMPANY: No. 1 in 2007, No. 4 in 2006, No. 9 in 2005, No. 10 in 2004, No. 9 in 2003.

Representative: Antonia Hock, Vice President, The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center

IBM: No. 2 in 2006, No. 1 in 2005 and 2004, No. 2 in 2003. Representative: Gordon Fuller, Global Design & Development Leader, IBM Center for Advanced Learning

SCC SOFT COMPUTER: No. 4 in 2011, No. 9 in 2010, No. 3 in 2009, No. 8 in 2008. Representative: Myra Pettis, Director, Educational Service, SCC Soft Computer

JIFFY LUBE INTERNATIONAL, INC.: No. 1 in 2016, No. 2 in 2015, No. 1 in 2014, No. 2 in 2013.

Representative: Kenneth Barber, Manager, Learning and Development, Jiffy Lube International, Inc.

VERIZON: No. 1 in 2013 and 2012; No. 3 in 2011, No. 4 in 2010. Representative: Lou Tedrick, Staff Vice President Workforce Development, Verizon

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017 training

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CAPITAL BLUECROSS Capital BlueCrossâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Human Resources Talent Management team is an integral contributor to the execution of the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s corporate plan and all business functions. The team uses a rigorous process to engage business leaders in determining the knowledge and skills necessary to compete in the marketplace. It aligns development strategies to business goals, and fulďŹ lls those strategies to grow the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s talent and capabilities.

The teamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s approach is grounded in the development, application, and sustainability of the skills and attributes required to achieve business results. To foster and sustain change over time, the team engages â&#x20AC;&#x153;Leaders of the Learnersâ&#x20AC;? in the talent development experience. For example, the team determined that a new sales approach was necessary to compete in the complex health insurance market. A strategic development plan for Capital BlueCrossâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; sales team is delivering excellent results.

As stewards for the development of the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s human capital assets, the team also has evolved the succession management process. Accelerated

CHG HEALTHCARE SERVICES CHG Healthcare Services has continued to grow at a rate far outpacing that of its competitors. In a market that has little differentiation between products, CHG identiďŹ es its unique culture as its competitive advantage. A culture that provides a superior employee experience will attract the best talent, reduce turnover, increase employee engagement and productivity, and promote innovation.

Creating a uniďŹ ed culture across multiple locations and business functions hinges on CHGâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ability to prepare its leadership team to be the stewards of this unique employee experience. This motive is a key factor as the organization designed the career lifecycle of a leader at CHG. CHGâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s approach to ďŹ lling its leader pipeline focuses on ensuring that potential leaders are more than simply top performers. Anyone expressing interest in a leadership path must participate in a leadership readiNESS ASSESSMENT A DEGREE PEER FEEDBACK SURVEY heavily focused on the candidateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s reputation of living CHGâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s culture and core values.

Next, leader candidates attend CHGâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s four-month pre-leader certiďŹ cation program, LEAP. This program exposes leader candidates to the challenges they must be prepared to face as a leader at CHG. Upon completing the program, some LEAP participants may choose www.trainingmag.com

development plans are customized based on employee readiness and future role requirements. The plans enhance leadersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; current capabilities while preparing them for tomorrowâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s leadership challenges.

The following measures exemplify how learnercentric development affects learning and on-the-job performance at Capital BlueCross: s PERCENT OF EMPLOYEES AGREE THE PROGRAMS ARE a worthwhile investment for career progression. s PERCENT REPORT AN INCREASE IN THEIR hABILITY TO make more effective and rapid business decisions,â&#x20AC;? leading to a 47 percent increase in successful completion of critical corporate projects. s PERCENT OF LEADERSHIP PROMOTIONS ARE BASED on the succession plan; this exceeds the national AVERAGE BY PERCENT (Conference Executive Board, 2013).

Capital BlueCrossâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Executive team believes the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s future success hinges on investing in a learning culture with targeted development curricula for all of its employees.

Capital BlueCross is honored to be recognized for its commitment to training and development.

to seek opportunities outside of leadership, while others continue to move forward as a leader candidate.

Once promoted, leaders enter the year-long new leader program, People Centered Leadership. The program focuses solely on people leadership topics, including employee engagement, building trust, and how to hold employees accountable without deviating from CHGâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s core value of Putting People First.

Tenured leaders continue their development within their own divisions, through mentoring and one-off classroom opportunities. A formal program that focuses on continuous development for more senior leaders will roll out this year.

These initiatives have prepared CHG leaders to carry the company culture forward. Since focusing efforts on culture-based leadership training, the following results have been observed: s 0OSITIVE RESPONSES TO THE ENGAGEMENT SURVEY IMPROVED FROM PERCENT TO PERCENT A percent improvement). s %MPLOYEE TURNOVER HAS DROPPED FROM PERCENT TO PERCENT A PERCENT IMPROVEMENT s #(' HAS BEEN NAMED TO &ORTUNE S 4OP Companies to Work For seven consecutive years CURRENTLY s 2EVENUE HAS GROWN FROM MILLION TO MILLION WITH ANNUAL EARNINGS REACHING BILLION training JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017

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2017 TOP 10 HALL OF FAME

JIFFY LUBE INTERNATIONAL, INC. A leader in the fast lube industry, Jiffy Lube International, Inc., serves more than 20 million customers annually at 2,000 service centers located throughout North America. As each service center is independently owned and operated by more than 200 franchisees, training and development is critical to ensure customers receive a consistent, quality experience, regardless of which service center they visit. Additionally, training serves as the foundation for operational excellence.

A robust training program, Jiffy Lube University consists of e-learning, instructor-led training, and virtual instructor-led training courses designed to coach the approximately 20,000 Jiffy Lube service center technicians working coast to coast. The comprehensive curriculum covers a variety of topics, from following manufacturer recommendations for services to best practices for store managers to lead their service center team.

The Jiffy Lube University Training team works collaboratively with Jiffy Lube International leadership, as well as with Jiffy Lube franchisees to

ensure that training and development is aligned with business goals and helps drive results while also meeting the needs of the franchise system.

Training is continuously measured and assessed based on numerous key performance indicators, including customer satisfaction, percentage of training completed, and service center employee retention.

To help attract and retain Jiffy Lube service center employees, Jiffy Lube University also provides a comprehensive development path, the Jiffy Lube University Roadmap, which allows service center employees to take control of their development based on their personal and professional goals. To this point, Jiffy Lube University has been approved by the American Council on Education (ACE), enabling service center employees to receive up to 25 hours of college credit at trade schools, colleges, and universities across America.

Jiffy Lube University is honored to be recognized

by Training magazine for its efforts in development and to become a member of the Training Top 10 Hall of Fame. Qt

Congratulations Genentech

We believe in more than the big breakthroughs. And more than the next big thing.

We believe in the day-in day-out work of making science happen. And the millions of little victories — and failures — in between the breakthroughs. Because to us, it’s the daily effort of everyday people that changes the future. So we don’t stop. We keep working. Every day.

Jacki, patient

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WE’RE HIGHLY TRAINED AND HIGHLY HONORED TO BE INDUCTED INTO THE TRAINING TOP 10 HALL OF FAME. Jiffy Lube® is proud of the recognition received for our commitment to training. Jiffy Lube University serves 20,000 Jiffy Lube service center employees across the country. Last year, these employees completed over 2.3 million hours of training, all with one mission in mind, to help our customers get back on the road in a jiffy.

Jiffy Lube would like to thank the Jiffy Lube Association of Franchisees Training Committee, Shell Oil Company and our vendors who help us develop and provide an award-winning training program to Jiffy Lube service center employees. © 2017 JIFFY LUBE INTERNATIONAL, INC.

HOF OTI

OUTSTANDING

TRAINING INITIATIVES

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ach year, Training magazine requires all Training Top 10 Hall of Famers to submit an Outstanding Training Initiative that is judged by each other and shared with our readers. Aside from ensuring Hall of Famers arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t â&#x20AC;&#x153;resting on their laurels,â&#x20AC;? this provides an opportunity for the Learning & Development community to learn from the â&#x20AC;&#x153;best of the bestâ&#x20AC;? and see some innovative solutions for challenges many face today.

Each Hall of Fame Outstanding Training Initiative submission could achieve a maximum of 20 points (half-point increments can be awarded) as follows: t -FWFM PG QPUFOUJBM CVTJOFTT JNQBDU (i.e., revenue generation, new product launch, change initiative, new technology launch): 0-3 points t -FWFM PG EJGmDVMUZ PG DIBMMFOHFT GBDFE 0-2 points t 1SPKFDU TDPQF (companywide, individual functions, global vs. national, etc.): 0-3 points t *OTUSVDUJPOBM EFTJHO (learning objectives linked to business outcomes; level of leadership involved in design, development, and facilitation; reinforcement): 0-4 points t *OOPWBUJPO PG USBJOJOH 0-4 points t #VTJOFTT PVUDPNFT BDIJFWFE FYQFDUBUJPOT NFU 0-4 points The initiatives that achieved the highest scores are detailed below (Verizon, EY, and Farmers Insurance). The other nine submissions will be proďŹ led in the ďŹ ve remaining issues for 2017.

Verizon: The New Verizon Plan â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Pricing Launch Training Verizonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Pricing Launch Training aimed to educate customerfacing employees on completely new Consumer and Business

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pricing plans and an accompanying new mobile self-serve account management application and customer experience to better serve the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s customers.

Due to the highly competitive, conďŹ dential, and time-sensitive nature of pricing launches and to keep training timelines tightly aligned with external marketing and communication, Verizonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s senior executives challenged the Learning and Development (L&D) team to minimize the training window and use digitalonly learning assets. As a result, the L&D team had just six calendar daysâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;spanning the 4th of July weekendâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;to train more than 100,000 retail, B2B, indirect, and customer service representatives.

Upon completion of training, employees were expected to: 1) Sell the value of the new Verizon Plan 2) Explain why Verizon is evolving to the new Verizon Plan 3) Position and promote the new features included in the plan (e.g., Safety Mode, Data Boost) 4) Demonstrate the new My Verizon app features

Program Details The training plan included the following main deliverables by audience:s t 3FUBJM BOE # # 4BMFT â&#x20AC;&#x153;Infocast,â&#x20AC;? Verizonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s internal name for a live Webcast broadcast to employees. This solution allowed Verizon to use three live, one-hour sessions to reach a broad audience in one day. Sales teams and non-customer facing groups attended this training as the initial introduction to the content, which was followed by a rapid deployment of trainers into the stores to deliver digital-only skill-based reinforcement training and address any questions. This solution was developed, produced, and broadcast internally using Verizonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s in-house full video and

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TV production studio. t *OEJSFDU 4BMFT &YUFSOBM Virtual instructor-led (vILT) Webinar sessions led by Verizonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s in-house training delivery team. t $VTUPNFS 4FSWJDF Instructor-led classroom sessions delivered by Verizonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s in-house training delivery team.

Employees used digital Learning Albums (via iPads) and online references to access content digitally.

Supporting deliverables for all the above groups included:

Skill Drills: Role-play activities hosted digitally on Learning Albums via iPads. Trainers and front-line leaders used these with front-line reps to prepare them, provide reinforcement, and to certify they were ready to sell to and service Verizonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s customers. Completions were tracked via a QR Code embedded in the digital Learning Album to keep the process digital only and conďŹ dential.

Videos: Created to reinforce the main methods above including: B An app overview video to emulate the new app experience.

C A â&#x20AC;&#x153;Right Wayâ&#x20AC;? customer interaction video, which offered live-action modeling of the right way to talk to customers about the features and beneďŹ ts of the new Verizon Plan and My Verizon application.

D A customer experience video that illustrated the Safety Mode customer experience.

Results Due to the training efforts, employees were fully prepared to sell to and service customers by launch on July 7, 2016. In fact, senior executives, front-line leaders, and sales and customer service reps claimed it was Verizonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s best pricing launch in terms of front-line conďŹ dence and launch day preparation.

Earlier in the year, Customer Service launched a primer training initiative, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Driving Value for Our Customers and Our Business,â&#x20AC;? in anticipation of the new price plan launch and the self-serve customer experience. This initiative: t 4IJGUFE $4 SFQT NJOETFU PO IPX TFMG TFSWF UPPMT BSF VTFE to balance both customer and business needs t 5BVHIU $4 SFQT XIFO BOE IPX UP VTF BQQSPQSJBUF MPZBMUZ WT retention tools t *ODSFBTFE SFQT TLJMMT JO JEFOUJGZJOH FBDI DVTUPNFS T WBMVFT and then recommending the most appropriate current solution(s) Employeesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; ability to position the new Verizon Plan was bolstered by this primer training, with results including: t 3FEVDFE SFUFOUJPO SFQSFTFOUBUJWF BWFSBHF IBOEMF UJNF CZ 79 seconds t 3FEVDFE PGGFS DPTUT QFS DBMM QPTU USBJOJOH t $SFBUFE QFS SFQ QFS NPOUI DPTU TBWJOHT t 'PS FWFSZ TQFOU PO USBJOJOH 7FSJ[PO FBSOFE CBDL

t 0WFSBMM 30* BUUSJCVUFE UP i%SJWJOH 7BMVFw XBT QFSDFOU

EY: FSO Masters Tournament for Sales Leadership Development &: T 'JOBODJBM 4FSWJDFT 0SHBOJ[BUJPO '40 JT EFEJDBUFE UP serving banking and capital markets, insurance, and wealth and asset management clients across the United States, and it provides these services through all four of the ďŹ rmâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s service lines: Advisory, Assurance, Tax and Transaction Advisory Services (TAS). *O UIF &: '40 #VTJOFTT %FWFMPQNFOU MFBEFS JEFOUJmFE the need to triple sales revenue in the next ďŹ ve years.

The sales leaders were primarily senior managers, partners, principals, and executive directors. If the organization was to USJQMF TBMFT SFWFOVF XJUIJO mWF ZFBST UIF OVNCFS PG '40 Advisory executives capable of selling services to clients would need to increase dramatically. It would require both increasing the ranks currently selling and expanding the ranks of those authorized to sell.

EY determined that a critical success factor in the achievement of the business objective would be the development and deployment of a purposeful, integrated program that effectively developed managers into sales leaders. As a result, EY initiated UIF EFTJHO PG UIF '40 .BTUFST 5PVSOBNFOU QSPHSBN JO FBSMZ 2012.

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Program Details Designed as a Masters tournament using a golf sports theme, UIF '40 .BTUFST 5PVSOBNFOU JT B GPVS NPOUI WPMVOUBSZ MFBSOFS centric development program that includes all elements of the 70:20:10 learning and development model (10 percent formal learning, 20 percent coaching and mentoring, and 70 percent experiential learning).

While some content may be pushed to the learner, other content is pulled from multiple sourcesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and the timing of all content delivery is at the point of learner need and convenience.

A SharePoint Website supports program management, collaboration, and communication, such as providing access to all program materials, Webinars, exercises, scorecards, and leaderboards.

The development program consists of: t *OTUSVDUPS MFE WJSUVBM DMBTTSPPN DPVSTFT BOE SFDPSEFE Webinars, including videos, exercises, and knowledge checks t "O FYUFOTJWF IJHI UPVDI DPBDIJOH BOE NFOUPSJOH FYQFSJFODF t 0O UIF KPC FYQFSJFOUJBM MFBSOJOH PO TBMFT QVSTVJUT t 1FSGPSNBODF TVQQPSU UISPVHI KVTU JO UJNF LOPXMFEHF UPPM resources

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HOF OTI t *ODFOUJWFT BOE BXBSET CBTFE PO HBNJmDBUJPO VTJOH B HPMG UPVSOBNFOU QBSBEJHN 5IF GPSNBM MFBSOJOH DVSSJDVMVN JODMVEFT GPVS TVCDVSSJDVMB UIBU DPWFS BMM EJNFOTJPOT PG TBMFT MFBEFSTIJQ QFPQMF QSPEVDU QSPDFTT BOE QSPQPTBMT &BDI MFBSOJOH FWFOU JT DP GBDJMJUBUFE CZ CVTJOFTT EFWFMPQNFOU FYFDVUJWFT BOE LOPXMFEHF NBOBHFST BOE NBOBHFE CZ B QSPGFTTJPOBM 8FC&Y WJSUVBM DMBTTSPPN QSPEVDFS 7JSUVBM EFMJWFSZ FOBCMFT BOZ NBOBHFS MPDBUFE JO UIF 6 4 PS $BOBEB UP QBSUJDJQBUF MJWF &BDI PG UIF OJOF WJSUVBM DMBTTSPPN MFBSOJOH FWFOUT JT TUSVDUVSFE UP JODMVEF t -FDUVSF PO B TBMFT UPQJD CZ CVTJOFTT EFWFMPQNFOU FYFDVUJWFT t 4IPSU WJEFPT XIFSF BQQMJDBCMF t *OUSPEVDUJPO UP B LOPXMFEHF SFTPVSDF PS UPPM CZ B LOPXMFEHF NBOBHFS t ,OPXMFEHF DIFDLT t 2 " 5IF FWFOUT BSF GPMMPXFE CZ PQQPSUVOJUJFT UP JNNFEJBUFMZ BQQMZ XIBU XBT MFBSOFE " DPBDIJOH BOE NFOUPSJOH FYQFSJFODF UIBU JT EFMJWFSFE CZ TFOJPS NBOBHFST QBSUOFST QSJODJQBMT FYFDVUJWF EJSFDUPST EJSFDUPST BOE BDDPVOU NBOBHFST TVQQPSUT QBSUJDJQBOUT BT UIFZ QSBDUJDF UIFJS OFX TLJMMT PO TBMFT QVSTVJUT t &BDI NBOBHFS T DBEEJF EFMJWFST B QBSUJDJQBOU T mSTU MJOF PG DPBDIJOH

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Results 5ISFF NPOUIT BGUFS UIF FOE PG UIF QSPHSBN QFSDFOU PG UIPTF XIP DPNQMFUFE UIF GPSNBM MFBSOJOH SFQPSUFE IBWJOH BQQMJFE UIF MFBSOJOH BOE QFSDFOU PG UIPTF SFQPSUFE JNQSPWFE QFSGPSNBODF 1BSUJDJQBOUT XIP BDUJWFMZ QBSUJDJQBUFE JO FWFSZ BTQFDU PG UIF QSPHSBN OPUDIFE UJNFT UIF SFWFOVF BT UIF OPO QBSUJDJQBOUT 5P EBUF BQQSPYJNBUFMZ NBOBHFST IBWF QBSUJDJQBUFE JO UIF QSPHSBN BOE UIF QSBDUJDF BDIJFWFE JUT HPBM PG USJQMJOH JUT TBMFT SFWFOVF XJUIJO mWF ZFBST

Farmers Insurance: CE - Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Up to ME! 'BSNFST *OTVSBODF POF PG UIF OBUJPO T MBSHFTU JOTVSFS HSPVQT QSPWJEFT JOTVSBODF GPS BVUPNPCJMFT IPNFT BOE TNBMM CVTJ OFTTFT BT XFMM BT B XJEF SBOHF PG PUIFS JOTVSBODF BOE mOBODJBM TFSWJDFT BOE QSPEVDUT 'BSNFST *OTVSBODF TFSWFT NJMMJPO QMVT IPVTFIPMET XJUI NPSF UIBO NJMMJPO JOEJWJEVBM QPMJDJFT BDSPTT BMM TUBUFT UISPVHI UIF FGGPSUT PG NPSF UIBO FYDMVTJWF BOE JOEFQFOEFOU BHFOUT BOE BQQSPYJNBUFMZ FNQMPZFFT 'BSNFST BJNT UP CF UIF CFTU 6 4 NVMUJ MJOF JOTVSBODF QSPWJEFS CZ DMFBSMZ VOEFSTUBOEJOH UIF OFFET PG JUT DVTUPNFST 5ISPVHI RVBMJUZ $VTUPNFS &YQFSJFODF $& 'BSNFST TUSJWFT UP DSFBUF B USVMZ EJGGFSFOUJBUFE FYQFSJFODF GPS JUT DVTUPNFST 5IF HPBM XBT UP TVQQPSU 'BSNFST NVMUJ ZFBS $& 3PBENBQ BDIJFWF $VTUPNFS &YQFSJFODF 5SBOTGPSNBUJPO BT NFBTVSFE UISPVHI $& LFZ QFSGPSNBODF JOEJDBUPST ,1*T BOE JNQSPWF /FU 1SPNPUFS 4DPSF /14

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groups, including Corporate Communications, Human Resources, and the NPS Champions, the UofF team coordinated the development and execution of a comprehensive and integrated campaign that included various communication, rewards and recognition, and training components.

Overall training incorporated the following components: t 'PVS POMJOF NPEVMFT SBOHJOH JO MFOHUI GSPN UP NJOVUFT t 4VQQPSU GPS B iTUSVDUVSFE w POF IPVS UFBN NFFUJOH HJWFO enterprise-wide involvement, a team meeting led by the manager was selected as a surrogate for classroom follow-up post-online course completion) t " NBOBHFS UFBN NFFUJOH HVJEF t $POEVDUJOH :PVS $& *U T VQ UP .& 5FBN .FFUJOH NBOBHFS Webinars t "DUJWBUJPO DIFDLMJTU t 1SJODJQMF FYBNQMFT t $PVSTF XPSLTIFFUT t i4OBDL 1BDLT w XIJDI BSF RVJDL UXP UP UISFF NJOVUF videos or collections of customer journey artifacts with supQPSUJOH XPSLTIFFUT 5BLJOH NJOVUFT UP DPNQMFUF 4OBDL 1BDLT BMMPX FNQMPZFFT UP PCTFSWF BDUVBM DVTUPNFS JOUFSBDtions, identify their line of sight or impact on the interaction, and assess how they can improve the experience. t 4OBDL 1BDL NBOBHFS HVJEFT UP EFCSJFG 4OBDL 1BDLT JO

TVCTFRVFOU UFBN NFFUJOHT t $& *U T VQ UP .& FYFDVUJPO JODMVEFE BT B DBTF TUVEZ JO the manager development program and blog t 0QUJPO UP MJTUFO EJSFDUMZ UP DVTUPNFS DBMMT t 1BTTQPSUT XIJDI FNQMPZFFT EJTQMBZ BU XPSLTUBUJPOT XJUI TUBNQT GPS DPNQMFUFE TFDUJPOT CBEHJOH

t .Z $& 4UPSZ BOE .Z $& $PNNJUNFOU FYFSDJTFT XIJDI BMMPX FNQMPZFFT UP XSJUF UIFNTFMWFT JOUP 'BSNFST $& TUSBUFHZ

Results Level 1: PO B QPJOU TDBMF Level 2: QFSDFOU TDPSFT Level 3: .VMUJQMF -FWFM SFTVMUT BDIJFWFE PS FYDFFEFE HPBMT JO the areas of distribution, call center, and claims, including responsiveness, transaction accuracy, and engagement in data NJOJOH BOBMZUJDT SFMBUFE UP DVTUPNFS GFFECBDL Level 4: *O BEEJUJPO UP FYDFFEJOH UIF DSJUJDBM /14 HPBM NVMUJQMF -FWFM iTVC SFTVMUTw XFSF BDIJFWFE JODMVEJOH JNQSPWFNFOU JO J.D. Power results as well as distribution, call center, and claims touchpoint satisfaction and employee engagement.

Editorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Note: Farmers Insurance did include speciďŹ c numbers for Level 3 and 4 results in the submission reviewed by the Top 10 Hall of Fame judges but opted not to share that data publicly t in print. Q

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training JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017

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59

2017 RANKINGS 1-5

125 12

TO Company Name/ 2017 2016 Location/ Rank Rank Primary Business

Annual Revenue

No. of Employees

1

NFP

138,960 U.S. 144,876 Global

2 Keller Williams Realty, Inc. Austin, TX Real Estate

2

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

3,720 U.S.

30/16/427

$5.3M

NFP

100 U.S. 105 Global

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

43,204 Global

9,629 U.S.

20 New York Community $1.9B U.S. Bancorp, Inc. Westbury, NY Finance/Banking

3

9 Leading Real Estate Companies of the World Chicago, IL Real Estate

Total No. of Trainers Training Full-Time/Part-Time/SMEs Budget

4

21 BNSF Railway Fort Worth, TX Transportation

5

24 Sonic Automotive, Inc. $9.6B U.S. Charlotte, NC Retail

Training Budget as a Percentage of Payroll

Tuition Reimburse- Training ment Infrastructure

NFP

Yes

Yes

3

Yes

Yes

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

* New entry; not ranked in the 2016 Top 125

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T

raining is at the core of everything Keller Williams Realty, Inc., does. That philosophy helped increase agentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; production by 20 percent and led to 99 percent of franchise ofďŹ ces being proďŹ table in 2016. It also helped the company earn the No. 1 spot on the 2017 Training Top 125 and has paved the way for its induction into the 2018 Training Top 10 Hall of Fame.

The other Top 125 winners likewise demonstrated a strong focus on effective training and employee development tied to corporate strategic goals and business impact. Some 23 newcomers earned a spot on the list this year, the 17th in a row Training has ranked the top companies of employer-sponsored workforce training and development.

Each Top 125 company was measured on quantitative (70 percent of total score) and qualitative (30 percent of total score) data. Factors inďŹ&#x201A;uencing the rankings include: Training tied to business objectives s +IRKPATRICK ,EVEL AND RESULTS s .UMBER OF TRAINERS s %MPLOYEE TURNOVER AND RETENTION s ,EADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT s 4UITION ASSISTANCE s 4RAINING TECHNOLOGY AND INFRASTRUCTURE s #ERTIlCATION s 4RAINING BUDGET and percentage of payroll. And much, much more. An outside research and statistical data company, under the guidance of Training magazine, scored companies on this data supplied by applicants. Then, Trainingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s editor-in-chief and the Training Top 10 Hall of Famers qualitatively reviewed the applications.

Top 125 Best Practices and Outstanding Training Initiatives also are recognized in this issue (beginning on p. 96). ,EARN ABOUT "" 4 #ORPORATION S ,EADERSHIP %XCELLENCE 0ROGRAM .ATIONWIDE -UTUAL )NSURANCE #OMPANY S #OHORT ,EARNING "EST "UY S 'RAVITY APP BASED TOOL AND MORE #ONGRATULATIONS TO THIS YEAR S 4RAINING 4OP

Additional Information Keller Williams Realty, Inc. As the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s largest real estate franchise by agent count, Keller Williams Realty, Inc., has proven that an innovative, trainingbased culture produces results. The companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s focus on helping associates boost their production starts with KWâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s foundational course, Ignite. In a 12-session blended training program, agents engage in â&#x20AC;&#x153;real-playâ&#x20AC;? such as calling actual consumers. Thanks to this emphasis on doing the activities that generate results, students increase their commissions by 79% in just 3 months. Moreover, Ignite graduates are 138% more likely to close sales than agents who have not taken the class, contributing to KWâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 18% increase in agent commissions through August 2016. 2018 Hall of Fame Inductee New York Community Bancorp, Inc. Recognizing the importance and potential business clients bring to the organization, New York Community Bancorp, Inc., designed, developed, and implemented the Building Business Customer Relationships program, which focuses on sales best practices. A top executive kicked off the blended training approach where participants were introduced to the characteristics of small businesses, the value of networking, calling on business clients, and the importance of documenting the information collected. Results indicate a 29% increase in the number of outside business development calls, leading to a 10% increase in core deposits and a 15% increase in additional business products sold.

Leading Real Estate Companies of the World Leading Real Estate Companies of the Worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s (Leading RE) Institute provides robust content for managers; sales associates; and marketing, relocation, training, and IT staff. Its 320+ online courses are engaging, short (5-15 minutes) to accommodate busy schedules, available 24/7, mobile-friendly, graphic-rich with video and interactions reinforcing learning. Courses are accompanied by additional resources, and the library features multimedia contentâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;including audio and video clips, articles, and white papers on a host of searchable topics. LeadingRE enhances experiences with auto-connectivity recognition and video formats to accommodate slower Internet speeds, faster video uploading, downloadable course promos, and learning maps guiding independent learners to content relevant to experience levels and interests.

BNSF Railway The railwayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s technical training is state-of-the-art, offering new 3-D learning solutions, innovative virtual learning environments, and mobile learning. Life-sized locomotive simulators, crane simulators, and laboratory classrooms emulate real railroad operating conditions. Instructors are certiďŹ ed to teach via a 1-year master instructor certiďŹ cation program that develops technical experts into effective instructors. The new crane training progresses from a classroom lab environment to an outdoor crane obstacle course where learners operate actual cranes through a series of maneuvers to enhance their skills. These efforts yield positive results, and in post-training ďŹ eld tests (conducted by supervisors), employees achieved a 99% passing rate. OTI Sonic Automotive, Inc. For Sonic Automotive Inc.â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s General Manager Leadership Academy (GMLA), the company selects its highest-potential managers and enrolls them in an advanced learning program that is spread over 1 year. The year includes 7 weeks of training. SpeciďŹ cally, Sonic Automotive trains on leadership and then on how to be an effective operator of all store departments, including internal ďŹ nancial analysis reporting, ďŹ xed operations, F&I, Human Resources, and marketing, all wrapped up with a ďŹ nal project and presentation that is presented live to the senior management team. One full week is taught by the Chief Operating OfďŹ cer and his direct reports, the business unit leaders.

NFP Information provided, but not for publication ND Information not disclosed NA Not applicable BP Honored for Best Practice OTI Honored for Outstanding Training Initiative

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61

2017 RANKINGS 6-15 Company Name/ 2017 2016 Location/ Rank Rank Primary Business

6

11 Best Buy Richfield, MN Retail

7

5 Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Detroit, MI Insurance

8

18 Dollar General Corporation Goodlettsville, TN Retail

9

6 Wequassett Resort and Golf Club Chatham, MA Hospitality

Annual Revenue

No. of Employees

$36.3B U.S. 105,000 $39.5B U.S. Global 125,000 Global

Total No. of Trainers Training Full-Time/Part-Time/SMEs Budget

Training Budget as a Percentage of Payroll

Tuition Reimburse- Training ment Infrastructure

250/1,500/5,500

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

$24.2B U.S. 8,150 U.S.

129/10/233

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

$20.3B U.S. 119,201 U.S. 119,277 Global

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

1/14/14

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

$23M U.S.

415 U.S.

10

15 Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company Columbus, OH Insurance

NFP

34,019 U.S.

510/92/385

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

11

22 WellSpan Health York, PA Health/Medical Services

NFP

14,893 U.S. 14,893 Global

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

12

39 Tata Consultancy Services Mumbai, India Information Technology Services

$8.8B U.S. $16.5B Global

31,704 U.S. 353,843 Global

655/11,926/520

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

13

23 ABF Freight Fort Smith , AR Transportation

$1.9B Global 12,282 U.S. 12,352 Global

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

$16.8B U.S. 22,461 U.S.

415/34/1,687

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

7/20/53

NFP

4

Yes

Yes

14

101 Pacific Gas & Electric Company San Francisco, CA Utilities

15

36 Ascend Federal Credit Union Tullahoma, TN Finance/Banking

NFP

445 U.S.

* New entry; not ranked in the 2016 Top 125

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Additional Information Best Buy Recognizing that its audience’s expectations are constantly evolving, specifically the way learners expect to access training materials, Best Buy introduced a new app-based training tool called Gravity. Gravity allows learners to use any smart device to scan a product’s UPC or QR code, giving immediate access to bite-sized training videos and key information on the scanned product. In less than 10 months, employees have leveraged Gravity more than 1.25 million times to educate themselves on the products and services Best Buy offers. Products supported with Gravity training videos show an average increase in unit sell-through of 23%, with top-performing SKUs reaching a 41% increase in unit sales. OTI Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan To accomplish breakthrough results, an organization needs leaders with the mindset and the skills to guide a team to achieve new levels of success. That’s the idea behind BREAK THRU Leadership—Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan’s 6-month leadership development program. This rigorous initiative includes a set of personal assessments and enables rapid and meaningful learning through individual coaching, group workshops and activities, a community give-back project, executive networking events, team action learning projects, a team learning coach, and an executive mentor. Six of the first 42 participants earned executive promotions after taking the course. 2018 Hall of Fame Inductee Dollar General Corporation Serving Others is Dollar General Corporation’s mission. A focus in all of its training, no matter what level of the organization, is to educate employees about the core customer. Understanding who they serve and why they serve helps to identify the needs and desires of customers, along with their buying habits. Dollar General accomplishes this through a training entitled “Know Your Customer.” Once they complete the training, employees are empowered to make a difference to serve Dollar General customers and ultimately live the mission of “Serving Others.” The results: Customer satisfaction scores are up by more than 40 basis points last year over the previous year, and total sales improved by 7.7% for fiscal year 2015 versus the prior year.

Wequassett Resort and Golf Club One of Wequassett Resort and Golf Club’s objectives with the sales team is to always establish a more proactive conversation versus a reactive approach when selling reservations. The organization continued training with real-life experience and made reservation calls to other properties. It was able to see the transaction from the buyer’s perspective and identify strong techniques it could adopt. Wequassett achieved 90% occupancy for the month of July with a high average daily rate (ADR) of $836.62—$26.62 over budgeted ADR. This led to a total of $2.7 million in room revenue for the month of July alone, $138,501 over the budgeted goal for the month.

Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company The Personal Lines Call Center Cohort Learning Program at Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company is an interactive learning experience designed for new call center associates, allowing for growth/practice of their knowledge/skills in a community setting.

Rather than a traditional trainer-student model, this team-based learning allows associates to explore content in a safe environment, leading to a deeper understanding of insurance concepts while fostering creative problem solving. The Cohort Learning Program was successfully piloted to more than 500 new associates last year, resulting in a productivity gain of $250,912.98. BP WellSpan Health WellSpan Health proactively paused to step back and consider the true purpose and meaning of new employee orientation. This journey led to transforming orientation from primarily a Human Resource process to a learning and development program. WellSpan was able to weave in a focus on Welcoming, Engaging, and Inspiring employees while sharing critical information and meeting important Human Resource process needs. A new employee “passport” and online new magazine guide are available to new employees the day of orientation and beyond as they start their journey. Training hours were reduced by 33%, with estimated savings of $372,000. Level 1 training feedback indicates an initial engagement rate of 4.8 out of a possible 5.

Tata Consultancy Services Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has created a world-class Digital Learning Platform—an integrated ecosystem that combines virtual, physical, and experiential learning with high-quality content that is available anywhere, anytime, and on any device. More than 120,000 TCSers in multiple digital technologies were trained during FY’16. Approximately, 50,000+ digital positions were filled internally. Digital services grew by 52.2% annually, with revenues crossing the $2 billion mark. Some 83 digital competencies were offered; 139,482 employees trained; 128,869 unique associates acquired at least one E0 digital competency; 125,000+ nano videos viewed; and 689,518 Learning Days for digital in FY’16.

ABF Freight Executive coaching and 1-on-1 interaction with top-level executives is a value that cannot be overstated. Throughout the week of a training class, participants get to hear and ask questions of several senior officers, including the CEO and president. It’s a significant investment of time for an officer, but ABF Freight has found the payback to be worth it. Over the last 2 years, executive officers have emphasized the benefits of providing a full portfolio of supply chain solutions to ABF customers. One result of this emphasis can be seen in a 9.15% increase in global revenue in 2015.

Pacific Gas & Electric Company The Leading Forward initiative—an 8-part program for leaders at all levels of Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E)—features integrated programs and experiences to educate and inspire leaders to take on current and future industry challenges. The curriculum builds leaders’ skills in everything from leading with safety and increasing self-awareness to managing operations and developing teams. The program has targeted leaders new to their role at PG&E, directors, and officers, as well as an executive education residential program built in partnership with Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.

More than 500 employees have participated in these new programs, with a total opportunity equaling 2,500 employees. To date, the return on investment for the program has been $5.14 for every $1 spent on training, against an expected $3.67, representing a 40% increase in overall ROI. OTI Ascend Federal Credit Union Ascend Federal Credit Union is dedicated to developing employees, enabling them to embody the brand and personify the promise in every member interaction. Specialized workshops and training sessions for Contact Center employees enhance service and communication skills, product knowledge, and sales skills. Blended and experiential learning methods are used to enhance the training experience and maximize transfer of learning to the job.

Employees make a personal commitment to exceed service expectations, creating coaching and feedback opportunities for Contact Center leaders. Training initiatives for these employees contribute to a member satisfaction rate of 97%, according to Ascend’s last member survey.

NFP Information provided, but not for publication ND Information not disclosed NA Not applicable BP Honored for Best Practice OTI Honored for Outstanding Training Initiative

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63

2017 RANKINGS 16-25 Annual Revenue

No. of Employees

16

38 MasTec - Utility Services Group Woodbury, MN Construction

NFP

3,010 U.S.

26/6/60

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

17

16 Western Union Company Englewood, CO Finance/Banking

NFP

2,350 U.S. 10,500 Global

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

NFP

8,500 U.S.

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

735 U.S.

7/2/42

$847K

2

Yes

Yes

91/1,447/1,538

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

18

100 OptumRx Irvine, CA Health/Medical Services

Total No. of Trainers Training Full-Time/Part-Time/SMEs Budget

Training Budget as a Percentage of Payroll

Company Name/ 2017 2016 Location/ Rank Rank Primary Business

Tuition Reimburse- Training ment Infrastructure

19

45 ESL Federal Credit Union Rochester, NY Finance/Banking

NFP

20

31 Paychex, Inc. Rochester, NY Business Services

$2.9B Global 13,401 Global

21

10 Birmingham Water Works Board Birmingham, AL Utilities

NFP

625 U.S.

22

47 First Horizon National Corporation Memphis, TN Finance/Banking

NFP

4,200 U.S.

24/73/83

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

23

66 Janssen: Pharmaceutical NFP Companies for Johnson & Johnson Titusville, NJ Pharmaceutical/Biotech

4,835 U.S.

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

24

13 Gables Residential Atlanta, GA Real Estate

$275.2M U.S.

1,075 U.S.

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

25

19 ADP, LLC Roseland, NJ Business Services

$11.6B Global

56,700 Global

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

* New entry; not ranked in the 2016 Top 125

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Additional Information MasTec - Utility Services Group The organization’s New Employee Training program consists of 24 training modules designed to introduce new field employees to core safety concepts and employee programs. Modules include complex safety topics such as Underground Utility Damage Prevention and Hazard Communication to provide introductions to basic company programs and policies. To date, more than 95% of USG employees have completed the orientation curriculum. This program has prepared employees to operate safely and effectively on the job. Their knowledge and confidence is paying off, as MasTec has seen a 29% reduction in OSHA recordable safety incidents over the last 3 years.

Western Union Company With research in hand that its classic performance management process was no longer meeting the needs of the business, Western Union transformed its performance management (PM) process. Leadership realized that for this transformation to be successful, it must leverage its rich learning culture. This drove the creation of Leadership in Action (LIA), an evolved leader-as-teacher program sponsored by the CEO, which was used as a change management tool for the new PM process. LIA has been scaled globally to all 2,000 People managers in 57 countries. In addition to 90% completion of monthly modules to date, LIA has driven a 41% increase in Net Promoter Score (NPS) and led to significant employee engagement increases.

OptumRx Leadership Academy is an award-winning program that builds upon OptumRx’s succession planning efforts to prepare high-potential employees for future leadership roles. During the 10-week program, participants are exposed to topics such as: successful team leadership; principles of effective coaching; company culture; and motivation, encouragement, and recognition. Candidates are identified by their department leadership and are paired with a mentor, who provides a link between the classroom content and real-world situations. The mentor also provides guidance for the capstone presentation. Since the launch of the program, 25% of the graduates have been promoted; half of the promotions were to leadership roles, and the remaining promotions represented advanced roles within operations.

ESL Federal Credit Union Year-over-year sales production results suggest L&D’s learning interventions succeeded in enhancing the knowledge, skills, and effectiveness of the target learning population in ESL Federal Credit Union’s Business Banking line. For example: From January through July 2015, ESL’s front line booked a total business loan volume of $252,000. For the same period in 2016, the front line booked a total of $2.5 million, a 912% increase in sales production. From January to July 2015, ESL’s Branch and Contact Center staff and Business Bankers entered 282 applications; during the same time period in 2016, these teams took 862 applications—a year-over-year increase of 206%.

Paychex, Inc. The company increased the number of participants attending virtual classroom training by 62%, with a total of 33,534 participants attending a variety of seminars. Interactivity was increased through use of video via Webcams, chat, polling, and whiteboard activities. Feedback has been positive, with participants relating the visual interactivity to increased focus during Webinars. More than 97% of participants indicated their skill/knowledge increased as a result. In addition to travel cost savings of more than $900,000, employees enjoy the flexibility of virtual training in their own work environment, which enables them to accomplish work outside of virtual training sessions. Enrollment increased 278% for Paychex, Inc. payroll specialists. OTI Birmingham Water Works Board As a part of an organizational assessment, Birmingham Water Works Board (BWWB) discovered its management needed to improve their ability to have important conversations with employees to increase accountability throughout the organization. In 2015, it set an organizational goal to complete company-wide performance metrics. Crucial Conversations training for leadership was implemented. Managers immediately applied the skills by engaging in conversations about the current performance status of their departments, the desired performance conditions, and what’s preventing their team from achieving this level of performance. BWWB met its organizational goal to complete company-wide performance metrics by 100%.

First Horizon National Corporation Fraud recognition and prevention training is required of each employee at First Horizon National Corporation, but does the training investment make a difference? In 2016, the company reflected a $135,000 (or 16%) reduction in company losses in comparison with total 2015 numbers (goal was 15% for the entire year). Since additional counterfeit checks training was implemented 3 years ago, First Horizon has a 34.7% reduction in counterfeit check fraud, or $249,000 less in company losses.

Janssen: Pharmaceutical Companies for Johnson & Johnson A new value-based selling model at Janssen: Pharmaceutical Companies for Johnson & Johnson meant that the sales training approach had to change. Couple these new approaches with a volatile and complex payment system and multiple competitors and there was no choice but to learn at the speed of business. The following steps ensured learning transfer: knowledge inspection that they understood the brand messaging; marketing message recall; and impact to the customer assessment. Through instructor-led training (ILT), coaching, and a newly personalized micro-learning gamification using a “trivia crack-like” approach, initial training and “booster” learning sessions resulted in learning transfer and a state of continuous learning using video-based deliberate practice. Metrics: #1 rated cardiovascular representative and 29.6% increase in new market share for their cardiovascular product.

Gables Residential Whether learning strategic thinking through hands-on survival skills training or walking in the footsteps of battlefield leaders, the Gables Leadership Institute takes leadership development to the next level. This year-long cohort-style learning program leverages faculty from the University of Maryland, Georgetown University, and industry experts to deliver a thought-provoking program centered around developing leadership, communication, critical thinking, and strategic thinking. In addition to learning from instructors, the cross-functional nature of the program provides participants with networking access to peers in order to build internal relationships and to provide a forum where they can learn more about the business from each other.

ADP, LLC L&D crushed the challenge to reduce onboarding from 17 to 10 weeks to achieve aggressive business growth targets while maintaining associate performance on key metrics. Analysis of more than 3 million service calls revealed common themes and scenarios, which formed the core of ADP, LLC’s redesigned, 10-week “Fast Path to Success” program, which blends formal learning, job immersion, gamification, and peer mentoring. Some 380 new associates were onboarded in nine months with impressive results (versus the 17-week program), including decreased average client-call duration, improved quality survey scores, and savings of 114,000 associate and trainer hours. OTI NFP Information provided, but not for publication ND Information not disclosed NA Not applicable BP Honored for Best Practice OTI Honored for Outstanding Training Initiative

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2017 RANKINGS 26-35 Company Name/ 2017 2016 Location/ Rank Rank Primary Business

Total No. of Trainers Training Full-Time/Part-Time/SMEs Budget

Training Budget as a Percentage of Payroll

Tuition Reimburse- Training ment Infrastructure

Annual Revenue

No. of Employees

* DPR Construction Redwood City, CA Construction

NFP

2,151 U.S. 5 Global

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

27

27 New York Life Insurance Company New York, NY Insurance

NFP

11,000 Global

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

28

46 Buckman Laboratories NFP International, Inc. Memphis, TN Manufacturing

381 U.S. 1,745 Global

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

29

32 Edward Jones St. Louis, MO Finance/Banking

486/79/10,386

$82.1M

2.6

Yes

Yes

30

40 Northwestern Mutual $27.8B U.S. 5,981 U.S. Milwaukee, WI Financial Services

192/194/1,467

$33M

NFP

Yes

Yes

31

43 DaVita, Inc. Denver, CO Health/Medical Services

$13.6B U.S. 64,788 U.S. $13.7B 67,922 Global Global

500/5,000/2,000

$234M

7

Yes

Yes

32

25 Genentech, Inc. South San Francisco, CA Biotechnology/ Pharmaceutical

NFP

14,500 U.S.

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

33

34 Aon plc London, England Business Services

NFP

23,411 U.S. 71,376 Global

232/581/705

$163M

3.98

Yes

Yes

34

30 Haskell Jacksonville, FL Construction

NFP

1,180 U.S. 1,261 Global

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

35

83 Anthem Inc. Indianapolis, IN Insurance

NFP

58,917 U.S.

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

26

$6.4B U.S. 3,9907 U.S. $6.6B Global 41,906 Global

* New entry; not ranked in the 2016 Top 125

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Additional Information DPR Construction According to a joint survey with The Energy Project and the Harvard Business Review, feeling happier is associated with 196% greater thriving at work. DPR Construction used The Energy Project training on one of its complex projects, which extended beyond just employees and included the engineers, architects, subcontractors, and customer on that team. Looking at four aspects of energy (physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual), the team’s overall energy improved by 43% as a direct result of training.

New York Life Insurance Company To better align professional skills training with performance management, New York Life Insurance Company continues to utilize a new online tool allowing each employee to create a plan for managing his or her career development. Understanding employees’ unique learning profiles, “My Development Blueprint,” offers 3 integrated paths to knowledge—learning through experiences, learning through relationships, and learning through education. The tool provides employees with access to thousands of activities outside of a classroom setting; this solutions-based approach continues to successfully promote engagement and development.

Buckman Laboratories International, Inc. A 1-week experiential leadership program for high-potential associates is built around Buckman Laboratories International’s vision and values. The program creates a development bridge for individual contributors as they become leaders. As a result, new leaders share a common cultural experience, create development plans with executive coaches, and learn how to better engage with their teams. More than 95% of top leaders and 70% of front-line managers globally have completed the program. Buckman’s Associate engagement surveys rank in the top 5% of its peer group in Associate satisfaction with managers, quality of development opportunities, and Associate connection to the mission of the organization.

Edward Jones In the Advanced Branch Team Performance (ABTP) program, current and former top-performing financial advisors coach veteran alreadysuccessful branch teams. They help teams strategize and write tailored business plans to serve clients more deeply. A 2014 control group study showed that participants earned nearly 4% higher gross commissions and nearly 11% higher net new assets and focused on serving fewer households more deeply.

Edward Jones expanded ABTP and has seen remarkable performance improvements among its most veteran teams.

Northwestern Mutual In 2016, Northwestern Mutual launched a new company strategy to shape its future and influence collaboration. To help employees align their daily work to the organization’s strategy of delivering financial security to clients through a comprehensive life-stage planning approach using an integrated suite of products and a distinctive client experience, employees were invited to attend a Strategy Workshop. While these workshops were not required, employee commitment to learning is apparent as more than 85% of all employees attended. As a result of the learning, 85% of the attendees can directly connect how their work impacts the company strategy and Northwestern Mutual’s vision of being at the center of its clients’ financial lives.

DaVita, Inc. Academy is a DaVita University flagship program. The foundational content provides teammates the opportunity to immerse themselves in DaVita, Inc.’s distinctive culture during a 2-day, off-site meeting. It is an opportunity for teammates to develop themselves in a fun, engaging, and highly informative atmosphere. It is a good example of DaVita’s emphasis on whole person learning. More than 8,000 teammates attend Academy each year. In total, since 2001, more than 44,000 teammates have attended Academy. Teammates who attend Academy have, on average, a 12% lower turnover rate than peers who did not attend this training. DaVita estimates Academy drives down turnover costs by approximately $12 million per year.

Genentech, Inc. The Genentech Procurement Academy (PA) was launched to develop functional and strategic skills of procurement professionals through targeted capability building aligned to the lifecycle of strategic projects. PA offerings are role- and competency-based and include assessment options for learners to derive personalized learning plans based on individual knowledge gaps. PA supplements learning plans with strategic skill-building offerings that include external subscriptions/ memberships, internal collaboration programs, online simulations, face-to-face experiential-based learning and e-learning/micro-learning based on the latest neuroscience and cognitive load theory concepts around optimal adult learning. PA supported the $410 million cost savings department goal achievement in 2015.

Aon plc Continuing its journey for delivering distinctive client value, Aon plc introduced Mastering Client Interactions (MCI) last year as part of the Client Promise Academy on Aon University. Teaching colleagues how to effectively listen to and interact with clients, MCI delivers the highest results on return on value, time investment, and a near-perfect Net Promoter Score among colleagues who attend. Leaders attending MCI deliver better business results and experience improved quality in client relationship management. This new program achieves better program results over its predecessor while saving time and money through a more efficient delivery format. MCI has had a $3.2 million business impact to date.

Haskell The Packaging “Center of Excellence” in Atlanta offers job rotation opportunities for all Haskell Design Engineers to experience a full-scope view of packaging systems engineering. All Design Engineers work not only with a design team but also rotate into the System Analytics (SA) group, which focuses on process improvement and emulation/simulation testing for complex manufacturing systems. The SA rotation exposes engineers to the importance of making data-driven decisions derived from a complex “pre-testing” environment. The result is a reduction in manufacturing design errors, improved designs, and the elimination of time/cost inefficiencies for project installations and start-ups. Some 66.7% of promotions at that location occurred as a result of job rotation.

Anthem Inc. Anthem Inc.’s Executive Preparation program provides focused development for high-potential leaders who have been identified by senior executive leadership as successors for executive positions. Program participants engage in an 18-month leadership development program that readies leaders to navigate the business challenges and advanced leadership responsibilities that come with executive roles. During its 10-year history, the program has resulted in mobility for 68% of all alumni. Additionally, 93% of participants are extremely likely to recommend the program to others, and 84% of their managers have observed significant growth and development.

NFP Information provided, but not for publication ND Information not disclosed NA Not applicable BP Honored for Best Practice OTI Honored for Outstanding Training Initiative

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2017 RANKINGS 36-45 Company Name/ 2017 2016 Location/ Rank Rank Primary Business

36

Annual Revenue

No. of Employees

57 Allianz Life Insurance $11.6B U.S. 2,183 U.S. Company of $135.9B Global North America Global Minneapolis, MN Insurance

Total No. of Trainers Training Full-Time/Part-Time/SMEs Budget

Training Budget as a Percentage of Payroll

Tuition Reimburse- Training ment Infrastructure

53/0/35

$9.4M

3.63

Yes

Yes

37

* Ferguson NFP Enterprises, Inc. Newport News, VA Wholesale/Distribution

22,600 U.S.

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

38

* Parexel International LLC Waltham, MA Health/Medical Services

NFP

4,140 U.S. 18,600 Global

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

7/19/204

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

39

29 Gilbane Building Company Providence, RI Construction

NFP

2,432 U.S. 2,583 Global

40

81 Crown Resorts Australia Southbank Victoria, Australia Hospitality

NFP

11,923 Global

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

41

42 Iron Mountain Boston, MA Information and Asset Management

$2.2B U.S. $3B Global

7,991 U.S. 23,727 Global

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

42

44 PPD Wilmington, NC Health/Medical Services

NFP

8,500 U.S. 17,000 Global

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

NFP

203 U.S. 235 Global

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

43

7 Vistage Worldwide San Diego, CA Business Services

44

92 United Shore Financial Services Troy, MI Finance/Banking

$20.2B U.S. 1,800 U.S.

62/186/186

$12M

12

No

Yes

45

65 Valvoline Instant Oil Change Lexington, KY Retail

NFP

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

3,000 U.S.

* New entry; not ranked in the 2016 Top 125

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Additional Information Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America New online application ApplyNOW affects how producers send Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America business. It has created a better experience for customers, while enabling employees to focus their talents on higher-value endeavors. Allianz educated producers via conferences, Webinars, online modules, and videos while upskilling employees via classroom and online learning to offer technical support and process incoming business. Application completion time was reduced 83%; applications in good order increased 191%; and submission time was reduced by 4.71 days. The parent company recognized ApplyNOW’s success; the application is being added to the best practices collection shared across global operating entities.

Ferguson Enterprises, Inc. Achieving annualized sales growth and gross margin improvement requires a formal step-by-step process to support sales managers in coaching their teams at Ferguson Enterprises, Inc. Leveraging a truly blended approach, participants are immersed in a 12-month program with instructor-led sessions, self-paced online components, dashboards, and job aids integrated into core business processes. Linking developmental coaching to clearly defined key performance indicators (KPIs) and Ferguson’s performance management process strengthened the partnership across executive sales leadership, operational leaders, and the Learning and Development group, resulting in year-over-year investment in the program. In the last year, 75 people have been promoted into a sales management role.

PAREXEL INTERNATIONAL LLC Increasing global clinical trial volume within the biopharmaceutical industry is causing a significant shortage of qualified, experienced clinical research staff to support and monitor trials. PAREXEL INTERNATIONAL LLC demonstrates commitment to building the global biopharmaceutical workforce by offering a 6-month Postgraduate Certificate in Clinical Trial Management to university graduates at key locations worldwide. The program addresses internal and external staffing gaps by offering practical learning experiences to prepare students for a variety of careers. Of the 800+ students who completed the program, 68% were hired by PAREXEL and 32% by sponsors and competitors.

Gilbane Building Company For certain multi-site construction projects, Gilbane Building Company requires completion of an online safety orientation by trade contractors prior to arrival. The 1-hour orientation includes quizzes that verify comprehension, is mobile-friendly and accessed via the Internet, and available in both English and Spanish. An in-person, site-specific tour points out the unique potential hazards and logistical details necessary to work safely at that location. This innovative blended approach to safety training for trade contractors has reduced the in-person time required by more than 50%; resulted in 300,000 man hours of work with only 1 recordable incident; and helps ensure everyone goes home safe at the end of the day.

Crown Resorts Australia The company’s new Dealer Training Model was implemented as a direct result of an identified training need to accommodate a 77% increase in the annual demand for trained and competent dealers. Crown Resorts restructured its existing training model by reducing the off-the-job training component from 5 weeks to 3 weeks, incorporating intensive on-the-job mentoring and supervision, and increasing the focus on the development of proficient technical skills and excellent customer service. Results include: a significantly reduced labor cost per school (from $87,635 to $72,394) and a faster training turnover that met the business’ needs and objectives.

Iron Mountain Recognizing the common business challenge where up to 40% of new managers don’t meet expectations in the first 18-24 months, Iron Mountain adapted its Sentinel Program for front-line employees to provide a robust orientation training program for supervisors and managers. Launched in April 2015, this role-specific onboarding program demonstrates a 400% increase in knowledge and skills acquisition through successful completion of e-learning and on-the-job training with a peer coach. In addition to the improved learning and behavior metrics, Iron Mountain has a 94% retention rate for this group compared to 60% prior to implementing the program.

PPD The company achieves a talent and culture advantage by building professional skills and engaging through its Professional Excellence Program. Managers identify specific technical training needs within their departments and build customized training curricula in a licensed Skillsoft environment. Managers select courses from a comprehensive library and range of resources to target different experience levels and functions within their teams. They also supplement the Skillsoft courses with PPD-specific processes, procedures, and white papers. Results from an internal survey showed the effectiveness of PPD’s training resources: Employees experienced a 13% skill gain per learner when actively using Skillsoft, leading to a multi-million-dollar skill gain value.

Vistage Worldwide Employee Development Days create opportunities for 100% of employees to experience the power of a confidential peer advisory group.

Employees are divided into teams of 15-20. Any employee can ask his or her group for help in resolving a personal or professional challenge with the promise of being heard and respected, without judgment. A seasoned Vistage peer group facilitator guides the discussion, securing confidentiality and engaging the group in listening, paraphrasing, and asking deeply probing questions. Within an hour, new perspectives and solutions emerge. As a result, 100% of employees feel more deeply connected. At least 1 person from every group has discovered a new light at the end of the tunnel.

United Shore Financial Services The company believes the key to improving business results is to coach and “train its people up.“ To make that happen, United Shore implemented a team member skills coaching and development platform called “Yourtime” and a Trainer Certification Program to develop the training skills of company leaders. Both programs require leaders to be in “the weeds of the business” with team members and to be “on call” to develop team members at any time. Year-to-date, training has a 96% approval rating with team members; the training hours have increased by 206%, and loan originations increased by $7 billion in 2016.

Valvoline Instant Oil Change The Valvoline Instant Oil Change SuperPro certification process is the cornerstone of the company’s hourly training program. The program combines online, manager-led, and instructor-led elements with assessments and demonstrated skills testing for each required process. Processes are grouped together into roles, so team members who are certified in all the component processes are certified in that role. The roles in which an employee is certified determine job titles, promotions, and compensation. Within 60 days, new team members complete 270 hours of training and are certified in the top-side, bottom-side, and guest greeting procedures, plus 10 additional services. On-time certification is tracked, resulting in turnover less than half the industry average.

NFP Information provided, but not for publication ND Information not disclosed NA Not applicable BP Honored for Best Practice OTI Honored for Outstanding Training Initiative

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2017 RANKINGS 46-55 Company Name/ 2017 2016 Location/ Rank Rank Primary Business

46

Annual Revenue

121 SinglePoint Inc. NFP (Formerly Collectcents) Toronto, Ontario, Canada Business Services

No. of Employees 450 Global

Total No. of Trainers Training Full-Time/Part-Time/SMEs Budget

Training Budget as a Percentage of Payroll

Tuition Reimburse- Training ment Infrastructure

2/3/10

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

142/50/158

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

47

37 Carilion Clinic Roanoke, VA Health/Medical Services

NFP

1,2642 U.S.

48

90 Hagerty Insurance Traverse City, MI Insurance

NFP

771 U.S. 911 Global

9/7/60

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

49

73 Vi Chicago, IL Health/Medical Services

NFP

2,946 U.S.

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

50

48 Miami Childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Health System Miami, FL Health/Medical Services

$646.8M U.S.

3,846 U.S.

41/203/248

NFP

8

Yes

Yes

51

79 Mastercard Purchase, NY Technology

NFP

5,235 U.S. 11,876 Global

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

52

60 Enterprise Holdings St. Louis, MO Transportation

$20.9B Global

90,000 U.S. 97,000 Global

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

NFP

590 U.S.

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

60/3/26

$27.4M

NFP

Yes

Yes

53

* SpawGlass Selma, TX Construction

54

52 Aetna Inc. Hartford, CT Insurance

$60.2B Global

50,234 Global

55

53 Blue Cross & Blue Shield of North Carolina Durham, NC Insurance

$8B U.S.

4,875 U.S.

* New entry; not ranked in the 2016 Top 125

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Additional Information SinglePoint Inc. The Career Counseling Training Program selects top-performing front-line agents who have expressed interest in other internal career opportunities and allows them to participate in SinglePoint Inc.’s Career Steps to Success Empowerment Program. This initiative consists of a series of customized learning workshops dedicated to various roles within the organization. Participants select the specific course aligned with their interest and, through a blended learning approach, are introduced to the responsibilities, challenges, and next steps required to get them closer to achieving their career aspirations in the future. To date, 65 employees have participated in the project, with 18% being successfully promoted to a new role.

Carilion Clinic Interactive Patient Care is a delivery model that empowers patients to participate in their care, thus leading to better outcomes. Carilion Clinic chose to use technology tool GetWellNetwork (GWN). Through Carilion’s educational efforts, patient engagement with GWN has improved from an initial 27% utilization of health information to 57%. The number of patients completing educational videos has increased from 2,300 to an average of 4,300 per month. Finally, patients and nurses have greatly increased their GWN searches for information (i.e., uses, side effects, etc.) on their medications from 7,887 for all of 2015 to 8,039 in just the first 7 months of 2016.

Hagerty Insurance The Hagerty Service Center conducts Peer-to-Peer Call Reviews in which Licensed Sales Agents (LSAs) listen to the calls of other LSAs and provide feedback based on the Client-Centered Solutions Sales Model. Managers facilitate the sessions and review the tenets of the Sales Model. A theme is predetermined for the listening sessions based on recent trends in the Service Center. The agents learn sales techniques from one another and share best practices in a collaborative environment. After the sessions are completed, the call clips are stored in an audio library for LSAs to continually reference additional examples.

Vi The company has realized significant results as a result of its 1-year Breakthrough Leadership Program for high-potential leaders. Through a third-party evaluation conducted by DePaul University, Vi realized knowledge gains on average of 40%, a 10% gain in self-efficacy, an 8% yield in utility performance, a 33% increase in on-the-job task performance, a 20% increase in emotional intelligence, and a return on value of $138,640 based on the average participant salary.

Miami Children’s Health System An automated, Web-based solution guides the Miami Children’s Health System (MCHS) onboarding process of new hires, where employees rate their experience and development on a daily or weekly basis. New hires also get to rate their personal experiences with their buddy, peers, physicians, and manager(s) at 7-, 30-, 60-, and 90-day milestones. The onboarding solution is accessible on smartphones, and trends are shared with Talent Management to enhance the onboarding experience. MCHS buddies also go through an instructor-led Web-based training. As a result of this initiative, new hire employee attrition was reduced from 27.3% in 2014 to 10.1% in 2016.

Mastercard The company puts the options and capability to learn directly in its employees’ hands. It does this by engaging employees in “Degreed at Mastercard”—the one place for an employee to explore, discover, connect, and collaborate on all things learning. The global workforce has access to both Mastercard-created content and to the company’s preferred third-party content providers: Safari Books Online, getAbstract, Lynda.com, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), and Harvard Business Publishing, to name just a few. On top of this, Degreed at Mastercard provides access to the more than 1,200 content providers offered by Degreed. BP Enterprise Holdings The Account Executive (AE) First-Year Road Map provides a solid year of training and development for new sales professionals in Car Sales at Enterprise Holdings. After being immersed in training for 2 weeks, AEs attend Sales Boot Camp (SBC). SBC includes demonstrations by Car Sales management and skill practice sessions where AEs practice sales skills and receive coaching from successful managers. AEs start selling in week 4 and follow the roadmap until the end of their first 12 months. From FY’15 to FY’16 (since the training’s implementation), the number of AEs selling 10 or more vehicles in their first 6 months tripled.

SpawGlass Self-perform packages can run into millions of dollars and take months to complete. For a project superintendent, it is like having 2 projects to manage. To resolve this, SpawGlass created a training program for its craft foremen with 2 goals: 1. Provide craft foremen with the leadership and technical skills to manage self-perform work to relieve the project superintendent; and 2. Provide foremen with a career path. Superintendents now spend about 90% of their time on the overall project and 10% of their time on the self-perform work. 90% of that 10% is now coaching and mentoring the foreman and not managing the self-perform work itself.

Aetna Inc. A 2016 strategic goal for Operations and Technology (O&T) at Aetna Inc. was to evolve and deliver on the strategy to attract and develop the next generation of talent to ensure the company’s success. With increased focus on Aetna’s commitment to recruiting and retaining military veteran talent, the company created and delivered a successful Veteran’s Hiring Workshop for 115 senior leaders to help them translate military veteran resumes. All participants concluded the session enabled them to better match veteran candidates’ resumes, skills, knowledge, and abilities with business roles. Veterans made up 15% of all O&T’s external hires in 2016, exceeding the company’s 2016 objective of 7%.

Blue Cross & Blue Shield of North Carolina The transformational changes in the health-care industry have ushered in an opportunity for revolutionary learning and development. In a time when learners need relevant and applicable knowledge and skill-building solutions at their fingertips, Blue Cross & Blue Shield of North Carolina (BCBSNC) has assembled the right combination of best practices, technology, social media, and on-the-job immersion to drive optimal workforce performance. Like its new Customer Service Professionals Development Program, Enterprise Learning & Development (EL&D) effectively aligns with the organizational strategy to achieve measurable outcomes that positively impact the bottom line, to the tune of a $2.9 million benefit to the organization and a 57% annualized return on the investment.

NFP Information provided, but not for publication ND Information not disclosed NA Not applicable BP Honored for Best Practice OTI Honored for Outstanding Training Initiative

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2017 RANKINGS 56-65 Company Name/ 2017 2016 Location/ Rank Rank Primary Business

56

Annual Revenue

113 FORUM Credit Union NFP Fishers, IN Finance/Banking

No. of Employees 332 U.S.

Total No. of Trainers Training Full-Time/Part-Time/SMEs Budget

Training Budget as a Percentage of Payroll

Tuition Reimburse- Training ment Infrastructure

7/0/53

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

3/2/37

$450K

2.65

Yes

Yes

57

72 G4S Secure Solutions NFP (USA) Inc. Jupiter, FL Private Security Solutions

58

62 One Nevada Credit Union Las Vegas, NV Finance/Banking

$53.6M U.S. 257 U.S.

59

70 Ricoh USA, Inc. Malvern, PA Technology

NFP

25,100 U.S. 109,000 Global

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

60

64 VSP Global Rancho Cordova, CA Insurance

NFP

4,867 U.S. 6,020 Global

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

61

68 BKD, LLP SpringďŹ eld, MO Professional Services

NFP

2,572 U.S.

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

* General Motors NFP Sales, Service & Marketing Division Detroit, MI Wholesale/Distribution

1,250 U.S.

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

7

Yes

Yes

62

46,970 U.S. 610,000 Global

63

63 Sacramento Municipal $1.4B U.S. Utility District (SMUD) Sacramento, CA Utilities

2,121 U.S.

36/12/38

$17M

64

56 CarMax, Inc. Richmond, VA Retail

$15B U.S.

22,702 U.S.

756/2,021/1,820

$42.9M

4.19

Yes

Yes

65

86 Navient Wilmington, DE Asset Management

NFP

7,300 U.S.

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

* New entry; not ranked in the 2016 Top 125

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Additional Information FORUM Credit Union Peer-to-Peer is FORUM Credit Union’s flagship leadership program. 100% of front-line supervisors and manager-level employees participate in 1 of 5 cross-functional peer groups. Through the program, they network and build relationships, and participate in facilitated book discussions, interactive workshops, and special projects. Additional learning occurs through an online community, Webinars, podcasts, and online courses. Post-pilot survey results indicated 100% believed the program provided skills, knowledge, and resources that were immediately applied to the job, building relationships across the organization, understanding different parts of the business, or gaining support for leading people. In addition, 22% of participants have received a promotion in the last 12 months.

G4S Secure Solutions (USA) Inc. RISK360 is an incident and case management software that allows G4S Secure Solutions (USA) Inc. clients to make better decisions about security operations and to be more proactive in approaching incident reduction. Although the firm has other technical software (G4S Insight) and hardware (Secure Trax), RISK360 is the only security software solution that can be sold as a stand-alone product from G4S’ primary manned guard services. Enhancements in RISK360 Software Training have been successful for G4S as the firm has secured a $1.5 million contract with one of the largest publicly held companies in the world.

One Nevada Credit Union Proactive Leadership is a year-long program consisting of 9 courses designed specifically to promote and enhance leadership development at One Nevada Credit Union. Participants are those who exhibit potential leadership skills; employees must be nominated by management in order to enroll, and it is considered a privilege to participate. Participants learn how to increase their team’s productivity by providing individualized support combined with the right amount of assistance and direction. This builds a winning organizational culture and creates a cohesive and collaborative atmosphere where employees feel valued and involved.

Ricoh USA, Inc. The Learning organization continues to be positioned as a driver of change as Ricoh USA, Inc., evolves the organization and accelerates its services-led approach. The Learning organization is driving the transformation through employee and leadership development, enablement, and engagement.

Through programs such as Portfolio Training 2, Ricoh USA is successfully enabling its sales force to sell services-based solutions. The Learning organization is helping increase operational efficiency through programs such as Cross Training for Managed Services, making it easier to do business with Ricoh USA. Driving the transformation through training is how Ricoh makes information work for its employees. BP VSP Global The customer service business provides Leadership Talent Development (LTD), a 6- to 18-month program with a competitive selection process that takes into account competencies required for leadership and customer service excellence. Results include: a 91% promotion/career-advancement rate; 50%+ Customer Care leadership promoted from within LTD; out of 500+ organizations assessed for their Service Quality Management Group (SQM,) VSP was awarded Call Center of the Year, Contact Center World Class FCR Certification, Highest Customer Service – Insurance Industry, Highest Customer Service – Business-to-Business, Most Improved Employee Satisfaction, Highest Employee Satisfaction – Insurance Industry, and World Class Employee Satisfaction, CSR Training Program.

BKD, LLP Discipline and execution have been the hallmarks of BKD, LLP, culture for more than 90 years. The BKD Sales Training Institute (STI) is a firmwide proprietary sales training program created to apply those same values to business development. STI seeks to enhance sales skills by offering team members live training and online BKD University courses to more effectively sell BKD’s services, enrich and strengthen the sales culture, weave discipline and accountability into the sales efforts, continue creating rewarding career opportunities, and drive firm growth. To the STI survey prompt, “This training is an effective use of my time,” positive participant feedback increased 23% over the previous year’s results.

General Motors Sales, Service & Marketing Division In 2014, facing staff retirements and needing to expand its District Manager (DM) team, the General Motors Sales, Service & Marketing Division created a 3-month training program. But after 3 months, DMs still lacked confidence and requisite skills. The division revamped the program into a 6-month District Manager New Hire Learning Journey. This blended learning immersed attendees in GM’s culture. DMs met subject matter experts (SMEs), worked at dealerships, answered calls on a customer hotline, shadowed seasoned DMs, worked with coaches, participated in formal training, and built their GM network. Graduates demonstrated an 8-month acceleration in their time to proficiency over graduates of the prior program, resulting in a 60% ROI. BP Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) The New Leader Boot Camp blended training program was designed and delivered to all new leaders at the request of Sacramento Municipal District’s (SMUD) CEO as part of its Growing Our Next Generation of Leaders initiative. This 7-day program provides critical learning to improve leadership skills, master essential operational functions required of supervisors, ensure all new leaders have a well-cemented understanding of their roles and responsibilities, and equip them to shift SMUD’s culture within their teams. A 90-day follow-up survey validated that 86% of graduates increased their leadership skills as a result of program participation, while 100% indicated they completed the program better able to fulfill their essential operational functions.

CarMax, Inc. The Career Latticing program at CAT and Home Office enables CarMax, Inc., associates to learn the business through experiential and shoulder-toshoulder activities as they move through different departments. Associates choose to move into 1 of more than 30 unique departments and learn the associated knowledge and skills required. The program supports the unique learn-and-grow opportunities available to associates on every career level. Many associates choose to lattice in an effort to open up new vertical pathways, while others want the chance to learn from a new leader or work in a particular department. Last year, 254 associates made a lattice move: 103 promotions to new departments and 151 either vertical or “step back” moves to move forward.

Navient Talent Management facilitates the 2-day Supervising Others Effectively workshop for Navient employees from supervisor to director levels who would like to build or refresh essential management practices and principles. Through experiential activities and the sharing of best demonstrated practices, participants discover strategic and tactical approaches to a variety of topics. Topics include: Being an Effective Supervisor, Performance Management, Coaching and Feedback, Recognition and Rewards, Transition Management, Progressive Discipline, Interviewing, Balancing Time and Productivity, and Employment Law Basics. As a result, participants score as much as 12% higher on an evaluation of 5 core competencies 6 months after the training.

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2017 RANKINGS 66-75 Company Name/ 2017 2016 Location/ Rank Rank Primary Business

66

33 Mohawk Industries, Inc. Calhoun, GA Manufacturing

Total No. of Trainers Training Full-Time/Part-Time/SMEs Budget

Training Budget as a Percentage of Payroll

Tuition Reimburse- Training ment Infrastructure

Annual Revenue

No. of Employees

$8B Global

21,400 U.S. 34,200 Global

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

67

78 Bass & Associates, P.C. NFP Tucson, AZ Legal

56 U.S.

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

68

74 TD Toronto, Ontario, Canada Finance/Banking

NFP

27,780 U.S. 94,073 Global

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

69

75 Avanade, Inc. Seattle, WA Consulting

NFP

2,349 U.S. 7,932 Global

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

70

50 BB&T Corporation Winston-Salem, NC Finance/Banking

NFP

35,956 U.S.

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

71

58 Tandus Centiva (A Tarkett Company) Dalton, GA Manufacturing

NFP

1,154 U.S. 1,409 Global

7/8/95

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

72

41 Florida Blue Jacksonville, FL Health Insurance

NFP

5,775 U.S.

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

73

49 Afni Bloomington, IL Contact Center Provider

NFP

3,335 U.S. 5,247 Global

227/202/49

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

74

61 Bankers Life Chicago, IL Insurance

NFP

1,653 U.S.

559/350/140

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

75

67 Shaw Industries, Inc. NFP Dalton, GA Manufacturing

21,566 U.S. 21,877 Global

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

* New entry; not ranked in the 2016 Top 125

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Additional Information Mohawk Industries, Inc. Encouraging Innovation is a 21-day workshop dedicated to uncovering innovative ideas across all Mohawk Industries, Inc., facilities.

Participants are challenged to identify an area of concern, develop a solution to the area of improvement, and create a detailed plan for implementation. While this course has developed advantages in the areas of safety and time savings, the seminar also has proven to be a vast source of employee motivation and facility ownership. The Encouraging Innovation course exemplifies Mohawk’s belief that its employees are truly its greatest asset.

Bass & Associates, P.C. Due to the nature of the industry that Bass & Associates, P.C., operates within, negotiation skills are critical for success of the individual, as well as the company. In the collections department, Bass built 2 training stations directly next to the department supervisors’ stations. All collections employees rotate through those stations so they can get the benefit of 1-to-1 coaching from their supervisors in a production environment. This strategy has not only helped the individual employee improve, it has shown staff the company’s commitment to their ongoing training and overall performance.

TD The company’s unique and inclusive employee culture is core to its brand. TD developed its Direct Investing Onboarding program considering all its employees’ varying capabilities and diverse learning styles. This program combines in-class sessions and on-the-job training, leveraging multiple learning vehicles, including, interactive e-learning and PDFs, business cases, call shadowing, self-reflection, and coaching. Learner capabilities are measured during this program through scenario-based e-learning and online quizzes. Upon completion, learners receive immediate feedback on their responses, including points towards capabilities developed. Results are used by facilitators and People Managers to deliver personalized refresher sessions targeting coaching opportunities. Learners demonstrated a 57% increase in job efficiency and 23% higher sales revenues.

Avanade, Inc. The Leadership Development team, in collaboration with Avanade Inc.’s Executive Committee, revamped its Leadership Development strategy to create the A.G.I.LE. Leadership strategy—representing the qualities of the Avanade leaders who will execute on the company’s Imagine 2020 objectives and respond rapidly to clients’ needs. This new strategy came to fruition with the implementation of several programs, such as the Leadership in Action for Directors (LIA). In total, Avanade delivered training to nearly 200 (high-potential) targeted participants across programs with an overall average participant satisfaction score of 4.7 out of 5.

These leadership programs exemplify Avanade’s ability to build customer centricity, grow talent, build leadership strengths, and promote competitive innovation.

BB&T Corporation For more than 50 years, The BB&T Leadership Institute and its legacy firm, Farr Associates, have helped leaders and organizations to maximize their full potential. The BB&T Leadership Institute is a subsidiary of BB&T that provides leadership and teambuilding solutions for its internal associates, large corporate clients, and other companies throughout the U.S. The Leadership Institute’s impact extends to the nonprofit sphere by providing free leadership training to public school superintendents and principals throughout the BB&T footprint. BB&T Leadership Institute programs are designed to support a mission of positively impacting business and society through the teaching of leadership principles that are rooted in self-awareness, values, and ethics. BP Tandus Centiva (A Tarkett Company) Manager@Tarkett is a 4-day leadership course required of all leaders at Tandus Centiva (A Tarkett Company). It is a major talent management initiative that sets the foundation for a shared managerial culture across the organization. Course objectives are to clarify and spread the management culture, implement common processes and tools, and develop a manager’s talents to coach teams for high performance. Tandus Centiva’s worldwide Employee Survey takes place every 2 years. In 2008, only 70% of employees answered positively in the “Management” category. However, 78% of employees answered positively in 2016 and think their manager does a good job of setting work objectives and being available when needed.

Florida Blue Leadership Academy is a development program for high-potential directors identified as successors for executive positions with 96% in a ready 1- to 2-year classification. In July 2015, 23 directors began the 6-month program that focuses on building trust and credibility with real-world problem solving. Working in groups, the leaders applied a strategic thinking framework to Florida Blue business problems, developing solutions they presented to the Enterprise Executive Leadership Team. Post-graduation, 52% of participants were promoted into successor-identified positions and 28% were promoted to officer positions. 69% of program graduates had 2015 employee engagement scores at or above best practice, and 100% of program graduates remain with Florida Blue.

Afni The Afni Coaching Model is designed to provide performance management, development, and career counseling. Sessions are held weekly to discuss behavioral trending, successes, and opportunities to improve. Afni leadership partners with the employee to identify what actions are affecting development, understand why it is happening, and collaboratively design a behavioral solution with the employee to achieve goals. Compliance monitoring and triad observations ensure qualitative and quantitative results. The Talent Development organization supports this process through multi-tiered training tied to the learner level. This consistent dedication to coaching continues to keep Afni as a top partner of choice.

Bankers Life The Emerging Leaders program identifies and accelerates leadership development of front-line managers to take on higher positions within the field organization at Bankers Life. Major components of the 1-year program include: 1. 3 face-to-face classroom sessions; 2. A virtual forum to discuss best practices, reinforce concepts, and introduce new leadership development topics; 3. Self-selected accountability groups and peer mentoring; and 4. A 2-part Capstone project: a) Personal development reflection and b) Business challenge presentation with the accountability groups. This successful program is building a strong leadership pipeline for Bankers Life, and has resulted in a 96% retention rate of graduates, with 40% of all graduates receiving promotions to date.

Shaw Industries, Inc. Recognizing that people learn in different ways and that each method of training is best suited for certain types of content, Shaw Industries, Inc., has moved to an increasingly blended education and training approach. Using a combination of instructor-led sessions (in virtual and classroom settings), computer-based self-study, videos, games, simulations, role-play, and other techniques, Shaw provides more than 1 million hours of training annually to its wide range of associates—machinists and marketers, scientists and salespeople, designers and data scientists, nurses and network administrators. That’s an average of 48 hours per associate.

www.trainingmag.com

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2017 RANKINGS 76-80 Company Name/ 2017 2016 Location/ Rank Rank Primary Business

Annual Revenue

No. of Employees

NFP

1,345 U.S.

76

89 Paycor Cincinnati, OH Business Services

77

77 United Services Automobile $24.3B U.S. 29,000 U.S. Association (USAA) San Antonio, TX Financial Services and Insurance

78

124 TIAA New York, NY Finance/Banking

Tuition Reimburse- Training ment Infrastructure

30/80/185

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

195/15/58

$83.7M

2.03

Yes

Yes

12,950 U.S.

61/23/200

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

240/0/180

$40.6M

6.5

Yes

Yes

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

76 Quicken Loans, Inc. Detroit, MI Finance/Banking

NFP

15,000 U.S.

80

98 AT&T Inc. Dallas, TX Integrated Solution Provider

$146.8B Global

234,199 U.S. 267,765 Global

|

Training Budget as a Percentage of Payroll

NFP

79

76

Total No. of Trainers Training Full-Time/Part-Time/SMEs Budget

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Additional Information Paycor In 2016, Paycor continued its new hire experience for sales with 5-week training programs customized for unique sales positions. These programs incorporate 2 weeks of virtual training (VLT and VILT); 2 weeks of instructor-led training (ILT) at headquarters in Cincinnati, OH, and 1 week of skills assessment by the field sales manager. This program is followed by 20 weeks of individualized coaching and certifications to inspect the behaviors a new hire implements. Paycor has adopted fixed start dates that align with the 20 annual training programs. This strategy allows the company to teach new sales associates the correct behaviors before being influenced by shortcuts.

United Services Automobile Association The Property Upskill training is a redesigned course for the insurance and underwriting communities. United Services Automobile Association (USAA) wanted to get representatives who were already selling and servicing auto insurance to also offer property insurance. One of USAA’s key priorities is “World Class Experience,” which extends to its members and employees. USAA delivers on that promise by making sure members inquiring about auto insurance also have sufficient property coverage. Overall, the quality of work for the reps who completed the new curriculum met their business goals, the acquisition of products sold exceeded their peers’ average, and the total dollar amount generated by the course was $2.8 million within 90 days post-training.

TIAA The organization addresses many of its process issues using its improvement methodology known as DRIVE. DRIVE is equivalent to established improvement approaches of LEAN and Six Sigma, but includes a strong focus on mindsets and behaviors needed to sustain improvement results. This combination offers a powerful Continuous Improvement (CI) approach necessary to deliver high customer value and real financial results. Green Belt certification requirements include 2 weeks of training, a test score of 80+ (on a 100-point scale, 40 questions), and a successful project with benefits greater than $100,000. Since 2014, TIAA has certified more than 120 employees as Green Belts, with benefits from training projects in excess of $11 million.

Quicken Loans, Inc. The Tell/Show/Do/Review approach of the Quicken Loans Banker Coaching Recipe serves as the foundation for Quicken Loans’ continued success in mortgage loan origination performance. The combination of instructor-led classroom training, role-playing scenarios, phone call ride-alongs, and classroom reviews allows for real-time impact on banker production.

AT&T Inc. Scenario Based Driving is a simulated training solution using best-in-class technology from a global simulation provider. Scenarios are customized for AT&T Inc. and include fleet-specific vehicle dynamics and programmable scenarios based on analytics behind current accident trends. Early results have been encouraging. Survey results show 98.88% of students find the content relevant and 97.77% have applied the learning on the job. AT&T has tracked a 52.2% reduction in accidents for those attending the training. This translates to a 102% annualized return on investment and approximately $375 million in potential savings at scale over the next 5 years.

PLAY. LEARN. APPLY. Available for the first time in the United States, Accelium Pro is a gamebased training solution developed by chess masters that combines personal coaching, facilitated team workshops, and mobile learning to develop the cognitive skills of working professionals.

Accelium provides your staff with an engaging experience that will inspire them to practice effective decisionmaking strategies, to be more flexible and creative in their thinking, and to continually improve their skills and performance.

Facilitated Workshops

1-on-1 Coaching

g Virtual Training Personal Assessment

To learn more or schedule a demo, contact:

James M. Hunter, PhD ;1 ঞ ; ( =ou vbm;vv ; ;Ѵorl;m| fbl_ m|;uŠ;l;u];;7 ĺ1ol 717.214.1631 www.acceliumna.com www.trainingmag.com

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2017 RANKINGS 81-85 Annual Revenue

No. of Employees

81

82 U.S. Security Associates, Inc. Roswell, GA Business Services

NFP

52,000 U.S. 52,750 Global

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

82

91 MTM, Inc. Lake St. Louis, MO Transportation

$392M U.S.

1,451 U.S.

65/2/4

782K

.17

Yes

Yes

83

87 ConServe Fairport, NY Finance/Banking

NFP

790 U.S.

16/0/44

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

1,275 U.S.

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

13,000 U.S.

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

84

85

122 Johns Hopkins NFP Community Physicians Baltimore, MD Health/Medical Services * AMN Healthcare San Diego, CA Healthcare Staffing and Workforce Solutions

$1.4M U.S.

Total No. of Trainers Training Full-Time/Part-Time/SMEs Budget

Training Budget as a Percentage of Payroll

Company Name/ 2017 2016 Location/ Rank Rank Primary Business

Tuition Reimburse- Training ment Infrastructure

Unconscious bias

is bad for business Bias costs business real money. Diverse teams make better decisions, which means bigger returns and better business. Don’t let unconscious bias stand in the way.

Learn more about the hidden cost of bias and what Grovo’s Unconscious Bias content can do to help. Visit us at Booth 607 at Training Conference 2017 to learn more.

Or visit www.grovo.com/trgconf

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Additional Information U.S. Security Associates, Inc. U.S. Security Associates, Inc., believes in creating the most safe, secure, and friendly environment for its employees, clients, and their guests. The Preparing for Active Shooter Situations course is required for all officers and emphasizes a proactive security approach. Fortunately, the investment saved lives. In August 2016, an active shooter event occurred at a client’s site, where a disgruntled worker fired an automatic weapon in a crowded work environment. U.S. Security Associates officers reacted successfully by contacting the authorities and sheltering employees in safe locations. As a result, the suspect later was arrested, while all employees remained unharmed. The officers credited their training for being able to successfully respond to the attack.

MTM, Inc. The On the Move travel training program educates learners about local public transportation options. Travel trainers partner in removing community barriers by helping passengers travel independently safely and confidently on buses and trains in their communities. Individuals receiving training report increased confidence and self-reliance that are immediate results of learning to travel independently. Travel training benefits the clients and communities by reducing program expenses while increasing the use of cost-effective public transit systems. MTM, Inc.’s travel trainers have assisted in transitioning more than 200 individuals to public transportation in 2015. With average weekly cost savings of $120, travel training has resulted in an estimated annual savings of more than $1 million.

ConServe The company provides continuous training for all employees, thereby empowering them to deliver exemplary service in a consistent, compliant, and professional manner. ConServe University has created a methodical training program encompassing a detailed curriculum for new hires, comprehensive continuous training for all employees, and career development instruction for management teams. Together with world-class partners such as Dale Carnegie Training of Rochester, NY, and Vitalwork, of Fairport, NY, ConServe University has delivered more than 36,000 hours of training to its most valuable asset: its people.

Johns Hopkins Community Physicians Johns Hopkins Community Physicians (JHCP) provides ongoing IT skills training to all of its clinical team members because of its reliance on effective team function. Depending on employee type, 16-40 hours of initial training is followed by Thrive training (reassessment, consolidation, and skills enhancement) 60 to 90 days later. Curricula is co-developed and taught by a team consisting of an instructional design specialist and an Electronic Health Record (EHR) subject matter expert(s). To date, 90% of primary care providers, 42% of clinical support staff (CSS), and 96% of managers have completed at least one Thrive course; assessments show gains of 42%-71% in baseline skills. This supports top-box quality outcomes across the organization.

AMN Healthcare Leaders at AMN Healthcare are expected to lead by example, emulating the CEO, who “walks the talk,” and living the company’s core purpose of “Helping people achieve professional and personal goals every day.” The cornerstone program, LEAD@AMN, orients newly promoted or hired leaders with a 21hour, 7-week training series on effective coaching, delivering feedback, leading teams through transformational change, motivating and developing direct reports, and demonstrating managerial courage. Leaders cap off the program by committing to an Individual Development Plan. Annual engagement survey results related to leadership effectiveness exceed external benchmarks, and team members consistently rank AMN leaders as the best in the industry.

Training is part of our recipe.

Our secret ingredient for success? We start with the best people and add quality training at the right time and place.

Our customers keep coming back for more.

Guckenheimer. We make food to come to work for. www.guckenheimer.com

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2017 RANKINGS 86-90 Company Name/ 2017 2016 Location/ Rank Rank Primary Business

86

104 CVS Health Woonsocket, RI Health/Medical Services

87

Training Budget as a Percentage of Payroll

Tuition Reimburse- Training ment Infrastructure

Annual Revenue

No. of Employees

$153.2B U.S.

243,000 U.S.

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

2,384 U.S. 2,395 Global

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

6,760 U.S.

75/10/105

$11.2M

3.3

Yes

Yes

NFP

Yes

Yes

5

No

Yes

94 Dominion Enterprises NFP Norfolk, VA Marketing Services

88

Total No. of Trainers Training Full-Time/Part-Time/SMEs Budget

* University of $825.2M New Mexico Hospitals U.S. Albuquerque, NM Health/Medical Services

89

114 Norton Healthcare Louisville, KY Health/Medical Services

NFP

13,000 U.S.

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

90

* Penn Station, Inc. Milford, OH Hospitality

NFP

4,800 U.S.

2/306/580

$340K

Innovation. Imagine the possibilities.

At Janssen, we have big dreams.

We imagine a time when diseases can be treated before people feel sick. When those in need can access life saving medicines, no matter where they are. And when treatment options are so convenient people can spend more time doing what they love.

It’s about radically challenging the way diseases are thought of, dealt with, prevented and intercepted. Now, and in the future.

By collaborating with the brightest minds in every field, we’re turning big visions into game-changing solutions. Because patients are waiting.

We are Janssen. We collaborate with the world for the health of everyone in it.

Learn more at www.janssen.com

Congratulations to all our Learning and Development Professionals

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Additional Information CVS Health Keeping Learning Alive is a program developed to keep up with the speed of business. It reinforces colleagues’ prior learning by providing a mix of fun games, quizzes, and visuals, which are developed in partnership with subject matter experts from the business. Designed to cause minimal impact to the production environment, activities can be completed at any time and take less than 10 minutes. CVS Health works with business leaders to identify important topics for critical concepts or responses to error trends. Keeping Learning Alive supplements formal training and provides ongoing refreshers to colleagues in a fun way that helps them retain what they’ve learned.

Dominion Enterprises EChO engages, challenges, and orients employees to becoming a phenomenon of success that is repeatable within the corporation and one that reverberates through the marketplace. Monitoring employee expectations, focusing training at every opportunity, and providing ongoing feedback are the key components of the program that has helped launch a dramatic shift in Dominion Enterprises’ customer training paradigm, which continues to see advances in per installation efficiencies. These advances directly affect the bottom line with savings of up to 35% per project.

University of New Mexico Hospitals The Up and Comers Succession Planning Program at University of New Mexico Hospitals is a staff-level program where employees get a sneak peek at leadership by attending 6 meetings, 3 leadership classes, and 6 mentoring sessions. Guest speakers at each meeting are invited to present on topics identified by the participants as learning needs, and all speakers are current leaders in the organization. Leaders must nominate possible successors from their own reporting structure, based on high-potential leadership skills and attributes. A committee reviews all applications and letters of recommendation to determine final participants for the 6-month program. 6 of the 20 cohort members were promoted to leadership positions during FY’16.

Norton Healthcare Recognizing the importance of strong partnerships with physicians in the clinical enterprise of managing the care for a population of patients, Norton Healthcare developed the Practice Manager Development program to ensure effective leader practices at its Norton Medical Group (NMG) facilities. The program consists of 5 “blended” modules containing content that is essential for effective practice management. Since implementing the program, NMG patient satisfaction has improved. (91.2% of patients would “always” recommend this office; 91.8% indicated a top box score for courteousness and helpfulness of staff).

Additionally, with more efficient and standard operations across locations, Norton Healthcare increased access to care for patients by 150,000 in the last year.

Penn Station, Inc. The My Penn Path Development tool is a self-directed program that maps the personal and professional proficiencies necessary for each level of employment at Penn Station, Inc., with a clear path to learning the skills and procedures necessary for career growth. The modular structure is based on micro-learning strategies utilizing printed media, video and online learning, shoulder-to-shoulder training and testing for validation, and places responsibility and ownership of development on the learner with support from management at each level of development. My Penn Path integrates with the General Manager and Managing Owner Training Programs, and is designed to strengthen management in all directions.

www.trainingmag.com

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81

2017 RANKINGS 91-95 Company Name/ 2017 2016 Location/ Rank Rank Primary Business

Annual Revenue

No. of Employees

Total No. of Trainers Training Full-Time/Part-Time/SMEs Budget

Training Budget as a Percentage of Payroll

Tuition Reimburse- Training ment Infrastructure

91

99 Choice Hotels International Rockville, MD Hospitality

NFP

1,508 U.S. 1,858 Global

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

No

Yes

92

95 Cartus Danbury, CT Relocation

NFP

1,950 U.S. 2,842 Global

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

93

* Office of the NFP Comptroller of the Currency Washington, DC Government and Military

3,843 U.S.

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

94

* Empire Wealth Strategies New York, NY Insurance

NFP

65 U.S.

1/6/13

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

95

93 Navy Federal Credit Union Vienna, VA Finance/Banking

NFP

16,352 Global

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

Trained WellSpan is proud to be a learning organization that is front and center in the efforts to improve the health of the communities we serve. &Žƌ ĂŶ ĞŝŐŚƚŚ LJĞĂƌ͕ ǁĞ ĂƌĞ ŚŽŶŽƌĞĚ ƚŽ ŚĂǀĞ ďĞĞŶ ĐŚŽƐĞŶ ďLJ dƌĂŝŶŝŶŐ DĂŐĂnjŝŶĞ ĂƐ Ă dŽƉ ϭϮϱ ŽƌŐĂŶŝnjĂƟŽŶ͘ ƚ tĞůů^ƉĂŶ ,ĞĂůƚŚ͕ ǁĞ ƌĞĐŽŐŶŝnjĞ ƚŚĂƚ ŝŶŶŽǀĂƟŽŶ ĂŶĚ ůĞĂƌŶŝŶŐ ĂƌĞ ĐƌŝƟĐĂů ƚŽ ŚĞůƉ ŽƵƌ ƉĂƟĞŶƚƐ ƌĞĂĐŚ ƚŚĞŝƌ ŚĞĂůƚŚ ŐŽĂůƐ͘ tĞ ĂƌĞ ƉƌŽƵĚ ƚŽ ƌĞĐĞŝǀĞ ƚŚŝƐ ƌĞĐŽŐŶŝƟŽŶ ĂŶĚ ƚŽ ďĞ ƉĂƌƚ ŽĨ ƚŚĞ ĐĞůĞďƌĂƟŽŶ͘

Learn more at WellSpan.org/Careers

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Additional Information Choice Hotels International HOST is a senior hotel operator certification program that prepares leaders to run their Choice branded hotel more effectively.

The program, which supports Choice Hotels International’s initiative to reinforce a culture of learning to improve performance and achieve business objectives, was redesigned from a 5-day instructor-led training (ILT) to a blended approach that includes self-directed e-learning, instructor-led virtual workshops, and knowledge tests. Since the program’s launch in 2015, enrollments have increased, learning has become more applicable to jobs, participants are more satisfied, and the company has realized a significant ROI. Cartus In the beginning of 2016, Cartus rolled out the Account Management Development Program (AMDP) to the Account Manager audience. The program is a blend of classroom, online, and self-study opportunities with global access via learning management system MyLearning. All classroom facilitation is recorded and then added to MyLearning for employees to have future access to the material. Since this audience is located in several global locations, in multiple time zones, and often working from home, the program’s self-study aspect has proven vital to participant success. Within 6 months of being implemented, 85% of Account Managers have utilized the training site, taking more than 36 different courses in 25 locations globally.

Office of the Comptroller of the Currency The agency is building a vastly stronger base of leadership skills, expectations, and a common language among all its employees, thereby fulfilling the agency’s vision for leadership and providing a framework for making each employee a better leader. New 2-day course Leadership Foundations (LD101) is designed to help the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) achieve these objectives. After taking this course, participants have a clear understanding of how OCC defines leadership and the tools necessary to develop their own leadership competencies. All current and future OCC employees will attend the course. In 2016, OCC offered 23 sessions of the classroom course; it has 50 sessions scheduled for 2017.

Empire Wealth Strategies The company dedicates a lot of time to role-playing with new hires. During their first 90 days, there are specific sessions for their elevator talk, phone calling, handling objections, and conducting an opening interview. Empire Wealth Strategies has formal role-play assessments throughout a new hire’s first year and they are performed in front of the leadership team, which provides constructive feedback for areas of improvement. The company also conducts more advanced role-plays after a new hire’s first year that include scenarios for each specific role-player to assess how he or she handles more complex situations. This has contributed to better skill development, resulting in a 320% increase in productivity from new hires over the last year.

Navy Federal Credit Union Instructor-led training (ILT) is tailored to specific organizational goals and professional development at Navy Federal Credit Union.

General enrollment courses are offered by Learning & Development in 8 tracks of study, including Career Development, Communication, Financial Management, Technical, Leadership, Management, Member Service, and Self-Enrichment. Sessions are participant centered, based on adult learning principles. Learning & Development facilitated 900+ workshops for 17,000 employees in 2015. Business units conduct instructor-led training for specific skills training. The Mortgage team trained 2,500 employees in regulatory issues. Contact Center Operations trained more than 490 sessions with 5,343 participants more than in 2015.

www.trainingmag.com

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83

2017 RANKINGS 96-100 Company Name/ 2017 2016 Location/ Rank Rank Primary Business

Annual Revenue

No. of Employees

96

NFP

26,396 U.S.

97

98

99

100

* BayCare Health System Clearwater, FL Health/Medical Services

97 Special Response Corporation Hunt Valley, MD Emergency Security Services Provider

NFP

Tuition Reimburse- Training ment Infrastructure

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

33/25/109

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

817 U.S. 910 Global

10/4/339

$1.4M

2

Yes

Yes

315 Global

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

$11.3B U.S. 31,000 U.S. $20.8B 96,000 Global Global

110 Bell and Howell NFP Durham, NC Services and Technology, Manufacturing, Integrator

Training Budget as a Percentage of Payroll

NFP/NFP/NFP

118 Bright Horizons $1.1B U.S. 21,000 U.S. Family Solutions $1.4B Global 27,500 Watertown, MA Global Educational Services/ Academic Institution * Eaton Dublin, Ireland Manufacturing

Total No. of Trainers Training Full-Time/Part-Time/SMEs Budget

Norton Healthcare CONGRATULATES OUR NORTON UNIVERSITY STAFF 2017 Training Top 125 Lifelong learning is the key to a better future, both personally and professionally, and a solid foundation on which to support Norton Healthcareâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s values and the community we serve.

We strive for excellence by: 4 - $'(#&! +" 2 ')+'& )*"#( 0 5 ."# " 3& * +" " -#')* /( + ' $$ ')+'& $+" ) $ )* 4 ) * &+#&! #- )*#+0 & #& $,*#'& +) #&#&! + - &+* #& ',) '%%,&#+0 #& & #%( +#&! %') +" & & +#'& $ ')! &#1 +#'&* 4 )'-# #&! '&+#&,#&! , +#'& ) #+* +' '- ) ("0*# # & & &'&("0*# # & ( )+# #( &+* '- ) +" ( *+ 3- 0 )* 4 )#&! & $ - +#&! #)*+ #& %($'0 * ()'!) % 4 #&! ) '!&#1 .#+" +" ,$$#- & . ) ') / $$ & #& , +#'& & & ) & '& $$ )',( )'&1 / $$ & #& )&#&! . )

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Additional Information BayCare Health System The organization recognized it had an opportunity to accomplish two goals: 1. Fill the physical need of adequate nurse staffing with high-quality candidates; and 2. Provide career growth and upward financial momentum for entry-level team members. BayCare Health System accomplished this by working with CareerSource Pinellas, the local workforce board, and St. Petersburg College (SPC), the local state college in Pinellas County, FL. 242 students have graduated since spring 2011. Additionally, BayCare has seen this effort positively affect team member engagement and loyalty.

Bright Horizons Family Solutions The newly launched Internal Executive Coaching program provides access to formal, tailored executive coaching for selected employees based on need, potential, and openness to the process rather than ability to afford an external coach. Certified coaches conduct 360-degree assessment interviews and then engage in a 3- to 9-month coaching engagement. Employees are identified through Bright Horizons Family Solutions’ succession planning process as being most likely to benefit from the program; early results indicate a 500% ROI.

Eaton The company’s learning culture philosophy is transforming every part of its global business. Strategic programs such as “Values in Action,” “Valuing Diversity,” and “In the Zone,” as well as 1,000+ function-specific programs are used to drive development for more than 90,000 employees worldwide.

Eaton also provides access to these learning resources through a global network of Learning Hubs in 5 languages in the Americas, EMEA, and APAC, as well as 10 virtual Functional Colleges (i.e., Sales, Engineering, Human Resources), a Personal Skills College, and the Eaton Leadership Center.

Bell and Howell The company partnered with a major e-commerce supplier to establish a training program for its carton wrapping machine. This was accomplished by sending several support personnel to Italy for 6 weeks to assist in building the machine and testing its functionality. Bell and Howell technicians received direct training from the manufacturer, which allowed them to effectively train their customers. Also, a course guide was created to outline the training strategy for customers in North America. The training provided benefits such as hands-on class times, formal feedback testing, and documentation.

As a result, Bell and Howell received an initial $13 million sales order with a potential future annual revenue growth of $1.3 million.

Special Response Corporation The organization has been providing high-quality training in the security industry for 30 years. The company has received hundreds of client testimonials in those three decades citing its teams’ “helpfulness, professionalism, and attention to detail.” Special Response strives to receive reviews like this by delivering the best possible customer service by providing the best training to its employees. The company’s “Customer First” philosophy and customer service are key elements in Special Response Corporation’s success.

NYC HEALTH + HOSPITALS IS PROUD TO BE NAMED TO TRAINING MAGAZINE’S TOP 125.

Congratulations to our Learning Professionals.

“We grow and care for our colleagues so that we can care for our patients.”

www.trainingmag.com

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2017 RANKINGS 101-105 Company Name/ 2017 2016 Location/ Rank Rank Primary Business

101

102

* Specialist StafďŹ ng Group Chicago, IL Business Services

Annual Revenue

No. of Employees

$242M U.S. 336 U.S. $1.4B Global 2,712 Global

115 Mariner Finance, LLC NFP Baltimore, MD Finance/Banking

Total No. of Trainers Training Full-Time/Part-Time/SMEs Budget

Training Budget as a Percentage of Payroll

Tuition Reimburse- Training ment Infrastructure

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

1,500 U.S.

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

1

Yes

Yes

103

84 Rent-A-Center Plano, TX Retail

$3.1B Global

22,338 Global

19/600/4,500

$12.5M

104

59 La Quinta Holdings Inc. Irving, TX Hospitality

$1B Global

7,238 Global

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

No

Yes

NFP

6,886 U.S.

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

105 119 Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Arlington, VA Government and Military

PRESCRIPTION FOR

68&&(66

Congratulations to OptumRx for earning a spot on the 7RS for the second year in a row. Through award-winning training and constant innovation, we are transforming the pharmacy care services business.

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Additional Information Specialist Staffing Group Specialist Staffing Group is an international staffing agency servicing the pharmaceutical, IT, banking, and energy industries.

The company prides itself on delivering a service to customers that is unparalleled in speed, efficiency, and quality. It also prides itself on having some of the best talent in the industry, all of whom the company has led, trained, and coached through its corporate sales training program, RecruitFit. The new hire sales training program consists of 2 months of boot-camp style training where Specialist Staffing Group embeds the fundamentals of sales and recruitment through a mix of blended, video, and coaching-style training.

Mariner Finance, LLC The Branch Manager Training Program provides those with career aspirations the opportunity to move from a new hire to managing a full-service consumer finance operation in just 14 months. The evaluation process mimics (as closely as possible) the real-world environment trainees will find themselves responsible for upon program completion. This includes development of a deep understanding of Mariner Finance, LLC’s culture, proprietary systems, profit drivers, reports, and metrics through learning to be a leader in a dynamic, fast-paced industry. Supplying more than 38 new managers and 7 assistant vice presidents in the last 2 years, the program provides the skills, challenges, and rewards that bring success.

Rent-A-Center A rebranded sales approach leads to an enhanced gamification strategy at Rent-A-Center. The company’s new model, “Winning Fans,” is supported through several e-learning modules encompassing a variety of game features. These features, including knowledge checks, tips from the pros, and scenario-based branching discussions, all contribute points to the “Winning Fans Meter,” ultimately defining the learner’s progression through and comprehension of the sales process. As sales typically increase 8% in the fourth quarter over the previous quarters, Rent-A-Center projects the release of these gamified modules will contribute to this success, and expand the need and want for learning through gamification for upcoming initiatives.

La Quinta Holdings Inc. The company recently launched a new initiative called WIN Summer to support its hotels during the busy summer season. The WIN Summer initiative deployed 102 corporate office employees to 20 of the company’s highest-occupancy corporate-managed hotels. WIN Summer volunteers were cross-trained on many property operational tasks; then participants applied this training when interacting with and positively impacting guests on property. The company has seen an increase in positive online guest reviews, as well as employee morale, at the WIN Summer hotels. Working together at the hotel, La Quinta’s corporate and property teams strengthened their relationship, which, in turn, has fostered greater cohesiveness and rapport long beyond summer.

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Chairman’s Workforce Development Initiative promotes aspiration and develops future leaders. As part of this initiative, the Succession Planning Review program was launched due to the increasing number of executives and senior managers who are eligible to retire. This program assesses managers’ developmental needs and creates a plan to enhance their skills. FDIC Corporate University (CU) furthers the objectives to attract talented employees to senior positions through enhanced training and diverse work experiences. In each of the last 2 years, 90% of managers and executives completed the Succession Planning Review survey, and nearly 70% aspire to a more senior leadership position.

OVER

475 MILLION

PLATFORM INTERACTIONS WORLDWIDE

Achieve a higher engagement and participation rate with our easy, secure, all-in-one learning solution.

www.wescrimmage.com 1-866-941-3388 @wescrimmage

MINNEAPOLIS | NEW JERSEY | PHILADELPHIA | LONDON

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2017 RANKINGS 106-110 Company Name/ 2017 2016 Location/ Rank Rank Primary Business

Total No. of Trainers Training Full-Time/Part-Time/SMEs Budget

Training Budget as a Percentage of Payroll

Tuition Reimburse- Training ment Infrastructure

Annual Revenue

No. of Employees

$282.3M. U.S

450 U.S.

3/NFP/30

$400K

10.8

Yes

Yes

$344.9M U.S. $2.1B Global

3,495 U.S. 5,692 Global

40/21/876

$5.7M

1.64

Yes

Yes

NFP

13,967 U.S. 75,100 Global

NFP/NFP/500

NFP

NFP

No

Yes

109

* National Commercial NFP Bank Jamaica Limited Kingston, Jamaica Finance/Banking

2,425 Global

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

110

* Holman Automotive Group, Inc. Mount Laurel, NJ Automotive

4,122 U.S. 4,767 Global

24/3/25

$3M

.59

Yes

Yes

106 125 Van Meter, Inc. Cedar Rapids, IA Wholesale/ Distribution

107 102 Microchip Technology Inc. Chandler, AZ Technology

108

* Sitel Nashville, TN Business Services

NFP

A PASSIONATE

WORKFORCE

IS A FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH 17 Consecutive Years.

In any of the VSP Global five lines of business, we provide all the tools you need to grow your skills and develop your passion while helping people see. In fact, our award-winning training program has been named to the ‘Training Top 125’ list for 17 consecutive years.

Join our talent community at jobs.VSPglobal.com/ talentcommunity/subscribe to see your future career opportunity.

Training’s FREE eNewsletter

Training magazine’s Training Weekly is an easyto-read eNewsletter that blasts every Wednesday.

It features proprietary content not found anywhere else!

Each issue will include: ▪ A Training Top 125 Best Practice ▪ Links to the Training Day blog and the latest online articles written by corporate training and learning pros exclusively for Training ▪ Links to TrainingMagNetwork.com Webinar recordings and upcoming events ▪ Links to timely white papers written by industry experts on critical L&D topics

©2016 Vision Service Plan. All rights reserved.

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Additional Information Van Meter, Inc. The Emerging Leaders Program at Van Meter, Inc., has been held 2 times with 12 participants in each session. During the program, participants engaged in monthly learning sessions, homework assignments, job shadowing, reading, mentoring sessions, project work, and presentations over an 11-month format. The journey began with an assessment of their leadership skills and ended with a presentation of their learning journey to all company leaders.

As a result of the program, more than 50% of the participants have been placed into new positions. 100% of participants have served on committees and in other leadership roles in the organization.

Microchip Technology Inc. In the last decade, Microchip Technology Inc.’s market capitalization increased more than 60%. Strategic acquisitions have helped enable this growth, and Microchip’s strong company culture is instrumental in its success. When acquiring organizations, Microchip transmits culture through a comprehensive onboarding and integration program. Managers learn to facilitate change within their teams, and individuals build capacity to address challenges while exploring Microchip’s culture and Guiding Values. Learning & Development (L&D) assesses priority development needs with the integration team and delivers existing/customized trainings. An organizational climate survey tests cultural alignment across multiple business systems; targeted support follows. Microchip measures cultural acquisition with its annual survey; 2015 engagement results showed positive response means from 81% to 85%.

Sitel A compass points us forward and ensures we always know where we are and where we are going. Sitel undertook a company-wide effort to provide this direction to its 71,500 employees around the globe with Sitel’s Compass. The company recruited a cross-functional group of leaders and high-potential employees for a 6-month, interactive initiative to build and cascade the message. Results showed that participation in Compass sessions resulted in an average employee Net Promoter Score 17.5 points higher than those who had not participated. And today across the globe, you’ll see signage, competitions, focused learning and development activities, video story-telling contests, and recognition, all tied to Sitel’s Compass.

National Commercial Bank Jamaica Limited The Wealth Management Program at National Commercial Bank Jamaica Ltd. was designed to improve the ability of employees in 3 business lines (NCBCM, NCBIC, and RBD) to satisfy the needs of high-net-worth customers. Since its inception, 61 participants, representing 77% of those who entered the program, have successfully completed it. The performance appraisal scores of more than half of the participants showed improvement in the first 2 years of the program. At least 6 participants received Pinnacle Awards for their contribution to the business. At least 3 graduates since have been promoted to the position of manager. A representation of NCBIC participants consistently qualify for the Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT) every year.

Holman Automotive Group, Inc. Persuasive transfer of experience from experts to participants accelerates performance of service advisors at Holman Automotive Group, Inc. The 2-day workshop focuses on creating best practice as a form of habit using proven methods. Attendees then use hands-on practice to refine skills and adapt to challenging scenarios. An instructional focus on teaching the whys of sales methodologies encourages participant buy-in and, thus, increases rates of application and success. Data showed an average increase of 5.5% or $15 per repair order for the tested group. That becomes a $3.5 million annual increase in sales for the first cohorts.

Our employees make a difference in people’s lives. And we’re committed to making a difference in theirs.

Providing an extraordinary environment for senior living starts with extraordinary employees. At Vi, we’re committed to supporting the growth of our employees through engaging opportunities such as our Breakthrough Leadership and Management Development Programs. We’re very proud to be selected as a Top 125 organization for a 7th year in a row. But what we’re most proud of is our high employee satisfaction scores and the fact so many of our employees have leveraged Vi’s employee development programs to advance their careers.

Learn more about exciting opportunities at ViLiving.com/Company/Careers

www.trainingmag.com

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2017 RANKINGS 111-115 Company Name/ 2017 2016 Location/ Rank Rank Primary Business

Annual Revenue

No. of Employees

111 120 Health Decisions,

NFP

60 U.S.

Total No. of Trainers Training Full-Time/Part-Time/SMEs Budget

Training Budget as a Percentage of Payroll

Tuition Reimburse- Training ment Infrastructure

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

CRO+ Durham, NC Health/Medical Services

112

* Red Roof Inn Inc. Columbus, OH Hospitality

NFP

2,890 Global

9/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

113

* U.S. Postal Service Washington, DC Government and Military

NFP

633,102 Global

120/6/274

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

114

* Signature Consultants NFP Fort Lauderdale, FL IT Staffing

436 U.S.

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

10/0/149

NFP

3

Yes

Yes

115 105 American Fidelity

NFP

1,918 U.S.

Oklahoma City, OK Insurance

· 2016 ·

Training Top 125 Winner

Thank You

Scottrade® Learning & Development Associates

Leading the Way in Employee Development paycor.com · 800.381.0053 90

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At Scottrade, our mission is to help FOLHQWV RYHUFRPH EDUULHUV WR ƓQDQFLDO success. We’ve succeeded thanks to associates who have embraced that mission through a commitment to continuous professional improvement.

We’re Proud to Be Among the Top 125 Scottrade.com

Member FINRA/SIPC

www.trainingmag.com

Additional Information Health Decisions, CRO+ To ensure compliance with the training requirements of the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), Health Decisions, CRO+ implemented a company-wide 2016 learning initiative that included data security, ethics, and employee code of conduct training. By working with the function heads of each department, the IT, HR, and Training departments were able to create a learning management system-based set of e-learning courses and links that blended organizational strategy with federally mandated review material. Both general and role-specific curricula were offered. As a result, all Health Decisions staff members were 100% compliant with FISMA training requirements for 2016.

Red Roof Inn Inc. Escalating an economy brand with an enhanced line extension through remodeling is not enough to sustain the differentiation. Red Roof Inn Inc. realized with the launch of Red Roof PLUS+ that it must enhance both its hard and soft skill quality training to ensure its service exceeds its guests’ expectations. Through the implementation of the RED Academy learning management system (LMS) as a 1-stop shop for all training materials, manuals, policies, and procedures, the development of an additional 2-day onsite training program, and dedication to annual engagement training, Red Roof has been able to deliver and sustain the Red Roof PLUS+ expectations. Red Roof PLUS+ customer satisfaction results run 8.78% higher than those of the overall brand.

U.S. Postal Service The Management Essential for Field Leadership (MEFL) Program is an 8-week program for newly promoted field managers. The program is designed to address organizational skill gaps in managing people and relationships, and improving productivity through employee engagement. It utilizes key drivers of leadership performance and provides managers with leadership skills and functional technical abilities, and increases self-awareness. MEFL is made up of various elements, including classroom instructor-led training, virtual learning, adventure-based learning, and project development to drive change and innovation within the U.S. Postal Service. MEFL provides managers with an opportunity to model desired behaviors and generate solutions to real-world problems.

Signature Consultants The Recruiter Development Program (RDP) aligns an Associate Recruiter Program graduate with a Senior Recruiter and an Account Manager. Through this team structure, the Recruiter is able to learn from the experiences of his or her team members, with the Senior Recruiter focused on day-today communication and the Account Manager available to teach the overall business strategy. Both functions ingrain culture, ensuring the Recruiter’s alignment to Signature Consultants’ unique business model. The RDP program is linked directly to the increase in submittals to job orders by 20% or 4 to 5.2 submittals per day. Across the organization of 215 recruiters, this is equivalent to adding 65 recruiters to the enterprise.

American Fidelity The company rolled out Lead U, a new leadership development program, in May 2016. The newly designed leadership program provides training and development on leadership characteristics and behaviors as defined in the American Fidelity Leadership Model. All supervisors and officers, including those without direct reports, have a required number of training hours for the rolling 12-month curriculum calendar with a quarterly development focus.

At Aon, our colleagues achieve their goals because they own their potential.

By investing in career development opportunities, providing effective tools and resources to develop our leaders, we empower colleagues to bring the best of Aon to our clients around the world.

Visit jobs.aon.com to learn more about growing your career at Aon.

Risk. Reinsurance. Human Resources.

www.trainingmag.com

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2017 RANKINGS 116-120 Company Name/ 2017 2016 Location/ Rank Rank Primary Business

116 107 Miami Cerebral Palsy

Annual Revenue

No. of Employees

NFP

284 U.S.

Total No. of Trainers Training Full-Time/Part-Time/SMEs Budget

Training Budget as a Percentage of Payroll

Tuition Reimburse- Training ment Infrastructure

1/0/23

$72K

.04

Yes

Yes

38,870 U.S.

81/41/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

2,173 U.S.

29/1/54

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

4,306 U.S.

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

3,798 U.S.

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

Residential Svcs., Inc. Miami, FL Nonprofit Care for Develop. Disabled

117

* NYC Health + $6.4M U.S. Hospitals Corporation New York, NY Health/Medical Services

118 112 PPL Electric Utilities

$7.6B U.S.

(PPL EU) Allentown, PA Utilities

119 116 Total Quality Logistics NFP Cincinnati, OH Transportation

120

* Scottrade Inc. St. Louis, MO Finance/Banking

NFP

We are proud of our Training and Development team’s commitment to helping our employees, consultants, and clients succeed.

Signature Consultants is a national IT staffing firm Learn more at SigConsult.com

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Additional Information Miami Cerebral Palsy Residential Services, Inc. Every newly hired Miami Cerebral Palsy Residential Services, Inc. (MCPRS) employee goes through a rigorous 3-week orientation training. Fiscal Year 7/1/2015 to 6/30/2016 totaled 4,479 hours of orientation training. All in-house key players are subject matter experts and take an active role in the training process. Last year, a unique partnership was forged with the largest college in the U.S. (Miami Dade College) in order to facilitate college degrees for lifetime achievement work and study acquired at MCPRS and elsewhere with the first course offering onsite.

NYC Health + Hospitals Corporation The NYC Health + Hospitals Corporation Fellowship Program prepares existing leaders within the system to fill highlevel vacancies as part of a pipeline of promoting internal talent. During this 15-month program, participants go through a 360-degree review, attend 6 2.5-day intensives, are paired with a senior executive coach who provides career development and guides them to leverage competencies within the workplace, and are required to complete a project that is in alignment with and focused on achieving the organization’s strategic priorities. Of a total of 21 participants in the Fellowship program, 7 have been promoted into executive leadership roles such as chief executive officers.

PPL Electric Utilities The Transmission and Distribution apprenticeship program for linemen, electricians, distribution techs, and system operators is being modernized with a multi-modal, blended solution. The programs are key to PPL Electric Utilities’ response time and system reliability. PPL relies on the development of the right knowledge, skills, and abilities, so improving distribution of knowledge and retention is critical. PPL’s programs must remain compliant with OSHA, regulatory requirements, and commitments in bargaining unit contracts. As a result, PPL’s apprenticeship programs are finding savings in delivery. The utility maintains a 95% pass rate. The Apprenticeship Program is key to PPL’s customer service and reliability being in the top quartile of its peers.

Total Quality Logistics All of Total Quality Logistics’ new hire and sales training is instructor led. The company feels that the clearest message can be presented with live trainers who can interact with their classes. In these sessions, trainers use interaction rather than a lecture format. These interactions include role-plays and class presentations by trainees. Each trainee has a computer station where he or she can use the skills learned in class. The major areas taught in these classes are logistics industry knowledge, day-to-day job knowledge, and sales skills. With 95 trainers and training designers nationwide, Total Quality Logistics has trained and coached more than 4,000 employees over the last 12 months.

Scottrade Inc. The company prides itself on its “Top 100” conferences, which are held twice a year, one for Investment Consultants and one for Branch Managers. Top 100 rewards some of Scottrade’s top contributors, as well as giving headquarters an opportunity to receive input from the front line. The conference focuses on building camaraderie, showcasing excellence, exchanging best practices, and offering additional training. The event concludes with a Q&A session with members of the Executive Leadership Team, where associates are able to ask pertinent questions and gain insight into the direction of Scottrade’s vision. The most recent Top 100 earned a Net Promoter Score of 92.1.

As a Village, we’re grateful to be included in Training Magazine’s Top 125 organizations for 13 consecutive years.

INDUSTRY-LEADING EDUCATION FOR THE FOR THE WORLD’S BEST REAL ESTATE FIRMS

Congratulations to all of this year’s winners!

Visit DaVita.com to learn more.

© 2016 DaVita Inc. 10468

www.trainingmag.com

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2017 RANKINGS 121-125 Company Name/ 2017 2016 Location/ Rank Rank Primary Business

121 117 Guckenheimer

Annual Revenue

No. of Employees

$300M U.S.

3,028 U.S.

NFP

163 U.S. 2,926 Global

Total No. of Trainers Training Full-Time/Part-Time/SMEs Budget

Training Budget as a Percentage of Payroll

Tuition Reimburse- Training ment Infrastructure

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

3/60/25

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

San Mateo, CA Hospitality

122 108 NIIT

Atlanta, GA Business Services

123

* Workiva Inc. Ames, IA Business Services

NFP

1,201 U.S. 1,259 Global

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

No

Yes

124

* The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America New York, NY Insurance

NFP

8,500 Global

NFP/NFP/NFP

NFP

NFP

Yes

Yes

125

* Persistent Systems Ltd Pune, Maharashtra, India IT Software

$300.7M U.S. $351.6M Global

880 U.S. 9,000 Global

35/0/80

$2M

.96

Yes

Yes

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Additional Information Guckenheimer In the spirit of Continuous Process Improvement, Guckenheimer’s Training department introduced virtual training sessions to reduce travel costs and limit the time out of the unit for employees. Far more than a typical PowerPoint-based Webinar, these sessions attempt to replicate the fun and engaging classroom experience by incorporating polling and quiz questions, Webcams, breakout rooms, etc. Sessions are offered multiple times each month to accommodate work schedules, and then a recording of the session is posted on the learning management system (LMS) after the fact for those who weren’t available when it originally was offered or who want to review key pieces of information or share it with a team member.

NIIT The Vector program at NIIT is a series of fun research projects in multiple areas to exchange and inspire new ideas. Each month, teams get together to research a particular topic and then present it to the rest of the teams. There are five main areas of collaboration: 1. Pulse: Market research; 2. Memories: Learning from past work; 3. Gaming: Gamification for learning and finding new and innovative gamification approaches for learning; 4. Stories: Stories, characters, narratives, and plots in books and movies; and 5. Ideas: Ideas that have significantly transformed the world.

Workiva Inc. Last year, Workiva Inc. held its first annual “demOlympics” certification for the entire sales organization. The program—an engaging, fun, bracket-based elimination-style contest—engages employees in friendly competition based on their technical skills and domain knowledge of the company’s product. Throughout the week-long competition, sales reps are given demo topics with brief scenarios that they address in mock presentations. Those with the highest scores receive prizes and go on to compete in the final round of the competition. The program provides an opportunity to grow skills, encourage development, and identify employees in need of additional training—plus, it’s fun and builds team spirit.

The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America Leadership development at The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America is delivered on a continuum, available to participants as they grow throughout their career, with the intention to move into senior leadership roles in their agencies. The Leadership Institute is the first step, and is carefully structured to use blended learning that consists of both academic and practical field experiences supervised by a coach over a 10-month period. Participants’ activity is tracked via a Web-based activity management system. Since its inception in 2011, 45% of graduates have been promoted to first-line supervisors. These graduates also have seen larger teams, better quality recruits, and better retention.

Persistent Systems Ltd The company developed a learning solution to offer different methodologies for training delivery, including in-class trainings, remote trainings, assisted self-learning, self-learning, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), and assessments for internal certification. Persistent Systems Ltd’s organization-wide blended programs in the last year included: Full Stack Trainings, Domain Upskilling Program, Communication Enhancement Program, RBT Hands-On Workshops, and Role-Based Trainings, covering 7,000+ total enrollments. These programs covered 10 times the number of participants for each batch than in-class sessions, and saw a 30% higher completion rate than self-learning.

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B E S T PRACTICES &

OUTSTANDING

TRAINING

INITIATIVES

Training editors and Top 10 Hall of Famers recognize innovative and successful learning and development programs and practices submitted in the 2017 Training Top 125 application.

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BEST PRACTICES BB&T CORPORATION: LEADERSHIP EXCELLENCE PROGRAM One of the ďŹ&#x201A;agship programs at BB&T Corporationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Leadership Institute is the Leadership Excellence Program (LEP).

The LEP is a two-year, in-depth leadership development experience for high-performing associates who have been identiďŹ ed as candidates for further leadership responsibility.

During the program, each participant works with a Leadership Institute consultant throughout the year to develop speciďŹ c, targeted leadership capabilities. Coaching sessions are customized to the needs of each participant; however, some aspects of the coaching process are standard for all participants.

Each quarter, all participants attend a one-day workshop at the Leadership Institute focused on a speciďŹ c aspect of leadership. During the ďŹ rst year, each participant selects, with input from his or her manager, an Organization Improvement Project (OIP) to work on throughout the year. The purpose of the project is to apply newly learned leadership skills and tools to a targeted project that will have a signiďŹ cant beneďŹ cial impact on the participantâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s area of business. Participants are asked to develop a way to measure the outcome/impact of their project so they can show results of applying their leadership skills to an organization issue. During the fourth-quarter Leadership Workshop, participants report their project and its results to a panel of senior leaders.

After completing the program, high-potential leaders are able to: 1. Identify personal leadership challenges and target improvements to those areas.

2. Develop a deeper understanding of themselves and their followers, their â&#x20AC;&#x153;autopilotâ&#x20AC;? leadership patterns, and their impact on others.

3. Use Conscious Leadership Strategies to create a motivating environment, gain commitment rather than compliance, and turn conďŹ&#x201A;ict to collaboration.

4. Recognize the brain-based reasons people resist change and use targeted Leadership Strategies to gain their support.

5. Recognize the impact of awareness, and especially unawareness, on being an effective leader.

Results: BB&T conducted an impact study in which participants were compared to their peers who had not yet attended the program. It was determined that the participants experienced a 2.7-times faster promotion rate than their peers, and a 31 percent higher retention rate, which translates into $13.2 million in replacement cost savings to the bank. In addition, a six-month survey of participants, peers, and direct reports revealed that 69 percent of participants experienced signiďŹ cant improvement in the relationship skills that affect organizational performance, including the ability to: develop trust and loyalty, inspire improved performance, achieve greater diplomacy, and effectively deal with differences in viewpoints and styles. www.trainingmag.com

GENERAL MOTORS SALES, SERVICE & MARKETING DIVISION: DISTRICT MANAGER NEW HIRE LEARNING JOURNEY General Motorsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; (GM) 800 district managers (DMs) support its 4,200 Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, and Cadillac dealerships.

DMs are the face of GM to dealers and are the primary contact to address business needs including, but not limited to, inventory strategies, sales strategies, and customer problem resolution. In 2013, GM faced an urgent stafďŹ ng challenge: forecasted attrition due to retirements (38 percent between 2016 and 2019) and a new corporate requirement to assign a DM to every dealer (adding nearly 100 new positions, replacing telemarketing reps who handled rural dealerships).

The existing three-month lecture-style training conducted by subject matter experts (SMEs) included only one week of in-dealership experience. Center of Learning (CoL), a department within the GM Sales, Service & Marketing division, reexamined DM job responsibilities and designed a 10-segment, six-month learning journey in which learning is the newly hired DMâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s only job. The learner-centric program involves blended training for 15-person cohorts.

Segment 1 (one week), in Detroit, sets expectations and allows learners to experience GM culture. Segment 2 places learners in a dealership for four weeks to experience dealer operations.

Segment 3 partners the new DM with a veteran for a week of job shadowing. Segment 4 returns to Detroit for networking and training. Segment 5 places learners in a GM call center for one week to introduce them to customer issues and resolutions. Segment 6 involves nine weeks of self-directed, targeted, mentor-assisted learning in a regional ofďŹ ce, augmented by touch-base Webinars and assignments. Segment 7 returns to Detroit for discussion, networking, and training. Segment 8 places new DMs at GMâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Customer Care and Aftersales Center to learn how GM supports dealers and customers after the sale.

Segment 9 sees learners return to Detroit to share lessons, participate in capstone and skill assessment activities, and prepare for transition to their ďŹ rst ďŹ eld assignment. Segment 10, the transition to the new job, connects DMs with a mentor in their Zone to help them learn their territory.

Throughout the learning journey, each DM has a mentor (an experienced DM) and a coach (from the home or regional ofďŹ ce). At any time, Center of Learning manages one to four waves of new hire trainings.

Results:

s 0ASSING RATES ON THE SKILLS ASSESSMENT ROSE FROM 75 percent to 100 percent. s 3PEED TO PROlCIENCY INCREASED BY EIGHT WEEKS s "ASED ON COST SAVINGS ALONE THE 2/) ON THE $- New Hire Learning Journey is 60 percent.

MASTERCARD: BUSINESS MODELING CURRICULUM Mastercard determined it needed to adapt how it approaches product innovation. So in 2013, the company launched the Art training JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017

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2017 BP/OTI and Science of Business Modeling. Based on success and demand, in 2015, the company created and launched follow-up course Value Proposition Design. These two multi-week virtual courses comprise the Business modeling curriculum at Mastercard.

The program aims to: 1. Implement a cost-effective and scalable solution quickly, effectively, and across global boundaries.

2. Develop a shared Business Modeling language/culture.

3. Create engagement and encourage cross-functional social collaboration.

To build support, 62 regional Product executives were introduced to Business Modeling theory and applied the tools and techniques to current challenges. The company also established unanimous agreement that Business Modeling was a critical initiative needed throughout the Product organization.

To reach the 1,200-plus globally dispersed Product managers, the learning needed to be virtual. In response, the Learning & Development team introduced a new platform from CorpU and the concept of the Guided Learning journey (GLJ).

The GLJ takes large pieces of in-person content and breaks them up into manageable chunks for individual consumption. Courses are designed as 3.5 to 5.5 weeks depending on the topic, utilizing virtual Webinars, synchronous peerto-peer virtual presentations, custom videos, and two-way online discussion threads.

As of 2015 Business Modeling has been integrated into Mastercardâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Product peer review process and HR objectives for all Product managers. The company has transformed how it approaches, funds, and improves its future business models.

Results: From inception, Mastercard has saved an estimated $2.4 million in delivery and workshop costs and changed how it approaches learning design. Since 2013, 1,060 employees have participated; 902 models have been submitted; 32,845 videos have been viewed; and 7,523 online discussions have been held.

Pre-/post-three-month behavior changes include: t QFSDFOU JODSFBTF â&#x20AC;&#x153;I have an effective process to design Value Propositions that resonate with my customer segments.â&#x20AC;? t QFSDFOU JODSFBTF â&#x20AC;&#x153;I have a good process to design Value Propositions with a team at Mastercard.â&#x20AC;? t QFSDFOU JODSFBTF â&#x20AC;&#x153;I have a range of ways to test different product and business model ideas before executing and going to market.â&#x20AC;? t QFSDFOU JODSFBTF â&#x20AC;&#x153;I have a clear and consistent language to discuss business models with my colleagues.â&#x20AC;?

Mastercard considers the GLJ learning strategy a best practice across its Product, Sales, Marketing, and M&A functions.

/"5*0/8*%& .656"- */463"/$& $0.1"/: $0)035 -&"3/*/( The Cohort Learning Program at Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company is an interactive, dynamic learning experience designed for new call center associates, allowing for growth/ practice of their knowledge/skills in a community setting that allows them to explore content in a safe environment.

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This program began in 2015 in the Personal Lines Call Center, where 1,300 associates handle more than 7 million service calls per year. The Center needed a way to attract/retain new associates in a competitive job market and better prepare them for the pace of their job. The Cohort Learning experience design combines soft skill and technical content, so associates are building â&#x20AC;&#x153;muscle memoryâ&#x20AC;? as they progress. Traditional lecture is replaced with small/large group discussions/activities that encourage application of knowledge through problem solving.

The program is based on four principles: (SPVQ %FWFMPQNFOU Individuals of varying experience and personality types form groups of four to six. Intentional group formation is key to relationship building, peer mentoring, self-policing, and dealing with group dynamics.

"DDPVOUBCJMJUZ Accountability for their own learning and to cohort members is fundamental. Each associate is responsible for creating his or her own learning plan and for identifying areas for review/practice.

4FMG %JTDPWFSZ BOE 1SPCMFN 4PMWJOH Associates learn at their own pace, making connections to their own experiences. Activities and scenarios simulate live call experiences in which the associates solve problems and accurately communicate a solution.

'FFECBDL BOE &WBMVBUJPO â&#x20AC;&#x153;Just-in-timeâ&#x20AC;? feedback is provided during small and large group activities. Knowledge/skill assessments provide immediate feedback. Results are tracked to identify knowledge gaps or coaching opportunities.

3FTVMUT The Cohort Learning pilot included three groups (45 total associates) across call centers. Pilot results were compared to those for prior traditional classroom training.

The pilot groups saw: s !VERAGE OF SECOND DECREASE IN HOLD TIME s !VERAGE OF SECOND DECREASE IN AVERAGE HANDLE TIME

saving $63,160.02 over a year s 4RAINING TIME WAS REDUCED BY THREE DAYS A PRODUCTIVITY savings of $22,139.37 during the pilot The Cohort Learning Program was successfully piloted in the Personal Lines Call Center, and more than 500 new associates were trained last year, resulting in a productivity gain of $250,912.98. The program has expanded to the Commercial Lines Call Center and was being built for two additional business units for deployment at the end of 2016.

3*$0) 64" */$ 4&37*$&4 5&". "//6"- 3&$0(/*5*0/ 130(3". 45"3

Ensuring employees use the professional skills mapped to their job function is important to providing Ricoh USA, Inc., customers with an exceptional customer experience. For Ricohâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Managed and Technology Services employeesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a customerfacing group of more than 14,000â&#x20AC;&#x201D;meeting this goal requires that they demonstrate technical skills, functional knowledge, and communication skills while providing superior customer service. Services employees participate in several training programs in order to gain professional skills, including communication and listening, customer-centric teams, the Language www.trainingmag.com

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2017 BP/OTI of Yes, telephone etiquette, technical printing technologies, and CompTIA certiďŹ cation prep courses. The programs are developed in-house using internal subject matter experts and are delivered in a variety of modes, including instructor-led and virtual instructor-led sessions and e-learning.

Professional skills acquired while participating in these training programs are assessed each year through an engaging competition: the Services Team Annual Recognition Program (STAR), which measures Kirkpatrick Level 2 training effectiveness and recognizes and rewards Services employees who provide an exceptional overall customer experience. Employees are ranked based on several components: an online exam combining company knowledge with job-function-speciďŹ c questions, their performance appraisal, and job-speciďŹ c scorecard criteria. The scoring is combined for these three components to determine the top performers, who then move on to compete in a live competition called the Main Event.

The Main Event is a competitive event that changes every year based on company needs. At the Main Event, employeesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; functional and company knowledge, customer skills/ interactions, and teamwork skills are assessed through roleplay and hands-on testing. The top performers win an elite award trip to an exciting destination.

Results: Between Q4 2014 and Q4 ďŹ scal year 2015, Technology Services customer satisfaction ratings improved by 5 percent and Managed Services ratings improved by 4 percent. Further, in Q4 FY2015, Ricoh achieved its highest loyalty scores to date with 67 percent of survey respondents being designated as â&#x20AC;&#x153;favorableâ&#x20AC;? or â&#x20AC;&#x153;loyal.â&#x20AC;?

OUTSTANDING TRAINING INITIATIVES ADP, LLC: MAJOR ACCOUNTS (MAS) FAST PATH To support ADPâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s strategic goal of â&#x20AC;&#x153;Win as Oneâ&#x20AC;? and achieve aggressive business growth targets, ADP Major Account Services (MAS) needed to hire and onboard 380 payroll client support associates over nine months, with hiring to begin in September 2015. The existing payroll service new hire training program was 17 weeks long, impeding the rapid onboarding of new associates within the required timeframe.

L&D conducted a learning analysis to drive a program redesign. The analysis included interviewing high-performing service associates and leadership, observing hundreds of client calls, and analyzing data from more than 3.1 million client calls to identify the most common reasons for client calls, and typical resolution scenarios. With this data and analytics insight, L&D redesigned the program around the most common call drivers and scenarios to maximize the learning and business 100

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impact within a shortened, blended learning program.

The redesigned, 10-week program, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Fast Path to Success,â&#x20AC;? speeds new associate time to productivity on key metrics such as average client call duration, client issue resolution on the ďŹ rst call, and quality survey scores by blending scenariobased training modules with embedded learning, including on-the-job observation, practice, and mentoring. Throughout the program, formal training modules are blended with 60 hours of job immersion, in which new associates are paired with peer mentors who are experienced in the role. Job immersion starts with live-call observation and debriefs within each of the ďŹ rst four weeks; by the ďŹ fth week, new associates are assisting peer mentors on live calls by performing system navigation while mentors interact with clients.

The redesigned program includes weekly gamiďŹ cation activities, utilizing an online gaming platform that engages associates with leaderboards, badges, real-time feedback, and social learning interaction. New performance-based assessments measure learning against top client call drivers and issue resolution techniques to further align the learning to the job.

Results: After a September 2015 pilot, the new 10-week program met the business need by supporting onboarding of 380 new associates through June 2016, with the following results compared to the previous 17-week program (measured within the ďŹ rst two months post-training): s $ECREASED AVERAGE CLIENT CALL DURATION TO FROM minutes s )MPROVED CLIENT SURVEY SCORES TO VS OUT OF s "ETTER CLIENT ISSUE RESOLUTION ON THE lRST CALL TO THE 3ERVICE #ENTER THAN TENURED ASSOCIATES PERCENT VS percent s 2EDUCTION OF ASSOCIATE TRAINING HOURS AND

trainer hours s 3AVINGS OF APPROXIMATELY MILLION IN TRAINING COSTS over nine months Based on these results, Fast Path to Success was adopted as the go-forward training program for all payroll service associate new hires in ADP MAS.

BEST BUY: GRAVITY Recognizing that its employeesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; expectations are constantly evolvingâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;speciďŹ cally, the way Millennial learners expect to access training materialsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;retailer Best Buy introduced a new app-based training tool called Gravity in October 2015. Gravity allows learners to use any smart device to scan a productâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s UPC or QR code, giving immediate access to bite-sized training videos and key information on the scanned product. Learners also have access to all associated training materials available on Best Buyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s learning management system.

With a smart device in hand, learners take a tour through Best Buy stores, scanning anything they ďŹ nd interesting to create their own customized, personal learning journey.

What was once an infrequent, directed, and scheduled product training experience now has become an untethered, www.trainingmag.com

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2017 BP/OTI free-flowing, and self-initiated experience.

The release of Gravity was well received by users, leading to the immediate widespread adoption of the tool throughout the organization. In less than 10 months, employees leveraged Gravity more than 1.25 million times to educate themselves on the products and services Best Buy offers.

Whether employees are looking to quickly answer a customer’s question, expand on their current knowledge in a familiar area during a free moment, or start a journey of learning in a completely new area, Gravity is the training solution. In addition, once learners launch Gravity, they tend to explore much more beyond the initially scanned product.

As a result, the self-initiated exploration of associated learning content on Gravity led to an average of 3.02 unique pages being viewed before a learner ends his or her session.

Results: Products supported with dedicated bite-sized training videos available through Gravity show an average increase in unit sell-through of 23 percent, with topperforming SKUs reaching a 41 percent increase in unit sales when compared to unit averages prior to the addition of Gravity training. Because of the proven business impact of this new delivery tool, Best Buy decided to aggressively expand the support of this capability, as well as the availability of bite-sized videos available through Gravity.

BNSF RAILWAY: VIRTUAL POWER BRAKE LAW (VPBL) In response to a federal regulation on Brake System Safety Standards, BNSF Railway developed a 3-D e-learning training program called Virtual Power Brake Law (VPBL).

The virtual reality learning program serves as the proficiencybased training program for brake inspection. The course places employees as avatars in a realistic, three-dimensional, virtual simulation, where they perform comprehensive brake inspections on a “consist” of rail cars. This program enhances decision-making by testing employees’ ability to not only identify but also correct malfunctions—many of which prove difficult to demonstrate even in live training environments. With this training solution (including nine individual 3-D virtual scenarios), BNSF incorporates all defects and functionality, reducing the safety risk that comes from inspections in live training environments. In addition, BNSF can efficiently cover all inspection requirements.

BNSF developed four different modules for instructors to choose from for each class. Participants must complete, with 100 percent accuracy, one full module per class. When students complete the performance verification at 100 percent (individually and as a team), they can “move” the train out of the virtual inspection cycle—thus, creating a “team challenge.”

The 30-minute program features high-end graphics, userfriendly functions, and realistic functionality, including car components, hand brakes, angle cocks, and air hoses—all key components to proper inspection. Students also have the ability to work through the program under nighttime conditions. In addition, hand controls and critical “hot spots” 102

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allow the program to flow in a user-friendly way.

At the end of the program, participants must pass a knowledgebased assessment for final completion. Throughout the class, instructors provide coaching and feedback so the learning is dynamic and targeted directly to the concept taught.

All training is conducted in BNSF field locations by certified instructors. There is an eight-student maximum per session. In 2015, BNSF trained more than 6,200 employees with this program.

Results:

s PERCENT OF LEARNERS PASSED THE KNOWLEDGE AND performance assessments. s 4HIS PROGRAM AND OTHER SAFETY FOCUSED TRAINING HAVE contributed to record safety performance in 2015; injuries have been reduced by 17 percent since 2012. s ".3& HAS BEEN APPROACHED BY OTHER RAILROADS INTERESTED in purchasing this training. As a result, the railway plans to seek a patent for this work.

PACIFIC GAS & ELECTRIC COMPANY: GAS OPERATIONS ENHANCED FIELD SCHEDULING Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E) has struggled with core issues in resource management, work preparation, permitting, scheduling, and close-out of work. To resolve these issues and respond to field employee feedback, PG&E created a new construction planning process focused on end-to-end planning and scheduling, and executing construction work.

The program has three key areas of focus: 1. Skilled and qualified workforce (right job, right resource, and right time) 2. Building teams that can triage situations, regardless of the work needing to be done 3. Providing greater communication and line of sight to customers and gas leaders In designing the program, PG&E first had to change the way it thought about training—a traditional instructor-led or Web-based training would not meet the business need.

The work processes were changing quickly, and with each new geographic area, additional employees needed to be trained. An out-of-date 300-plus-page binder became a knowledge portal, with an end-to-end Visual Process Map (VPM), so users understand the entire process—where they fit, and who they are affecting if they do not perform their job competently. Additionally, everything users need to perform their job function is housed in this portal, including performance support tools such as interactive training guides, how-to videos, guidance documents, job aids, job expectations, and process flows.

This new way of looking at education at PG&E did two things: First, it created greater flexibility for the new demographics of learners at PG&E. Second, it created just-in-time learning (materials learners need, when they need them), where all of the training materials are well situated for either new employee or refresher training. www.trainingmag.com

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2017 BP/OTI Results: Past-due work assignments—due to the work being assigned to incorrect resources or scheduling to only a few resources—have decreased by 98 percent. In addition, the reduction in job package errors has saved 8,000 hours in time taken to investigate and resolve. This equates to more than $1.2 million in financial savings.

data to more effectively inspect front-line employees’ efficiency and ability to provide better service levels. Training and Development (T&D) actively partnered with IT and Operations Support on this effort. To date, T&D has provided training on Unified Communications for 58 percent of all field personnel and transitioned 86 percent of Paychex’s U.S.-based locations.

With this IT project, changes and enhancements are released PAYCHEX, INC.: UNIFIED on a bi-weekly basis, and each change affects the training proCOMMUNICATIONS TRAINING gram. At the onset, there were many questions on how the Over the last year, Paychex, Inc., has been in the process of functionality of the technology would work. In response, rolling out a unified communications system, a new state-ofT&D created lengthy technology-focused sessions. As the the-art phone and queue system that will provide leadership technology was formulated and business processes were defined, T&D changed the approach to meet the needs of the business partners. Some of those approaches included: s Role-based training sessions that provide learners with a focus on the technology that specifically affects them. s Extensive role-play-based review sessions conducted at the end of each training event to ensure employees understand how the new Can training transform your potential? technology affects them on a dayWE MAKE IT CERTAIN. to-day basis. s Creation of 50 short videos (one to five minutes) to get learning to employees when they need it without having to search through longer modules. s Training boosts for multiple highimpact topics. s One week per month to work toward improving training deliverables Excellence doesn’t happen overnight and peak performance is no accident.

For five years in a row, Haskell has been honored to be ranked one of Training Magazine’s Top 125.

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and creating new boosts based on updates to the technology.

T&D leads weekly meetings with its IT and Support partners to reflect on the previous week’s releases, determine how the training is affected, communicate the current state regarding the technology, and verify they are getting the results needed from the training. During these meetings, the team tweaks the processes and communication and identifies new learning opportunities.

Results: Client wait times have dropped by 31 percent; calls to reception have decreased by 73 percent; and front-line service givers’ productivity has increased by almost 10 percent. Qt www.trainingmag.com

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BYOD at Work Anywhere? Anytime? Anyone? How organizational policies affect the availability of online learning and employee personal device usage.

BY SAUL CARLINER, PH.D., CTDP, AND DAVID W. PRICE 106

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www.trainingmag.com

O

ne of the most widely touted beneďŹ ts of online learning for training is its anywhere, anytime availability. In theory, workers can take courses whenever time permits as long as they have an Internet connection.

But is that really true? Do organizations even want that? Many online courses focus on sensitive topics, such as in-development products, trade secrets, private information about clients and employees, and other types of proprietary topics and processes. In addition, certain classes of employeesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; especially hourly workersâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;are entitled to compensation for the time spent in work-related learning, and overtime pay if that occurs on personal time.

So despite the promise of anytime, anywhere learning, for practical reasons, employers might need to limit access to e-learning. In fact, one of the questions the Training staff regularly receives pertains to this issue. So in fall 2016, Training conducted a survey of its readers to ďŹ nd out about the extent to which organizations let people use their personal devices for organization-sponsored training (aka, BYOD or Bring Your Own Device).

SpeciďŹ cally, we wanted to ďŹ nd out: s 7HICH DEVICES ORGANIZATIONS PROVIDE TO THEIR WORKERS s 7HETHER ORGANIZATIONS LET PEOPLE USE THEIR OWN DEVICES TO TAKE organization-sponsored training on- and off-site s &OR THOSE ORGANIZATIONS THAT LET PEOPLE USE THEIR OWN DEVICES WHICH devices they permit s 7HAT IF ANY RELATED POLICIES THEY ESTABLISHED AND TO WHICH CLASSES OF workers these policies and practices apply 7E SOUGHT RESPONSES FROM INTERNAL TRAINING MANAGERS INCLUDING PROJect managers, supervisors, other ďŹ rst-line managers, and higher-level managers because this group is most likely to be aware of their organizaTION S POLICIES 7E RECRUITED THESE PARTICIPANTS FROM Training magazineâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s online database. To make sure participants had managerial responsibilities in organizations whose primary purpose is something other than training and development, the survey began with questions about parTICIPANTS JOB ORGANIZATIONS AND ROLES

SURVEY METHODOLOGY We sent an e-mail message to every member of the Training magazine community to invite their participation in the study, as well as two reminders, over a four-week period during October 2016. We received 153 responses.

Some 9.1 percent of respondents are employed by organizations with 50,000 or more employees; 6.5 percent by organizations with 25,000 to 49,999 employees; 11.8 percent by organizations with 10,000 to 14,999 employees; 9.8 percent by organizations with 5,000 to 9,999 employees; 13.7 percent by organizations with 2,500 to 4,999 employees; 9.1 percent by organizations with 1,000 to 2,499 employees; 11.1 percent by organizations with 500 to 999 employees; 8.5 percent by organizations with 250 to 499 employees; 14.4 percent by organizations with 50 to 249 employees; and 5.9 percent by organizations with fewer than 50 employees.

Participants represent 26 industries. Nearly half, however, represent just four industries: government and military (13 percent); ďŹ nance and banking (12.4 percent), health and medical services (11.1 percent), and insurance (8.5 percent).

Nearly 90 percent of responses came from the United States. Of those, 20.9 percent of responses came from the U.S. North Central states; 19.6 percent came from the Southwest and Hawaii; 15.7 percent came from the Southeast; 15 percent came from the mid-Atlantic; and the rest from the Northeast and South Central (7.8 percent each) and the Northwest and Alaska (2.6 percent). Of the remainder, 5.8 percent of responses came from Canada; 1.3 percent from elsewhere in the Americas, and 3.3 percent from outside of the Americas. www.trainingmag.com

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BYOD at Work We received complete responses from 153 participants. For additional details about how we conducted the study and who participated in it, see the Survey Methodology sidebar.

Device Types Participants’ organizations issue various types of devices to their employees. Some 83 percent issue desktop computers; 91.5 percent issue laptop computers; 52.3 percent issue tablets (such as an iPad); and 58.8 percent issue smartphones. Only 1 participant said their organization issues ebook readers such as Kindles.

When organizations provide devices to workers, they tend to target the device to the needs of the job rather than issue them

Unless regulations or other privacy considerations mitigate it, most organizations are open to workers using some of their personal devices to take employer sponsored training, on- and off-site. to all employees. For example, only 34.6 percent issue desktop computers to all workers. Even fewer issue mobile devices: 15.7 percent issue laptop computers; 5.7 percent issue tablets; and 6.7 percent issue smartphones to all workers. By contrast, other organizations only issue devices to employees who can make the case: 15 percent issue laptop computers; 22.8 percent issue tablets; and 15.5 percent issue smartphones. Only one organization issues desktop computers to this group.

When organizations distribute devices to workers, they seem to do so for purposes other than training. Only 41.7 percent of those that distribute desktop computers and 32.8 percent of those distributing laptop computers expect training to be a primary use of the device. And despite widespread discussions of mobile learning in the field, only 21.4 percent expect training to be a primary use of tablets and 4.4 percent expect training to be a primary use of smartphones distributed to workers.

On-site use: Slightly more than half (54.9 percent) of those responding to the question let workers use their own devices to participate in organization-sponsored training on-site (that is, training courses the organization formally provides to workers, including live virtual classes, e-learning courses, and ebook courses). Some 45.1 percent do not.

Of the organizations that permit workers to use their own devices on-site to take employer-sponsored training, most allow workers to use mobile devices. Nearly 80 percent allow workers to use their own laptop computers; 82.1 percent allow workers to use their own tablets; and 90.5 percent allow workers to use their own smartphones. The primary exception is e-book readers; only 52 percent allow workers to use their own ebook readers to take training on-site. In addition, 42.8 percent allow workers to use their own desktop computers.

All participants let regular employees use their own devices but are more cautious in letting others use devices on-site for training: 40.5 percent let contractors use their own devices; 25 percent let suppliers use their own devices; and 32.1 percent let customers use their own devices.

Of those organizations that do not let workers use their own devices on-site, the reasons include data security (82.6 percent), firewall issues (68.1 percent), and, to a lesser extent, concerns about support (46.4 percent).

Off-site use: Organizations are more likely to let workers use their personal devices off-site to participate in organization-sponsored training: 62.7 percent allow it, while 37.3 percent do not.

Of the organizations that permit workers to use their own devices off-site to take employer-sponsored training, most permit it on mobile devices. Nearly 97 percent let workers use their own laptop computers; 83.3 percent let workers use their own tablets; and 86.4 percent let workers use their own smartphones. Only 56.2 percent allow workers to use their own desktop computers, and 23.9 percent let workers use their own e-book readers.

All organizations that permit the use of personal devices offsite for employer-sponsored training let regular employees do so. As with on-site training, organizations are more cautious about letting others taking training off-site on their own devices. Only 36.4 percent let contractors do so; 18.7 percent let suppliers do so; and 26 percent let customers do so.

Of those organizations that do not let workers use their own devices off-site for employer-sponsored training, the reasons include data security (86.2 percent), firewall issues (57.9 percent), and concerns about support (40.3 percent). In addition, as one participant working for the government commented, “As a government agency, we work ‘in the sunshine.’ If employees use a personal device for a business purpose, that entire device and all its content become subject to public records laws, meaning they must maintain copies and records and produce them upon request.”

On-Site vs. Off-Site Training We wondered whether organizations let workers use their personal devices both on- and off-site to access employersponsored training.

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Device Policies and Procedures In addition to device usage, we asked participants about the extent to which they have formalized policies and procedures www.trainingmag.com

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BYOD at Work for using personal devices for employer-sponsored training.

Some 38.6 percent of participants have a formal, written policy on the use of personal devices on-site to take organizationsponsored training, whether or not they permit such use. Of those that have established policies regarding on-site use of devices, 44 percent identify devices that can be used and 45.8 percent identify devices that cannot be used. Other issues addressed by these policies include security requirements for devices (86.4 percent) and access to a learning management system (38.9 percent). Only 15.2 percent specify which training programs can be taken on-site on personal devices.

Only 24.8 percent of organizations have established formal policies for using personal devices to access employersponsored training off-site. The policies cover which devices can be used (50 percent), which devices cannot be used (47.4 percent), security requirements for these devices (74.3 percent), access to a learning management system (16.8 percent), and which training programs can be taken (23.4 percent). As with the use of personal devices for training on-site, in some organizations, personal devices become subject to broader scrutiny because of laws and regulations governing the industry.

In most organizations, the IT group takes the lead for

The Low-Down on Devices Use of personal devices for employer-sponsored training: Organizations provide these devices to designated departments or job categories: t %FTLUPQ DPNQVUFST t -BQUPQ DPNQVUFST t 5BCMFUT TVDI BT J1BET

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establishing these policies. In 45.7 percent of organizations, IT sets the policies on its own, and, in another 14.4 percent, IT sets the policies with input from Training. Training only sets the policies in 7.2 percent of organizations; in another 9.8 percent, Training does so with input from IT. In the remaining 22.9 percent of organizations, policies are established by Human Resources, Legal, and various executive groups.

Whoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Covered?

Because employer-sponsored training is, by nature, work related, when people participate could determine whether workers are entitled to payment for the time spent learning.

For the most part, hourly workers are entitled to payment for all work-related hours. In the U.S., employers often refer to these workers as non-exempt, because they are not exempt from labor laws that establish the basis of pay.

What constitutes â&#x20AC;&#x153;work relatedâ&#x20AC;? could vary, however, because some employer-sponsored training primarily is intended for either personal development or preparation for a future (perhaps unrelated) work assignment and could be interpreted as not being directly work related.

In this survey, 70.1 percent of participants responding expect hourly workers to take training on their personal devices during regularly scheduled work hours; 5.2 percent expect these workers to take employer-sponsored training outside of regularly scheduled work hours; and 23.9 percent expect training to occur in some combination of work hours and off-hours.

Expectations signiďŹ cantly differ for workers who are paid on salary and, therefore, are exempt from wage and hour rules in most jurisdictions. Employers sometimes refer to these workers as â&#x20AC;&#x153;exempt.â&#x20AC;? So the timing of when exempt workers take training is not likely to have an impact on payment.

In this survey, 31.2 percent expect people who are not paid hourly to take training on their personal devices during regularly scheduled work hours; 6.2 percent expect these workers to take employer-sponsored training outside of regularly scheduled work hours; and 62.5 percent expect workers who are not paid hourly to take employer-sponsored training in some combination of work hours and off-hours.

What Does This Mean?

This survey suggests that rather than anywhere, anytime learning, access to employer-sponsored online learning has limitations. On the one hand, unless regulations or other privacy considerations mitigate it, most organizations are open to workers using some of their personal devicesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;especially mobile devicesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;to take employer sponsored training, on- and off-site.

Concerns arise, however, around hourly workers taking training during off-hours; and around contractors, suppliers, and customers taking training on their own devices, especially off-site. Qt Saul Carliner, Ph.D., CTDP, is director of Research for Lakewood Media and a professor of Educational Technology at Concordia University in Montreal.

David William Price is a Ph.D. student specializing in Educational Technology at Concordia University. www.trainingmag.com

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PART 4

How to Excel at

Identifying and Acquiring the Right Talent Cognitive systems are a vital part of the solution—they create a new partnership between humans and technology by enhancing, scaling, and accelerating human expertise. BY ROBERT SCHULTZ

T

echnology—and more specifically, the use of data—has infiltrated every aspect of the workplace. In fact, the workplace of today is nearly unrecognizable from that of even two years ago. It seems like just yesterday we were discussing how technologies such as social, mobile, cloud, and analytics were all driving change. Today, however, the narrative has shifted to digital transformation and cognitive systems.

The digital transformation has changed the way we view business outcomes, culture, collaboration, and efficiency, and at the root of these aspects of the workplace is hiring. Employees now expect a personal, social, digital, and mobile experience from employers that rivals their everyday consumer experiences.

And before they even apply for a job or allow themselves to be recruited, they need to see that the prospective business is committed to helping them achieve their goals, and provides modern technologies to enhance their work life. Looking at companies with dynamic business models that are transforming industries, such as Uber and Airbnb, it’s easy to see how the traditional hiring model has evolved into one that’s built on software.

Human Resources (HR) Raising the Bar Instead of focusing on costs, compensation, and compliance, recruiters and hiring managers have new imperatives for success. They need to rethink talent strategies and systems that were designed for a different era, expectations, and needs.

Ultimately, HR needs to update its strategies to attract, develop, and retain the right people to take the business where 112

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it needs to go. Whether staffing an entry-level position or a senior-level one, from a highly regulated industry to a small nonprofit, recruiters must ask themselves how this person will contribute to the organization’s business goals. How will this person immerse him or herself in the culture? What skills and personality traits does he or she bring to the role? And now, in addition to analyzing valuable information gleaned from resumes, cover letters, references, interviews, and background checks, recruiters have the task of conducting a sweep of online and social media presence to make sure it’s all a fit.

It can be a daunting task.

Analytics to the Rescue Fortunately, several tools are available for recruiters to leverage when making a new hire. For example, just finding the right candidate on a social networking site has been made simpler over the last several years. And background checks, as another example, are driven through highly specialized software.

But these tools are not enough. There is a shift happening in the HR industry. Companies that are outperforming their peers are investing in analytics to compete on another level by gaining insights and illuminating information about job candidates that previously was in the dark. Today, advanced analytics are available for all functions of the enterprise, and www.trainingmag.com

progressive HR functions are taking a giant leap forward. In 2016, 51 percent of companies were correlating HR programs to their demonstrable business impact; the C-suite expects numbers that back up all staffing decisions (https://dupress. deloitte.com/dup-us-en/focus/human-capital-trends/2016/ human-capital-trends-introduction.htm). Fair enough—what

each employee means to the business is no longer theoretical. There are data and analytics available to understand great human qualities, find hidden patterns, and gain insights to support decisions. These insights go beyond costs.

Enterprises need performance-based analytics that show definitively how hiring decisions are delivering on the business’ long-term goals.

Secondly, engaging and listening to employees throughout their career at a company is imperative.

HR needs to take charge to cultivate and develop new leadership that will thrive in the ever-changing workforce. This can be done by: s Finding and spearheading game-changing initiatives that will inspire teams. s Using analytics to identify and create new growth opportunities for the staff through skill development programs. s Setting up new avenues for collaboration and communication to enhance innovation. And working toward developing a flexible workplace that enables, empowers, and rewards agile teams. s Using HR analytics and cognitive technologies to drive company initiatives. s Pursuing the data and insights that define the value of the team. Anticipate hiring needs and industry trends with analytics, and invest in developing the talent pipeline that meets the business’ future demands. s Incorporating tools that make data and analytics accessible, and creating actionable insights from HR data to make better business decisions.

In case you couldn’t tell, the solution is cognitive systems. They allow companies to bring together the data sources around social, HR and their entire business seamlessly to give a holistic view of the organization.

HR leaders can interact with cognitive systems, which understand natural language, learn from experts and all types of data, and even reason in order to formulate hypotheses, e.g., scenarios with probabilities.

Cognitive systems never stop learning. So a cognitive system can fundamentally change your competitive advantage, help you scale your best thinkers, and enhance their absorption and application of knowledge.

Cognitive systems are creating a new partnership between humans and technology by enhancing, scaling, and accelerating human expertise. Just imagine the possibilities of people and systems being able to draw from one another, build on each other’s thinking, find areas of improvement, and change the way things have always been done. The possibilities are endless. It’s up to us how we realize their potential to transform HR.

How to Move Forward With the help of innovative technologies, companies have the power to build an engaging, innovative workforce—one that anticipates industry trends and exceeds expectations.

As a first step, to identify and advance the company culture that will connect with future and current employees, enterprises need tools that help uncover their organization’s authentic story.

With the right technology, pinpointing the strengths and weaknesses of the company and developing a culture that advances the business goals can be done intuitively. www.trainingmag.com

A technology veteran with more than 30 years of experience creating, building, and running businesses for leading Silicon Valley companies, Robert Schultz is general manager of IBM Kenexa. Schultz is responsible for the strategy, product development, consulting, cloud delivery, and customer service for all of IBM Kenexa’s solutions. For more information about IBM Kenexa, visit http://www-01.ibm.com/software/ smarterworkforce/cognitive-hr/.

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best practices

Win Together, Lose Apart How to ensure global team success. BY NEAL GOODMAN, PH.D.

G

lobal teams are at the center of an organization’s need for innovation, expansion, and productivity. In spite of the importance of global teams, few organizations know how to embed the awareness and skills needed to succeed. For global teams to succeed, fundamental tensions must be addressed. Can training increase the likelihood of success? Absolutely!

Research at French business school INSEAD has identified some of the core issues (visit: http://

Neal Goodman, Ph.D., is president of Global

knowledge.insead.edu/blog/insead-blog/authenticliaisons-creating-bridges-across-cultures-4848).

Here is a roadmap to success based on hundreds of teambuilding programs around the globe and training and development follow-up research conducted by Global Dynamfirm specializing in ics, Inc., over 30 years.

Dynamics, Inc., a

globalization, cultural intelligence, effective

virtual workplaces, and diversity and inclusion.

He can be reached at 305.682.7883 and at ngoodman@globaldynamics.com. For more information, visit http:// www.global-dynamics. com.

1. Do a quick organizational scan to identify the needs in your company.

s (AS YOUR ORGANIZATION LAUNCHED GLOBAL project teams? s !RE YOU DEVELOPING A SHARED VISION TO SPAN the globe? s )S YOUR COMPANY INITIATING INTERNATIONAL policies, standards, and practices? s !RE YOUR INTERNATIONAL TEAMS DEALING WITH issues of trust, respect, and competency? s !RE YOUR TEAM MEMBERS FROM MANY different countries and cultures?

2. Do a cross-cultural scan and provide the necessary awareness building.

Global team members don’t necessarily recognize the impact their different attitudes, perceptions, and assumptions may have on their teamwork. Invisible cultural forces profoundly affect the team’s goals, as well as day-to-day functioning. Each team member’s style of thinking and communicating is significantly affected by his or her cultural upbringing. Issues of leadership, power and control, decision-making, trust, and respect take on different meanings and significance in international teams. Here are some key cultural factors: A. Communication style: At a global team meeting of a major Dutch organization, which was to focus on expansion into China, there was little initial discussion by the Chinese. After a small amount of cross-cultural coaching, the team 114

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facilitators started calling on the Chinese, and the Dutch were amazed to learn how much insight the Chinese had.

B. Openness to risk taking: A team of sales executives from four airlines were in a strategic alliance meeting in Paris to discuss the cultural alignment of their organizations. The U.S. team came prepared to recommend a new fee for luggage for those traveling in Coach on transAtlantic flights. The French airline executive immediately demanded the research that proves this would be profitable and not cost the airlines in lost revenue due to passengers selecting other airlines. The Americans were frustrated by the French refusal to “pilot” the idea and said if it did not “fly,” they would rescind the new fee.

The French executive said if they lost even one Euro on the new fee, he would lose his job, so he could not approve the fee without concrete evidence. The plan was vetoed.

C. Know what is important to each country:

An American medical device company seeking to build a new facility in Hungary used a U.S.-centric assessment process to select the plant manager. The Hungarian team members immediately vetoed the choice since the person selected was over 50 years old, which in Hungarian culture was viewed as someone who might be tainted by a Communist management style.

3. Leverage these training factors for success.

A. Keep the virtual aspect in mind: An excellent-

ly designed and delivered global teambuilding program can have extraordinary results if done right. The key is not to do the “typical” teambuilding program, which fails to address the unique factors facing a global team. In addition to the cultural factors mentioned above, there is a need to focus on the virtual nature of the teams’ interactions and communication. These specific issues were covered in an earlier column (http://pubs.royle.com/ publication/?i=224976&p=66).

B. Realize that building trust is not easy: Glob-

al teams need more time to get acquainted to develop trust. Before any teambuilding program, create a team Facebook page or LinkedIn www.trainingmag.com

best practices group that contains the professional and social profile of each team member. This should include photos, titles, and personal information such as favorite hobbies. Global team

In spite of the importance of global teams, few organizations know how to embed the awareness and skills needed to succeed. members should always meet in person at the beginning of the team’s formation. This initial time should be spent getting to know each other on a personal level. It should not be an itinerary of business plans. One of the biggest causes of global team failure is not bringing the team together right from the start.

C. Create a global team communication plan:

Create a team communication plan that includes a global calendar. Once we created a global calendar for a team, the number of people not attending the team’s virtual meetings dropped significantly since everyone was now aware of each team member’s holidays.

D. Be pro-actively inclusive: Neuroscience has made us aware of the reasons for our unconscious biases. These biases are particularly significant in global teams. For example, individuals are less trusting of a message delivered by a person with an accent than if the same message is delivered by a person without an accent. Unless we make a conscious effort to mitigate our unconscious biases, we will not be able to benefit from each team member’s potential.

Perhaps you are on a global team or have been asked to train such a team. Share your experiences, case studies, questions, best practices, and critical issues for inclusion in a future column via e-mail: ngoodman@global-dynamics.com.

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Goodbye, Group E-Learning Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s create collaborative classrooms in Slack. By Myra Travin QH RI WKH ZD\V WR PHDVXUH VXFFHVV LV E\ VHHLQJ KRZ IDVW DQG KRZ IXULRXVO\ \RXU FRPSHWLWLRQ WULHV WR LPLWDWH \RX $V LW UHODWHV WR FROODERUDWLYH WHDP FRPPXQLFDWLRQ WRRO 6ODFN UHFHQW ZHHNV KDYH EHHQ IXULRXV LQGHHG 0LFURVRIW 7HDPV )DFHERRN DW :RUN DQG PRVW UHFHQWO\ %URDG6RIW DOO DUH FURZGLQJ LQWR WKH PDUNHW 7KH FRPSHWLWLRQ LV PRYLQJ TXLFNO\ WR WU\ WR RYHUWDNH 6ODFN¡V GRPLQDQW PDUNHW VKDUHÂłVHHPLQJO\ ZLWK D OLWWOH KHOS IURP 6ODFN LWVHOI LQ WKH IRUP RI D UHFHQW IXOO SDJH 1HZ <RUN 7LPHV DGÂłZKLFK PDQ\ KDYH VDLG ZDV D ELW EOLVVIXOO\ XQDZDUH RI LWV FRPSHWLWRUV¡ GHWHUPLQDWLRQ DQG FRPPLWPHQW WR FUHDWH DQ HYHQ EHWWHU FROODERUDWLYH PRXVHWUDS 6ODFN ZRXOG EH ZLVH QRW WR VXJJHVW WKDW ZH DOO HDW FDNH

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learning matters

From Best Practice To Next Practice Turning middle-manager dinosaurs into center-leader dynamos. BY TONY O’DRISCOLL

T Tony O’Driscoll is global head of Strategic Leadership Solutions for Duke CE, where he focuses on identifying and implementing cutting-edge learning strategies and

he unparalleled pace and scale of change today is creating seismic global shifts across social, economic, and political systems.

These, in turn, are converging rapidly to transform an already volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) ecosystem into a powerful vortex that has the potential to destroy organizations.

The key to avoiding the strengthening pull of the VUCA vortex lies in ensuring the organization develops a leadership system that operates in a perpetual state of readiness for the unexpected: knowing what people, process, and technology levers to pull at what instant in time to avoid being sucked in.

Perhaps contrary to popular opinion, the leaders who operate in the middle of the current hierarchical leadership system are the greatest source of leverage to build the responsiveness, resilience, and adaptability the modern-day enterprise needs.

methodologies to get

A CATALYZING ROLE

leadership ready for

The middle-manager role was created to bridge the widening gap between setting direction at the executive level and taking action at the line-manager level.

As organizations grew, so, too, did the layers of middle management required to translate strategy and coordinate activity to deliver results.

In the 1980s and 1990s, globalization, deregulation, and technology adoption ushered in the re-engineering movement that advocated horizontal business processes, the delayering of organizational structures, and the integration of information technology to drive continued growth. During this transition, middle managers came under strong scrutiny and criticism for being reactionary and change-averse, maintainers of bureaucracy and control, and focused on selfpreservation as opposed to organizational growth.

Given this history, some would reason that the demise of the middle manager is imminent as they suffer the same fate as dinosaurs that were unable to adapt to a disruptive change in their ecosystem.

An alternate argument suggests middle managers instead should be viewed as dynamos, given their unique ability to influence and impact the organization’s strategic and transformational processes.

Today, managers situated at the center of the

what’s next.

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leadership system play a catalyzing role in navigating two key polarities.: 1. The Strategy/Execution Polarity 2. The Change/People Polarity THE STRATEGY/EXECUTION POLARITY

A perennial challenge for every organization is to ensure that its strategy is executed in a way that maximizes value creation, delivery, and capture. Today, the interdependencies between strategy formation and execution are far more fluid and dynamic, no longer discrete problems to be solved at the top and bottom of the leadership hierarchy. Instead, they are two polarities that must be navigated from the center of the leadership system.

In navigating the strategy/execution polarity, middle managers evolve into center leaders who play a boundary-spanning role in ensuring the leadership system effectively balances and iterates around a top-down directive approach and a bottom-up participatory approach to strategy evolution.

THE CHANGE/PEOPLE POLARITY

Today, developing a culture that fosters innovation, collaboration, and adaptability is critical to an organization’s survival. Center leaders play a critical role in increasing the ability of others to respond to change by providing the structure, resources, and safe environment for experimentation and learning required to grow the business.

In proactively navigating the change/people polarity, center leaders become intermediaries who ensure that innovations that might influence an organization’s strategic direction are nurtured and that people feel fully engaged and motivated to adopt the new routines, practices, and behaviors required for the organization to survive and thrive.

As we reimagine leadership as a system with rapid and synchronized decision-making across multiple levels, we should avoid focusing on “best practices” to improve discrete systems, structures, or processes.

Instead, we should consider developing “next practices” that focus on transforming middle managers into center leaders who can catalyze a leadership system that delivers the responsiveness, resilience, and adaptability today’s environment demands. www.trainingmag.com

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trainer talk

Making Choices in 2017 It’s important to realize we always have a choice. Even when we think we don’t have a choice, that thinking is typically only a result of the limitations we place upon ourselves. BY BOB PIKE, CPLP FELLOW, CSP, CPAE-SPEAKERS HALL OF FAME

A

Bob Pike, CSP, CPLP FELLOW, CPAESpeakers Hall of Fame, is known as the “trainer’s trainer.” He is the author of more than 30 books, including “Creative Training Techniques Handbook” and his newest book, “The Master Trainer’s Handbook.” You can follow him on Twitter and Facebook using bobpikectt.

new year is upon us: 2017. Three hundred and sixty-five days in which we can add value and make a difference. Or not. The choice is ours. Not resolutions—choices!

Choice. What an important word. It’s important to realize we always have a choice. Even when we think we don’t have a choice, that thinking is typically only a result of the limitations we place upon ourselves.

So what are you choosing for 2017? Here are some choices you can make, and I challenge you to do so: 1. You can choose to view training as a process, not an event. This means you’ll look at what’s

happening before and after a training program to help ensure that what is learned gets applied.

Why? Because the purpose of training is to get results.

2. You can choose to make sure every training program has a proper opening that breaks pre-

occupation, facilitates networking, and is clearly relevant to the content of the course. Because learning can’t take place unless people are mentally, as well as physically, present.

3. You can choose to be sure that every training program you are responsible for has a proper closing—that is, one that allows for celebration,

listen for understanding for 90 minutes, can listen with retention for 20 minutes, and need to be involved every eight minutes. This is Pike’s 90/20/8

rule. This means no single content chunk will be longer than 20 minutes.

5. You can choose to remember that key content needs to be revisited a minimum of six times, with interval reinforcement, in order to move content

from learners’ short-term memory to their longterm memory. People can’t use what they can’t remember.

“Revisiting” is when participants look at content in a new way. “Reviewing” is when an instructor covers the material again, albeit in a different way. As you create your content, you can remember to always look for creative ways to deliver a 20-minute chunk of content.

6. You can choose to develop transfer strategies for each of your programs to help ensure that

after three to six months, you’ll be able to follow up and see multiple things participants are doing differently as they apply what they have learned.

7. You can choose to join me at the Training 2017 Conference & Expo in San Diego and on my group at TrainingMagNetwork.com. I’d love to

connect with you on a deeper level.

Each of these choices can take your training and the results of your training to a new level.

A final thought? Look for a dozen small ways to improve what you’re doing right now.

These small improvements, as you implement them, can add huge value to everything you do.

As I leave you this month, I ask that you e-mail me at Bob@CTTNewsletters.com and let me know what your biggest training challenge is. I’ll see what I can do to help.

Until next month, continue to add value and make a difference.

You can choose to remember that key content needs to be revisited a minimum of six times, with interval reinforcement, in order to move content from learners’ shortterm memory to their long-term memory.

People can’t use what they can’t remember. creates an action plan, and ties everything together. If people don’t plan for application while they’re in class, chances are they won’t when class is over.

4. You can choose to remember that adults can 122

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www.trainingmag.com

talent tips

Talent That Fits Like a Glove Finding talent that will be perfect for your company. BY ROY SAUNDERSON

D

Roy Saunderson is

etermining your size for getting the right pair of gloves requires careful measuring of your hand. You measure around the palm of your hand underneath the knuckles. It is best to use your dominant hand to get the best fit.

Similarly, when searching for the right talent for your organization, you must know the “size” or full talent capabilities required. As you size up the people in the marketplace, both you and they instantly will know whether they fit like a glove for your company or not.

author of “GIVING the Real Recognition

PROACTIVE TALENT ACQUISITION

Way” and Chief

Gone are the days of reactive recruiting when you hired for a position simply because of an immediate vacancy or specific job need. It goes beyond assessing candidates against job requirements, standardized interviewing procedures, and attempts at longer-term workforce planning.

Today, talent acquisition (TA) is all about integrating a talent focus into everything—including your company branding and social media campaigns— and investing in the many TA products and services to create a complete talent program.

The future of managing talent is having an active talent pipeline, along with knowledge and insights.

This allows you to be on top of strategic company needs internally while equally aware of external factors affecting the marketplace.

Learning Officer of Rideau’s Recognition Management Institute, a consulting and training firm specializing in helping companies “get recognition right.” Its focus is on showing leaders how to give real recognition to create positive relationships, better workplaces, and real results. For more information, contact RoySaunderson@ Rideau.com or visit www.Rideau.com.

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FITTING INTO THE GLOVE

Like tracing your hand on paper, you need to know the profile picture of the talent you are looking for. Your goal is to find people who are the right “job fit.” Chuck Russell, in his book, “Right Person Right Job: Guess or Know,” defines job fit as “the degree to which a person’s cognitive abilities, interests, and personality dynamics fit those required by the job.”

But first, you must know your company’s future business plans and current challenges. This requires talent management professionals to have a positive relationship with business leaders, so they know the talent gaps to fill.

You then create a talent map profile of the kind of candidates your company needs now, and what’s expected for the future. It means identifying

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017 training

the competencies, attributes, and knowledge required to be successful in the targeted positions and future growth of the company. Now you are prepared with defined profiles of your ideal candidates.

Next, you actively search the marketplace and evaluate the current workforce talent demands and availability. It’s all about identifying companies with people who fit your desired profile.

You create a pool of possible talent-fitting individuals you can invite and connect with to show your company’s interest in them and how they can help your business.

GAINING THE UPPER HAND

Depth and quality for talent acquisition may surpass the skills of most typical HR practices. This is no longer just a recruitment exercise.

A key to this shift in thinking is developing a talent strategy. Having a talent strategy allows you to articulate the long-term talent purpose for the organization. By defining the specific talent and types of people your company is willing to invest in, you end up gaining the best people who have the potential for making a positive contribution.

Armed with a talent strategy, you can develop a talent management system. This consists of all necessary procedures, systems, and processes to help you zero in on the talent you need. As you make talent management a procedure, you won’t have a talent problem any more.

Besides evaluating potential candidates for their talent fit, you also are looking for talent management to invest in your people and achieve the business goals and excellence you are striving for.

HAVING YOUR HANDS FULL

Talent management is an ongoing, never-ending, and cyclical process. Skills needed involve continuously sourcing, networking, talent branding, relationship building, and utilizing social media— all to the end of growing a viable talent pool for your company.

It is no longer relying on job descriptions. It is not about filling positions. It is everything to do with building careers and achieving strategic goals. www.trainingmag.com

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talent tips Talent acquisition professionals have to get their hands dirty by knowing everything about performance management. They must be able to identify the behaviors of top-performing and non-performing employees. They evaluate the competencies required for successful results in each role and also know what typically causes poor performance. And through a strong rapport with managers, they find out the expectations and performance measures for each position. They must know the positive character traits of each position by using psychometric testing tools. There is a lot involved with talent management.

A FINGER IN EVERY PIE

Talent management doesn’t end with actively identifying, seeking, and hiring great talent that fits. It is also about keeping and sustaining talent.

This requires promoting talent internally besides looking outside the company. It’s about active career planning that engages people and gives them opportunities to connect with leaders, top performers, and positions they are unaware of. Are there

opportunities for formal and self-development?

What are leadership development plans? Great talent wants to learn what they need to know to fulfill their role. And they want to learn all they can to progress on their career path.

A built-in marketing perspective of making the company an employer of choice should be part of the talent strategy. Does the company have a strong, clear purpose and values? How is organizational culture continually being improved? Do leaders and employees commit to and take pride in making the company a great place to work?

Succession planning is also an essential component of talent management. Typically, only a third of all executive positions and a quarter of all senior leader positions have succession plans in place.

Getting the right-sized glove for your hand is a rather simple task. Finding the right fit employee is a far more complex operation. Never take for granted those employees tasked with talent acquisition. They have learned to work hand in glove with the leaders of your organization to make everyone fit well. Qt

BWWB is...

Rising to the Top

CONGRATULATIONS

to our Birmingham Water Works Board Training, Organizational Development, Safety and Leadership for being recognized as one of Training Magazine's Top 125...for the fifth year in a row!

BWWB is committed to providing the highest quality water to our customers by focusing on customer service, innovation, fiscal responsibility, and sustainable growth. One of our key strategic goals is to recruit, develop, reward, and retain a high performing and innovative workforce committed to achieving BWWB's vision and mission.

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www.trainingmag.com

Turning today’s learners into tomorrow’s leaders.

At TD, our purpose is to enrich the lives of our customers, communities and colleagues.

We have developed a best-in-class learning environment that embraces diversity and inclusion, empowering our colleagues to thrive and respond with agility to our customers’ evolving needs.

Our culture of continuous and sustained development, collaboration and creativity ensures our colleagues recognize their true potential and are encouraged to achieve their goals.

We are proud to be recognized by Training magazine as a Top 125 recipient for the 10th consecutive year and would like to thank our TD team for their support while we accomplished this prestigious goal. We will continue to innovate with purpose to develop and inspire our team. Thank you!

Congratulations to our fellow 2017 Training Top 125 winners!

Realize your full potential at

jobs.TD.com

®

The TD logo and other trade-marks are the property of The Toronto-Dominion Bank.

last word

Addressing Mistakes Employ a “neutral” strategy to help focus the conversation on the issue rather than on the person and avoid eliciting a defensive response. This also will facilitate a more exploratory and comprehensive analysis of the situation. BY MICHAEL ROSENTHAL

Q:

you made in sending the incorrect information.” Then, follow that up with something such as “What do you think went wrong?”

Not only will this “neutral” strategy help focus the conversation on the issue rather than on the person and avoid eliciting a defensive response, it also will facilitate a more exploratory and comprehensive analysis of the situation.

By inviting your employee to share his interpretation of what happened, additional, and perhaps valuable, information can be introduced for your consideration. To prevent future mistakes, you should explore all the factors that might have contributed to the error—in today’s team-oriented work environments, it is unlikely a critical error could be attributed to a single individual.

For example, you might learn something new about how he interprets what you say—you might have to be more explicit when giving directions. Or you might get valuable insight into the team dynamic—you might find that employees voluntarily “pitch in” on one another’s assignments. Each of these could provoke ideas for process improvements.

As you move through the conversation and discuss the impact of the mistake, do so without attributing blame or intent on the part of your employee. Using first-person statements such as “I felt embarrassed” will elicit more positive responses than second-person statements such as “You embarrassed me.”

Try to remain open to what your employee says.

Statements that might sound defensive, such as “I have too much on my plate” or “Nobody told me that,” might be genuine and important contributors to the problem. Ignoring those factors could undermine any other steps you would consider taking to avoid recurrence.

Ultimately, you will be the decision-maker as to whether your employee is performing up to par and what can be done about it. However, this approach should help inform that decision. Qt

My direct report recently made a critical error.

The last time I brought something like this to his attention, he was extremely defensive, and it took a while for him to “re-engage” with his work. How can I hold him accountable without damaging morale, especially if he’s unwilling to admit his mistakes?

A: Nobody likes to make mistakes. And mistakes Michael Rosenthal is managing partner of Consensus (www. consensusgroup. com), a negotiation and conflict resolution firm headquartered in New York City and with regional offices in Europe, India, and the Middle East.

Consensus provides Talent Development services, including customized training and coaching, as well as Consulting and Peace Building services. For more information, contact 212.391.8100 or mrosenthal@ consensusgroup.com.

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can be especially hard to admit when they’re brought to light by a supervisor. Nevertheless, one of your responsibilities as a manager is to ensure things get done properly. So, however difficult it may be to discuss, you must address the situation, especially since this is not the first time a “critical” mistake happened.

First, keep in mind that the timing of your response will influence the situation. If possible, schedule the conversation with your direct report to take place after the stress caused by the mistake has dissipated.

Realizing that how you say something is at least as important as what you say—that in any given conversation, you have the power to influence the dynamic and the level of constructiveness, depending on the tack you choose—is half the battle. The other half is knowing how to say it.

In your example, one thing that will help guide you is shifting your focus from “Who is to blame?” to “How did this happen?”—keeping in mind that your underlying objective is to prevent the recurrence of similar mistakes (and not to assign blame).

When it comes time for the conversation, rather than clinging to your interpretation of what went wrong, try to adopt a more neutral opinion of the situation. This will help you formulate neutral questions that will be received as less accusatory, in turn, obviating the tendency for your employee to feel defensive. You might try opening with something such as, “I’d like to talk with you about the incorrect information that got sent to the client.” Your employee will experience this type of question more positively than “I’d like to talk with you about the mistake

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017 training

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Thanks to you, we’re limitless.

Congratulations to the Top 125 and to all development professionals who, through an endless commitment to training and development, unleash the indomitable strength of our nation’s workforce.

®

To learn more about Guardian and opportunities to join our network of financial professionals, please visit:

guardianlife.com/financial-representative-careers

The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, New York, NY. 2016-32651 Exp 12/18

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Scenario-Based eLearning Design Certificate Ray Jimenez, Author, Scenario-Based Learning: Using Stories to Engage eLearners Learn the step-by-step process of designing and developing scenario-based eLearning programs that heightens eLearners engagement and learning. This highly interactive program focuses on raising the level of engagement of eLearning courses and practical steps to control costs. This handson course provides opportunities to apply ideas in your projects immediately. This certificate focuses on effective and cost-effective design and development — practical and useful, not theories or software use.

with Joe to check your homework and address your Captivate and eLearning questions; and access to Joe’s expertise via email to address questions on course materials. For additional details on the bonuses, see www.TrainingLiveAndOnline.com.

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Designing eLearning with Captivate Certificate Joe Ganci, President, eLearningJoe This certificate takes you through the process of building a course for both desktop and mobile and provides you with the knowledge and hands-on practice you need to build and edit excellent eLearning lessons from scratch using Adobe Captivate. eLearning tools expert Joe Ganci will share his 34 years of innovative design and development experience to take you from Captivate basics to advanced techniques.

Through demonstration and take-home exercises that will be compliant with SCORM- and xAPI (Tin Can). Your course will work both on desktop and on mobile devices. *This course will use the latest version of Captivate. You may use prior versions of Captivate; however, there will be a few features that you will not be able to access if you are using an older version.

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Training Coordinator Certificate: A Consulting Approach to Coordinating the Training Function Lead Presenter: Maria Chilcote, Managing Partner, The Training Clinic Lead Presenter: Adrienne Kirkeby, Senior Instructor, The Training Clinic Take a consulting approach to coordinate and administer training more efficiently and effectively! You'll learn how to develop a training plan, be active — not reactive, and maintain management support for training. You’ll explore how to hire consultants; coach and develop subject matter experts as trainers; set up a resource center; market and administer a registration system; and schedule training (along with facilities and materials coordination). You’ll learn skills to help you better clarify your role in your organization; transition to an internal consulting approach and partner with internal customers; diagnose problems within your organization and put together a proactive plan to address them; identify what good training looks like so you can be a wise consumer of training products and services; easily develop and maintain training resources; manage training enrollment, record keeping, and follow-up and create effective training schedules.

BONUS! You can earn 1.9 CEUs by successfully completing this certificate.

This certificate is designed for training coordinators, administrators and instructors who coordinate a training function for an organization or business unit, or those interested in becoming more efficient and effective.

Early-Bird Rate 30+ days prior to course start date: $1,145 Registration within 30 days of course start date: $1,295

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Instructional Design Certificate: Performance-Based and Results-Focused Tom Welsh, Senior Instructional Designer, Darryl L. Sink & Associates, Inc.; Professor at California State University, Chico, specializing in instructional design, web design, and eLearning development.

He has developed instructional products for pharmaceuticals, finance, retail, semiconductor, telecommunications, waste management, and medical instruments manufacturing.

This interactive certificate uses real world, practical examples to explore each phase of the instructional design process and shows you how to apply them in your project. You’ll work on your own eLearning or instructor-led project and learn just what you need to produce a highly effective end product. You’ll examine the business and individual needs for your training program, how to accommodate adult learners, instructional strategies to meet your goals, and more.

You will receive numerous job aids and examples to hit the ground running.

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BONUSES! You will also receive a quick technique job aid to help you remember what you’ve learned and show others how to get better at project management back at the office. You will earn eight (8) Project Management Institute (PMI) Professional Development Units (PDUs) when you successfully complete this certificate.

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Developing Small Bites Learning Certificate Ray Jimenez, Author, 3-Minute e-Learning, Scenario-Based Learning: Using Stories to Engage e-Learners and Do-it-Yourself e-Learning: 100 Ways to Simplify Design and Development.

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Learners and managers are demanding more effective and efficient learning times due to rapidly changing topics, on-the-job performance needs, an abundance of mobile learning tools and faster and more reliable Internet connections. This interactive certificate invites you to “rethink” and “invigorate” the design of your current content for faster development and easier learning suited for those who are on-the-move, on-thejob and connected with mobile technologies. You’ll examine the methods of micro-learning content design and delivery that facilitates quick transfer of knowledge and application.

Project Management for Learning Professionals Certificate: Reduce the Rework

This is not a software course. This certificate is not about authoring and mobile software. It focuses on content development, design and delivery. The course will focus on eLearning and performance support systems rather than classroom training.

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Lynn Lewis, Learning Facilitator, Russell Martin and Associates If you leave your desk every day frustrated by what you’ve accomplished and what’s left to be done, this is the content you’ve been waiting for! Learn how to juggle your projects and get more done with less rework.

Whether working on online or live course development, LMS implementation, or new process design, this certificate will teach you a simple, minimal process with techniques to get more done with less help. You’ll learn how to start a project correctly, build a simple and flexible project schedule, manage the insanity of your projects, end a project, and improve your own project management strength through quick post-project reviews. This program will provide you with tools that will work with software you already have, completely consistent with the guidelines set by the Project Management Institute (PMI).

Bring your gnarliest project with you. You will complete this certificate with your project ready to roll, a great network, and a job aid to use for the next successful project.

BONUS ITEMS! You will receive a FREE copy of Ray’s book 3-Minute eLearning: Micro-Learning Design and Development. You’ll also receive 15 models for microlearning: live demos and examples that you may download and own as part of your in-house references.

This certificate is designed for subject matter experts, training designers, and eLearning designers and developers. Note: This certificate focuses on eLearning and performance support systems rather than classroom training.

Early-Bird Rate 30+ days prior to course start date: $645 Registration within 30 days of course start date: $795

3 SESSIONS STARTING JULY 11 OR NOVEMBER 7, 2017

You will receive a professionally produced Certificate of Completion signed by your instructor and suitable for framing.

Training Manager Certificate: Managing the Training Function for Bottom-Line Results Lead Presenter: Melissa A. Smith, Managing Partner, The Training Clinic Lead Presenter: Linda Ernst, Senior Instructor, The Training Clinic Guest Presenter: Maria Chilcote, Managing Partner, The Training Clinic With the right practices, any training program can accelerate performance, while delivering economic benefits. In this certificate program, you’ll find out how by gaining in-depth focus and practical methods on managing the entire scope of your organization’s training effort. You will examine practical ways, sound techniques, and proven ideas to manage your organization’s training and yield tangible, bottomline results.

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NEW Practical, Cost-Effective Video Production for eLearning Certificate Steve Haskin, President, Industrial Strength Learning and award-winning video creator.

This certificate takes you through the process of creating video content for eLearning from concept (or assignment) to script to shooting to final edit — even on a limited budget! It will provide you with the knowledge and hands-on practice you’ll need to understand and create memorable eLearning videos. Video expert, Steve will share his 30+ years of innovative video production, script development and direction experience to take you from video basics to a deeper understanding of video and how to effectively employ it in your courses. During the certificate, you will complete one or more video projects you can use in your training courses. You will leave with an understanding of how video can work with your lessons to create memorable training that sticks with your learners and gain an understanding of the video production process so you may allocate your budget (be lit large or small) wisely.

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Early-Bird Rate 30+ days prior to course start date: $745 Registration within 30 days of course start date: $895

3 SESSSIONS STARTING OCTOBER 25, 2017

Social Media for Trainers Certificate Jane Bozarth, Author, Social Media for Trainers. Jane is the eLearning Coordinator for the North Carolina (USA) Office of State Personnel. She is also the author of E-Learning Solutions on a Shoestring; Better than Bullet Points; and From Analysis to Evaluation.

Social media is no longer seen as a fad — it's a revolution and an essential part of your 21st Century Training Toolkit. Whether you work in a traditional or virtual classroom, social media provides a low-cost way to broaden your reach and increase the impact of your training. Based on the bestselling book Social Media for Trainers, this interactive certificate invites you on a guided tour of tools that support broadcasting, collaborating, sharing and conversing, and explores concrete, specific ways to incorporate them into your own training practice. You’ll examine the unique features of a number of popular tools, discuss how to leverage the strengths of each, explore which best fit your training needs and learn how to set up your own accounts.

Appropriate for classroom and virtual classroom facilitators, and instructional designers, the course also covers the basics of social learning, informal learning, and communities. While we discuss concepts such as learning communities and overcoming barriers, the focus of this program is on specific training activities that can be facilitated using social media tools.

You will need to be able to access a variety of social media tools including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Snapchat, etc. during and in between program sessions.

This certificate is designed for those who wish to start utilizing social media for training. It is also suited for current users of social media who wish to better leverage the strengths of their current social media tools or expand into new social media areas for training purposes.

Early-Bird Rate 30+ days prior to course start date: $645 Registration within 30 days of course start date: $795

3 SESSIONS STARTING OCTOBER 31, 2017

L SPECIA !

OF F E R

Register for both Articulate Storyline Fundamentals and

Articulate Storyline for Next Level Design Certificates to

Save $200!*

*Details for this special offer can be found at TrainingLiveAndOnline.com

Articulate Storyline Fundamentals Certificate

Articulate Storyline for Next Level Design Certificate

To keep pace with today’s fast-moving world, training organizations are increasingly including the use of more technology — especially eLearning. Articulate Storyline is an eLearning authoring tool built from the ground up with the goal of making the process of designing, developing, and implementing eLearning faster, easier, and more affordable. Using an intuitive interface, Articulate Storyline is easy enough for novices to learn quickly and powerful enough for advanced developers to build highly sophisticated and interactive eLearning. With its easy to use features (no programming required) and robust capabilities, Storyline lets you focus on what’s most important: delivering more effective and appealing eLearning that saves your organization time and money.

Ready to take your Articulate Storyline skills to the next level? This certificate program builds upon your basic Storyline knowledge by providing you with the hands-on practice needed to move beyond “out of the box” development and into building more advanced interactions. We'll explore the development of custom interactivity leveraging Conditional Triggers, Custom Object States, Master Slide Layers, Variable Programming and more that will provide you with tons of tips and tricks you can immediately apply to your own projects.

BONUS ITEMS! This is the only Articulate Storyline course offering you: · Dozens of free Storyline source files for self-paced learning. · Detailed step-by-step exercises for hands-on practice. · Custom Course Template · Custom Interactions Template · Instruction blended with practical design and development guidance from an awardwinning eLearning developer with many years of industry experience.

This certificate program is designed for non-programmers who wish to learn basic to intermediate authoring features of Articulate Storyline.

A basic understanding of computing concepts is required. A basic understanding of eLearning is helpful.

Managers may also benefit from seeing the creation and development process so they may more accurately estimate course development time and cost. Already have basic Articulate Storyline experience? Consider registering for our “Articulate Storyline for Next Level Design Certificate.”

You'll also receive a customized package of handdrawn buttons and icons courtesy of Nuggethead Studioz.

BONUS ITEMS! This is the only Articulate Storyline course offering you: · A focus on interaction design using Storyline’s features in smart, creative new ways. · Dozens of free Storyline source files for self-paced learning. · Detailed step-by-step exercises for self-paced learning. · Custom Course Template · Custom Interactions Template · Instruction blended with practical design and development guidance from an award-winning eLearning developer with many years of industry experience.

The certificate is designed for those who are familiar with the basic features of Storyline such as story view, scenes, slides, layers, triggers, the timeline, importing assets, and creating simple quizzes and interactions.

Are you new to Articulate Storyline? We recommend that you complete the “Articulate Storyline Fundamentals Certificate” prior to registering for this program.

You'll also receive a customized package of handdrawn buttons and icons courtesy of Nuggethead Studioz.

Early-Bird Rate 30+ days prior to course start date: $945 Registration within 30 days of course start date: $1,095

4 SESSIONS STARTING APRIL 25, JULY 18 OR OCTOBER 17, 2017

Early-Bird Rate 30+ days prior to course start date: $945 Registration within 30 days of course start date: $1,095

4 SESSIONS STARTING MARCH 7, JUNE 6 OR OCTOBER 3, 2017

Kevin Thorn Chief NuggetHead, NuggetHead Studioz

www.OnlineLearningConference.com

Certificates: September 24 - 25 The Allen Experience: September 25 Conference: September 25 (4 pm) - 27 New Orleans, LA

www.TrainingConference.com

Certificates: January 27 - 29 Conference: January 30 - February 1 Expo: January 30 - 31 San Diego, CA

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