Case Studies
Healthcare
Learning Paths have been implemented for frontline employees in long-term and residential care, medical insurance and benefits sales, pharmaceutical sales, mail order pharmacy and clinical nursing. In one of the most successful projects, time to proficiency for residential care aids was reduced from 9 months to 55 days while reducing turnover to virtually zero.
Major improvements in health care Learning Paths were a result of integrating technical and soft skills with the work process, moving critical training to just-in-time and using a consistent Learning Path for all employees. In addition, by establishing a common proficiency definition, it made it easier to assess skill levels and provide managers with needed coaching tools.
“We’ve used Learning Paths to help our people get-up-to speed on new regulations and process as our industry rapidly changes. I’d highly recommend this approach to anyone in health care.”
Ed Robbins Advisor and Consultant to the Health Industry
Travel and Hospitality
Learning Paths in the travel and hospitality industry have been developed for travel agents, reservation reps, customer service and travel agency managers. The major outcomes of these initiatives have been to speed up the time it takes to reach sales goals and achieve high customer satisfaction rating. In all more than 10,000 employees have been trained using the Learning Paths approach.
Major improvements in leisure travel sales resulted from structuring training around building a loyal customer base by blending sales techniques with product specialties, new technology, and social media. The was extremely important as the online travel business was being established.
Manufacturing
Learning Paths have been successfully implemented for more than 50 manufacturing positions including batch operators, filter press operators, inspectors, packagers, materials handlers, logistics and shift supervisors. In each instance, there were significant improvements in safety and quality with reductions in time to proficiency of 33% or more.
These major improvements were the result of structuring on-the-job training, moving technical training to a just-in-time delivery model, reducing variability from shift to shift and using a proficiency definition to assess performance and training needs of current staffs.
“At CertainTeed, we wanted a Human Resources initiative that could positively impact productivity and knowledge transfer. We found both in the Learning Path (LP) process. For those business units who implemented LP, it helped get the sales reps and manufacturing operators more proficient in their roles and for those new to their roles it got them productive quicker. It also helped capture unique knowledge from experts in their roles so that we were more effective and efficient in transferring learning from one functional employee (e.g. machine operator) to a similar employee (e.g. new hire machine operator). “
David Bomzer, Senior Vice President Human Resources, CertainTeed Corporation
Financial Services
Learning Paths have been developed for mortgage lending, insurance sales, leasing, customer service and consumer finance. A number of the Learning Paths initiatives were completed for major international corporations with thousands of call center employees in a wide range of jobs that included both inbound and outbound sales, collections, loan applications, underwriting, insurance sales and more.
Major improvements for financial services clients resulted from making classroom time more efficient, structuring on-the-job coaching, eliminating training that wasn’t adding value and reducing the variation from location to location and shift to shift.
“It was a great productive experience that generated some very tangible and measurable results for the business in North America Canada and Europe. Some of the major benefits were:
- Increased sales-15%-35% on targeted accounts were we applied the new learning’s
- Improved performance of existing sales employees gave them new tools to be more productive and have a consistent approach with existing and prospective customers
- Built a consistent learning organization –throughout North America and Europe-One consistent approach and message”
Louis Gagnon, Regional Sales Manager GE Capital TIP
Sales
Sales Learning Paths have been developed for a wide range of sales and sales management functions including business to business sales and consumer sales. Industries have included insurance, travel, automotive, pharmaceutical, manufactured products, healthcare, and finance. On many of these paths, time to proficiency was measured in terms of meeting sales goals across all customer groups and product lines. In the case of insurance sales, time to proficiency was reduced by more than a year. With construction product sales, time to proficiency was reduced from 18 to 9 months.
Measurable improvements in time to proficiency were a direct result of restructuring Learning Paths to match the sales process, providing just-in-time knowledge and skill training, providing coaching tools and resources for sales managers and maximizing joint call activities. As a result in addition to reducing overall time to proficiency, salespeople made their first sales sooner and continued to build their book of business throughout their Learning Paths.
“This initial Learning Path and similar ones for other key positions in our company are critical to our growth plans for the future. They will differentiate our firm from other agencies in our industry, giving us a real advantage in competing for both talent and clients.”
Karen K. Farris, CPCU, ARM, RHSB – President and CEO, Roach, Howard, Smith and Barton
Call Centers
Learning Paths have been installed in more than 20 major call centers employing more than 20,000 front line agents and supervisors. This includes both inbound and outbound call centers covering functions such as collections, customer service, loan application, prescription fulfillment, insurance sales, leasing and rentals, business and leisure travel, billing, licensing and vehicle maintenance. In addition to dramatic reductions in time to proficiency of more than 30%, there were measurable improvements in customer satisfaction ratings, turnover rate, accuracy, call time and productivity.
“We validated the result of our initial Learning Paths using Six Sigma and then rolled it out to more than 400 functions to achieve a reduction in time to proficiency by more than 30%. Learning Paths applied to almost every job including research assistance, accounts payable, insurance underwriters and call center workers.”
Jim Williams, Chief Learning Officer, GE Capital International Services