Background:
A prominent public relations services firm wanted to get senior managers to demonstrate the company’s values in their actions, develop better teamwork, and to improve leadership skills.
Approach:
- Developed customized engagement survey and customized 360-degree feedback tools to get ideas directly from employees on how to improve teamwork and give feedback on leadership skills to individual managers.
- Customized survey developed to measure demonstrated management practices and executive behavior around “Walking the Talk” of their corporate values.
Results:
- Survey feedback was successfully used as part of determining executives’ annual bonus
- Project team structure and processes were modified to encourage teamwork
- Each key account team used survey feedback to develop team guidelines for their individual team behavior
- Management feedback from the 360-degree assessments was incorporated into executive development plans and scores are reviewed on an ongoing annual basis
"We consistently receive positive feedback about the quality of the LSA programs and LSA facilitators. We recognize and appreciate the hard work LSA always goes through to meet our specific requirements. Thank you for regularly going above and beyond to design solutions to meet our needs. Your support and dedication, both on the strategic and tactical side, have been outstanding!"
Anna Meyer | Leadership Development Organizational Excellence | Intuit
Background:
Intuit, a $3.5b company with approximately 7,700 employees, is a leading provider of business and financial management services for small and mid-sized businesses; financial institutions, including banks and credit unions; consumers and accounting professionals.
Goal:
* Quickly and cost effectively:
* Transition from contracting with multiple learning and development vendors to establishing a relationship with a preferred “partner”
* Shift the current learning and development culture from an “entitlement service-only” and transactional focus to a high performance and strategy-driven culture
* Accelerate business results across all North American locations by providing all Intuit employees with consistent, integrated, and aligned quality offerings to meet their needs
* Strengthen their Global Learning and Development team to enable more effective contributions to development goals across all Intuit locations
Challenges:
* Many departments and divisions acting independently in the area of learning and development
* Inconsistent learning and development solutions, approaches, and resources across offices
* Multiple “training vendor” relationships with multiple contracts and varied quality and pricing
* Redundancy in the “training solutions” offered and/or contradictory and often competing training models, practices, and language
* No tracking and reporting system; no employee “charge back” or billing system
* Intuit’s desire, as a follow-up to a recent company-wide needs assessment, to quickly establish a common baseline of 13 foundational skills for management and individual contributors across all of Intuit’s North American locations
Approach:
* Assess & Design
* Pilot
* Full Program Implementation
Results:
* Training Outsourcing Scale: Delivered 195 customized programs across North America to over 4,000 employees
* Training Outsourcing Client Satisfaction: Overall satisfaction score 93%
* Training Outsourcing Consistency: Created consistency of language, competency, process, values, and approach across all North American locations
*Training Outsourcing Time Savings: Provided access to unmatched quality and expertise through LSA’s proven portfolio of over 2,500 experts in the areas of Leadership, Management, Sales, Customer Loyalty, Project Management, Assessment, and Measurement decreasing speed to implementation from months to weeks
* Training Outsourcing Money Savings: Estimated outsourcing cost savings of $750,000 over 6 years
* Training Outsourcing Efficiency, Time, and Money Savings:
* Created a simple and clear marketing, registration, setup, delivery, tracking, reporting, billing, measurement, and follow-up process for both participants and managers resulting in a total turn-key system
* Eliminated multiple vendor relationships with multiple invoices, contracts and agreements; saved time through LSA’s one point of contact, one contract and single monthly invoice
Compelling / Interesting Design Features:
* 100% turn-key learning and development outsource partner in LSA
* Dedicated external account team with a combined 40+ years of experience to handle strategy, planning, and day-to-day operations
* Only weeks taken to design and implement Foundational Curriculum around assessment needs
* Designed client-specific role plays and case studies to fit seamlessly with the company’s leadership practices and values
* Custom-designed Intuit Learning & Development Portal to market programs, register participants in workshops, track attendance, and gather billing/departmental charge back information
* Provided all reporting, logistics, tracking, administration, and billing
"Having a partner like LSA to support our training and development needs has been a real benefit. In an emerging life science company where typically you can't afford the infrastructure necessary to provide a full range of development venues to meet the broad needs of an organization, having an external partner who offers everything from a wide range of open enrollment programs to customized organizational development consulting is almost as good (and in some cases better than) having your own internal Training and Organizational Development function."
Chris Wells | Vice President Human Resources | Xoma Ltd.
Background:
Xoma is a growing 200+ person biotechnology industry leader in the field of antibody discovery and development. Over the past 30 years the company has built strong intellectual property, technology platforms, and capabilities to engineer cutting-edge therapeutic antibodies that have the potential to transform medicine and reshape people’s lives.
Goal:
Quickly and cost effectively establish a:
* Learning and development department with an outsourced partner who could provide a turn key/one-call-access for their organizational learning and development needs
* Common, consistent, and integrated baseline of “foundational” management and employee skills across the organization to drive a performance-based culture
* Process to support individuals and intact teams with specific training and organizational development needs
Challenges:
* Desired a broad curriculum for all employees and all levels
* A lack of consistency combined with considerable redundancy in current “training opportunities” with contradictory and often competing models and language
* Inconsistent and immature training processes, offerings, and practices
Approach:
* Assess & Design
* Pilot
* Full Program Implementation
Results:
* Training Outsourcing Scale: Delivered over 100 customized programs over the last 6 years to groups, intact teams, and individuals
* Training Outsourcing Client Satisfaction: Overall satisfaction score 96+%
* Training Outsourcing Consistency: Created consistency of management language, competency, process, values, and approach across all locations
Training Outsourcing Money Savings:
* Estimated outsourcing cost savings of over $600,000 over 6 years
Compelling / Interesting Design Features:
* 100% turn-key learning and development outsource partner
* Dedicated external account team with a combined 40+ years of experience to handle outsourcing of strategy, planning, and day-to-day operations
* Only weeks to design and implement proven curriculum/solutions
* Linked all learning to strategic plan and annual budget while supporting key intact teams
"I just wanted to let you know how pleased I am with how the project went. The end product is wonderful! LSA has been great to work with. I really appreciate all the flexibility and the high quality."
Laurie Torres | Vice President of Human Resources | PDL BioPharma, Inc.
Background:
PDL BioPharma, a rapidly growing Biotech company that pioneered the humanization of monoclonal antibodies, had grown to over 2,500 employees. They had no internal learning and development department/function to support the increased demands of their growing employee base.
Goal:
Quickly and cost effectively establish a:
- Performance-based learning culture
- Learning and development department with an outsourced partner who could provide a turn key/one-call-access for their organizational learning and development needs
- Common baseline of “foundational” new manager and employee skills across the organization
Challenges:
- Desired a broad curriculum for all employees and all levels
- A lack of consistency combined with considerable redundancy in current “training opportunities” with contradictory and often competing models and language
Approach:
- Assess & Design
- Identified “foundation skills” across the organization to strengthen employee satisfaction and retention
- Designed company-specific role plays and case studies
- Created a simple and clear marketing and registration system that automated training setup, delivery, tracking, reporting, billing, measurement, and follow-up
Pilot:
- Successfully implemented a core group of 10 customized skill-based programs focused on: communication skills training, coaching, retention of top talent, performance management, delegation and influence, goal setting and smart objectives, teamwork, transitioning to management, conflict management, and career development
- Provided a clear picture of Learning and Development expenditures, activity, and results across the company
Results:
- Training Outsourcing Scale: Delivered over 100 customized programs across North America to over 2,000 employees
- Training Outsourcing Client Satisfaction: Overall satisfaction score 96%
- Training Outsourcing Consistency: Created consistency of language, competency, process, values, and approach across all locations
Training Outsourcing Efficiency, Time, and Money Savings:
- Created a simple and clear marketing, registration, setup, delivery, tracking, reporting, billing, measurement, and follow-up system for both participants and the HR department that “ran by itself”
- Saved time and money with one point of contact, one invoice, and one contract
- Provided access to unmatched quality and expertise through LSA’s proven portfolio of over 2,500 experts in the areas of Leadership, Management, Sales, Customer Loyalty, Project Management, Assessment, and Measurement
- Estimated outsourcing cost savings of $375k over 3 years
Compelling / Interesting Design Features:
- 100% turn-key learning and development outsource partner
- Dedicated external account team with a combined 40+ years of experience to handle outsourcing of strategy, planning, and day-to-day operations
- Only weeks to design and implement proven curriculum/solutions
- Designed client-specific role plays and case studies with tailored approach to fit seamlessly with the company’s leadership practices and values
- Custom Learning & Development Portal to market programs, register participants in workshops, and track attendance
- Provided all reporting, logistics, tracking, and administration
The Client:
Financial Services ClientBackground:A major financial services company sought to change the way it handled collection of late loan payments. The business had consistently written off over $100 million annually in noncollectable debt. The executive in charge of this division had a vision for a new way of doing business which represented a radical departure from traditional collection strategies.
Challenge:Success in implementing this customer service strategy plan hinged on fundamentally changing the nature of interactions between the company representatives and their customers. This would require:
- Company Reps to change existing behaviors
- Reversing a trend of poor customer satisfaction
- Increasing customer follow-through on commitments
The Approach:The company provided seasoned and new managers with training, tools, and consulting support that helped them create and execute a plan for implementing the new service approach within their organizations. The approach focused on the following:
- Create a clear link between the new strategy, organizational purpose, and customer loyalty
- Develop personal accountability and ownership for adopting new behaviors
- Increase people’s readiness for to embrace the change management process
The Results:As a result of this process the company was able to significantly improve employee engagement levels and, in turn, customer behavior to generate significant business outcomes:
- A 60% increase in desired behaviors
- Measurable increases in customer loyalty & satisfaction around how reps handle transactions
- A 30% increase in “promises kept per hour” – customers following through on payment commitments
- A 29% increase in dollars collected per hour
- Reduced charge-offs by 39% and $44 million in one year
The Client:
Global Manufacturer - High Tech Industry
Background:A large, highly respected global technology manufacturer changed its strategy to create a high performance culture and therefore remain competitive in its market segment and financially viable as an ongoing entity. The new strategy fundamentally repositioned the company from commoditized offerings to value-added services and high margin products.
Challenge:
After two years, major functional groups in the company had yet to adopt the new philosophy or implement enabling strategies. People were also highly skeptical about the new strategy succeeding. Finally, implementation would require substantial effort throughout the company with significant change in the following functions:
- Product development needed to completely revamp their R&D focus
- Renewed emphasis on executive development and coaching to support teams responsible for making sure any new strategies stick and impact the bottom-line over time.
- Manufacturing had to retool much of their production operations
- Sales needed to redefine and tune the strategic sales model and target audience
The Approach:
The company embarked on a comprehensive, structured process working with intact teams to create implementation project plans and actions. The process, supported by training and ongoing executive coaching, was cascaded down through the organization with the following objectives:
- Align all efforts in the organization around the achievement of the new strategy
- Engage each group and individual in a process to create ownership around goals and objectives need to successfully implement the strategy
- Develop capacity for change within the workforce to facilitate the transition from old to new ways of doing business
The Results:
As a result of this process the company achieved significantly improved and sustained business results as well as higher levels of employee retention and engagement. Specific results include:
- 22.6% increase in Q4 revenue over the prior year
- Gross margin improved to 61.4 %, up from 54.7 % in the prior year
- Developed and launched over 150 new products supporting the new model
- Significant measurable increases in commitment/action to the new strategy
- Measurable increases in virtually every dimension of employee engagement and retention
