Business services firm CBE Companies, Inc., reimagined its leadership development curriculum for new supervisors as Career Path Training to help build bench strength. Each module of the online, self-paced curriculum was redesigned to present universal guidelines that encourage personal and professional growth.
Program Details
CBE requires all new supervisors to complete the Investing in U training program, which comprises a series of individual self-paced, self-study training courses. This training equips supervisors with the tools necessary to build best-in-class-level teams and, by extension, a best-in-class organization. In addition to topics unique to each business, all the curricula contain the same five standard leadership development courses.
The initial phase of the Career Path Training program leverages these five online training modules:
- Creating Employee Loyalty
- Crucial Conversations
- Feedback
- Holding People Accountable
- Managing the Whirlwind
While any employee interested in expanding their current role, advancing their career path, or simply improving leadership skills may enroll in the program, completing the program is required for any employee applying for an open position at the supervisory level.
Before the Career Path Training program, CBE did not have a vehicle that could provide learners the opportunity to manage their development at their own pace, nor was there a formal program to fill the gap of qualified candidates for new supervisor positions. This program also allows those roles to be filled more quickly and provides a seamless leadership transition.
The skills introduced in the Career Path Training program are reinforced through ongoing development in the mentoring relationship between the learner and their direct supervisor. This development may occur in the weekly one-on-one setting or in the Sup Group program, where participants share concerns and ideas and problem solve issues.
Future training modules are currently in development and will focus on HR topics skills (i.e., How to Conduct a Successful Interview) while providing more holistic. This next phase of the Career Path Training program also will be made available to all employees.
Results
By moving the training modules to pre-requisites, CBE has strengthened the bench strength of candidates, improved the confidence leaders have in the candidate pool, and increased the speed to proficiency of newly promoted supervisors.
In addition, associates have responded positively through increased eNPS (net promoter score) loyalty scores. The loyalty score increased to 52.7 vs. 51.1 (on a scale of 1-100) the previous year.
Of the 36 employees who completed the training, 26 were promoted to either supervisory or training roles in various departments companywide.
