The Talent and Skills Institute began as a leadership development program but has evolved into a holistic Professional Development Academy that benefits every employee at business services firm Transworld Systems Inc. (TSI).
Program Details
The Academy consists of three types of content, with quarterly focus topics that include lessons and experiences for each role level:
- Leadership: This content is delivered to all employees at a supervisor level and above. Topics have included Cultivating a Culture of Coaching, Situational Leadership, and Time Management.
- Entry Level (non-leadership): This content is delivered to employees who do not have direct reports. Topics generally relate to the leadership-level topic that is being delivered at a particular time, and have included Making the Most of Feedback and Coaching and Achieving Stellar Results with KPIs (key performance indicators).
- Skill Based: This content includes professional skills lesson that can be delivered a la carte based on role and responsibilities. Topics have included Microsoft Excel, Non-Verbal Communication, Anatomy of an E-mail, Project Management, and Sales.
The Leadership and Entry-Level experiences occur in concert, with an end goal of holistic professional upskilling.
For example:
Leaders participate in the Cultivating a Culture of Coaching experience, which:
- Outlines aspects of a successful coaching conversation (sincere, clear, timely, respectful, specific, collaborative, solution-focused, and ongoing)
- Explains how to use questions when coaching
- Provides guidance on how to overcome coaching challenges
- Discusses the importance of follow-up when coaching
While leaders are participating in Cultivating a Culture of Coaching, entry-level employees participate in Making the Most of Feedback and Coaching. This learning experience:
- Discusses the value of coaching (to the coachee)
- Introduces the amygdala as the fear center of the brain
- Explains why feedback can be perceived a threat
- Provides best practices to maximize the benefit of feedback and coaching
Topics are delivered in three stages:
- Initial Web-based training: Web-based courses in this Academy are proprietary and researched by Talent Development leadership, as well as through interviewing subject matter experts and leaders across the organization
- Asynchronous workshops and/or collaborative discussions: The Web-based training is debriefed in either an asynchronous workshop, which takes place in the Leadership LaunchPad, a social learning page for leaders that is hosted in TSI’s learning management system (LMS), or a facilitated collaborative discussion, which is hosted live to debrief the content delivered and share best practices.
Each asynchronous workshop is announced via a microlearning tour of the Leadership LaunchPad delivered via a Web-based video in TSI’s LMS. This video guides each of the organization’s leaders through the content (both proprietary and externally developed) pertaining to the focus topic that has been posted in the LaunchPad social learning group. Through the video tour, each leader is prompted to engage by reacting to, rating, and commenting on the content, and participating in discussion groups that relate to the quarterly focus topic. These workshops take place for the 90 days following the completion of a quarterly focus topic. However, the content and discussion groups persist on the social learning group long after the workshop has ended. Employees can ask questions or share best practices on each topic for weeks, months, or even years after the workshop is over.
Collaborative discussions are facilitated by managers across the organization with oversight from Talent Development leadership in the form of discussion guides. Talent Development leadership is also available to share best practices and answer any questions managers may have while hosting the discussions.
- Skill playbooks: Each focus topic features a playbook that is housed on TSI’s intranet repository, The Source of Information. These resources can be revisited during coaching conversations, at a prescribed frequency, and at the learner’s discretion.
In addition, microlearning minutes are rolled out nine to 12 months after the quarterly focus topic, and serve as reminders of the key points within each topic. These short videos are also hosted on TSI’s intranet repository for employees to use in perpetuity.
This Academy (along with all TSI programs) is evaluated using the Kirkpatrick evaluation model. Data points used for evaluation include learner response surveys, pre- and post-assessments (which often take the form of a simulated role-play conversation), behavior change such as the number of coaching conversations held in a quarter, and business impact such as internal promotions and attrition.
Results
The Talent and Skills Institute is seen by leaders across the organization as a primary driver of 91 percent of non-entry-level positions being filled by internal candidates, 11 percent more than the company’s goal.
