Each year, Training magazine requires all Training 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 aren’t “resting on their laurels,” this provides an opportunity for the Learning and Development community to learn from the “best of the best” and see some innovative solutions for challenges many face today.
Each Hall of Fame Outstanding Training Initiative submission could achieve a maximum total of 20 points. Submissions were scored on the following criteria:
- Level of potential business impact
- Level of difficulty of challenges faced
- Project scope
- Instructional design
- Innovation
- Business outcomes achieved/expectations met
The three initiatives that achieved the highest scores are detailed below (Verizon, Dollar General Corporation, and KPMG LLP). The other 12 submissions will be profiled in 2024 print or special focus online-only issues.
VERIZON: A NEW SELLING ECOSYSTEM
Verizon’s journey to upskill sales excellence begins with its New Selling Ecosystem, which seeks to reshape the way the company approaches sales. The selling system marries best-in-class sales methodology to cutting-edge digital sales tools, artificial intelligence (AI), and the predictive analytics leaders need to provide timely coaching and accelerate the sales cycle.
Program Details
This initiative spans Verizon’s two sales groups— Consumer and Business. The upskilling program was named Verizon Elevate for the Consumer sales group and Verizon Velocity Selling for the Business sales group. The curriculum for each program was customized for the audience. The program trained 14,000-plus Verizon Retail sales employees and an additional 3,000 Verizon Business sellers in the small and medium business sales (SMBS) space.
Verizon Velocity Selling: For the sales methodology, Verizon worked with third-party vendor Richardson’s designers to customize content for its SMBS audiences. Then Verizon’s internal Learning and Development (L&D) team created a self-paced online training for those below the director level. The team also created a train-the-trainer session for managers so they could lead in-person workshops with their teams to begin applying the concepts. The process finished with 12 hours of classroom training deep-diving into the details of the sales methodology.
Elevate: Elevate was initiated with a design-thinking session blended with a process engineering DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control) workshop in partnership with senior retail leadership to fully scope and understand the request for a new sales and coaching model. In addition to a national in-store, boots-on-the ground immersive scoping experience, the team leveraged internal focus grouping. Full face-to-face training experiences were developed, along with a roadshow across dozens of internal workgroups, to ensure full cultural alignment with the new sales and coaching process.
Retail specialists completed six hours of experiential in-person classroom training with peers and sales leaders from different stores in the same region. Leaders including assistant managers, retail store managers, and district managers completed that training, plus a two-hour, deep-dive, in-person classroom training focused on how to coach and drive accountability with Coaching to Elevate. The Elevate program also was integrated into new employee training to launch in tandem with the national rollout to embedded employees.
Two weeks after completing the classroom training, specialists were required to complete a 30-minute certification. Other reinforcement included virtual trainer toolkits, quick reference guides, an Elevate video series, and an Elevate resource hub.
Results
Verizon Velocity Selling
Measuring trained vs. untrained employees nationally over two months pre-and post-training (normalized for other factors such as seasonality and promotions), Verizon observed:
- 5.6 percent increase in opportunities that use all components of the new methodology
- 1.5 percent increase in opportunity close rate for trained vs. untrained employees
- 101 percent return on investment
Elevate
Measuring trained vs. untrained employees nationally over three months pre- and post-training (normalized for other factors such as seasonality and promotions), Verizon observed:
- 10.3 percent increase in sales across the pull-through category (i.e., additional sales, tablets, home Internet, etc.)
- Approximately 21 percent increase in national accessory revenue
- 5-plus percent increase in small and medium business sales
- 25.6 percent increase in customer experience (measured through rep interaction score)
- 132 percent return on investment
DOLLAR GENERAL CORPORATION: OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE LEARNING JOURNEY
In 2023, Dollar General Corporation’s L&D team collaborated with Store Operations and other departments to launch the Operational Excellence Learning Journey, a tailored learning initiative that equipped the workforce to drive improvements in operational efficiency, customer satisfaction, and talent development.
This initiative, grounded in Dollar General’s mission of Serving Others, encompassed all retail employees and retail support partners and fostered their understanding, effectiveness, and achievement in operational excellence by focusing on 10 operational areas: 7-Day Workflow; Front End Productivity; Field Leadership Visits; Scheduling; Staffing; Shrink; Damages; Fresh Operations; Attracting, Developing, Retaining Talent; and Regulatory Compliance.
Program Details
Delivered to approximately 160,000 employees across retail, field, and store operations corporate employees and in 19,000-plus stores companywide, the program used varied delivery methods, including live, self-directed, and on-the-job training. Over a five-week timeline, expert leaders conducted Webinars on operational topics each week. Each Webinar was followed by an exam to gauge learning progress.
Employees then immediately began daily reinforcement training on operational topics. These daily reinforcement topics, customized to individual needs through AI, are ongoing and never cease. This allows the company to track each employee’s knowledge from the moment a topic is assigned throughout their Dollar General career. If an employee’s knowledge weakens in a certain area, the platform delivers pertinent topics to enhance retention. The platform compiles data on employees’ knowledge across all topics, tracks their confidence level, and personalizes a learning experience to fill in knowledge gaps.
Post-Webinar, in-store activities took place between District Managers and Store Managers to provide application of what was learned and to support learning in the stores for each operational area. In-store activity completion was confirmed by photos and successful execution of a Quality Store Visit.
To recognize the successful application of training, Dollar General introduced the “Certified Customer Ready” quarterly designation and awarded certificates and pins to stores that achieved operational excellence.
Results
By upskilling employees through tailored learning, Dollar General has been able to drive operational excellence across all stores, which, in turn, helped contribute to an increase of 3.9 percent in net sales growth as of second quarter 2023 as compared to the previous fiscal year. Other results that were positively impacted, in part, by the training include the positive improvement in customer satisfaction scores in the areas of overall satisfaction, products in stock, cleanliness of store, and speed and ease of checkout as compared to the scores for the previous fiscal year.
KPMG LLP: GROW @ LAKEHOUSE IMMERSION PROGRAM FOR MANAGERS
The transformation of the existing New Manager Training program into the new GROW @ Lakehouse Manager Immersion program was designed to increase retention of KPMG LP’s diverse manager population and prepare them to build their individual futures and the future of the firm. It prepares professionals recently promoted to manager or hired as managers to make their mark in their new role while also reinforcing the value proposition of learning, developing, and building a career within KPMG, and fostering a sense of culture, community, and belonging.
Program Details
Some 1,400 managers were trained throughout KPMG’s fiscal year 2023. The core of the GROW @ Lakehouse learning journey is a two-day in-person program delivered at KPMG Lakehouse, the firm’s learning and innovation center and cultural home.
Participants attend sessions in groups of 120 to 240—large enough to provide rich opportunities for networking with peers from across services and offices, but small enough that partner and senior manager facilitators can personally connect with every participant.
Participants move to different rooms throughout the program, forming new groups to explore a range of topics and hear from different partner facilitators. They collaborate to learn models and methods for feedback, coaching, and managing difficult conversations. They practice applying these models in scenarios and simulations. They gain personal perspectives from leaders on how to execute the firm’s strategy, grow fulfilling careers, build their personal brands, and bring their authentic selves to work.
As they move through topics during the program, participants use QR codes to collect follow-on resources they can use as reference guides while applying their learning. They also complete learning pathways curated in the Degreed learning experience platform on topics such as: compassionate candor, managing your career, coaching, delegation, feedback, team engagement, and developing and motivating others.
Results
KPMG’s employee engagement survey found that compared with managers who did not attend, the percentage of GROW attendees who agreed with the following statements was at least 5 points higher:
- KPMG shows care and concern for its people.
- I am satisfied with the learning and development available to improve my knowledge and skills.
- I am comfortable voicing my ideas and opinions, even if they are different from others.
- The leadership of the firm communicates a vision of the future that motivates me.
- KPMG is a great place to build my career.
In addition, retention for managers who attended GROW @ Lakehouse last year was 95 percent, 21 percentage points higher than the 74 percent retention rate for their peers who did not attend.
