Introduction
This case study focuses on the importance of strategic alignment for training professionals. This alignment is usually accomplished by earning a seat at the decision-making table in major initiatives. This “seat” symbolizes the ability to shape outcomes within an organization. The importance of having a seat at the table lies in enabling training professionals to actively contribute expertise, advocate for resources and align training goals with organizational objectives.
However, challenges such as perception issues, organizational misalignment, limited understanding of training’s value, hierarchical barriers, competing priorities and communication gaps can hinder the process of securing this seat. Overcoming these challenges requires proactive efforts, effective communication and demonstrating consistent value and impact of training initiatives. Ultimately, building a “trust drip” with key decision-makers to drive sustained results.
During a global pandemic, a health care organization faced a critical challenge when employees transitioned to remote and field-only work. This abrupt shift disrupted the traditional four-day, in-person employee orientation program that served as a cornerstone for establishing resources, connections and knowledge. Despite the organization’s efforts to adapt through virtual tools and engaging content, the lengthy virtual orientation failed to retain employees’ attention, leading to drop-offs by days two and three with an upward trend of employees turning over before their first 90 days.
Recognizing the urgency for change and the potential talent loss impact, the training department collaborated with human resources (HR) to revamp the new hire training approach and solve the 90-day retention plan as a major initiative. This initiative faced challenges that required proactive efforts in organizational change and the need to cultivate strong relationships with decision-makers.
From Pain Point to Proactive Alignment
Organizational Pain Point: Perception of Training as a Cost Center
Training was viewed as a cost rather than an investment, leading the organization to prioritize other departments or initiatives perceived as more directly linked to revenue generation. Key decision-makers did not see how training initiatives are strategically aligned with the organization’s overarching goals and objectives, leading to a perception that training is disconnected from core business priorities and an organizational cost.
Training Methodology: Demonstrate ROI
Decision-makers are more likely to support training initiatives when they see a clear return on investment (ROI). Training professionals should quantify the benefits of training in terms of cost savings and revenue generation to illustrate its value to the organization, where possible to do so.
Trust Drip Established: Meeting Presence and Low-Cost eLearning
The training department began shadowing decision-maker meetings to listen to pain points of the organization and building tiny one-topic microlearning courses to establish a small consistent “trust drip” with key decision-makers. The small courses were very fast to make as the content was reused from the current orientation materials and copied and pasted over to a consistent template in an authoring tool.
All eLearning courses had the same look and feel and could be delivered for review and approval in less than 2 weeks. Additionally, the team gathered efficiency data before training and after training showing an immediate positive ROI. These results gave quantifiable results to what was once subjective or perceived data insights.
Alignment on the Big Initiative: What’s Saved Is Allocated
The training team partnered with HR to identify and quantify the cost of each new hire from day one to day 90 at an average of $2000. They then identified the intervals at which employees were leaving and began to make regular calls before these intervals to ask about the employee’s experience. Additionally, the team would send out these microlearning courses and work with leadership to retain the employee.
The introduction of consistent regular touchpoints and personalized learning experiences resulted in a decrease in employee drop-offs at critical intervals. This not only reduced talent attrition but also led to cost savings and improved business performance. Thanks to the combined efforts of the teams, this led to alignment on the creation of a shared support role: the learning experience specialist. This specialist taught orientation, made the calls to all new hires and at-risk employees, and distributed eLearning follow-ups.
From Proactive Alignment to Long-Term Strategy
Organizational Pain Point: Ineffective Communication Due to Hierarchical Structures
Traditional hierarchical structures within the organization limited opportunities for training professionals to engage with senior leadership or decision-makers, relegating them to more operational or administrative roles. For this reason, they struggled to effectively communicate the strategic importance and ROI of training initiatives to key decision-makers, hindering their ability to secure alignment and support.
Training Methodology: The Drive-Through Theory for Concise and Relevant Reporting
Just as customers expect fast service at a drive-through, decision-makers appreciate receiving concise and relevant information. Training professionals would allocate time to exercise distilling complex training insights into clear and actionable recommendations that align with organizational goals.
The “drive-through” theory is a concept that emphasizes the importance of communicating and delivering information quickly and efficiently, like a drive-through service at a fast-food restaurant. Training professionals can leverage this concept to cultivate strong relationships with decision-makers by focusing on the following strategies:
- Taking the order
- Repeating the order
- Suggesting cost savings (without changing the order)
Trust Drip Established: Retrain the Training Team for Effective Communication
It’s difficult to tell a group of experts they no longer get to be the experts. However, that’s exactly what needed to happen. The training team was put through customer service training much like a front-line employee. They taught active listening skills and emphasized the importance of letting the key decision-maker be the key decision-maker. Even though the team had the latest technology, insights and innovative ideas, they had to build a trust drip by delivering what the customer wanted before introducing new innovations.
While in training, the team practiced these concepts by shadowing decision-maker meetings. They took an active role in listening, repeating the outcome and responding with “managed outcomes,” giving decision-makers simple either/or choices (like a menu) when appropriate. The communication gave the team insights into where silos and disconnects existed between decision-makers and where they lacked trust in the training and HR departments to be strategic partners for the business.
Once the training team watched and learned about the purpose of the various meetings in the organization, who the key decision-makers were, how information was presented, what types of questions to expect and what trust barriers they needed to overcome, they requested a regular presentation time at the key meetings to give updates on training impact. They also noted the crucial topics for employees to know in the first 90 days using the content curation model.
This trust drip of regular presentation of information gave visibility and insights into how the training team was evolving and upskilling to overcome trust barriers, the impact they were providing to the new hire program and the limitations of what they could do up to the 90-day mark. With the organization hiring at an average rate of 30 new hires every week and averaging 12 procedures and policy updates per month, a small training department of four had limited reach. This would pave the way for reporting processes that key decision-makers would trust.
Alignment on the Big Initiative: A Lean, Mean, Centralized Training Machine
Once the team was confident they had the trust of the key decision-makers, they presented the decrease in all turnover spikes and how the departments leveled the turnover inflection curves. The team provided clear and concise options with data-driven insights on how the organization could support these initiatives, which led to a pilot program of a two-day orientation.
Due to the size of this change, it was easy to include additional process changes for automated reporting, additional leader involvement and time back to the training team to participate in meetings and take on additional initiatives for the organization. The results of which led to sustained trust in a new department, the minimizing of information silos and centralized processes for training development and reporting with a lean, mean(ingful), centralized training team.
