Sterling Savings

Generational Training Gap Resolved with Blended Learning Solution

Situation

Sterling Savings Bank, a thriving regional bank with over 3,000 employees and full service branches throughout Washington, Idaho, Oregon, Montana and California, has a vision to become the leading community bank in the West.   When an in-house audit revealed a gap in the training of their frontline managers, the company went to work to find a solution that would provide the best learning experience, while simultaneously meeting the multi-generational learning needs of their diverse and widely disbursed management team.

Solution

Sterling worked with NetSpeed Learning Solutions to create a customized blended learning solution that includes a half-day classroom with online follow-up.   This combination of face-to-face learning, with a follow up electronic newsletter and online training through NetSpeed’s Fast Tracks modules, which provide quick learning bites in the form of Podcasts, Avatars and other technologies, successfully accommodates their employees' different generational learning styles while keeping time and distance in mind.   Sterling Savings Bank was able to realize a cost savings by utilizing NetSpeed’s train-the-trainer program and expressed strong support of the blended approach.  “Our relationship with NetSpeed has been extremely valuable for us.  We’ve been able to incorporate our own company experience into the training, combine programs and pick modules to fit with the needs of our workforce, and have come away with a practical program that can be put to use immediately,” says Bridget Piper, Vice President of Talent Management & Organizational Growth. 

Result

Sterling Savings Bank’s blended learning program has made a definitive impact on the organization, according to Piper.  “There is less turnover in our CSR staff, which we attribute to stronger leadership development.   Our frontline managers are taking better care of their teams, and we’re confident that this offering is helping us do that.”  Because of the program’s wide appeal, Sterling Savings Bank continues to offer their managers learning opportunities year after year.   

The Cobalt Group

New Managers Gain Confidence and Improve Employee Satisfaction with Leadership Webinar Series

Situation

The Cobalt Group is a leading provider of automotive marketing services who specializes in helping dealers and manufacturers increase their retailing effectiveness by providing digital marketing solutions such as rich-media display ads, search, and other services.  When the company added more than 350 new first time manager jobs within a single year, they needed an effective, easy to roll out leadership training program that would accomplish the goal without absorbing too much of their new managers' valuable time.

Solution

Instead of taking their managers out of action for a series of 8-hour classroom training sessions, the Cobalt Group chose the NetSpeed Leadership Webinars Series, which provides a 90-minute interactive online learning experience that includes a variety of media and follow-up activities.   More than just a cognitive experience, the webinar series combines best practices leadership content delivered in manageable chunks, with lots of dialog and practical follow-up.   The succinct material, interesting delivery and pragmatic follow-up with portable tools like the pocket guide was, according to Julia Pizzi, V.P of Human Resources, one of the reasons the program worked so well for them.   “Adult training requires engagement activities, a variety of media, and follow-up help to people wrap what they’ve learned in their own experiences.  The post-webinar online reinforcement tools in particular have helped us because just-in-time learning can’t be applied until the situation occurs.  With NetSpeed’s post-session resources, the learning is quickly and easily refreshed.”

Result

Pizzi believes that the program has helped new managers feel more confident in their new roles and better supported by the organization.   “The first time manager is the weakest link.  Thirty percent of new managers don’t make it because it’s the hardest job, which is why this kind of program is so important, “ says Pizzi.  “In a recent Cobalt survey, employee satisfaction with management turned up significantly better than expected.  This is a direct reflection of the education.  We’re sure that this webinar series is contributing to our success,“ says Pizzi.

Florida Virtual School

Connoisseurs of Virtual Learning Find NetSpeed Leadership Webinars a Perfect Fit

Situation

The Florida Virtual School (FlVS) is a publicly funded K-12 online learning school and winner of numerous national and international educational awards.  FLVS also trains teachers, administrators, school districts, and states how to deliver a sound, accountable, and successful online learning experience.   When this industry leader decided to offer a more cohesive, formalized leadership and management program to their 1000+ employees, they wanted a program that could deliver the highest level of excellence and a learning experience that would keep these connoisseurs of online education interested and engaged.

Solution

The Florida Virtual School chose the NetSpeed Learning Solutions Leadership Webinar Series, which offers a broad range of content, with dynamic presentation and a complete follow-up package.  Using 90-minute webinars and web-based reinforcement tools, FLVS participants experience maximum learning without the need for face-to-face contact.  Online tools provided with the program give FLVS the ability to measure training impact.   “NetSpeed Learning Solutions offered us the kind of online learning experience we only hoped to find,” says Raven McElman, Training and Development Specialist.  “They have a deep knowledge of the subject matter, with talented presentation, and truly thoughtful follow-up questions to help with retention.  It’s an intelligent, creative series that gets people involved, learning and applying their own experience.”

Result

According to McElman, it’s been a challenge finding an online learning program that will keep her caliber of online experts interested.   “My people are always multi-tasking, and they’re very savvy.  If they’re not listening because the content isn’t up to par, or it’s just a lecture, they’re not going to learn.  With NetSpeed, I have found an engaging, well-integrated program with good follow up.  The folks at NetSpeed Learning Solutions are instructional design experts when it comes to virtual learning,” says McElman.

Michigan Works!

Blazing Service Creates a Culture of Customer Service and New Business Opportunities

Situation

Michigan Works!, nationally recognized as the largest and most progressive workforce development association in the country, was established in 1987 to foster high-quality employment and training programs for employers and workers in central Michigan and the upper Michigan peninsula.  When this workforce leader decided to offer a customer service training program to support the local business community, they needed a flexible, best-practices solution that could be quickly and easily adapted to multiple businesses, and also provide customer service certification for job seekers.

Solution

Blazing Service, NetSpeed Learning Solutions’ customer service training, which develops customer service skills, helps increase customer satisfaction, and improves customer retention, turned out to be the right choice.  With a combination of proven techniques, a blended learning approach and a soup-to-nuts curriculum, Michigan Works! was able to quickly complete the train-the-trainer program and begin offering Blazing Service to businesses and job seekers almost immediately.  The multi-faceted, six-lesson curriculum instills learning through a lively, interactive experience that incorporates a host of learning tools, such as a facilitator guide, Power Point slides, props, exercises and built-in follow-up opportunities,  According  to Deb Doyle, Director of Operations, the program provides everything a facilitator needs to execute an engaging and relevant training session.   Participant workbooks and follow-up tools, such as the electronic newsletter, help insure that learning is instilled.

Result

Doyle reports that the program has helped build customer service skills within their own organization while providing an important tool for local workers and businesses.  “The word is out, and businesses are interested,” says Doyle.    “I can’t say enough about the curriculum.  There’s not a business in the United States that doesn’t require good customer service skills.  Blazing Service has proved itself.  It’s a great program, and it works.”  

XO Communications

Customer Service Initiative Creates a Customer-centric Culture

Situation

XO Communications, a leading provider of telecommunications services to businesses and carriers, offers a broad portfolio of network and IP services through a unique combination of nationwide metro and wireless networks.  The company serves over 90,000 customers across 75 major metropolitan areas within the U.S., and earns over $1 billion in annual revenue.   When their 2008 Sales and Operations Summit resulted in an initiative to differentiate their business from the competition by offering spectacular customer service, they turned to NetSpeed Learning Solutions to help them launch a program that would not only provide cutting-edge customer service skills, but also establish a dynamic, customer-centric culture across their entire company.

Solution

XO Communications selected Blazing Service, NetSpeed Learning Solutions’ customer service training, which develops customer service skills, helps increase customer satisfaction, and improves customer retention.  “With a disbursed workforce and offices spread out nationwide, we already use web conference delivery extensively, so Blazing Service, with its 90-minute online modules and web-based reinforcement tools was a natural choice for us,” says Jean Clark, Senior Program Manager – Customer Care.   Blazing Service’s content focuses on interpersonal skill development and problem-solving techniques.   Each session builds upon the last, and material is delivered in manageable bites so that information can be absorbed and skills practiced before new content is added.  The program comes with a variety of tracking and measurement tools to help administrators monitor deployment and measure the impact of training.   “The way the program is structured and the relevancy of the content is especially exciting for us.   It focuses on life skills, helps employees get to know themselves better, and teaches the basics of how to relate to others.  We’re getting feedback from across the entire organization that people are excited about this, actively applying what they learned, and they’re using it not only with our customers, but with their own internal customers, too.”

Result

“As a result of the training, we now have a common language to use when we speak about service excellence,” says Clark.  The impact of Blazing Service has been so powerful within XO Communications that they’re rolling it out to the entire company, not just their service departments.   “The company culture is changing because our employees feel like we’re investing in them.  They realize that this program not only helps them do their jobs, but it improves their resume, too.”   Clark also reports that use of Blazing Service has resulted in significant training cost savings.   “We’ve drastically reduced travel and training costs.  And with the train-the-trainer program and a two-year site license, we’ll be able to train our entire company for a nominal per-person cost.”

 

Motor Vehicle Sales Authority of British Columbia

Interactive Learning Platform Creates a Successful, Engaging Learning Experience for Students Across a Vast Geographical Area

The Situation

The Motor Vehicle Sales Authority of British Columbia (MVSA) is an independent agency created by the Canadian government to ensure that business practices and consumer protection laws are properly adhered to by more than 1,700 motor dealers and more than 7,000 sales professionals throughout British Columbia.  As part of their mission, the MVSA provides mandatory certification courses for personnel who directly deal with consumers in retail vehicle sales.  When their ability to provide training was hampered by logistics, travel costs, and access to remote, hard-to-reach areas, MVSA turned to NetSpeed Learning Solutions to develop a program that would provide timely, cost-effective and accessible training across a vast geographic area.

The Solution

Meet NetSpeed Fast Tracks, NetSpeed Learning Solutions’ online, customizable learning platform that leverages emerging technologies in social media such as blogs, videos, interviews, and podcasts - complete with avatars - to help educate, train, and communicate with participants, while fostering a collaborative learning experience.   With NetSpeed Fast Tracks, organizations can use a turnkey, state-of-the-art learning management platform to deliver their own customized learning content, as well as offer employees a wide variety of already developed customizable content on career development, workplace effectiveness, coaching and communication strategies, and management and leadership practices to help managers, supervisors and individual contributors become more successful in the workplace. 

With NetSpeed Learning Solutions’ expertise, the MVSA was able to convert their popular, highly successful 2-day classroom certification course into a dynamic, online, blended program that incorporates preliminary self-study online sessions followed by a series of five 2-hour facilitated webinar “virtual classroom” sessions.   “What we really like about NetSpeed Fast Tracks is that we’re able to use the built-in administrator tools to go in and see how people are doing.  It gives us the chance to reach out and encourage participants to get going and stay involved, which has kept our drop-out rate extremely low.  Because this program requires active participation, we feel like our students are getting as much, if not more learning than they had been getting in the face-to-face classroom,” says Doug Longhurst, Director of Consumer Services and Professional Development.   The program successfully combines the use of traditional and cutting-edge internet 2.0 learning tools to meet all the needs of their multi-generational audience. 

First, the MVSA workbook is mailed to students in advance of the start date.  Next, the MSVA administrator sends each student an invitation to register and start their self-study sessions on NetSpeed Fast Tracks. After each self-study session is completed, a facilitated webinar solidifies the learning and reviews all the important points.  Students document key information in their workbooks, which later serve as a resource for an open book test that is given at the end of training.   “With 25% of their grade dedicated to classroom participation, our students are very aware that their participation and attendance is important.  It’s a different experience than the face-to-face classroom.  At first we were skeptical about how well it would be received, but we see a lot of relationship-building as people chat and banter on particular topics.  The online environment levels the playing field, too.  Shy people are no longer hesitant to participate, and it eliminates the ‘blowhard’ syndrome.  People like it, and they really have fun with it,” says Longhurst.

Result:

While the MVSA program is only in its second pilot, it has already proved a resounding success.  “We had a 100% pass rate on the first group of students tested under this program,” says Longhurst.   “Not only did our students succeed, but the online learning environment has established a relationship between us and our students that we know will be helpful in the long run.   The communication door remains open, it’s a natural channel, and it will help us do a better job of performing our public responsibility and serving as a trusted and valuable resource for them in the future.”  Longhurst also reports that the expense, travel and weather challenges that previously restricted their ability to give classes at remote locations have simply evaporated.  “The virtual classroom is a perfect solution for a certain number of our provinces.   Working with NetSpeed Learning Solutions made our transition easy,” adds Longhurst.

Spheris

Remote Workers' Performance Dramatically Improves Through Interactive Online Learning Program

Situation

Since 1993, Spheris has been a leading global provider of clinical documentation and medical transcription technology to more than 500 health systems, hospitals and group practices throughout the US.    With a remote workforce of more than 2800 medical transcriptionists performing this tough but critical job, Spheris operation supervisors needed a program-based learning solution that would target specific skill competencies to insure uniformity and ongoing production of high quality material.

Solution

After identifying a set of competencies they wanted to achieve, Spheris looked to NetSpeed Learning Solutions to provide a program that could be offered in a virtual learning environment to a group of remote workers spread out across the country.  They also wanted to provide the training through their own company’s web conference platform.   The two companies worked together in partnership to convert one of NetSpeed Learning Solutions' classroom programs into a customized, interactive program consisting of seven different modules centered on communication skills competencies.  The modules are trainer led, but provide group learning in virtual breakout rooms, which allows remote participants the ability to actively engage, discuss content and practice their skills.    According to Chuck Roberts, Director of Training and Organizational Development, Spheris chose NetSpeed because their content addressed the most critical areas of competency and the material could be quickly and easily adapted into an online format.  

Result

Today Spheris sees evidence of the program’s success in multiple areas across their business.    “We’ve enjoyed considerable cost savings with this program by eliminating travel expenses for training, but there are other benefits as well.  The program has made a big impact on our supervisor retention rates, and we can actually see folks putting the skills of being more clear and direct into place.  The program has improved overall work performance and helped us provide a better product,” says Roberts.   The resources NetSpeed brought to the table helped simplify development of the program, according to Roberts.  “Their ability to work with us, lead us through the process, and adjust content so that it maps to our goals has made NetSpeed Learning Solutions a great choice for us.”

 

Motor Vehicle Sales Authority of British Columbia

Interactive Learning Platform Creates a Successful, Engaging Learning Experience for Students Across a Vast Geographical Area

The Situation

The Motor Vehicle Sales Authority of British Columbia (MVSA) is an independent agency created by the Canadian government to ensure that business practices and consumer protection laws are properly adhered to by more than 1,700 motor dealers and more than 7,000 sales professionals throughout British Columbia.  As part of their mission, the MVSA provides mandatory certification courses for personnel who directly deal with consumers in retail vehicle sales.  When their ability to provide training was hampered by logistics, travel costs, and access to remote, hard-to-reach areas, MVSA turned to NetSpeed Learning Solutions to develop a program that would provide timely, cost-effective and accessible training across a vast geographic area.

The Solution

Meet NetSpeed Fast Tracks, NetSpeed Learning Solutions’ online, customizable learning platform that leverages emerging technologies in social media such as blogs, videos, interviews, and podcasts - complete with avatars - to help educate, train, and communicate with participants, while fostering a collaborative learning experience.   With NetSpeed Fast Tracks, organizations can use a turnkey, state-of-the-art learning management platform to deliver their own customized learning content, as well as offer employees a wide variety of already developed customizable content on career development, workplace effectiveness, coaching and communication strategies, and management and leadership practices to help managers, supervisors and individual contributors become more successful in the workplace. 

With NetSpeed Learning Solutions’ expertise, the MVSA was able to convert their popular, highly successful 2-day classroom certification course into a dynamic, online, blended program that incorporates preliminary self-study online sessions followed by a series of five 2-hour facilitated webinar “virtual classroom” sessions.   “What we really like about NetSpeed Fast Tracks is that we’re able to use the built-in administrator tools to go in and see how people are doing.  It gives us the chance to reach out and encourage participants to get going and stay involved, which has kept our drop-out rate extremely low.  Because this program requires active participation, we feel like our students are getting as much, if not more learning than they had been getting in the face-to-face classroom,” says Doug Longhurst, Director of Consumer Services and Professional Development.   The program successfully combines the use of traditional and cutting-edge internet 2.0 learning tools to meet all the needs of their multi-generational audience. 

First, the MVSA workbook is mailed to students in advance of the start date.  Next, the MSVA administrator sends each student an invitation to register and start their self-study sessions on NetSpeed Fast Tracks. After each self-study session is completed, a facilitated webinar solidifies the learning and reviews all the important points.  Students document key information in their workbooks, which later serve as a resource for an open book test that is given at the end of training.   “With 25% of their grade dedicated to classroom participation, our students are very aware that their participation and attendance is important.  It’s a different experience than the face-to-face classroom.  At first we were skeptical about how well it would be received, but we see a lot of relationship-building as people chat and banter on particular topics.  The online environment levels the playing field, too.  Shy people are no longer hesitant to participate, and it eliminates the ‘blowhard’ syndrome.  People like it, and they really have fun with it,” says Longhurst.

Result:

While the MVSA program is only in its second pilot, it has already proved a resounding success.  “We had a 100% pass rate on the first group of students tested under this program,” says Longhurst.   “Not only did our students succeed, but the online learning environment has established a relationship between us and our students that we know will be helpful in the long run.   The communication door remains open, it’s a natural channel, and it will help us do a better job of performing our public responsibility and serving as a trusted and valuable resource for them in the future.”  Longhurst also reports that the expense, travel and weather challenges that previously restricted their ability to give classes at remote locations have simply evaporated.  “The virtual classroom is a perfect solution for a certain number of our provinces.   Working with NetSpeed Learning Solutions made our transition easy,” adds Longhurst.