Best Practices in Implementing a Responsive Training Program

April, 7 2004

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Speakers

Bill Vaughan

Customer Support Supervisor

Laura Anne Plummer

Course Developer

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Agenda

Topic Time

Return on Investment 5 Minutes

Skill Assessment and Career Path

5 Minutes

Response to Staff Development Plans

10 Minutes

Responsive Product Training Program

15 Minutes

Course Assessment 5 Minutes

Case Study: New Product Release

5 Minutes

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Objectives

Understand Training ‘Return on Investment’: Vertex vs. Industry Standards

Review the Vertex Career Path model

Realize how Vertex responds to Individual Staff Development plans in real time

Appreciate how the Training Department responds to Product Support Training needs

Comprehend the methodology involved in creating responsive training

Understand the application of development and delivery methods in the real world

Return On Investment

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What is the investment? Benchmarking standards

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What is the investment? Vertex vs. Industry

Training Costs

Industry Standard: ASTD

Vertex Costs

Cost per Employee $761 $ 834.11

Cost of Training

2001-

2002

HR Department $399.00

Training Department $435.11

* Total $834.11

*Total does not include tuition costs

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What is the return?Vertex

Call metrics are equal to or greater

than the call center average

PSA is comprehensively

trained in tax, product, and support tool knowledge

Customer satisfaction rating

is increasingly higher

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Decreasing the costs of training

Cost of Training

2001-

2002

Training Department $ 435.11

Cost of Training

2002-

2003

Training Department $ 116.11

Implementation of new training methods including:

• On your own exercises

• Coaching program*

• WebCasts/CBT’s

• Attending external customer classes*

* 61% reduction in instructor-led training time

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Increasing the value of training

At the company level, the implementation of new training methods results in the following:

• Reduction of training time for PSA

• Reduction of need for training resources

At the product support level, streamlined training courses decrease…

…ramp-up time to phone (Vertex 6-10 days)

…facilitation time (Vertex 1-2 days)

while increasing internal customer satisfaction.

The Vertex Career Path model

Skills Assessment And Career Path

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Career Path perspectives

Corporate

Support

DepartmentEmployee

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Career Path model

General Characteristics Career Paths

Competencies

AssessmentTool

Learning Maps

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General characteristics

General Characteristics

Individuals serving in the Customer Support job family …

Individuals in this job family must have a solid understanding of …

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Career Path

Title Business Process Analyst Account Executive Account Manager

Dimension

PROJECT COMPLEXITY

Typically, performs … Performs work across …

Performs work across multiple business units …

TYPICAL RESPONSIBILITIES

Serves as a … Serves as a liaison … Serves as a liaison across all business units, …

Assesses near-term … Assesses short-term business needs, …

Defines short and long-term business needs, …

Researches …

Researches moderately …

Researches complex, enterprise wide …

TYPICAL EDUCATION/ EXPERIENCE

Typically requires … Typically requires … Typically requires …

May require supervisory experience.

Title Business Process Analyst Account Executive Account Manager

Dimension

PROJECT COMPLEXITY

Typically, performs … Performs work across …

Performs work across multiple business units …

TYPICAL RESPONSIBILITIES

Serves as a … Serves as a liaison … Serves as a liaison across all business units, …

Assesses near-term … Assesses short-term business needs, …

Defines short and long-term business needs, …

Researches …

Researches moderately …

Researches complex, enterprise wide …

TYPICAL EDUCATION/ EXPERIENCE

Typically requires … Typically requires … Typically requires …

May require supervisory experience.

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Competencies

Project Leader

Project Manager

Program Manager

Program Director

BEHAVIORAL: Customer Service Orientation: Works with Account & Business Process Management to ensure client’s needs (internal and/or external) are met/exceeded. Following through on client inquiries, requests and issues. Taking action to ensure client satisfaction.

Being Developed

Intermediate Advanced Advanced

Thoroughness: Reflects an underlying drive to reduce uncertainty in the surrounding environment. It suggests a detail orientation directed at minimizing efforts and keeping tasks and responsibilities clear and on schedule.

Intermediate Advanced Expert Advanced

Competencies

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Assessment tool

Thoroughness: Reflects an underlying drive to reduce uncertainty in the surrounding environment. It suggests a detail orientation directed at minimizing efforts and keeping tasks and responsibilities clear and on schedule.

Example(s) Of How You Have Demonstrated This Behavior

Manager's Comments Development / Action Plan           

Expected Proficiency Rating

Employee View

Manager

View

Client View

Consensus View

 

         

Assessment Tool

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Learning maps

COMPETENCY DEVELOPMENTAL ACTIVITIES

OTHER SOURCES OF DEVELOPMENT

RECOMMENDED TRAINING

IT Tools/Utilities: Knowledge of IT technology tools and utilities. Able to research new products, determine which tools and utilities are most applicable to the design, administration and management of applications.

  Meet with a Web operations support manager. Ask what tools and utilities they use to support, monitor and tune their web applications. At a detailed level, find out what problems they have had and what were the causes.  

Books: Web Performance Tuning by Killelea, Patrick (1998) Web Performance Tuning hits the ground running and gives concrete advice for improving crippled Web performance right away. For anyone who has waited too long for a Web page to display or watched servers slow to a crawl, this book includes tips on tuning the server software, operating system, network, and the Web browser itself.  

Courses: A course for those who want to learn more about space management, user management, data security, and backup and recovery. The course should include understanding the potential for failures and how to recover and restore databases for maximum performance; archiving; managing users, assignment of privileges and database security. These courses will be, for the most part, mainframe vendor specific. Check their websites for classes.

Learning Maps

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Career Path process

Identify Requirements of Existing Role

Identify Short and Long-Term Goals

Create a Certification Task List

Determine Review Criteria

Progress Checkpoints

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How do we practice the Career Path?

Monthly One-on-One Meetings

– Items Discussed

– Path Forward

– Achievements

– Future Objectives

Performance Reviews

Promotions

Response To Staff Development Plans

“Real World” example

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Product Support analyst to Product Support specialist

Product Team Membership

Escalation Resource

Provide Workgroup Leadership

Transition from Operational to Strategic

Advanced Product Knowledge

Level 1Level 2

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Product Team membership skills

Effective

Business

Writing

Team Training

Negotiation

SkillsAdditional

Technical

Skills

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Escalation resource

Social

Styles

Communication

Skills

Conflict Resolution

Listening

Skills

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Provide workgroup leadership

Mentoring

SkillsPresentation

Skills Leadership

Training

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Transition – operational to strategic

Strategic

Orientation

Effective

Business

WritingProject

Management

Operational Strategic

Responsive Product Training Program

Development and delivery from the Training group

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Vertex’s education program

Vertex’s education program includes:

Dedicated product course development and delivery

HR employee development training

Additional course training

Tuition reimbursement

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Vertex product release cycle

Product Specifications

Beta Release

Product

General Release

Minor Releases

(Major)

Data Collection

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Dedicated Product Training group

Product Training Components

Training

Product Team Membership

Self-Directed Instruction

Material Development

Training Delivery

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Product team involvement

Training Developers are members of software product teams from the time of initiation.

Team Member

Responsibilities

Meeting Attendance

Project PlanTrainingDesign

Specification

Training Group SME

Support Training Liaison

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Self-directed instruction

The course designer’s primary responsibility is to know the product’s

functionality.

Designer

Product Design Specs

Meet withBSA

Practice Application

Documentation

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Training material development

Review Templates

Create TrainingGuides

Create Case Studies

Create JobAides

Create Presentation

Create SelfStudy Guide Instructor

Notes

Required Optional

During the development process, design specifications are converted

into training deliverables.

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Training delivery for product support

Beta Release (X.X)

• Product Support Training

General Release (1.X)

• Forum

• Product support training

• Train the trainer sessions

Minor Release (1.1.X)

• Web Cast

Major Release: (2.X)

• Same as above

• Web Cast

Course Assessment

Does training work?

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Course Assessment process

Training CourseAssessment

Course Effectiveness

KnowledgeTransfer

Pre/PostTests

Final CourseExam

StudentSurvey

Ride Along

Sessions

Event Driven Survey

Peer to PeerMonitoring

30/90Day

Review

Training Filter

Non-training Related Barriers

Call Quality Assessment

Exercises

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Course effectiveness

Pre/Post Tests

• Pre-test results

• Post-test resultsFinal Exam

• Must obtain at least 93%

Student Survey

• Instructor assessment

• Material assessment

• Topic assessment

Exercises• Guided practice• On-Your-Own practice• Case Studies

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Knowledge Transfer assessment

Ride Along Sessions Event Driven Survey

Survey

Peer-to-Peer Call Quality

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Training filter

A 30 and 90 day Product Support Analyst review is used to evaluate the analyst’s ability to perform

specific job tasks and filter out non-related training barriers including:

• Ineffective work tools

• Poor management

• Time constraints

• Personal motivation

Troubleshooting training

Case Study: New Product Release

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Case study scenario

New Tax ProductO Series

Advances in the fields of tax and technology created a demand for Web services products, which can be integrated with existing financial systems and properly calculate a variety of business taxes. The product release is scheduled for the end of the 4th quarter. Product support must be trained on troubleshooting techniques before the beta release.

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Training needs analysis

Training must include the addition or improvement of the following troubleshooting skills:

• Programming Languages – XML, JAVA

• Platform Requirements – Web Services

• Database Requirements – Relational DB

• Product Functionality – O Series

• Tax Specifics – Value Added Tax, Consumer Use Tax

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Training response

New O Series Skills

Product Training

Department

Human ResourcesDepartment

In-house coursesExternal CoursesTax Field SpecificsProduct Functionality

JAVAXMLDBAWSCUTVATO Series

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Product training deliverables

Courses for O Series Human Resources – Pre-product offerings

– In-house programming language courses

– Advanced programming courses

– External Oracle DBA certification

– External course – Web Services

Training Department – Modularized Product Offerings– Overview

– System Administration

– Sales Tax

– Consumer Use

– Value Added Tax

– Integration Specifics

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Streamlined Training - reduction of cost

Courses for O Series Human Resources – Pre-product offerings

– In-house programming language courses – 2 day company-wide offering

– Advanced product training – product development supplement

– External Oracle DBA certification – 2 individuals/group

– External course – Web Services – 2 individuals/group

Training Department – Modularized Product Offerings - – Overview – ½ day instructor-led

– System Administration - ½ day Instructor-led

– Sales Tax – 1 day instructor-led

– Consumer Use – 1 day instructor-led

– Value Added Tax – 1 day instructor-led

– Integration/Platform/Architecture Specifics – 4 day instructor-led/SME adjuncts

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