COLUMBIA, Md., Oct. 11, 2016 /PRNewswire/ — Global performance improvement solutions provider GP Strategies Corporation (NYSE: GPX) today announced that it won 13 Brandon Hall Group Human Capital Management (HCM) Excellence Awards in the Learning, Leadership Development, Talent Management, Talent Acquisition, and Sales Performance categories.
GP Strategies, in collaboration with its customers, received awards for the following projects:
1. Gold | Best Advance in Creating a Learning Strategy
Product Knowledge Roadmap – An automotive industry client and GP Strategies worked together to develop an evidence-based framework for sales training that would provide product-specific curricula and performance support solutions. The development of the Product Knowledge Roadmap strategy incorporated the input of nearly 100 sales consultants, managers, and trainers from dealerships across the country regarding their product information needs. The Roadmap provides a straightforward framework for designing training, supporting in-dealership live sessions, issuing communications, and providing performance support necessary to launch a new vehicle or provide sustainment support for a carryover vehicle.
2. Gold | Best Results of a Learning Program (MasterCard)
MasterCard Phishing – Mastercard, with support from GP Strategies, designed and implemented an interactive simulation that helped employees experience how to protect themselves from a potential phishing attempt. Through a holistic education and execution effort, the results exceeded expectations – and industry benchmarks.
3. Gold | Best Learning Team (Merck)
Transforming L&D at Merck – Merck Learning Shared Services teamed with GP Strategies to form a globally diverse team to provide a "follow the sun" support model to significantly increase the speed of execution and delivery, and drive significant cost savings for Merck. GP Strategies proposed an operational support model that leveraged GP Strategies' Centers of Excellence (COEs) in Solihul, UK; Troy, Michigan, US; and Chennai, India for flexible and regionalized LMS administration, customer service, and content development support. The program tied into a holistic global learning transformation initiative that reduced overall learning spend by approximately 40% while improving/maintaining quality.
4. Gold | Best Unique or Innovative Leadership Development Program
Leaders Studio – GP Strategies' BlessingWhite division developed a leadership program for a leading entertainment industry customer.
5. Gold | Best Advance in Employee Engagement (SunTrust)
Great Days at Work – SunTrust enlisted GP Strategies' BlessingWhite division to measure and improve the engagement of its 25,000 teammates. The approach was multi-pronged and branded as "Great Days at Work." BlessingWhite created an engagement portal of resources for all levels of the workforce, provided survey services and reports, helped strategize communications and targeted action planning; conducted senior leader meetings and workshops for teammates and managers; and piloted a mobile-optimized Great Days at Work tool to help teammates monitor and increase their engagement. As a result, SunTrust remains ahead of the Financial Services benchmark in all engagement favorability indices and has seen a lift in engagement internally year over year.
6. Silver | Best Advance in Custom Content
Onboarding & Orientation – Our automotive industry client launched an initiative three years ago to address gaps between the organization's vision for learning and the reality of the current state of corporate training. The client elected to partner with GP Strategies to bring innovative approaches to address a range of learning needs for both corporate and dealership audiences. The resulting blended learning strategy included quick-start onboarding documents, web-based training, instructional videos (micro learning), interactive job aids, and virtual dealership immersive learning. These innovative approaches have provided more consistent onboarding and professional development experiences for employees and significantly reduced manager overhead associated with onboarding and learning.
7. Silver | Best New Hire Onboarding Program
District Managers Combined (DMC) New Hire Development – An automotive industry client includes an extensive field organization across the US that supports its dealerships that market and sell its core brands. This field organization is made up of District Managers, the front-line representatives of the client to its dealership network. In 2013, the role and responsibilities of DMCs changed significantly, creating the need for a DMC new hire development program. HR began recruiting and hiring DMCs. Once hired, new DMCs journey together, networking and collaborating throughout. During their 6-month immersive journey, DMCs are able to focus 100% on learning essential skills and knowledge through a variety of learning experiences.
8. Bronze | Best Advance in Learning Technology Implementation (Cigna)
Your Cigna University – Cigna University's vision for the future-state LMS is about moving beyond course tracking, content management, and delivery to providing an integrated cloud-based learning experience that includes formal, social, mobile, and informal learning. To accomplish this, Cigna University and GP Strategies undertook a huge IT transformation project with an aggressive (9.5 months) implementation timeline to migrate thousands of employees and contractors, as well as millions of transcripts, to a new learning platform. GP Strategies also created newly designed pages, transferred assets to the new social collaboration platform, and trained Cigna University help desk LMS administrators and agents on new processes.
9. Bronze | Best Certification Program
Master-Level Certification Program for Certified Technology Experts (CTEs) – The Master-Level Certified Technology Expert (MCTE) program is designed to support an automotive industry clients' Global Customer Care Experience team in their request to have a more specialized team of Certified Technology Experts (CTEs) within the dealership who could answer customer questions and coach colleagues on topics related to in-vehicle technology. When the client determined the need for a comprehensive MCTE program, they turned to GP Strategies for expertise in instructional design and content development. Instructional designers from GP Strategies collaborated with client subject-matter experts to prepare and design a custom, performance-based certification program. A successful pilot was conducted in 2015 with a group of CTEs to validate the training materials.
10. Bronze | Best Advance in Custom Content (Lowe's Companies, Inc.)
Leading Yourself and Your Team Through Change – The goal of the project was to create a Level 2 and 3 suite of eCourses geared towards helping employees and leaders develop resilience and manage through periods of transformation. The "Leading Yourself Through Change" program was collaboratively designed with Lowe's Companies, Inc. and developed by GP Strategies to help address multiple needs of all Lowe's Companies, Inc. employees at all levels. The "Leading Your Team Through Change" series is composed of three eCourses: The Challenges of Change, Introducing Change to Your Team, and Managing Change. This series is a tool that helps both employees and leaders; staff can use it for their own development and leaders can use it to build commitment and to manage change on their teams.
11. Bronze | Best Advance in Creating a Learning Strategy (Merck)
Transforming L&D at Merck – A benchmark assessment in 2012 found that Merck had opportunities to drive efficiencies in its Learning structure, when compared to peer companies with high-impact learning organizations. The solution for Merck was to create and implement a Federated Learning Model to improve efficiency, visibility, and alignment to company operating goals. While aligning to the company's overall operating strategy, this scalable strategy centers on a two-part operating approach: the "front office" (client-facing) and a new "back office" (Learning Shared Service [LSS] team) to work with the front office to fulfill L&D initiative requests. Once the new Merck LSS team was established, they consolidated and outsourced executional support with a single vendor partner, GP Strategies, creating a flexible and scalable support model to meet the variable executional demand.
12. Bronze | Best Advance in Custom Content (PNC Bank)
AMG Journey – PNC's Asset Management Group (AMG) wanted a consistent onboarding program to provide all new AMG employees up-to-date operational structure and group capabilities awareness for all the lines of business within AMG. Onboarding to a new organization is a journey for learners. Recognizing this, PNC set out to create a journey theme to the learning materials. The design vision intentionally considered each AMG line of business as a destination for learners to visit. PNC knows that onboarding is daunting and most learners cannot fully absorb all the needed information. For that reason, an engaging theme was used to help maintain interest and encourage completion. The goal was for the learner to remember the training tools themselves so that when they shift to new client delivery channels or functional service roles, they can easily revisit the training for a refresher. The learner starts their journey with an interactive job aid providing a boarding pass to each destination. As the learner moves through the course (journey) they experience a mix of animated videos, recorded webinars, and interactive online courses based on the travel theme.
13. Bronze | Best Unique or Innovative Sales Training Program (TransUnion)
Shifting to a Customer-Centric, Problem-Solving Mindset – In 2012, TransUnion (TU) was preparing for a major sales transformation. TU hired a globally renowned management consulting firm to conduct a salesforce optimization analysis. The results revealed that changes needed to occur at both the sales structure and selling skills levels in order to maximize effectiveness. GP Strategies understood the transformational need and recommended a unique customized solution that would provide TU a competitive advantage. The sales leadership team and GP Strategies jointly developed a blended learning solution with five critical sales themes that make up the sales enablement journey: Share a Tailored Point of View; Connect with the Right Buyer; Have Successful Meetings; Establish the Shared Definition of Success; and Make the Value Tangible. As a result, the types of conversations TU is having with their customers have changed. Customers are now more engaged, view TU as a more strategic partner, and are delighted with the insight-led discussions they are now having that they feel better meet and anticipate their needs.
About Brandon Hall Group
Brandon Hall Group is an HCM research and advisory services firm that provides insights around key performance areas, including Learning and Development, Talent Management, Leadership Development, Talent Acquisition, and Workforce Management. With more than 10,000 clients globally and 20 years of delivering world-class research and advisory services, Brandon Hall Group is focused on developing research that drives performance in emerging and large organizations, and provides strategic insights for executives and practitioners responsible for growth and business results (www.brandonhall.com).
About GP Strategies
GP Strategies Corporation is a global performance improvement solutions provider of training, eLearning solutions, management consulting, and engineering services. GP Strategies' solutions improve the effectiveness of organizations by delivering innovative and superior training, consulting, and business improvement services customized to meet the specific needs of its clients. Clients include Fortune 500 companies, manufacturing, process and energy industries, and other commercial and government customers. Additional information may be found at www.gpstrategies.com.
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