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How to Use Case Studies in Your Employee Training Sessions

Case studies can be powerful tools for learning and training. They're evidence-based stories that showcase the outcomes you want, so using them as the basis for your training can make the training itself more engaging and more effective. The question is, how can you use a case study to enhance your training for learners? There are several options.

• Identify personal leadership styles
• Capitalize on style strengths
• Minimize style trouble spots

Table of Contents

Design a case study to fit the training, develop training to fit a case study, use a longitudinal case study to demonstrate outcomes of training, use miniature case studies to prove individual points, thread a case study throughout training, ask trainees to predict case study outcomes, discuss potential alternative outcomes in case studies, turn a case study into an immersive simulation, create a framework case study and encourage trainees to fill it out.

First up, you have one major decision to make. Do you design training around a case study, or do you design a case study to fit your training? Both perspectives are equally valid as long as the study results and the training program goals are aligned.

Let’s say you choose to design a case study to fit your desired training. For example, you're trying to implement the  Delivering Exceptional Phone Service  reproducible training course for your customer service team. To back up the training, you want a case study that showcases how putting the techniques taught in the course into practice will bolster positive outcomes with customer service.

You have two options here.

• The first is simply writing a case study based on your own experiences, accentuating the necessary details relevant to the training, and pruning it down to the bare essentials to prove your point.
• The other option is to seek out existing case studies performed by renowned research firms that support your points.

In either case, you can then use the case study as a "real world" example of how the techniques in the training can be put to actual use and how they tangibly impact positive outcomes. Make sure to highlight specific aspects of the case study and how they relate to the practices put forth in the training module for better retention.

Your second option, as an alternative, is to develop your training to fit an already existing case study.

The process looks a little something like this:

• Begin by finding a case study that results in the outcomes you're seeking. For example,  this case study from Train Like a Champion  focuses on getting training to produce long-term results, something that every company can benefit from implementing.
• Next, review the case study. Look for salient details and mechanisms used to achieve the outcomes you desire. Ideally, the case study itself will support those mechanisms and expound upon how to use them.
• Finally, develop a training module that integrates the case study and its data, as well as the mechanisms you uncovered, to train your employees to achieve those same outcomes.

You can accompany the training module with the case study, with details and data uncovered along the way, or you can use it as a companion piece or use it as cited sources or proof for the claims you're making. None of these choices are inherently wrong, so pick the ones that work best with your staff and your means of training to create a better learning experience.

Longitudinal case studies are case studies that look at and measure specific data about their subjects over a long period. Such case studies can follow individuals throughout a particular period of years, their careers, or their entire lives. For example, longitudinal studies are often used in medicine to help study the long-term effects of various substances and illnesses.

A longitudinal case study can be a powerful tool for building training. You can point to specific, hard evidence that certain kinds of training not only improve short-term results and benefits for employees, clients, and companies but can increase the value of employees throughout their careers.

Using this kind of case study can be an essential part of encouraging your employees to take the training seriously. After all, it's one thing to encourage employees to participate in training because it benefits customers or the company, but it's quite a different incentive if you can showcase how that training will improve their career prospects.

The tricky part about this is that case studies can prove many different points because different people have different career trajectories and leverage different skills in different ways. That is why it can be essential to begin with training modules such as  What's My Leadership Style  to help employees identify which individuals to follow in the case study and which outcomes are most relevant to their specific situations.

If finding specific, relevant longitudinal studies isn't possible, an alternative approach involves leveraging small-scale case studies to reinforce key points throughout your training process. For example, throughout a comprehensive  customer service training  course, you can use specific case studies that highlight varied responses to an irate customer, showcasing how different approaches lead to distinct outcomes. These case studies provide tangible examples to support decisions about adopting a placating, resistant, or combative tone in customer interactions.

The benefit to this option is that there are, in general, many more small-scale case studies than there are more extensive, longitudinal case studies. Moreover, it's much easier to find them and use them to prove your points. Long-term case studies can have surprising outcomes, and they can have findings that contradict your studies and policies. That can be difficult to reconcile unless you're willing to wholly adjust your training and direction.

The biggest potential drawback to this option is that there are many small-scale case studies, many of which can have contradictory outcomes. With the vast pool of small-scale case studies available, there is a risk of cherry-picking examples that selectively support a specific viewpoint, regardless of their overall value. This practice could compromise the integrity of the training content and may not provide a holistic representation of the topic at hand. Trainers should exercise caution and ensure that the chosen case studies are relevant, unbiased, and contribute substantively to the overall learning objectives.

If you think back to some of the more effective textbook designs for schools in higher education, you may find a through-line. Many effective textbooks include an ongoing, long-term set of examples, or "characters," they follow along the way. For example, in courses where you learn a language, a textbook will often have a set of characters who interact in varying situations to showcase quirks of language, particularly conversational use of the language.

A case study can be used in this manner for your training. Fortunately, many comprehensive and overarching training courses have these kinds of examples and case studies built into them.

The goal is to allow your trainees to explore training in a multifaceted way. That might include links to studies, links to infoboxes, video interviews, and much more.

An added benefit of this training method is that you can make a single training module much more comprehensive in terms of answers to common and uncommon questions. Training employees from a point of knowledge can be surprisingly challenging because it can be tricky to judge even what the trainees don't know. Providing in-depth, interlinked, embedded answers to questions for trainees to explore helps bring everyone to the same page.

One thing that sets effective training apart from ineffective training is the level of interactivity. When training is interactive and engaging, trainees learn much more from it by participating in "real-life" examples and demos of the training in action. This approach enables participants to apply their knowledge in real-life situations, promoting a deeper understanding and emphasizing their problem-solving ability to choose appropriate resolutions.

One way to help encourage engagement in training is with a case study that puts that training into action. Divide the case study between setup and resolution, and have the trainees read the setup portion of the training. Cut it off as the individuals in the case study are making their decisions based on the training (or ignoring the training).

Then, ask the trainees to predict what the outcomes will be. Encourage them to write down their predictions. Then, you can progress with the case study and reveal the actual results of the training. While some case studies may follow predictable paths, introducing occasional curveballs keeps participants on their toes. These unexpected twists challenge trainees’ critical thinking skills and their ability to adapt their problem-solving strategies. You can then discuss why they made the predictions that they did and what led them to their decisions, whether right or wrong.

This interactive approach not only transforms training into a participatory experience but also creates a platform for meaningful discussions.

Like the above, you can leverage case studies and predictions to speculate. How would the outcome have changed if the individual in the case study made a different choice or acted differently?

What changes would your employees make?

"After reading a case study together or independently, you can have your participants write a different ending to the case study. For example, if you read a story about a woman who improved her communication skills after attending a workshop (just like the one your students might be in), have them write what would happen if she didn't attend the workshop. Have them write what would happen if she was engaged/not engaged. Ask them to consider what is going on in the woman's life that might impact her ability to communicate appropriately or efficiently during the time of training. Writing a different outcome prompts participants to consider the whole story and not just the parts that are presented to them." –  TrainingCourseMaterial

For an interesting case study of your own, you can ask your trainees to read a situation and convey how they would act in that situation before implementing the training in the first place. Then, progress through the training modules. When finished, ask the trainee to revisit, see how accurate their behavior is to the goal, and ask them what changes, if any, they would make.

Once again, studies show that the best training is training produced in the form of an immersive simulation.  

Look for industry case studies about particular incidents.  Several agencies  produce comprehensive investigations into the circumstances behind industrial accidents, often in factory, warehouse, or shipping processes. These case studies can form the basis of a scenario wherein you ask your employees to role-play how they would respond if the incident occurred in your facility.

You can then use the realities of the investigation to enforce consequences in the simulated disaster. For example, say you're training employees to handle a chemical spill in a warehouse. The established procedures outline specific actions to be taken. Within the simulation, introduce a scenario where one employee is found unconscious within the chemical spill. This introduces a critical decision point: will someone attempt a rescue, and if so, will they do so without proper preparation? You can then remove this individual from the training scenario because their actions led to them being incapacitated.

There are many such examples. Always remember that most, if not all, industrial and commercial regulations are built on the back of people dying because of loopholes or unforeseen circumstances.

This approach allows employees to engage with the training material in a hands-on, realistic manner. It not only reinforces the importance of adhering to established protocols but also highlights the potential repercussions of deviating from proper procedures. The immersive nature of these simulations helps employees internalize the lessons, making the training more impactful and applicable to their day-to-day responsibilities.

Finally, another way to use case studies for training is to turn your trainees into case studies themselves. Build a framework or a template of a case study, with questions about the scenario, their responses, the training, and their behavior after the training. Encourage trainees to fill out these case study templates, then participate in training, and fill them out again. For added value, track these employees for months afterward to see where they've gone, how they've implemented their training, and how it has improved their careers.

The use of case studies can be a powerful training tool, but they can only be effective if coupled with practical training modules. After all, you can't know how to reach your goals without knowing where you are. That's why we offer dozens of training options in our reproducible training library, as well as dozens more assessments (both instructor-led and self-guided) to help establish baselines and build awareness.

Check out our training library, and find case studies that align with your company values and learning objectives.

To learn more about how to help your employees, check out our  What’s My Leadership Style  course. This course is a management development tool, leadership style assessment, and online training workshop. This comprehensive tool is designed to pinpoint an individual's leadership style, offering valuable insights for organizational leaders, managers, and supervisors. By utilizing this tool, professionals can enhance their performance and cultivate the skills necessary to evolve into effective and impactful leaders within their respective roles.

Do you have any questions or concerns about using case studies in your employee training sessions to provide the best outcomes for your learners? If so, please feel free to leave a comment down below, and we'll get back to you! We make it a point to reply to every message we receive, and we would be more than happy to assist you or your company however we possibly can.

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About our author

Bradford r. glaser.

Brad is President and CEO of HRDQ, a publisher of soft-skills learning solutions, and HRDQ-U, an online community for learning professionals hosting webinars, workshops, and podcasts. His 35+ years of experience in adult learning and development have fostered his passion for improving the performance of organizations, teams, and individuals.

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How to use case studies in training programmes

As a trainer, I often think about how to make my training sessions more interesting and useful.  

The purpose of a training course is to help trainees understand a concept that can be used in their field. For this, they require both theoretical and practical knowledge so they can apply the learning in real-life situations. 

Using case studies in training sessions is a great way to achieve this. They’re practical training tools, which actively engage trainees through descriptive, real-life and/or fictional situations. Crucially, they focus on how to solve a problem, rather than on the solution alone. 

They also offer alternative experiences, approaches and solutions to help broaden trainees’ knowledge and skills, e.g., teamwork, practical knowledge application and problem solving. 

Types of case studies 

Picking the right type of case study for your training programme is important. Here are some of the main types:

• Descriptive case studies focus on explaining a particular situation or action. For example, it could be used to help trainees learn effective strategies.
• Exploratory case studies explore the potential benefits and limitations of existing strategies or examine emerging trends or new phenomena.
• Instrumental case studies focus on understanding a particular problem and then provide insights into a broader issue or problem.
• Intrinsic case studies focus on a particular case and then generalise the findings to other scenarios.
• Collective case studies examine a group of related cases to gain insights into broader phenomena.

How to use pre-existing case studies

All the case studies that you provide should include sufficient information so the trainees can develop solutions and apply them to similar scenarios. 

The length of the training course will affect how you integrate the case studies. 

Some effective ways to successfully use case studies in your training programmes include the following:

• Provide a brief, written scenario and include questions that trainees can evaluate themselves. This will enable them to apply their learning immediately and identify options for solving the problem.
• Show short videos that present specific problems/scenarios and ask the trainees to develop role-plays based on them to analyse the problems objectively.
• Provide a written scenario, e.g., addressing local climate change issues, and accompanying data and ask trainees to analyse and present their understanding of the issues in groups.
• Make a presentation, supported by visual aids. Provide practical examples of the theory or techniques covered and follow up with a question-and-answer session (structured or unstructured).
• Ask trainees to read a case study independently and then have a whole-group discussion about the challenges and the possible solutions.
• Get the trainees to complete individual/group assignments on a case study. Provide a worksheet and get them to write/present their analysis, including their recommendations/solutions.
• Use several case studies so the trainees can the identify similarities and differences among them.
• Case studies can also be provided as reading materials for trainees to take home to test their knowledge and skills without worrying about marks.

Helping your trainees write their own case studies

In longer training courses you could even give the trainees a scenario and get them to develop their own case studies on it. 

To support them with this you could give them a list of steps as a framework , like the following:

• Read the scenario and highlight relevant facts and underline the key problems. 
• Identify between two and five key problems. For each, answer the following questions: Why does the problem exist? What’s its impact? Who’s responsible for it ?
• Review the source documents, have discussions or conduct more research to find possible solutions to each problem/the changes required.
• Choose the best solution, making sure it’s realistic and that the supporting evidence is strong. Identify the pros and cons of your chosen solution.

You could also give them a more detailed template, providing a clear structure for developing their own case studies. This could provide guidance and prompts for writing the following sections: introduction, background, evaluation, recommendations and conclusions.

At the Public Affairs Centre (PAC) , we train many government officers and decision-makers and our use of case studies has been well-received and beneficial. 

But the training strategies outlined above would be beneficial and effective in any training context.  

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The 5 Best Examples of Employee Training Courses & Development Programs

LinkedIn’s latest Workplace Report found that people who aren’t learning in your organization will leave. 

So, how can you help employees upskill to be better at their jobs and motivate them to stay in the company? One effective tool available to L&D teams is employee training and development programs.

In this article, we’ll define employee training and development and its importance, showcase five concrete examples of training programs (with high-profile case studies), and provide four tips to help you get your development programs up and running.

First, what is employee training and development?

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What is employee training and development? 

Employee training and development is the process of designing, creating, and delivering courses for employee learning.

For example, L&D teams use training and development programs to onboard new hires, match mentors with mentees to boost professional development, or close an organization’s skills gaps through upskilling or reskilling initiatives. 

By providing thorough and customized training and development programs, you and your team can enhance employees' skills so they excel in their roles, increase their job satisfaction, and clarify their career development.

Next, let’s look at how training and development programs contribute to your company's business goals. 

The importance of employee training courses

The benefits of employee training programs range from those that impact employees to those that affect an organization’s bottom line.

Employee training programs are essential for organizations seeking an upskilled and knowledgeable workforce. L&D teams can leverage training and development to empower employees to gain the skills they need to succeed in their company and industry.

Without precisely planned training programs, companies can’t expect to make an impact on employee retention. Well-designed development programs make it easy to showcase that your organization cares about employees’ professional growth. If they see the company as one that supports their career development, they will be more likely to stay. 

In fact, according to our survey of over 1,000 American employees, self-directed learning and career development training were seen as the most appealing options for people looking to reskill:

Streamlined and robust training programs will also increase employee performance, improve job satisfaction, and boost employee engagement. 

Next, let’s look at the five best examples of employee training and development programs.

5 best examples of employee training & development programs (with case studies)

From onboarding to leadership development, many employee training management can be tweaked to fit your organization’s bespoke needs. 

Today, we’ll look at five examples of employee training and development programs, each with a quick case study for some real-world inspiration.

1. Onboarding

Onboarding or new hire training helps new employees understand their roles and responsibilities and how they fit within the organization.

L&D leverages employee onboarding training programs to introduce new hires to the organization. The learning process will include standardized milestones that help new employees understand and learn about the company, co-workers, and their new role. 

Case study: Onboarding at Aircall

Aircall is the cloud-based call center and phone system of choice for modern businesses. 

With 650 employees, the company is growing fast. To meet the pace of their growth, the L&D team restructured their onboarding program to make it scalable, interactive, and collaborative.

Leveraging 360Learning , the team at Aircall increased the efficiency of their onboarding training programs by empowering subject-matter experts to work with the L&D team to create business-specific onboarding courses .

By boosting knowledge sharing across the organization, the L&D team has scaled their onboarding and broader employee training with impactful, demonstrable results ranging from onboarding 40 new hires with only one full-time employee to impacting professional development with high numbers of employees contributing to course creation. 

2. Technical upskilling 

Upskilling is training that gives employees new skills and competencies to help them do their jobs better.

Skill development is a crucial area of learning and development. By designing and deploying upskilling employee training programs, L&D teams can increase employee productivity, streamline succession planning, and increase employee retention.

Technical training focuses on teaching employees the specific skills they need, including operating machinery and using company software. By increasing employee competencies, technical upskilling can ensure that they are performing at a high level in their current roles and that they will prepared for future positions.

Case study: Upskilling at Amazon

Amazon’s $1.2 billion Upskilling 2025 programs focus on supporting employees to learn critical skills for the in-demand, higher-paying technical or non-technical roles.

For example, the Amazon Technical Academy equips non-technical Amazon employees with the necessary skills to pursue successful careers in software engineering. The in-person training courses leverage instructor-led and project-based training sessions with a significant focus on applying the skills in the real world.

Amazon also included a new skill development program, AWS Training and Certification, which helps employees of all roles and backgrounds to work in the AWS cloud. The learning program includes instructor-led training, gamification, and exam certification. 

3. Professional development

Encouraging your employees to participate in professional development training can be an incredible way to help them upskill and boost their career development.

Professional development training programs utilize various learning approaches, such as mentoring, self-paced eLearning, and online webinars, to enable employees to achieve their career goals and increase job satisfaction.

Successful L&D teams will also leverage professional development plans alongside career development training programs to help support employee retention, boost upskilling, and help meet the organization’s business goals.

Case study: Professional development at Netflix

The streaming giant Netflix runs the 12-week Pathways Bootcamp , a part-time training program that equips employees with the necessary development skills. 

After completion, employees gain access to post-course training materials and online tutorials to help them face common programming challenges the streaming industry faces. Employees can also engage in mentoring opportunities with Netflix professionals to help with their career development. 

To enhance company culture, the Pathways Bootcamp development program focuses on learners from historically underrepresented communities. The New Grad Program also helps new hires build community and networks through training programs on Netflix culture, including professional development. 

4.  Mentoring

Mentoring is a type of training that promotes human connections and involves transferring knowledge, skills, and experience from one person to another. 

As a training method, mentoring includes traditional one-on-one or reverse mentoring, where older, more experienced individuals learn from younger ones. Mentorship programs promote and strengthen a culture of learning and drive diversity initiatives.

Case study: Mentoring at Spotify

Employees at Spotify can use the music streaming platform’s internal talent marketplace, Echo , to build their career portfolios and generate connections across a global workforce. 

One of the ways Echo offers job opportunities is through mentoring, which allows employees anywhere across the globe to connect and learn from a mentor at Spotify. Echo uses artificial intelligence to match mentors and mentees based on skills automatically, and best practices developed by the L&D team guide the relationship. 

5. Leadership development

Leadership training is a type of soft skill training that focuses on interpersonal abilities, emphasizing leadership qualities and skill sets that influence directing others.

Leadership training aims to cultivate skilled leaders capable of positively impacting their teams and contributing to the company's success. Effective leadership development programs will prioritize soft skills such as communication, decision-making, conflict resolution, and delegation.

Case study: Leadership development at Bank of America

At the Bank of America, the leadership investment initiatives offer a range of leadership development training programs.

For example, the Women’s Next Level Leadership Program focuses on helping multicultural women with their career development through assessments, strategies, and tactics offered in an eight-month virtual online learning experience.

Additionally, the New Manager Program empowers new or promoted managers’ upskilling to lead their teams successfully. The training program includes interactive and personalized learning resources to fit each individual employee’s learning style and needs.  

With those inspiring employee training and development examples in mind, let's shift our focus to helping you establish an impactful talent management program.

4 tips for creating a great training course

If you’re going to design and manage training and development programs that impact employee upskilling and meet business goals, we’ve got four tips to get you started. 

First, you’ll need to ensure that your training goals align with your organization’s business goals.

1. Align training goals with business goals

A successful employee training program provides team members with valuable skills to achieve company goals.

You'll need to conduct a training needs analysis to ensure you achieve this alignment between these objectives. As a critical aspect of learning and development decision-making, a training needs analysis will identify the skills your employees need to do their job well. 

For example, suppose your analysis shows that your workforce needs help to meet the demands of the digital and hybrid working environment. In that case, you can design upskilling and reskilling development programs that build on existing skills or train employees in new areas.

2. Choose an employee training method that is right for your needs

Depending on the results of your training needs analysis and identified skills gaps, you may need to implement different training methods in your development programs. 

Here are some different learning preferences and training methods to consider when decking your development plans:

• In-person training : Any form of learning where the employee is present in person, such as instructional seminars or hands-on training. 
• Online employee training : Also called virtual or eLearning, online training takes place on the Internet and can include online courses, mobile learning , and collaborative learning experiences. 
• Blended learning : Combines online training methods with in-person training. 
• Peer training : An active and engaging learning approach that empowers employees to build training courses based on their skill sets.

3. Employee training tools

You will need an employee training tool to help design, curate, manage, and measure your training programs company-wide. 

A learning management system is the go-to solution for creating, distributing, and monitoring your online training courses. However, when it comes to creating impactful employee training programs, we recommend that you invest in an all-in-one solution. 

A modern and competitive learning platform like 360Learning will empower you to automate your L&D busy work with a click, leverage AI to identify and grow the skills you need, and collaborative learning-based academies to drive your upskilling training programs. 

Leveraging a learning platform will help you deliver your training programs quickly, save you time and money in the long run, and generate metrics and reports to prove your impact on business goals.

4. Improve training and development programs and measure ROI

We recommend that you measure the impact of your training programs, collect feedback, and update employee training materials to ensure they are as effective as possible.

Proving the return on investment (ROI) of your training and development programs is vital in justifying your budget and getting that crucial stakeholder buy-in and support. You can collect metrics such as engagement, program completion, and relevance scores to illustrate how employees consume your training courses. 

We recommend that when you start designing your training programs, you start with the end in mind . Ensure that before you plan your training, you understand the organization’s business goals and your organization’s skills gaps. 

Starting with the end in mind will make proving ROI so much easier. For extra tips on measuring the impact of your training programs, check out our 3 Data-Based Ways To Prove Training ROI (+ Free Training ROI Calculator) .

Collaborative learning empowers training and development

You’re welcome to use these 25 employee training templates and checklists for better training programs and these best practices in training and development to help kick off your training program journey. 

Better yet, a comprehensive learning platform like 360Learning combines collaborative learning Academies, AI-powered L&D, and the features of an LMS and an LXP to help you design, curate, and manage training programs at scale and pace. 

Book your free online demo now to see how we can help you create an outstanding training and development program that will fit in with the five examples above!

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16 Team Building Case Studies and Training Case Studies

From corporate groups to remote employees and everything in between, the key to a strong business is creating a close-knit team. in this comprehensive case study, we look at how real-world organizations benefited from team building, training, and coaching programs tailored to their exact needs.  .

Updated: December 21, 2021

We’re big believers in the benefits of  team building ,  training and development , and  coaching and consulting  programs. That’s why our passion for helping teams achieve their goals is at the core of everything we do.

At Outback Team Building & Training,  our brand promis e  is  to be  recommended , flexible,  and  fast.  Because we understand that when it comes to building a stronger and more close-knit team, there’s no one-size-fits-all formula. Each of our customers have a unique set of challenges, goals, and definitions of success. 

And they look to us to support them in three key ways:  making their lives easy by taking on the complexities of organizing a team building or training event; acting fast so that they can get their event planned and refocus on all the other tasks they have on their plates, and giving them the confidence that they’ll get an event their team will benefit from – and enjoy.

In this definitive team building case study , we’ll do a deep dive into real-world solutions we provided for our customers.

4 Unique Team Building Events & Training Programs Custom-Tailored for Customer Needs 

1. a custom charity event for the bill & melinda gates foundation  , 2. how principia built a stronger company culture even with its remote employees working hundreds of miles apart , 3. custom change management program for the royal canadian mint, 4. greenfield global uses express team building to boost morale and camaraderie during a challenging project, 5 virtual team building activities to help remote teams reconnect, 1. how myzone used virtual team building to boost employee morale during covid-19, 2. americorps equips 90 temporary staff members for success with midyear virtual group training sessions, 3. how microsoft’s azure team used virtual team building to lift spirits during the covid-19 pandemic, 4. helping the indiana cpa society host a virtual team building activity that even the most “zoom fatigued” guests would love, 5. stemcell brightens up the holiday season for its cross-departmental team with a virtually-hosted team building activity, 3 momentum-driving events for legacy customers, 1. how a satellite employee “garnered the reputation” as her team’s pro event planner, 2. why plentyoffish continues to choose ‘the amazing race’ for their company retreat, 3. how team building helped microsoft employees donate a truckload of food, 4 successful activities executed on extremely tight timelines, 1. finding a last-minute activity over a holiday, 2. from inquiry to custom call in under 30 minutes, 3. a perfect group activity organized in one business day, 4. delivering team building for charity in under one week.

We know that every team has different needs and goals which is why we are adept at being flexible and have mastered the craft of creating custom events for any specifications.  

When the  Seattle, Washington -based head office of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation – a world-renowned philanthropic organization – approached us in search of a unique charity event, we knew we needed to deliver something epic. Understanding that their team had effectively done it all when it comes to charity events, it was important for them to be able to get together as a team and give back  in new ways .

Our team decided the best way to do this was to create a brand-new event for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation which had never been executed before. We created an entirely new charitable event – Bookworm Builders – for them and their team loved it! It allowed them to give back to their community, collaborate, get creative, and work together for a common goal. Bookworm Builders has since gone on to become a staple activity for tons of other Outback Team Building & Training customers! 

To learn more about how it all came together, read the case study:  A Custom Charity Event for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation .

Who said hosting an impactful training program means having your full team in the same place at the same time? Principia refused to let distance prevent them from having a great team, so they contacted us to help them find a solution. Their goals were to find better ways of working together and to create a closer-knit company culture among their 20 employees and contractors living in various parts of the country. 

We worked with Principia to host an  Emotional Intelligence  skill development training event customized to work perfectly for their remote team. The result was a massive positive impact for the company. They found they experienced improved employee alignment with a focus on company culture, as well as more emotionally aware and positive day-to-day interactions. In fact, the team made a 100% unanimous decision to bring back Outback for additional training sessions.

To learn more about this unique situation, read the full case study:  How Principia Built a Stronger Company Culture Even with its Remote Employees Working Hundreds of Miles Apart .

We know that employee training that is tailored to your organization can make the difference between an effective program and a waste of company time. That’s why our team jumped at the opportunity to facilitate a series of custom development sessions to help the Royal Canadian Mint discover the tools they needed to manage a large change within their organization. 

We hosted three custom sessions to help the organization recognize the changes that needed to be made, gain the necessary skills to effectively manage the change, and define a strategy to implement the change: 

• Session One:  The first session was held in November and focused on preparing over 65 employees for change within the company. 
• Session Two:  In December, the Mint’s leadership team participated in a program that provided the skills and mindset required to lead employees through change. 
• Session Three:  The final session in February provided another group of 65 employees with guidance on how to implement the change. 

To learn more, read the full case study:  Custom Change Management Program for the Royal Canadian Mint .

When Greenfield Global gathered a team of its A-Players to undertake a massive, challenging project, they knew it was important to build rapports among colleagues, encourage collaboration, and have some fun together.

So, we helped them host an Express Clue Murder Mystery event where their team used their unique individual strengths and problem-solving approaches in order to collaboratively solve challenges.

To learn more, read the full case study:  Greenfield Global Uses Express Team Building to Boost Morale and Camaraderie During a Challenging Project .

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, we were proud to be able to continue supporting our customers’ goals with virtual team building activities and group training sessions.

With remote work being mandated as self-quarantine requirements are enforced on a global scale, companies began seeking ways to keep their newly-remote teams engaged and ensure morale remained as high as possible.

And MyZone was no exception. When the company found themselves feeling the effects of low employee morale and engagement, they noticed a decrease in productivity and motivation.

To make matters even more difficult, MyZone’s team works remotely with employees all over the world. This physical distancing makes it challenging for them to build a strong rapport, reinforce team dynamics, and boost morale and engagement.

The company was actively searching for an activity to help bring their employees closer together during this challenging time but kept running into a consistent issue: the majority of the team building activities they could find were meant to be done in person.

They reached out to Outback Team Building and Training and we were able to help them achieve their goals with a Virtual Clue Murder Mystery team building activity.

AmeriCorps members are dedicated to relieving the suffering of those who have been impacted by natural disasters. And to do so, they rely on the support of a team of temporary staff members who work one-year terms with the organization. These staff focus on disseminating emergency preparedness information and even providing immediate assistance to victims of a disaster.

During its annual midyear training period, AmeriCorps gathers its entire team of temporary staff for a week of professional development seminars aimed at both helping them during their term with the company as well as equipping them with skills they can use when they leave AmeriCorps.

But when the COVID-19 pandemic got underway, AmeriCorps was forced to quickly re-evaluate the feasibility of its midyear training sessions.

That’s when they reached out to Outback. Rather than having to cancel their midyear training entirely, we were able to help them achieve their desired results with four virtual group training sessions: Clear Communication ,  Performance Management Fundamentals ,  Emotional Intelligence , and  Practical Time Management .

Find all the details in the full case study: AmeriCorps Equips 90 Temporary Staff Members for Success with Midyear Virtual Training Sessions.

With the COVID-19 pandemic taking a significant toll on the morale of its employees, Microsoft’s Azure team knew they were overdue for an uplifting event.

It was critical for their team building event to help staff reconnect and reengage with one another. But since the team was working remotely, the activity needed to be hosted virtually and still be fun, engaging, and light-hearted.

When they reached out to Outback Team Building and Training, we discussed the team’s goals and quickly identified a Virtual Clue Murder Mystery as the perfect activity to help their team get together online and have some fun together.

For more information, check out the entire case study: How Microsoft’s Azure Team Used Virtual Team Building to Lift Spirits During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The Indiana CPA Society is the go-to resource for the state’s certified public accountants. The organization supports CPAs with everything from continuing education to networking events and even advocacy or potential legislation issues that could affect them.

But as the time approached for one of INCPAS’ annual Thanksgiving event, the Indiana CPA Society’s Social Committee needed to plan a modified, pandemic-friendly event for a group of people who were burnt out my online meetings and experiencing Zoom fatigue.

So, we helped the team with a Self-Hosted Virtual Code Break team building activity that INCPAS staff loved so much, the organization decided to host a second event for its Young Pros and volunteers.

For INCPAS’ Social Committee, the pressure to put on an event that everyone will enjoy is something that’s always on their mind when planning out activities. And their event lived up to their hopes.

For more information, check out the entire case study: Helping the Indiana CPA Society Host a Virtual Team Building Activity That Even the Most “Zoom Fatigued” Guests Would Love .

When Stemcell was looking for a way to celebrate the holidays, lift its team members’ spirits, and help connect cross-departmental teams during the pandemic, they contacted us to help host the perfect team building activity.

They tasked us with finding an event that would help team members connect, get in the holiday spirit, and learn more about the business from one another during the midst of a stressful and challenging time.

So, we helped them host a festive, virtually-hosted Holiday Hijinks team building activity for employees from across the company.

For more information, check out the entire case study: Stemcell Brightens Up the Holiday Season for its Cross-Departmental Team with a Virtually-Hosted Team Building Activity .

We take pride in being recommended by more than 14,000 corporate groups because it means that we’ve earned their trust through delivering impactful results.

We’ve been in this business for a long time, and we know that not everybody who’s planning a corporate event is a professional event planner. But no matter if it’s their first time planning an event or their tenth, we  love  to help make our customers look good in front of their team. And when an employee at Satellite Healthcare was tasked with planning a team building event for 15 of her colleagues, she reached out to us – and we set out to do just that!

Our customer needed a collaborative activity that would help a diverse group of participants get to know each other, take her little to no time to plan, and would resonate with the entire group.

With that in mind, we helped her facilitate a  Military Support Mission . The event was a huge success and her colleagues loved it. In fact, she has now garnered a reputation as the team member who knows how to put together an awesome team building event.

To learn more, read the case study here:  How a Satellite Employee “Garnered the Reputation” as Her Team’s Pro Event Planner .

In 2013, international dating service POF (formerly known as PlentyOfFish) reached out to us in search of an exciting outdoor team building activity that they could easily put to work at their annual retreat in  Whistler, B.C . An innovative and creative company, they were in search of an activity that could help their 60 staff get to know each other better. They also wanted the event to be hosted so that they could sit back and enjoy the fun.

The solution? We helped them host their first-ever  Amazing Race  team building event.

Our event was so successful that POF has now hosted The Amazing Race at their annual retreat for  five consecutive years .

To learn more, check out our full case study:  Why PlentyOfFish Continues to Choose ‘The Amazing Race’ for Their Company Retreat .

As one of our longest-standing and most frequent collaborators, we know that Microsoft is always in search of new and innovative ways to bring their teams closer together. With a well-known reputation for being avid advocates of corporate social responsibility, Microsoft challenged us with putting together a charitable team building activity that would help their team bond outside the office and would be equal parts fun, interactive, and philanthropic. 

We analyzed which of our six charitable team building activities would be the best fit for their needs, and we landed on the perfect one: End-Hunger Games. In this event, the Microsoft team broke out into small groups, tackled challenges like relay races and target practice, and earned points in the form of non-perishable food items. Then, they used their cans and boxes of food to try and build the most impressive structure possible in a final, collaborative contest. As a result, they were able to donate a truckload of goods to the local food bank.

For more details, check out the comprehensive case study:  How Team Building Helped Microsoft Employees Donate a Truckload of Food .

Time isn’t always a luxury that’s available to our customers when it comes to planning a great team activity which is why we make sure we are fast, agile, and can accommodate any timeline. 

Nothing dampens your enjoyment of a holiday more than having to worry about work – even if it’s something fun like a team building event. But for one T-Mobile employee, this was shaping up to be the case. That’s because, on the day before the holiday weekend, she found out that she needed to organize a last-minute activity for the day after July Fourth. 

So, she reached out to Outback Team Building & Training to see if there was anything we could do to help – in less than three business days. We were happy to be able to help offer her some peace of mind over her holiday weekend by recommending a quick and easy solution: a  Code Break  team building activity. It was ready to go in less than three days, the activity organized was stress-free during her Fourth of July weekend, and, most importantly, all employees had a great experience. 

For more details, check out the full story here:  Finding a Last-Minute Activity Over a Holiday .

At Outback Team Building & Training, we know our customers don’t always have time on their side when it comes to planning and executing an event. Sometimes, they need answers right away so they can get to work on creating an unforgettable experience for their colleagues.

This was exactly the case when Black & McDonald approached us about a learning and development session that would meet the needs of their unique group, and not take too much time to plan. At 10:20 a.m., the organization reached out with an online inquiry. By 10:50 a.m., they had been connected with one of our training facilitators for a more in-depth conversation regarding their objectives.

Three weeks later, a group of 14  Toronto, Ontario -based Black & McDonald employees took part in a half-day tailor-made training program that was built around the objectives of the group, including topics such as emotional intelligence and influence, communication styles, and the value of vulnerability in a leader.

To learn more about how this event was able to come together so quickly, check out the full story:  From Inquiry to Custom Call in Under 30 Minutes .

When Conexus Credit Union contacted us on a Friday afternoon asking if we could facilitate a team building event for six employees the following Monday morning, we said, “Absolutely!” 

The team at Conexus Credit Union were looking for an activity that would get the group’s mind going and promote collaboration between colleagues. And we knew just what to recommend:  Code Break Express  – an activity filled with brainteasers, puzzles, and riddles designed to test the group’s mental strength. 

The Express version of Code Break was ideal for Conexus Credit Union’s shorter time frame because our Express activities have fewer challenges and can be completed in an hour or less. They’re self-hosted, so the company’s group organizer was able to easily and efficiently run the activity on their own.

To learn more about how we were able to come together and make this awesome event happen, take a look at our case study:  A Perfect Group Activity Organized in One Business Day .

We’ve been lucky enough to work with Accenture – a company which has appeared on FORTUNE’s list of “World’s Most Admired Companies” for 14 years in a row – on a number of team building activities in the past. 

The organization approached us with a request to facilitate a philanthropic team building activity for 15 employees. The hitch? They needed the event to be planned, organized, and executed within one week. 

Staying true to our brand promise of being fast to act on behalf of our customers, our team got to work planning Accenture’s event. We immediately put to work the experience of our Employee Engagement Consultants, the flexibility of our solutions, and the organization of our event coordinators. And six days later, Accenture’s group was hard at work on a  Charity Bike Buildathon , building bikes for kids in need.

To learn more about how we helped Accenture do some good in a short amount of time, read the full case study:  Delivering Team Building for Charity in Under One Week .

Learn More About Team Building, Training and Development, and Coaching and Consulting Solutions 

For more information about how Outback Team Building & Training can help you host unforgettable team activities to meet your specific goals and needs on virtually any time frame and budget, just reach out to our Employee Engagement Consultants.  

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Training and Development Case Studies: Lessons from Top-Performing Companies

• Introduction

Training and development case studies provide valuable insights into how top-performing companies have successfully implemented training and development initiatives. By studying these case studies, organizations can learn from the successes and failures of others and apply the lessons to their own training and development programs. These case studies can provide valuable information on how to create practical training and development programs, how to measure the success of those programs, and how to ensure that the programs meet the organization’s needs. By studying these case studies, organizations can better understand the importance of training and development and how to implement it effectively.

Table of Contents

How to leverage training and development case studies to improve employee performance, the benefits of investing in training and development case studies, the impact of training and development case studies on employee retention, how to use training and development case studies to create a positive workplace culture, the role of training and development case studies in enhancing employee engagement.

Training and development case studies can be a powerful tool for improving employee performance. Case studies can help motivate employees and provide tangible examples of how their performance can be enhanced by giving real-world examples of successful training and development initiatives.

Ensuring they are relevant to their current roles and responsibilities is essential when leveraging case studies to improve employee performance. For example, if the case study is about a successful training program for customer service representatives, it should be shared with employees in customer service roles. This will help ensure the case study is meaningful and applicable to the employees’ current positions.

It is also essential to ensure that the case studies are presented in an engaging and accessible format. For example, case studies can be shown in videos, infographics, or interactive presentations. This will help to ensure that the case studies are engaging and memorable for the employees.

When presenting the case studies, allowing employees to discuss the case studies and ask questions is essential. This will help ensure that the employees understand the key takeaways from the case studies and can apply them to their roles.

Finally, it is essential to provide employees with feedback on their performance after they have had an opportunity to review the case studies. This will help ensure that the employees can apply the lessons learned from the case studies to their roles and that their performance is improving.

By leveraging training and development case studies to improve employee performance, organizations can ensure their employees are motivated and equipped with the knowledge and skills necessary to succeed.

Investing in training and development is essential for any organization that wants to remain competitive in today’s ever-changing business environment. Training and development can help organizations to improve employee performance, increase productivity, and reduce turnover. Training and development can help organizations stay ahead of the competition by providing employees with the skills and knowledge they need to stay current in their field.

Case studies are an effective way to demonstrate the benefits of investing in training and development. Case studies provide a detailed look at how a particular organization has implemented training and development initiatives and the results they have achieved. By examining the successes and failures of a specific organization, other organizations can learn from their experiences and apply the same strategies to their own training and development programs.

Case studies can provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of different training and development strategies. For example, a case study may show how a particular organization implemented a new training program and the results it achieved. This can provide other organizations with an understanding of the types of training programs that are most effective and how to implement them. Additionally, case studies can provide insight into organizations’ challenges when implementing training and development initiatives. This can help organizations to identify potential problems before they arise and develop strategies to address them.

Case studies can also provide organizations with an understanding of the costs associated with training and development. Other organizations can understand the financial implications of investing in training and development by examining the costs associated with a particular organization’s training and development initiatives. This can help organizations make informed decisions about their training and development programs.

Finally, case studies can provide organizations with an understanding of training and development’s impact on employee morale and engagement. By examining the results of a particular organization’s training and development initiatives, other organizations can understand how training and development can improve employee morale and engagement. This can help organizations create training and development programs tailored to their needs and goals.

In conclusion, case studies effectively demonstrate the benefits of investing in training and development. Case studies provide organizations with an understanding of the successes and failures of a particular organization’s training and development initiatives, the costs associated with training and development, and the impact that training and development can have on employee morale and engagement. By examining case studies, organizations can gain valuable insights into the effectiveness of different training and development strategies and develop strategies tailored to their specific needs and goals.

The impact of training and development on employee retention has been widely studied in recent years. Studies have shown that employees who receive training and development are more likely to stay with their employer for extended periods. Movement and action can help employees develop their skills and knowledge, increasing job satisfaction and improving performance.

To better understand the impact of training and development on employee retention, it is essential to look at case studies conducted on the subject. One such case study was conducted by the University of Michigan in 2017. The study looked at the impact of training and development on employee retention in a large manufacturing company. The study found that employees who received training and development were likelier to stay with the company for extended periods. The study also found that employees who received training and development were more potential to have higher job satisfaction and better performance.

Another case study was conducted by the University of California in 2018. This study looked at the impact of training and development on employee retention in a large retail company. The study found that employees who received training and development were likelier to stay with the company for extended periods. The study also found that employees who received training and development were more potential to have higher job satisfaction and better performance.

These case studies demonstrate the positive impact that training and development can have on employee retention. Training and development can help employees develop their skills and knowledge, increasing job satisfaction and improving performance. This can lead to increased employee retention, benefiting both employers and employees.

Training and development case studies can create a positive workplace culture by providing employees with real-life examples of how their peers have successfully navigated challenging situations. By sharing these stories, employees can gain insight into approaching similar issues in their work environment.

Case studies can be used to illustrate the importance of effective communication, collaboration, and problem-solving skills. For example, a case study could demonstrate how a team of employees worked together to develop a creative solution to a complex problem. This type of case study can help to foster a culture of collaboration and innovation.

Case studies can also be used to demonstrate the value of professional development. By highlighting the successes of employees who have taken advantage of training opportunities, employers can encourage their staff to pursue further education and development. This can help to create a culture of continuous learning and growth.

Finally, case studies can be used to demonstrate the importance of diversity and inclusion in the workplace. By highlighting employees’ successes from different backgrounds, employers can create an environment where everyone feels valued and respected.

Using training and development case studies to create a positive workplace culture, employers can foster an environment where employees feel empowered to take the initiative and contribute to the organization’s success.

Training and development case studies can be an effective tool for enhancing employee engagement. By providing employees with real-world examples of how their peers have successfully implemented new skills and strategies, case studies can help motivate and inspire employees to take ownership of their development.

Case studies can be used to illustrate the value of training and development in various ways. For example, case studies can be used to demonstrate the impact of exercise on employee performance. By providing employees with examples of how their peers have achieved success through training, case studies can help create a learning and development culture. Additionally, case studies can be used to demonstrate the value of training and development in terms of employee engagement. Case studies can help motivate and inspire employees to take ownership of their development by providing examples of how their peers have successfully implemented new skills and strategies.

Case studies can also illustrate the importance of employee engagement in the workplace. By providing employees with examples of how their peers have successfully implemented new skills and strategies, case studies can help to create a culture of collaboration and engagement. Additionally, case studies can be used to demonstrate employee engagement’s value in organizational performance. By providing employees with examples of how their peers have achieved success through collaboration and engagement, case studies can help to create a culture of engagement and performance.

Finally, case studies can be used to illustrate the importance of employee engagement in terms of organizational culture. By providing employees with examples of how their peers have successfully implemented new skills and strategies, case studies can help to create a culture of trust and respect. Additionally, case studies can demonstrate employee engagement’s value in terms of organizational culture. By providing employees with examples of how their peers have achieved success through collaboration and engagement, case studies can help to create a culture of trust and respect.

In conclusion, training and development case studies can be an effective tool for enhancing employee engagement. By providing employees with real-world examples of how their peers have successfully implemented new skills and strategies, case studies can help motivate and inspire employees to take ownership of their development. Additionally, case studies can illustrate the importance of employee engagement in terms of organizational performance, culture, and trust.

Training and development case studies provide valuable insights into how top-performing companies have successfully implemented training and development initiatives. By studying these case studies, organizations can better understand the strategies and tactics that have been successful in the past and use them to create their own successful training and development programs. By taking the time to analyze and learn from these case studies, organizations can ensure that their training and development initiatives are practical and successful.

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The Use of Case Studies in Training

As a trainer, I always use practical exercises and case studies in my training sessions, workshops, or masterclasses. Irrespective if it's an onsite or online training I firstly present a case study to the class showing the methods and steps that lead to its successful finalization. Then I split the trainees in two working groups and assign two different case studies for which the respective groups must prepare a solution. Then the solution for each case study will be presented in front of the whole audience by two group leaders. 

The case study is a method of sharing descriptive situations with the goal to stimulate the trainees to think and make decisions to successfully accomplish their job tasks, apply and develop new ideas, manage or improve processes, and solve problems at work. This method takes on a practical approach.

It is instrumental to include studies in training sessions as they are based on real-life situations, can be related to the trainees’ areas of responsibilities, thus enabling them to implement the respective new concepts and best practices learned.

Based on my experience of using case studies, I conclude that:

• As a training tool, case studies develop effective management and decision-making skills, enhance team spirit, better communication, and interpersonal skills, and strengthen the analytical skills of trainees.
• Training sessions that provide tons of theory but no practical case studies only lead to an incomplete know-how transfer from the trainer to the trainees.
• The only way training sessions can be really beneficial to the trainees and their companies is when the respective trained staff is able to apply and implement at their workplaces what they learned in the classrooms.
• Training beneficiaries should always request that applicable case studies be included in the training sessions.
• No training sessions should be conducted without case studies. Training based on case studies is king.?

And, after all, it will give a trainer great satisfaction to see at the end of each session that the learners acquired both theoretical and practical know-how.

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What the Case Study Method Really Teaches

• Nitin Nohria

Seven meta-skills that stick even if the cases fade from memory.

It’s been 100 years since Harvard Business School began using the case study method. Beyond teaching specific subject matter, the case study method excels in instilling meta-skills in students. This article explains the importance of seven such skills: preparation, discernment, bias recognition, judgement, collaboration, curiosity, and self-confidence.

During my decade as dean of Harvard Business School, I spent hundreds of hours talking with our alumni. To enliven these conversations, I relied on a favorite question: “What was the most important thing you learned from your time in our MBA program?”

• Nitin Nohria is the George F. Baker Jr. and Distinguished Service University Professor. He served as the 10th dean of Harvard Business School, from 2010 to 2020.

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Using Case Studies in Training Programs

Training programs benefit employees when those employees are able to apply what they are learning in real-life situations. This is where case studies come in. Case studies, based on real-life situations within the organization and related to the employee’s responsibilities, enables for practicing new concepts learned in the classroom environment.

Here is how Abudi Consulting Group has utilized case studies at one of our client’s sites.

A Client Story – A Threaded Case Study

A financial services firm has partnered with Abudi Consulting Group to roll out a variety of critical skills training programs over the last year and a half. These workshops are delivered on-site and are private, open enrollment sessions. (Private, open enrollment means that anyone in the organization can register to attend a workshop.) Workshops are varied and include topics such as emotional intelligence, conflict management, time management and delegation and project management. In this post, we’ll use a recently held project management workshop as an example.

The last project management session held at this client included employees from a variety of areas within the organization, including – application developers, customer service personnel, marketing associates, internal communications, financial analysts, and accountants. We designed a threaded case study that focused on launching a customer appreciation event. Something that everyone would be able to relate to but was not too technical.

The employees in the session were presented with a project charter for the session that provided some background information and requirements for the project. It was meant to be incomplete, thereby giving the employees the experience of analyzing information received about a potential project and asking questions that enables them to truly understand the scope of the project and its objectives.

As we progressed through the class, the employees used that case study scenario to develop planning components of the project, such as a scope statement, communication plan, a schedule for the project, risk identification and management, and a stakeholder matrix (to name a few items.) Additionally, at some point, I threw the class a change to their project, thereby enabling them to learn how to think through how to manage a change to a project. This was aligned to the topic of managing changes to projects and stakeholder expectations of change.

At the end of the session, employees were able to see how to apply each of the topics covered in the classroom to a “real life” project.

In this example, I used a threaded case study throughout the one day workshop to apply a variety of project management techniques and best practices to planning a project. In this next example, I example how we use mini case studies in training programs.

A Client Story – A Mini Case Study

For a retail client, we utilize a variety of mini case studies in each of the leadership training workshops we run in order to enable participants to apply what they are learning to solve real business problems. For example, in a conflict management workshop, we developed a mini case study that required participants to think through how they would solve a significant conflict on a global team.

Similarly, in a time management and delegation workshop, we asked participants to solve a variety of problems presented in delegating to staff. These mini problem solving scenarios included situations where:

• An employee pushed back on any delegated work, claiming to “have no time to do more.”
• An employee who asked many questions, never making any decisions about the work delegated on her own.

Each of these situations required the participants in the class to consider how to address the situation to ensure they could delegate work to the “employee.”

In summary…

Using case studies, whether threaded or mini problem solving situations, that are common situations they would encounter or situations they can relate to, enables participants to apply what they are learning in “real life” situations. New skills are best applied in a situation that makes sense to the students in the class. Case studies require thinking through the situation and determining how they can apply what they are learning to “solve” the situation with which they are presented.

These team activities, as well as a number of individual reflective or planning activities are used in all of our workshops to help practice what is being learned. Action planning, at the end of each workshop, further enables participants to map out how they will apply what they have learned back on the job.

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How Google's Innovative Training and Development Programs Empower Employees

"We encourage our employees, in addition to their regular projects, to spend 20% of their time working on what they think will most benefit Google. This empowers them to be more creative and innovative. Many of our significant advances have happened in this manner. For example, AdSense for content and Google News were both prototyped in '20% time.' Most risky projects fizzle, often teaching us something. Others succeed and become attractive businesses." Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page wrote in their IPO letter .

Discover all about:

• Google's learning and development philosophy
• The implementation of the unique employee-led learning initiative: Googler-to-Googler
• Google's several learning and development programs that foster a learning culture: Whisper Courses, Career Guru Program, and Google Developer Groups.
• How you can replicate Google's stellar system.

Imagine an environment where learning is not confined to the walls of a classroom or the limits of a standard curriculum. Google has redefined the landscape of employee training, creating a culture where continuous learning is interwoven with day-to-day work. 

It's a world where innovation is not just encouraged but is a part of the very fabric of employee development.

While companies spend days finding the perfect course or developing an ideal training program, Google took the opposite route and let employees decide what to teach and how to teach.

This unique approach worked in Google's favor. It has excellent reviews for learning and skill development. 

This L&D case study will look at Google employee training and development programs in detail.

This isn't just a story about Google. It's a treasure trove of insights and strategies that can inspire HR professionals and business leaders.

Whether adapting some of Google's practices to your organizational context or rethinking your approach to employee development, plenty of lessons can be learned and applied.

And in fact, we do share a step-by-step implementation guide for everything Google nails in their L&D strategy. 

📜 Google's learning philosophy : 4 Core pillars

Former VP of People Development Karen May's presentation on the principles shaping learning at Google highlights a modern, holistic approach to professional development, emphasizing the dynamic nature of learning.

The principles or the core beliefs that shape the design and delivery of learning resources at Google are:

"Learning is a process. It's not an event. It involves some motivation, often some pre-work. It involves practice, practice, practice, and feedback."

At Google, learning is viewed not as a one-time event but as a continuous journey. This perspective acknowledges that real learning requires time, effort, and repeated practice. By incorporating feedback into this process, learners can continually refine and improve their skills, leading to deeper understanding and mastery. 

"Our [PeopleOps team's] job is to think end to end about where the motivation gets created, how we create the opportunities to practice, and what the feedback loop is, so that we really can get to behavior change."

The key is ensuring that learners put into practice the new information obtained from training, with a final goal of enabling behavioral change. 

"Learning happens in real life , especially during transitions or challenge points."

This approach aligns learning with actual on-the-job experiences, making it more relevant and applicable. 

The most profound learning occurs not in isolation but while tackling real-world problems and adapting to change.

"Learning is personal . Everyone has different learning styles and different levels of challenge within which they can work. [...] And part of our role is helping people understand what their own learning style is so that then as people, we can create the kind of experiences that will help us accelerate."

Google understands that learning is not one size fits all and that: 

• Every individual will have different learning styles and preferences. 
• They also have different needs regarding the knowledge they should get from the training.

"Learning is social . Googlers tell us when they really need to figure something out, they ask each other. They turn to their colleagues for information and for advice and for support."

The idea that learning is inherently social reflects Google's emphasis on collaborative learning environments. By fostering a culture where employees are encouraged to seek out and learn from each other, Google leverages its workforce's collective knowledge and experience. 

This peer-to-peer learning approach enhances skill acquisition, strengthens team dynamics, and supports a culture of continuous improvement.

By embracing these principles, Google sets an example of how organizations can foster an environment where learning is integrated into the fabric of everyday work . 

🤖 How does Google enable learning and growth? 4 Stellar Google employee training and development programs

Let's delve into real-life stories and examples that illustrate the transformative impact of Google's training approach on both individual careers and the company's overall innovation trajectory.

The G2G Program

Back in 2007, Google had a ton of new hires lined up for the sales department in Dublin one summer. With only three trainers available, training these new hires looked impossible. 

The L&D team reached out to leadership to see if some top performers could temporarily act as trainers. The best sales team members trained the new hires, and the results were amazing. Quality scores of the training were quite high, and employees also enjoyed the training process. 

As a result, L&D decided to expand this program. This led to Google's outstanding peer-to-peer training program , Googler-to-Googler (G2G). 

As part of G2G programs, Googlers can nominate themselves to take training on any topic: technical, functional, domain, leadership, parenting, yoga, mindfulness, etc. And it entirely runs voluntarily.

How does Google run the G2G program?

• Employees volunteer themselves on the topic they want to teach. There are no fixed topics. Employees can teach anything from technical topics to hobbies.
• The L&D team provides training to the volunteers on how to facilitate training.
• The L&D team also provides an internally built Learning Management System (LMS) for tracking trainers, classes, and participant completion.
• Participants and volunteers can track training hours in the internal LMS.

" G2G is one of the purest expressions of Google culture. It has been a successful program. Over 80% of all formal learning at Google in 2020 was part of G2G , and our G2G volunteers have consistently outperformed external facilitators ." Sarah Devereaux , former G2G Global Lead.

Whisper Courses

Rather than assigning hours of training and overloading information on employees, Google takes the microlearning approach. The company sends bite-sized lessons to employees called whisper courses.

"A whisper course is a series of emails, each with a simple suggestion, or 'whisper,' for a manager to try in their one-on-ones or team meetings. Over the course of ten weeks, managers could build better psychological safety on their team by trying these whisper suggestions." Google , Whisper courses: on-the-job microlearning with email.

How does Google run whisper courses?

Google sends a series of emails or nudges, each with a simple suggestion or an actionable tip that employees can immediately implement. The power is its timing. It's sent when the employee needs that information. For instance, Google sends nudges to new hires and their managers with tips that improve the onboarding process. 

"I love that it was practice-focused. Often, you leave a course overwhelmed with info, and it's hard to implement a real change. Because you're encouraging stepwise change, it feels like a slow, steady progression of understanding how you can evolve the way you work." Googler quoted in Google, Whisper courses: on-the-job microlearning with email.

The Guru+ Program

In 2010, Google launched an internal one-on-one coaching program called Guru+ to help Googlers focus on their growth and development . The program saw huge participation and became one of the top perks of working at Google .

How does Google run the Guru+ program?

1. Employees volunteer themselves to be a Guru.

2. Google provides preparatory training sessions to the volunteers. Google uses a GROW coaching model to ensure participants get the most out of these calls.  

3. Participants use Google Meet (formerly, they were using Google Hangouts) to book and conduct coaching calls . 

4. Participants can fill out a feedback form after the call.

5. If a Guru receives three or more negative feedbacks, they undergo additional training.

" We have parents gurus, leadership gurus, manager gurus, innovation gurus, noogler gurus, and more. It's helpful to be able to just sit down with somebody and say I'm really having a hard time right now, and I'm not quite sure what to do . An empathetic and personal conversation with someone in a setting where you feel safe and know you have good confidentiality about what you're sharing. " Sarah Devereaux , former G2G Global Lead.

Gurus cover a wide range of topic areas , such as:

• team development;
• leadership;
• manager—for people managers on people management-related topics;   
• innovation;
• new employees;
• well-being;
• presentation—for learning to give reports and TED Talks, for example.

Google Developers Community

Google also went beyond the internal workforce and created an open community of developers where Googlers can interact with developers outside the company or end users. This way, Googlers can see practical use cases of Google technologies and gather user feedback. Two major flagship programs as part of the initiatives are:

• Google Developers Group Program 
• Google Codelabs

How Google runs Google Developer Groups and Google Codelabs?

• As part of Google Developer Groups (GDG), community members organize in-person or virtual events, webinars, online discussions, hands-on workshops, hackathons, and coding sessions on various technical topics. It promotes skill development, knowledge sharing, open-source contributions, and networking. GDG also provides a platform for Googlers to receive feedback on Google's products and technologies from the developer community. 
• As part of Google Codelabs, hands-on, self-paced tutorials and coding exercises are available on the publicly accessible platform . Both Googlers and external developers can take up the courses. Googlers can also create courses on topics in which they have expertise.

👀 3 Reasons behind Google's current L&D strategy

Each Google training program is built with deliberate thought and reflects their work culture. Laszlo Bock, former CHRO of Google, discussed it in detail in his book, Work Rules.

Here are the top excerpts that form the core reasons behind Google's training and development strategy.

You learn the best when you learn the least

Google shifted the lens from the traditional approach of measuring the hours spent by employees in training programs. Instead, it focused on behavior changes in employees through the training. That's how Google came up with the idea of whisper courses. Delivering small impactful nudges/checklists/notes that bring immediate positive action rather than hours of training. 

"It's a better investment to deliver less content and have people retain it than to deliver hours of learning that is quickly forgotten. " Laszlo Bock, former Senior Vice President of People Operations at Google , in his book Work Rules .

Build your faculty from within

"I can't tell you what to teach your team or organization since that depends on what your goals are. I can't tell you whether the best way to teach is in person or remotely, through self-study or group classes. That will depend on how your people learn best, and whether they are trying to learn job-specific skills, such as a new programming language, or more general skills, such as how to work better together as a team. I can, however, tell you exactly where to find the best teachers. They are sitting right next to you. I promise you that in your organization, there are people who are experts on every facet of what you do, or at least expert enough that they can teach others." Laszlo Bock, former Senior Vice President of People Operations at Google , in his book Work Rules.

Lazloh highlights the two core questions to ask yourself when designing the right training program for your organization:

• What's the best training for your team? It depends on your goals .
• What training method best suits your team: virtual, in-person, self-study, or group classes? It depends on how your people like to learn and your work culture . 

Laszlo further explains this with an example. 

" In your company, there is certainly the best salesperson in terms of total sales. By turning to that person to teach others rather than bringing in someone from the outside, you not only have a teacher who is better than your other salespeople. But also someone who understands the specific context of your company and customers. Sending your best salespeople to the most expensive sales webinars, led by someone who sold products for someone else, is unlikely to revolutionize your sales performance because the specifics of your company do matter. "

Trust employees will do the right thing

Learning is quite contextual, and the trainer needs to know how your company works rather than delivering generic best practices. 

So, Google turned to their employees to lead all the top training initiatives: G2G, Guru+, and GDG. 

Sarah Devereaux spoke about their biggest issue with the G2G program: releasing control. 

When they tried to expand the G2G, they put in many more processes, criteria, guidelines, and mandates. It messed up the program, and employees started running away from it. 

They finally let go of control and let employees decide what they want to teach and how they want to teach, and they are only there to assist. 

As a result, participation skyrocketed. Also, instead of making any session mandatory, Google trusted employees to take ownership of their learning journey. The decision power acted as a major motivator for the participants.

"Trust people to do great work. They are capable of more than you think." Sarah Devereaux , former G2G Global Lead.

🗝️ The key to Google 's L&D success

Let's look at the reasons behind why Google's training initiatives succeeded. 

Incorporating peer learning the right way

National Training Laboratories Institute for Applied Behavioral Science studied various learning methods and which is the best. Based on their research , an individual retains knowledge the most by teaching others. Google's learning programs, G2G and GDG, benefit both participants and facilitators. Facilitators retain their knowledge by teaching others, and participants learn the tricks of the trade from an insider. 

Another reason to have employees as trainers is it increases employee engagement and gives them a stronger reason to be at work.

"Giving employees the opportunity to teach gives them purpose. Even if they don't find meaning in their regular jobs, passing on knowledge is both inspiring and inspirational." Laszlo Bock , former CHRO at Google.

Giving employees more control

What companies are predicting now, Google implemented years back. As per the latest study done by TalentLMS on the state of L&D , 37% of employees want more control over training. Google gave it already by trusting employees to decide on their learning journey and not mandating training programs. It instilled a strong learning culture and grew training participation. 

Promoting voluntary participation

Encouraging employees to opt into training programs rather than making them mandatory taps into your learners' intrinsic motivation. This leads to more engaged and enthusiastic learners.

In an interview with the New York Times , Karen May reflected on the common mistakes she noticed in employee training programs.

‍ "One thing that doesn't make sense is to require a lot of training. People learn best when they're motivated to learn. If people opt in, versus being required to go, you're more likely to have better outcomes. [...] If a group of people go through some kind of program and they like it, then you ask them to nominate someone who might find the program beneficial. If the invitation comes from a colleague or a manager, you have that kind of peer-to-peer influence that says: 'I got something out of this. You might, too.' Then the people who come are motivated. They assume they're going to get something out of it. You just create a much different vibe than, 'I was told I have to show up to this thing.'"

When you foster a training atmosphere perceived as an opportunity for growth rather than an obligation, you can significantly enhance the effectiveness of learning experiences.

Using the power of nudges

The same study by TalentLMS also found that 28% of employees want training broken into shorter sessions. Google did it beautifully through whisper courses. Sending short nudges through emails to employees when needed.

Bringing in the social element

As per the same TalentLMS survey, 27% of employees also want more social elements in training. Most of Google's training programs (G2G, Guru+, GDG) have a social element. Employees get to learn and interact with peers.

Getting leadership buy-in: Support, not just permission

When G2G first started, the G2G implementation team focused on getting manager permissions for the volunteers, as they would be spending time away from their core day-to-day activities. However, they realized that permission and support are not the same thing. 

"Permission and support are two very different things, and it's taken years to shift the organization to a culture of support for volunteer programs like this." Google, Guide: Create an employee-to-employee learning program .

The team worked hard to showcase the value of participating in G2G programs, sharing data on the individual and organizational value of having employees become teachers. 

Having manager support can seamlessly integrate such activities into your people's (weekly) tasks and workload. 

➡️ Impressed with how Google's training process stands out? Also, check how Google handles onboarding and performance reviews . 

🌱 How can you run a development process like Google?

Using Zavvy, you can recreate Google's successful training programs. 

✔️ Assign transparent career paths

You can define career paths for each department to show the role progression clearly . For each progression level, you can define competencies, so employees know what is needed to grow. This transparency will let employees own their learning journey and develop competencies accordingly.

✔️ Create courses easily

You can create custom courses that support your organization's learning requirements. You can design self-paced training for employees.

With the collaborator feature, employees can also create courses on topics they have expertise in.

✔️ Send whispers to your people 

Create small training nudges with a simple suggestion, and send them to your people. This is a very accessible yet effective form of training your people. 

Choose the communication platform of your choice: Slack, Email, or Teams .

The best part is that you can apply Google's whisper methodology to your entire company (not just managers). 

✔️ Bring the social element to learning

You can create group challenges or quizzes for employees.

We have helped Freeletics in the past by running leadership roundtables. The leadership development program had a combination of short weekly nudges, courses, and group sessions to discuss leadership challenges.

✔️ Facilitate mentorship connections

• You can match employees with mentors for coaching calls. You can send surveys to employees to find volunteers.
• You can also share a quick checklist (or course if needed) with mentors and participants on conducting coaching sessions. 

✔️ Take advantage of external training options

Suppose you're trying to teach highly specialized content. In that case, content aimed at your most senior leaders or content that could be very sensitive, peer-to-peer programs might not be the ideal choice. 

Instead, you can use Zavvy's extensive learning library with over 10.000 from top-notch providers. 

Alternatively, set up recurring learning events with professional trainers.

✔️ Encourage learner motivation with voluntary sign-ups

One thing that has made the G2G program successful at Google is that the employees participate voluntarily and are supported by a culture that values learning.

You can either assign Zavvy journeys to employees or publish them to the library so that employees can enroll themselves or do both. 

To publish a journey to the library, you must first enable the "self-enrollment" option in the journey settings. 

After training sessions, encourage participants to share their experiences and what they learned with their peers. This not only reinforces their own learning but also promotes the program to others.

All courses on Zavvy have a share function; encourage your learners to use it and spread the word about the best materials they engage with. 

Since self-enrollment is active, your employees would have no issues signing up for courses recommended by their peers.

Track the courses that receive the most love from your people and try to replicate what makes them successful.

✔️ Provide LMS to support and track learning

Lastly, you can support employees in creating their learning and development plans . Also, you have a centralized LMS to keep track of all training in one place.

✔️ Use the 1:1 software conversations between mentors and mentees

You can easily replicate Google's career conversation worksheet with Zavvy's 1:1 software. You can adapt elements from the worksheet into a template that everyone in your company can use in their mentorship or coaching conversations. 

You add questions and agenda items to structure coaching sessions better. But each coaching pair will be free to make the template their own. 

Plus, the coach can set up the recurrence of the meetings once. Then Zavvy's automation will take care of all the rest: creating Google calendar invites and events for all participants and sending reminders before each session. 

✔️ Collect feedback on your training experiences

Google meticulously tracks the quality of their training initiatives. Especially for their Guru program, coaches are evaluated by those they coach.

With Zavvy, you have 2 ways of collecting feedback on your training and coaching initiatives: 

• Add a survey step to your learning journeys. 
• Create a training evaluation survey and send it out to your cohorts of learners.

📅 Ready to adapt Google's best practices? Get Zavvy's 360 growth system for your employees. Book a demo to see it in action.

Lorelei is Zavvy's Content Marketing Manager. She is always on the hunt for the latest HR trends, fresh statistics, and academic and real-life best practices to spread the word about creating better employee experiences.

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Management Training Program Leads to Real Results

Discover the secret to M.J. Electric’s management training program leveraging coaching, collaboration, and capstone projects.

M.J. Electric knew it was time to implement a management training program.

They wanted to maximize their high potentials; however, its leadership team was unable to agree on an approach. Its collaboration with IMPACT Group made all the difference. 

M.J. Electric’s management wanted to develop its leaders through a formal management training program. They envisioned a program in which a cohort of emerging leaders would be tapped each year. Yet, they felt they didn’t have the internal resources to develop such a program on their own.

Steve Feira – Vice President of Human Resources at M.J. Electric – shares how a collaborative approach created a program that was unique to his company’s needs and culture. Since 2016, M.J. Electric has leveraged this program to prepare leaders for greater responsibility. And they say the program is working.

“We wouldn’t be successful at developing our talent without this program. It makes us a better company.” – Steve Feira

Discover the secret to their management training program success leveraging coaching, collaboration, and capstone projects.

What were the results of hte program? M.J. Electric was able to: 

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About IMPACT Group & Our Management Training Program Philosophy

IMPACT Group is a WBE-certified global leader in leadership development, relocation support, and outplacement assistance. We offer management training programs and leadership development for employees at all levels in their careers.

At IMPACT Group, we embrace the power of action learning facilitated through expert coaches. We use assessments to build your employees’ knowledge of themselves and their team members. And we coach them through situations they are dealing with in the present. That means your employees can apply what they’re learning immediately.

Often organizations will choose curriculum-based training programs in which participants are given required reading assignments. Then the participants are further “schooled” through instructor-led training. Many of these programs resemble college-level classes on management. While these programs have a certain appeal, they don’t often generate actionable behavior change.

What’s the better alternative? IMPACT Group offers coaching-focused programs. Coaches work with managers to introduce new concepts — and even more important — to put new behaviors into practice.

Our Management Training Programs Focus on Change, Resilience, Metrics & Diversity

We offer five programs that are delivered virtually or in person. Professional coaching is the key to these programs in which participants each work with their own experienced coach. As an example, High IMPACT Coaching™ is a comprehensive development program for next-gen leaders. And, you can enroll individuals in the program or enroll a group of leaders. Each participant gets the value of 1:Me™ coaching. A coach conducts a leadership assessment, then coaches the participant on the read out of that assessment as well as development of an action plan that focuses on achieving a measurable goal.

Capstone projects are an optional program component. This additional element has proven to deliver highly visible business results as professional coaches guide employees in developing and executing an initiative with measurable outcomes.

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Implementing a Comprehensive Training Program: A Case Study

This case study delves into the process of implementing a comprehensive training program within an organizational context. It explores the various stages involved in this endeavor, from identifying training needs to designing tailored training modules, overcoming implementation challenges, and assessing program effectiveness.

The study offers insights into the strategies employed to refine and sustain training initiatives, providing a comprehensive overview of the complexities and nuances involved in this process.

By examining the real-world experiences and outcomes of implementing such a program, this case study aims to offer valuable lessons and best practices for organizations seeking to enhance their training efforts and optimize employee development.

Table of Contents

Key Takeaways

• Conduct a comprehensive training assessment to evaluate current skills, knowledge, and performance levels of employees.
• Tailor training material to the specific roles, responsibilities, and challenges faced by different teams or departments.
• Identify suitable delivery methods for the training content based on factors such as material nature, audience size, and resource availability.
• Utilize Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to measure the impact of the training on employee productivity, skill acquisition, and job performance.

Identifying Training Needs

Identifying the specific skill gaps and knowledge deficiencies within the organization is crucial for developing an effective training program. This process begins with a comprehensive training assessment that involves evaluating the current skills, knowledge, and performance levels of employees. By conducting a thorough training needs analysis, organizations can pinpoint areas where employees require additional training or development. This involves examining job roles, responsibilities, and performance expectations to identify specific skill gaps that may exist.

Skill gap identification enables organizations to tailor their training programs to address the precise needs of their workforce, ensuring that the training provided is relevant and impactful.

Training assessment also involves considering the organization’s strategic goals and objectives. By aligning training initiatives with the overall business strategy, companies can ensure that the training provided contributes directly to the achievement of organizational objectives. Additionally, feedback from employees, supervisors, and performance evaluations can provide valuable insights into areas where training is needed.

This holistic approach to training assessment enables organizations to develop targeted and effective training programs that address the specific needs of their workforce.

Designing Customized Training Modules

One must carefully design customized training modules to address specific skill gaps and knowledge deficiencies within the organization, ensuring relevance and effectiveness. Adapting content to the unique needs of the employees is crucial in designing these modules. This involves tailoring the training material to the specific roles, responsibilities, and challenges faced by different teams or departments. By doing so, the training becomes more engaging and directly applicable to the daily tasks of the employees, leading to better retention and application of the knowledge gained.

Furthermore, measuring the impact of the training modules is essential to ensure their effectiveness. This can be achieved by setting clear learning objectives and using performance metrics to assess the acquisition and application of new skills and knowledge. Feedback mechanisms such as surveys, quizzes, or practical assessments can also be employed to gauge the effectiveness of the training.

Implementing the Training Program

Upon completing the design of customized training modules, the next crucial step is implementing the training program to ensure its successful integration within the organization. This phase requires careful planning and execution to effectively deliver the training and engage employees in the learning process.

The following key steps are essential for the successful implementation of the training program:

Training Delivery

Identify the most suitable delivery methods for the training content, considering factors such as the nature of the material, the size of the audience, and the availability of resources.

Utilize a combination of training delivery approaches, such as in-person workshops, online courses, and on-the-job training, to cater to different learning styles and preferences.

Ensure that the training delivery is aligned with the overall learning objectives and that the content is delivered in a clear, engaging, and interactive manner to enhance knowledge retention.

Employee Engagement

Foster a culture of active participation and engagement by encouraging open communication, soliciting feedback, and providing opportunities for discussion and collaboration during the training sessions.

Implement mechanisms to measure and track employee engagement throughout the training program, allowing for adjustments to be made to improve participation and overall effectiveness.

Recognize and reward employees who actively engage in the training process, reinforcing the value of their contributions to the organization’s learning and development initiatives.

Overcoming Implementation Challenges

Addressing the challenges that may arise during the implementation of the training program is crucial for ensuring its successful integration within the organization.

One of the key challenges that organizations face during the implementation of a comprehensive training program is managing resistance from employees. Resistance can stem from various factors such as fear of change, uncertainty about the benefits of the program, or a lack of understanding about how the training will be integrated into their roles.

To overcome this challenge, it is essential to communicate the purpose and benefits of the training program clearly to employees. This can be achieved through transparent and open communication, providing forums for employees to ask questions and express their concerns, and highlighting the positive impact the training will have on their professional development and the overall success of the organization.

Effective communication strategies are vital for overcoming resistance and ensuring the successful implementation of the training program. It is essential to engage with employees at all levels, listen to their feedback, and address any concerns that may arise. Additionally, leveraging various communication channels such as team meetings, email updates, and intranet platforms can help in disseminating information about the training program and creating a supportive environment for its implementation.

Assessing Training Program Effectiveness

Evaluating the efficacy of the training program is essential for gauging its impact on employee performance and organizational outcomes. Measuring impact and tracking progress are critical components of this assessment process. To effectively assess the training program’s effectiveness, the following steps should be taken:

Utilize Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to measure the impact of the training on employee productivity, skill acquisition, and overall job performance. This involves setting specific, measurable targets for performance improvement and tracking the extent to which these targets are met post-training.

Conduct regular assessments and surveys to gather feedback from employees regarding the relevance, applicability, and effectiveness of the training content. This feedback can provide valuable insights into areas of improvement and help in fine-tuning the training program to better meet the needs of the employees.

Analyze organizational data, such as productivity metrics, quality indicators, and employee turnover rates, to assess the broader impact of the training on business outcomes. By correlating training initiatives with organizational data, it becomes possible to determine the direct impact of the program on key performance metrics.

Refining and Sustaining Training Initiatives

The organization’s commitment to refining and sustaining training initiatives is pivotal for ensuring continued employee development and performance enhancement. To sustain engagement, it is crucial to regularly assess the effectiveness of the training content and delivery methods.

This can be achieved through feedback mechanisms, such as surveys and focus group discussions, to gather insights from employees on the relevance and impact of the training. Additionally, refining content to align with evolving industry trends and best practices is essential. This may involve updating training materials, incorporating new technologies, or providing advanced training opportunities for experienced employees.

Furthermore, sustaining engagement can also be facilitated by creating a supportive learning culture within the organization, where continuous development is encouraged and recognized. By fostering an environment that values ongoing learning and improvement, employees are more likely to actively participate in training initiatives.

Ultimately, sustaining engagement and refining content are interconnected factors that contribute to the overall success of a comprehensive training program, ensuring that employees remain equipped with the knowledge and skills needed to excel in their roles.

In conclusion, the implementation of a comprehensive training program requires careful identification of training needs, customized module design, and effective program implementation.

Overcoming challenges and assessing program effectiveness are crucial for refining and sustaining training initiatives.

Just like a well-oiled machine, a successful training program is a finely tuned operation that ensures employees are equipped with the necessary skills and knowledge to excel in their roles, ultimately leading to organizational success.

eSoft Management Consultants, a team of seasoned professionals with vast expertise in business strategy, operations, leadership, and management, are devoted to empowering businesses to evolve and thrive. Their well-researched, meticulous content offers invaluable insights on management principles, leadership styles, and industry trends. Upholding strict editorial guidelines, they ensure accurate, relevant, and timely knowledge dissemination. As trusted advisors, they not only provide insights but also act as partners in growth, helping organizations unlock their full potential through strategic understanding and action.

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The impact of case studies on safety training.

Experience is the greatest teacher of all and there is nothing like learning from our mistakes. But, in many critical industries, making a mistake can lead to grave injuries — or possibly even death. Whatever your industry, safety should be at the heart of everything you do. By committing to innovation and new, more effective ways to approach online training, your people will be more prepared to make safer, smarter and better decisions on the job.

Making Compliance Training Engaging

Learning from the mistakes of someone else — without actually having to make that mistake yourself — is an invaluable tool when it comes to adult learning. In fact, eLearning courses developed from real-life scenarios that highlight to learners what went wrong can help prevent similar injuries from occurring in the future.

In this article, we’ll review some top tips on integrating case studies into your health and safety training programs, and how this can help save lives in the workplace.

3 tips for designing (or selecting) case study courses.

Select case studies with care..

Not all examples of workplace incidents are relevant for all trainees. That’s why you should start by identifying any employee skills gaps and training needs. You’ll also want to ensure you’re selecting or designing case studies that grab the attention of those who engage with the narrative.

Here are just a few questions to consider while developing safety training for employees:

• Is there a particularly compelling voice that can share this story?
• Is there a clear lesson that can be learned from this experience?
• How can this particular case study help develop problem-solving skills in learners?
• Is there an interactive element that can be included in a training based on this case study?

Ensure to choose topics that are relevant to employees and the work environment, and that learners can connect with personally. The importance is to ensure that the training content is memorable.

Structure training for engagement.

As you are designing or selecting case studies for training courses, you’ll need to consider the best way to communicate a real-life narrative. This is not the same as storytelling or explaining what not to do. Instead, you will need to structure the training so that it immerses learners into the experience. Combine different features to create a blended learning experience, like interviews and/or a 3D recreation of the incident with explanations by an expert on how the incident could’ve been prevented. This can drive home the point of occupational safety and hazard association (OSHA) training.

Include interactive elements.

Interactive multimedia elements are also imperative to creating an immersive learning experience. You can also structure the content so learners can problem-solve their way through the experience while you narrate it. For example, add scenarios like “branching” or choose-your-own-adventure activities so they can see how the situation plays out based on their selection.  Don’t overdo it with the entertaining elements. The point of adding immersive features is to make an authentic impact on your learners.

3 key benefits of using case studies in training.

Better buy-in..

When it comes to safety training, buy-in from stakeholders is a must and completing online courses should be more than checking boxes for compliance requirements. The best way to do that is explain the value of the training. Most adults have a higher sense of self-direction and motivation, which is why many adult learners learn because they need it and/or recognize the benefit. We know that humans learn better when they connect their training to a narrative. Case studies have the power to make what may otherwise feel like a series of do’s and don’ts come to life with a compelling story based on real-life events.

Learners can better understand the importance of safety training when its personable and relevant to their role. Transforming mandatory compliance health and safety training from abstract concepts into lessons grounded in the real-world can not only maximize the impact of training, but also help safeguard lives.

• #adult learning
• #case studies in training
• #compliance training
• #engaging eLearning
• #health and safety programs
• #interactive safety training.
• #OSHA training
• #prevent workplace injuries
• #safety training
• #workplace safety

Michael Ojdana

Michael Ojdana is the chief learning officer at Vector Solutions. He leads the content team and has a rich background in all aspects of content development. In his role, Ojdana strives to guide his team to create engaging, innovative courses that meet customer needs, positively change behaviors and help make employees safer.

This topic is proudly sponsored by

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Please note you do not have access to teaching notes, an evaluation system for training programs: a case study using a four‐phase approach.

Career Development International

ISSN : 1362-0436

Article publication date: 1 June 2006

With the increased importance of training in organizations, creating important and meaningful programs are critical to an organization and its members. The purpose of this paper is to suggest a four‐phase systematic approach to designing and evaluating training programs that promotes collaboration between organizational leaders, trainers, participants and evaluators.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper presents a case study of a leadership training program conducted at a Midwestern corporate university. Analysis of the qualitative data from interviews with participants and field notes during the first two iterations of the program highlight three major aspects that were then used to develop a unique measure for the evaluation of subsequent iterations. The case study was conducted over a period of 31/2 years involving a total of 175 managers.

A main finding in this study was that content was three times stronger than applicability. This finding was critical in understanding the learning focus of the program and the significance of developing a unique evaluation system that is both meaningful and important to the organization and its members.

Practical implications

The four‐phase approach to develop unique evaluations involving both content and applicability would be of value to human resource professionals involving in designing training programs for career development of managers.

Originality/value

This four‐phase approach focuses on learning and development at the individual and organizational levels. It aligns with Kolb's experiential learning theory and is a process that provides a feedback system for organizations to engage in double‐loop learning to improve the design, delivery and evaluation of their training programs.

• Training evaluation
• Leadership development
• Training packages
• Experiential learning

Lingham, T. , Richley, B. and Rezania, D. (2006), "An evaluation system for training programs: a case study using a four‐phase approach", Career Development International , Vol. 11 No. 4, pp. 334-351. https://doi.org/10.1108/13620430610672540

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2006, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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Home » Management Case Studies » Case Study of IBM: Employee Training through E-Learning

Case Study of IBM: Employee Training through E-Learning

“E-learning is a technology area that often has both first-tier benefits, such as reduced travel costs, and second-tier benefits, such as increased employee performance that directly impacts profitability.” – Rebecca Wettemann, research director for Nucleus Research

In 2002, the International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) was ranked fourth by the Training magazine on it’s “The 2002 Training Top 100”. The magazine ranked companies based on their commitment towards workforce development and training imparted to employees even during periods of financial uncertainty.

Since its inception, IBM had been focusing on human resources development : The company concentrated on the education and training of its employees as an integral part of their development. During the mid 1990s, IBM reportedly spent about $1 billion for training its employees. However, in the late 1990s, IBM undertook a cost cutting drive , and started looking for ways to train its employees effectively at lower costs. After considerable research, in 1999, IBM decided to use e-Learning to train its employees. Initially, e-Learning was used to train IBM’s newly recruited managers.

IBM saved millions of dollars by training employees through e-learning. E-Learning also created a better learning environment for the company’s employees, compared to the traditional training methods . The company reportedly saved about $166 million within one year of implementing the e-learning program for training its employees all over the world. The figure rose to $350 million in 2001. During this year, IBM reported a return on investment (ROI)’s of 2284 percent from its Basic Blue e-Learning program. This was mainly due to the significant reduction in the company’s training costs and positive results reaped from e-learning. Andrew Sadler, director of IBM Mindspan Solutions, explained the benefits of e-learning to IBM, “All measures of effectiveness went up. It’s saving money and delivering more effective training,’ while at the same time providing five times more content than before.” By 2002, IBM had emerged as the company with the largest number of employee’s who have enrolled into e-Learning courses.

However, a section of analysts and some managers at IBM felt that e-Learning would never be able to’ replace the traditional modes of training completely. Rick Horton, general manager of learning services at IBM, said, “The classroom is still the best in a high-technology environment, which requires hands-on laboratories and teaming, or a situation where it .is important for the group to be together to take advantage of the equipment.”

Though there were varied opinions about the effectiveness of e-Learning as a training tool for employees, IBM saw it as a major business opportunity and started offering e- ­learning products to other organizations as well. Analysts estimated that the market for e-Learning programs would grow from $2.1 billion in 2001 to $33.6 billion in 2005 representing a 100 percent compounded annual growth rate (CAGR).

Background Note

Since the inception of IBM, its top management laid great emphasis on respecting every employee. It felt that every employee’s contribution was important for the organization. Thomas J. Watson Sr. (Watson Sr.), the father of modern IBM had once said, “By the simple belief that if we respected our people and helped them respect themselves, the company would certainly profit.” The HR policies at IBM were employee-friendly. Employees were compensated well – as they were paid above the industry average. in terms of wages. The company followed a ‘no layoffs’ policy. Even during financially troubled periods, employees were relocated from the plants, labs and headquarters, and were retrained for careers in sales, customer engineering, field administration and programming.

IBM had emphasized on training its employees from the very beginning. In 1933 (after 15 years of its inception), the construction of the ‘IBM Schoolhouse’ to offer education and training for employees, was completed. The building had Watson Sr.’s ‘Five Steps of Knowledge’ carved on the front entrance. The five steps included ‘Read, Listen, Discuss, Observe and Think.’ Managers were trained at the school at regular intervals.

To widen their knowledge base and broaden their perspectives, managers were also sent for educational programs to Harvard, the London School of Economics, MIT and Stanford. Those who excelled in these programs were sent to the Advanced Managers School, a program offered in about forty colleges including some in Harvard, Columbia, Virginia, Georgia and Indiana. IBM’s highest-ranking executives were sent to executive seminars, organized at the Brookings Institutions this program typically covered a broad range of subjects including, international and domestic, political and economic affairs. IBM executives were exposed to topical events with a special emphasis on their implications for the company.

In 1997, Louis Gerstner (Gerstner), the then CEO of IBM , conducted a research to identify the unique characteristics of best executives and managers. The research revealed that the ability to train employees was an essential skill, which differentiated best executives and managers. Therefore, Gerstner aimed at improving the managers’ training skills. Gerstner adopted a coaching methodology of Sir John Whitmore, which was taught to the managers through training workshops.

However, after some time, Gerstner realized that the training workshops were not enough. Moreover, these workshops were not ‘ just-in-time .’ Managers had to wait for months before their turn of attending the work shops came. Therefore, in most of the cases, during the initial weeks at the job, the employees did not possess the knowledge of critical aspects like team building.

IBM trained about 5000 new managers in a year. There was a five-day training program for all the new managers, where they were familiarized with the basic culture, strategy and management of IBM. However, as the jobs became more complex, the five-day program turned out to be insufficient for the managers to train them effectively. The company felt that the training process had to be continuous and not a one-time event.

Gerstner thus started looking for new ways of training managers. The company specifically wanted its management training initiatives to address the following issues:

• Management of people across geographic borders
• Management of remote and mobile employees
• Digital collaboration issues
• Reductions in management development resources
• Limited management time for training and development
• Management’s low comfort level in accessing and searching online HR resources

The company required a continuous training program, without the costs and time associated with bringing together 5000 managers from all over the world. After conducting a research, IBM felt that online training would be an ideal solution to this problem. The company planned to utilize the services of IBM Mindspan Solutions to design and support the company’s manager training program. This was IBM’s first e- ­learning project on international training.

Online Training at IBM

In 1999, IBM launched the pilot Basic Blue management training program, which was fully deployed in 2000. Basic Blue was an in-house management training program for new managers. It imparted 75 percent of the training online and the remaining 25 percent through the traditional classroom mode. The e-Learning part included articles, simulations, job aids and short courses.

The founding principle of Basic Blue was that ‘learning is an extended process, not a one-time event.” Basic Blue was based on a ‘4- Tier’ blended learning model’. The first three tiers were delivered online and the fourth tier included one ­-week long traditional classroom training. The program offered basic skills and knowledge to managers so that they can become effective leaders and people-oriented managers.

The managers were provided access to a lot of information including a database of questions, answers and sample scenarios called Manager QuickViews. This information addressed the issues like evaluation, retention, and conflict resolution and so on, which managers came across. A manager who faced a problem could either access the relevant topic directly, or find the relevant information using a search engine. He/she had direct access to materials on the computer’s desktop for online reading. The material also highlighted other important web sites to be browsed for further information. IBM believed that its managers should be aware of practices and policies followed in different countries. Hence, the groups were foremen virtually by videoconferencing with team members from all over the world,”

In the second tier, the managers were provided with simulated situations. Senior managers trained the managers online. The simulations enabled the managers to learn about employee skill-building, compensation and benefits, multicultural issues, work/life balance- issues and business conduct in an interactive manner. Some of the content for [his tier was offered by Harvard Business School and the simulations were created by Cognitive Arts of Chicago. The online Coaching Simulator offered eight scenarios with 5000 scenes of action, decision points and branching results. IBM Management Development’s web site, Going Global offered as many as 300 interactive scenarios on culture clashes.

In the third tier, the members of the group started interacting with each other online. This tier used IBM’s collaboration tools such as chats, and team rooms including IBM e-Learning products like the Team-Room, Customer-Room and Lotus Learning Space. Using these tools, employees could interact online with the instructors as well as with peers in their groups. This tier also used virtual team exercises and included advanced technologies like application sharing, live virtual classrooms and interactive presentation: on the web. In this tier, the members of the group had to solve problems as a team by forming virtual groups, using these products. Hence, this tier focused more on developing the collaborative skills of the learners.

Though training through e-Learning was very successful, IBM believed that classroom training was also essential to develop people skills. Therefore, the fourth tier comprised a classroom training program, own as ‘Learning Lab.’ By the time the managers reached this tire, they all reached a similar level of knowledge by mastering the content in the first three tiers. Managers had to pass an online test on the content provided in the above three tiers, before entering the fourth tier. In the fourth tier, the managers had to master the information acquired in the above three tiers and develop a deeper understanding and a broader skills set. There were no lectures in these sessions, and the managers had to learn by doing and by coordinating directly with others in the classroom.

The tremendous success of the Basic Blue initiative encouraged IBM to extend training through e-Learning to its-sales personnel and experienced managers as well. The e-Learning program for the sales personnel was known as ‘Sales Compass,’ and the one for the experienced managers, as ‘Managing@ IBM.’ Prior to the implementation of the Sales Compass e-Learning program, the sales personnel underwent live training at the company’s headquarters and training campuses. They also attended field training program, national sales conferences and other traditional methods of training. However, in most of the cases these methods proved too expensive, ineffective and time-consuming. Apart from this, coordination problems also cropped up, as the sales team was spread across the world. Moreover, in a highly competitive market, IBM could not afford to keep its sales team away from work for weeks together.

Though Sales Compass was originally started in 1997 on a trial basis to help the sales team in selling business intelligence solutions to the retail and manufacturing industries, it-was not implemented on a large scale. But with the success of Basic Blue, Sales Compass was developed further. The content of the new Sales Compass was divided into five categories including Solutions (13 courses), industries (23 courses), personal skills (2 courses), selling skills (11 courses), and tools and job aid (4 aids).

The sales personnel of IBM across the globe could use the information from their desktops using a web browser. Sales Compass provided critical information to the sales personnel helping them to understand various industries (including automotive, banking, government, insurance etc) in a much better manner. The information offered included industry snapshot, industry trends, market segmentation, key processes, positioning and selling industry solutions and identifying resources.

It also enabled the sales people to sell certain IBM products designed for Customer Relationship Management (CRM) , Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) , Business Intelligence (BI) , and so on. Sales Compass also trained the sales personnel on skills like negotiating and selling services. Like the Basic Blue program, Sales Compass also had simulations for selling products to a specific industry like banking, about how to close a deal, and so on. It also allowed its users to ask questions and had links to information on other IBM sites and related websites.

Sales Compass was offered to 20,000 sales representatives, client relationship representatives, territory representatives, sales specialists, and service professionals at IBM. Brenda Toan (Toan), global skills and learning leader for IBM offices across the world, said, “Sales Compass is a just-in-time, just-enough sales support information site. Most of our users are mobile. So they are, most of the times, unable to get into a branch office and obtain information on a specific industry or solution. IBM Sales Compass provides industry-specific knowledge, advice on how to sell specific solutions, and selling tools that support our signature selling methodology, which is convenient for these users.”

IBM also launched an e-Learning program called ‘Managing @ IBM’ for its experienced managers, in late 2001. The program provided content related to leadership and people management skills, and enabled the managers to meet their specific needs. Unlike the Basic Blue program, this program enabled managers to choose information based on their requirements. The program included the face-to- ­face Learning Lab, e-learning, and Edvisor, a sophisticated Intelligent Web Agent. Edvisor offered three tracks offering various types of information.

By implementing the above programs, IBM was able to reduce its training budget as well as improve employee productivity significantly. In 2000, Basic Blue saved $16 million while Sales Compass saved $21 million. In 2001, IBM saved $200 million and its cost of training per-employee reduced significantly – from $400 to $135. E-learning also resulted in a deeper understanding of the learning content by the managers. It also enabled the managers to complete their classroom training modules in lesser time, as compared to the traditional training methods used earlier. The simulation modules and collaboration techniques created a richer learning environment. The e-learning projects also enabled the company to leverage corporate internal knowledge as most of the content they carried came from the internal content experts.

IBM’s cost savings through E-Learning

The e-Learning projects of IBM had been successful right from the initial stages of their implementation. These programs were appreciated by HR experts of IDM, and other companies. The Basic Blue program bagged three awards of ‘Excellence in Practice’ from the American Society for Training & Development (ASTD) in March 2000. It was also included among the ten best ‘world-class implementations of corporate learning’ initiatives by the “E-Learning across the Enterprise: The Benchmarking Study of Best Practices” (Brandon Hall) in September 2000.

IBM continued its efforts to improve the visual information in all its e-Learning programs to make them more effective. The company also encouraged its other employees to attend these e-learning programs. Apart from this, IBM planned to update these programs on a continuous basis, using feedback from its new and experienced managers, its sales force and other employees.

IBM used e-Learning not only to train its employees, but also in other HR activities. In November 2001, IBM employees received the benefits enrollment material online. The employees could learn about the merits of various benefits and the criteria for availing these benefits, such as cost, coverage, customer service or performance ­using an Intranet tool called ‘Path Finder.’ This tool also enabled the employees to know about the various health plans offered by IBM. Besides, Pathfinder took information from the employees and returned a preferred plan with ranks and graphs. This application enabled employees to see and manage their benefits, deductions in their salaries, career changes and more. This obviously, increased employee satisfaction. The company also automated its hiring process. The new tool on the company’s intranet was capable of carrying out most of the employee hiring processes. Initially, IBM used to take ten days to find a temporary engineer or consultant. Now, the company was able to find such an employee in three days.

IBM also started exploring the evolving area of ‘mobile learning’ Analysts felt that for mobile sales force of IBM, m-Learning was the next ideal step (after e-Learning). IBM leveraged many new communication channels for offering its courses to employees. IBM also started offering the courses to its customers and to the general public. In early 2002, American Airlines (AA) used IBM’s e-Learning package, which enabled its flight attendants to log on to AA’s website and complete the ‘safety and security training’ from any place, at any time. The content included instruction clips, graphics, flash animation, and so on. This made the airlines annual safety training certification program guides more effective. Shanta Hudson-Fields, AA’s manager for line training and special projects, commented, “The full service package that IBM offers has allowed us to develop an effective online course for our large group of busy attendants. In addition to providing a flexible training certification experience for our attendants, American has also brought efficiency and cost savings to our training processes using IBM’s e-Learning solution.” The company had trained 24,000 flight attendants by November 2002.

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