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1 Training leaders from Fort Hill Company, Countrywide FinancialCorporation, Purolator Courier, and Advance Auto Parts on:Creating an EffectiveTraining and DevelopmentDepartmentRoy V. H. PollockChief Learning Officer. Fort Hill CompanyJoe DiDonatoExecutive Vice President and Chief Technology Learning OfficerCountrywide Financial CorporationStephen A. GouldSenior Vice President, HR, Purolator Courier L. Bryant President, Organizational development and TrainingAdvance Auto PartsKnowledge and technologies in nearly every field are increasing expo-nentially, so how should companies respond? On the one hand, theyneed employees to stay on top of the information avalanche; onthe other, they cannot commit unlimited resources for training and devel-opment. This ExecBlueprint describes in detail how four learning officersfrom diverse industries are managing this vital function in their respectiveorganizations.

2 Here they discuss the dual role training and developmentmust play to serve the company s present operational needs as well asdevelop its future products and leadership. Speaking from their own expe-riences, the authors map out specific strategies for administering and eval-uating training programs that have proven effective at their key to success? Teaching skills and knowledge the employee will actu-ally apply to their job. As they explain, this is a multi-step process involv-ing hands-on classroom training, supportive coaching and managing, andconscientious follow-up. in partnership with Aspatore Books Should Companies Approach Training andDevelopment?Because most industries today must cope with dizzy-ing rates of change as knowledge expands, technol-ogy evolves, and markets shift, companies need toensure that their employees remain productive andmotivated. For this reason, training and developmentare essential but, to be effective, they must be targeted to achieve tangible Bottom LineEffective training and development programs createvalue that is worth many times their cost.

3 Others, however, can be a waste of money. The difference lies in the planning: How much time and capital can the company afford to invest? Can results bemeasured in demonstrable ways such as by howmuch efficiency or sales have increased? Components of Effective TrainingProgramsFirst of all, they must be driven by not isolated from the business requirements of the , they must address both ongoing operationaldemands and future talent needs. Most importantly,they should support the employee in his or herprocess of bringing new skills and knowledge to the Golden Rules for Following Up on TrainingThe true measure of a program s effectiveness iswhether and how the employee applies thelearned skills and knowledge. Managers, instructors,peers, and the employees themselves must all work to ensure that this essential transfer takes Take-AwaysTraining and development programs can help a company prepare for a prosperous future by increas-ing skill sets, motivating employees, and groomingfuture leaders.

4 However, to be effective, they must bealigned with overall company strategy while alsofocused on improving the actual performance of every the Authors.. V. H. Pollock.. DiDonato.. A. Gould.. L. Bryant .. to Build Upon & Action Points.. 2006 Books24x7 . All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part is prohibited without the prior written permission of the publisher. This ExecBlueprints document was published as part of a subscription based service. ExecBlueprints ,a Referenceware collection from Books24x7, provides concise, easy to absorb, practical information to help organizations address pressing strategic issues. For more information about ExecBlueprints , please visit Books24x7, 2006 About the AuthorsExecBlueprints2 About the AuthorsDr. Roy Pollock is the chief learn-ing officer of the Fort HillCompany and co-author of TheSix Disciplines of Breakthrough Learning:How to Turn Training and Developmentinto Business Results.

5 He has a long-standing interest in education and lead-ership development , and is a fellow of theKellogg Foundation National Pollock has extensive experience inboth line management and strategy devel-opment. Prior to joining Fort Hill, he servedas assistant dean for curriculum develop-ment at Cornell College of VeterinaryMedicine; vice president of global strate-gic product development for SmithKlineBeecham Animal Health; vice president ofthe companion animal division for Pfizer; president of IDEXX Informatics;and president of VetConnect Systems studied education at the Center forEducational development at theUniversity of Illinois Medical School andhas authored more than 50 scientific articles and book V. H. PollockChief Learning Officer, Fort Hill Company Read Roy s insights on Page 3 Ordained The Godfather ofEducation by Oracle Corporationfor his early work in the 1980s tocreate what we know today as blendedlearning and delivery, Joe DiDonato isresponsible for the strategic vision and exe-cution for enterprise technology trainingand development at Countrywide DiDonato has an extensive back-ground in education, which ranges fromrunning customer and internal educationoperations at Oracle and PeopleSoft torunning entrepreneurial endeavors ateducation companies such as KnowledgeUniverse, KnowledgePlanet, ProductivityPoint International, Global Knowledge,and current domain of responsibilityspans Countrywide s diverse financial andbanking enterprise, and his purpose is toalign the various business unit IT groups initiatives in learning, curriculum.

6 Anddelivery methodologies, as well as ensurethat they maintain focus on corporatestrategic directions. He is also responsi-ble for policy-making and execution inthe areas of technology infrastructure,internal IT certification programs, indi-vidual learning plans for a rapidly grow-ing technology staff that currentlynumbers over 5,000 technical people, andindustry best DiDonatoExecutive Vice President and Chief Technology Learning Officer, Countrywide Financial Corporation Read Joe s insights on Page 8As senior vice president of HR forPurolator, Stephen A. Gould hasresponsibility for all aspects of HRincluding business strategy, organizationaldesign, talent management and successionplanning, performance management,compensation and benefits, pension, man-agement development , operations training,and employee and labor relations. He isalso responsible for environment healthand safety and corporate communica-tions, which include employee commu-nications, public affairs, and Gould serves as the managementlead on the Purolator board of directors compensation and HR committee, pen-sion committee, and environment, health,and safety committee.

7 He is alsoPurolator s privacy compliance to joining Purolator, Mr. Gouldwas vice president of HR for AmexCanada Inc. He also held positions atPepsiCo, McDonnell Douglas Canada,and Ernst & A. GouldSenior Vice President, HR, Purolator Courier Ltd. Read Stephen s insights on Page 14 Douglas L. Bryant , anaccomplished organizationaldevelopment and effectivenessexpert, brings more than 20 years of experience across a wide variety ofindustries. Focus areas include processengineering, operations management,adult learning, behavioral and organiza-tional sciences, executive training, andperformance Bryant s career began as an indus-trial engineer in automotive manufac-turing for ArvinMeritor. Among hismany accomplishments, he managedoperations for the nation s largest healthcare products provider (Johnson &Johnson) and earned a promotion to sen-ior instructional designer.

8 He also servedas the senior organizational developmentspecialist for an $8 billion office productsretailer (Office Depot), where he foundedtheir first corporate to joining Advance Auto Partsas the vice president of organizationaldevelopment and training, Dr. Bryantworked as the first training and organi-zational development director forAutoNation, a $23 billion automotiveretail organization. Advance Auto Partsis a Virginia-based Fortune 500 Bryant is a member of theAmerican Society for Training andDevelopment, the National Society forPerformance and Instruction, and otherassociations for HR management andorganizational L. Bryant President, Organizational development and Training, Advance Auto Parts Read Doug s insights on Page 17An Introduction to GettingYour Money s Worth fromTraining and DevelopmentAll told, your company invests a sig-nificant amount in training anddevelopment each year to staycompetitive and help create the nextgeneration of leaders.

9 But if yourcompany is like most, you aren tgetting the maximum return onyour and development aremeans to an end: improved personaland organizational performance. Theextent to which those objectives areachieved is the measure of theirworth. Effective training and devel-opment create value that is manytimes greater than their cost byimproving the performanceof thosetrained such that they create com-petitive advantage and contribute tothe success of the enterprise. Typicalassessments, such as the number ofhours of instruction, or coursesoffered, end-of-course evaluations,and the like, are no more evidence oftraining effectiveness than the num-ber of sales calls is a measure of saleseffectiveness. It is not the activity thatcounts; it is the output. Training anddevelopment create value only to theextent that they are transferred andapplied to the work of individuals,teams, and businesses in a way thatproduces more effective behaviors on the job that, in turn, generate tangible business your money s worthfrom training and development ,therefore, requires more than pro-viding a great learning requires a systematic approachthat is driven by sound manage-ment.

10 All the elements that deter-mine whether training anddevelopment produce results needto be considered and of these are outside the tra-ditional boundaries of training anddevelopment departments, and yetthey are crucial for its success. That is why executive leadership is needed if companies are toextract the full value from the past six years, we havebeen studying the characteristicsthat distinguish highly effectivetraining and development programsfrom less effective ones (Wick, et al.,2006, p. 1). We have discovered sixkeys to effectiveness that transcendindustry, corporate structure, andprogram focus: Define business outcomes. Design the complete experience. Deliver for application. Drive follow-through. Deploy active support. Document Business OutcomesIf effectiveness is measured by the extent to which training anddevelopment contributes to theorganization s business success, Books24x7, 2006 Roy V.