Elearning Companies: TELUS implemented a competencies based corporate training model from top to bottom. Based on employee review training is offered to achieve competency goals. Leveraging elearning companies like TELUS manage for change.

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from SkillSoft

TELUS can trace its roots to the original wiring of telephone service across the western reaches of Canada 100 years ago. Over the course of a century, the company has seen a continuous flow of changes, but perhaps none so dramatic as the decision a few years ago to expand beyond its traditional business to become a full-service telecom provider, bringing phone, Internet, wireless and data services to all of Canada.

The change meant new opportunities for growth, but it also required dramatic changes within the company to support the new business model and technologies.

Profile TELUS is a leading Canadian provider of voice, Internet, data and wireless services with more than $7 billion in revenue in 2003. Challenge In the summer of 2000, TELUS was a regional telecommunications company, with revenues based primarily on telephone service provided to the western regions of Canada. The company saw the opportunity to expand nationally and into the rapidly growing markets for Internet, data and wireless communications. This change in business focus, however, would also require team members to develop new skills and knowledge. The company also recognized the need for a cultural change that would promote a more entrepreneurial, market-oriented spirit. Solution TELUS took a comprehensive approach to change that involved all team members from the CEO down. The company developed a management model based on four key company values and strategic or mission-critical competencies defined for all job roles. TELUS now evaluates team members on a quarterly basis to determine whether they have development opportunities that can be addressed with learning resources. TELUS uses SkillSoft courseware to address business and IT needs. Results TELUS team members have completed more than 250,000 e-learning courses. Each employee is required to take a certain number of courses each year as part of the e-performance model. ASTD recognizes TELUS as having one of the most effective training programs in the world. Internal support for the program has grown because employees recognize it as one of the key factors enabling consistent growth and bottom-line results.

Management recognized that, to compete in these new markets, the company required new skills and expertise in a range of emerging technologies. It also recognized that the new business focus would require a significant cultural shift. Management needed to transform a conservative regional telephone monopoly into a nimble, fast-moving entrepreneur. It was a daunting challenge, to say the least.

Two factors played a prominent role in the formation of the new approach to learning and development. One was the company's drive to become completely Web-enabled. That required a large investment in the technology architecture to allow the company to manage and communicate through the Web and deliver a variety of services to the desktops of team members.

At the same time, TELUS was undergoing an operational efficiency program. The company looked for ways to refine existing processes to allow for cost-savings. These savings were then reinvested into areas that would drive growth. This had a dramatic effect on the training department, which at that time was based primarily on instructor-led training. Today, while ILT still accounts for a significant portion of the learning programs, an even greater portion of the offering is Web-based.

Even without the cost-containment mandate, it was clear the learning function needed to change. TELUS was having difficulty keeping up with demand for classroom training and there were long wait lists for classes. As the company expanded nationally through a series of mergers, the scale and complexity of managing training programs also grew. It now needed to provide training for many more team members, in English and in French, across a much broader range of strategic subjects.

The e-Performance Model
TELUS addressed the need to develop new skills and provide targeted training to the enlarged workforce through the e-Performance Model, a four-stage management framework encompassing all TELUS team members. The model promotes continuous improvement and ongoing communication between manager and employee and is reinforced through quarterly reviews.

Within the e-Performance paradigm, training programs focus on competencies classified as either strategic or mission-critical. Strategic competencies allow the company to flourish in new markets. Mission-critical competencies relate to operational and service excellence in day-to-day operations. By limiting learning activities to those that met these criteria, the company found it could produce better results with more impact on business.

"This is a much more focused way to develop learning programs than what we once had," said Duane DeJager, manager of e-learning in the Enterprise Learning Group. "It used to be that we would run classes and people would sign up. Now we only run courses where there is a specific need within a specific timeframe."

Through the review process, the manager and employee may discover development opportunities with respect to either skills or values. "The goal is to put the manager and employee on the same page," said Jacob Li, learning consultant with the Strategic Partnerships and Training Excellence Group. "They work together to find development opportunities and look for options to advance performance."

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