Reference no: EM133519928

Case Study: Imagine employees in your company saving over 60 lives in one year. That's one result of training efforts at G4S, an integrated security solutions provider. With 46,000 employees operating in over 110 field locations across the country, delivering training with that kind of impact is a challenge.

Most of the security personnel at G4S do not have access to computers or their access is limited because of client firewalls. So, online training is not always practical. About 60% of the company's training is delivered via live instructor-led classroom sessions. In addition to providing training content, this delivery method reinforces the company's culture and allows employees to network and connect with their peers. In particular, all new managers participate in three week-long training events that teach them about company best practices, customer service, sales and marketing, and employee relations. The management training connects new managers to headquarters, shows them the "G4S Way," and gives them exposure to top leaders in the organization. To supplement the classroom training, G4S established strategic partnerships with outside organizations such as the American Heart Association to deliver CPR and AED training. A partnership with the American Council on Education allows employees to earn college and continuing education credits. These collaborative programs extend the company's resources and help G4S's learning and development team focus on core training that is specific to the business. They also demonstrate the company's commitment to employee development and growth. In addition to classroom and partner-delivered training, G4S created an intranet and social networking portal for employees. Corporate materials, policies and procedures, training manuals and workbooks, performance support tools, and industry news are all available to keep employees informed and up to date with practices in the industry and company. Employees can access the intranet from anywhere with an Internet connection. An especially innovative aspect of the site is that employees can create a personal profile that lists their skills, interests, accomplishments, and contact information. This makes it easy and convenient for anyone in the company to quickly identify individuals with specific skills or know-how who can be tapped for assistance on an as-needed basis. Employee turnover at G4S is much lower than the industry average of 100%. More than 10,000 managers have been trained since the program started. The training has helped the company reduce turnover by 8%, and complaints about supervisors have dropped by 10%. Implementing the distance learning intranet portal saved the company nearly $2 million in travel-related costs. So, saving both lives and dollars was made possible by a well-designed and well-delivered training strategy at G4S.

Question 1: How might the learning and development team determine which training content to create and deliver internally versus externally?

Question 2: How would you recommend evaluating potential external providers? What criteria would you use to decide with which third-party providers to partner?

Question 3: What might motivate employees to share their skills and knowledge on a personal profile on the company's social networking intranet portal? What kind of incentives might you provide to encourage employees to share this information?

Question 4: What measures, in addition to changes in turnover and employee complaints, could be used to evaluate the effectiveness of G4S's training initiatives?