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TIPS FOR TEACHING TO THE TASK
June 02, 2009
By Sarah Boehle
When Aspect Software launched a new release of its flagship contact center solution, Aspect Unified IP, in the fall of 2007, the stakes were high. After all, it's not every day a well-established company upends its own business model by introducing a new product requiring across-the-board retraining of its personnel and customers.
The unified communications software and consulting services provider had offered call routing solutions to the banking, airline, and other industries since the 1970s, when it developed its first large-scale product, Automated Call Distributor (ACD), for Continental Airlines. This "immense" legacy system measured 8 feet high by 3" inches wide and was hardware-focused, according to Jodie Boeldt, a senior education services program manager at Aspect.
The new product, by contrast, is software-based and integrates more easily with other applications, she explains. "If a customer has a CRM (customer relationship management) application running in the background, for example, Unified IP can seamlessly tie into that system and pull and cross-reference information, which makes it easier for call-center agents to manage calls and meet customer needs."
The launch marked a momentous shift not only for Aspect customers, but for Aspect personnel, as well. "In the past, our technical workers' jobs were hardware- and manual labor-oriented." The new software-based system, she says, requires a different skill set. "We needed people familiar with networking and with strong Windows and PC skills; that's an especially difficult switch for those who have been on the equipment side of the business for 20 years." Aspect's sales force, she notes, also needed to understand and sell the value of an entirely new solution to customers. "And customers, for their part, needed tools to help them make the best use of the new system on a day-to-day basis."
To arm them with these tools, Boeldt and her team created the "Aspect Unified IP Curriculum," which features 10 instructor-led classroom courses and five self-paced courses that provide in-depth readiness training to Aspect stakeholders of all kinds.
To ensure that training was tailored to each audience, all courses were developed using the ARDDIE (Analyze, Research, Design, Develop, Implement, and Evaluate) model to determine the most appropriate and relevant content per course and delivery method based on job task analysis. Hands-on activities per job task also were designed for a simulated contact center to enable users to experience real-life application.
Finally, says Boeldt, assessment testing and a comprehensive practical case study gave learners the necessary practice on each key task, while building their confidence to perform the same tasks back on the job.
The results? As of September 1, 2008, almost 6,000 days of customer training and 4,295 days of employee training had taken place. More than 96 percent of those in attendance earned a passing assessment score, and attendees indicated an 87 percent confidence level in their ability to perform job tasks 90 days after attending training.
Beyond these quantitative metrics, Boeldt says the success of the program is evident in the product's success. "When all this began back in 2008, we didn't know when we'd be ready to phase our legacy system out. But a few months ago, we officially began 'end of life-ing' the old product because our salespeople had been so successful with the new product, they had stopped selling the old one. The fact that after 20 years, our sales force now has the courage to say, 'We are solid enough in the new technology that we are ready to push people away from the old stuff,' is a big move for us."
Shortly after the launch, Aspect also formed a strategic alliance with Microsoft to implement Microsoft's Unified Communications program into Aspect's Unified IP product. "From the beginning, Microsoft saw the value in our product, our people, and our implementation approach. We never would have had that opportunity if we hadn't trained our people and our customers properly and proven what our product could do."
Interested in implementing a similar program? Here are some of Boeldt's tips for success:
• Focus on the job role. "When developing training for a software rollout, it would have been easy enough to focus on software functionality. But instead, we focused on what people in specific job roles needed to do with the software. We broke everything down into tasks, delineated those tasks by role, and then developed classes around each role. This was one of our primary keys to success."
• Teach to the task. "We kept the training separated by job role, but used the exact same content for most of our audiences. To tailor the content accordingly, we armed our facilitators with several aids to help them tailor the perspective, goals, and discussion surrounding the training to each audience."
• Keep it quick to make it stick. "Our software is complex, and if people had to thumb through 200 pages of a technical manual or user guide to find the information they need, it would be very difficult for them to get their work done. To make things easier for them, we developed quick reference cards by job role that feature 15 key tasks. The measure for their success is the fact that they are used religiously; many people have even them pinned to the wall of their cubicle for easy reference."
• Establish a matching system for your customer base. The establishment of automated pricing rules ensured that the correct courses were presented along with the product based on the specific functionality being implemented. This allowed for a specific match between the training that was being delivered and the skills needed for job performance at the customer level.
• Map it. Curriculum maps by job role were developed to assist in the launch cycle to communicate what training would be required for each job role that would be interacting with the product. Customers used this information to plan, budget, and schedule the appropriate personnel to receive training so the skills were in place at implementation and created a smooth go-live execution.
Aspect Software is a unified communications software and consulting services provider with headquarters in Chelmsford, Mass. In 2009, Aspect placed 93rd on Training magazine's Top 125 list, an annual ranking of organizations that excel at human capital development.
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