Important Information About Siemens And Its Standardized Training Program
Siemens is a global powerhouse in electronics and electrical engineering and the world’s largest provider of environmental technologies. Its Building Technologies division, Siemens BT, is the global market leader for safe and energy efficient “green” buildings and infrastructures. The free eBook LMS Buyer’s Kit offers a complete case study on how Siemens BT used new LMS technology to design and implement their successful Standardized Training Program.
The Challenge
To succeed as a business, the employees of Siemens BT must be able to sell. They must also be able to install, start-up and service an extremely complex combination of hardware and software. This software centrally controls buildings, such as research facilities, hospitals, multi-story buildings and corporate or school campuses. The company has to deliver these systems precisely on time and with no cost overruns. It’s critical to Siemens BT’s profitability and reputation. It’s also crucial for their customers’ success.
“Although Siemens has more than 60 years of providing excellent employee training and support, we had no standardized, sustainable process in place to document the technical skills that already existed in our workforce and to track employee development,” George Kuhn, Siemens BT’s Manager, Education Services, said. “This led us to develop the Standardized Training Program, which documents employee skills and provides faster and better training programs. It thereby ensures that all product implementations are delivered on time and under budget.”
There were several other key business challenges that Siemens BT’s Standardized Training Program was designed to address, which are covered in the free eBook LMS Buyer’s Kit. The program intended to improve customer retention by increasing customer satisfaction and improve employee productivity. It also intended to reduce cost overruns, rework and employee turnover by increasing employee satisfaction. The last challenge the Standardized Training Program faced was to implement standardized processes across 80+ offices. They would achieve that by capturing and following their best practices.
The Solution
As Siemens BT began to develop and implement their Standardized Training Program, they quickly realized that a major component of this program, and its success, would be a robust, user-friendly Learning Management System. The LMS should hopefully increase the program’s efficiency and effectiveness. It would also allow Siemens BT to offer the right type of training to employees with specific job roles. Most of all, this would be achieved at the optimal time when it would be most effective.
So, they decided to replace their legacy learning system with the ExpertusONE LMS. next-gen, cloud-based design and great usability. Along with their new LMS, the Standardized Training Program fully addressed Siemens BT’s top issues. The Standardized Training Program created a clear, sustainable and effective training process, as well as the correct training and development activities for each job role. It also brought easier, streamlined development planning for employees and managers. Last but not least, it created comprehensive reporting functions that could quickly identify gaps and easily monitor achievements.
“Our Standardized Training Program consists of identified roles and associated training paths that are based on best practices from across Siemens BT. Employees are then assigned these roles and the corresponding training paths based on the functions they perform for our company,” Kuhn explained. “This prescriptive method of assigning development requirements based on the roles employees fill standardizes the competencies employees must develop to be successful in their roles. So, once assignments are completed, gaps across every level of our organization are quickly and easily identified. This simplifies our employee development planning. ”
The Standardized Training Program can be divided into four key steps. The free eBook LMS Buyer’s Kit guides you through the exact strategy they used to achieve success. Siemens BT’s strategy includes determining competencies, developing training and training paths, conducting reporting and accountability and optimizing existing programs.
Proactively Addressing Change
To proactively address change management, Siemens BT implemented another four-step process:
1. Direct Follow-Up For Job Role Assignment
Even though Siemens BT had a strong learning culture, some offices weren’t using the training provided. So they had their Education Services department contact supervisors directly when they didn’t assign job roles to their direct reports.
2. Set Standards On Internal Recommendations
Siemens BT’s Education Services organization used the recommendations of field managers to develop standardized methods for assessing the competency of long-term employees. Field managers were involved in the development of job roles and related tasks. Most of them took ownership of the new program.
3. Reduce Skills Gaps With LMS-Based Reporting
With the reporting that was available immediately after job role assignment, upper managers were able to focus on the offices that had the widest gaps between job roles and development. Field managers worked hard to reduce the gaps. These reports were part of their annual employee review process.
4. Ensure Program Success Via Virtual Meetings
Siemens BT’s Education Services department held several online meetings to explain and discuss the Standardized Training Program with every Siemens BT supervisor and manager. This streamlined its rollout and maximized its success. Also, the operations and quality managers who implemented the standardized processes met in-person with Education Services’ managers and supervisors. This is why Siemens BT’s managers and supervisors now know the standards inside and out.
Resourceful Resources
A final set of challenges the green building provider overcame in their Standardized Training Program was finding creative ways to enlist extra resources to meet their new competency goals.
“We didn’t have enough resources in our Education Services organization to develop new training. Instead, we hired external consultants to build this training and had our experienced internal training developers manage their work to ensure our quality standards and content accuracy were met,” Kuhn remarked. “We also needed to find people to design and implement our Standardized Training Program successfully, while still maintaining our training department’s normal day-to-day operations.” Lastly, the Standardized Training Program’s project team had a “whatever it takes” attitude, which resulted in some extended work hours.
Results
Over 90% of Siemens BT’s employees successfully implemented the Standardized Training Program. The vast majority of the organization’s managers fully embraced it as well. The impact was significant. Their new competency program and LMS dramatically improved employee performance. Their combined overall slip is maintained at or below zero.
Having the proper LMS for the deployment of your corporate training goes a long way in creating effective standardized training programs and procedures. Siemens utilized the ExpertusONE LMS platform to monitor employee development, improve employee productivity and increase employee satisfaction in the most effective way.
Download the free eBook LMS Buyer's Kit and get informed on important questions to help you analyze your company’s LMS selection needs. The LMS Buyer’s Kit will additionally educate you on criteria that will help you select the best LMS software provider for your organization.
