In their September newsletter, Bersin and Associates featured a case study on one of our local companies – Nationwide Insurance. In 2007, Nationwide decided to migrate most of its applications from a COBOL/mainframe environment to a Java/web services model. Needless to say, this had huge implications for the organization and its IT staff. Nationwide had to decide whether to buy, build or rent the capabilities it needed. The case study is about their decisions and how things worked out. Here’s what I loved about it:
- Nationwide decided to build their talent pool’s skills to match their needs, rather than lay off most of the staff that had served it well to that point.
- Nationwide took the time to set clear goals for the program, including:
- Executive sponsorship from both IT and HR branches of the organization
- Incorporating both technical and business process training in their program
- Determining performance results, best practices and work environment
- Evaluating the appropriate mix of classroom training, coaching, practice, and informal learning
- Interested associates had to apply and be selected to participate in the training program.
- Communications about the program were frequent and in many forms such as e-mail, newsletters, meetings, etc. They emphasized the future direction of the company and the intensive nature of the training.
- They got great results! 70% of program grads were at expectations for their salary band within 3 months; 100% within 9 months. Better yet, all hiring managers would recommend the program based upon the quality of the results.
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