Data Makes the Difference in Targeting Onboarding Investment
Creating an assessment strategy to help a global HR consulting firm optimize performance of thousands of mission-critical new hires.
Challenge
A leading human resources consulting firm hires and onboards thousands of call center employees each year in a short window of time. Their legacy training program was comprehensive, but also time-consuming and costly. They wanted to create a new, best-in-class program that would increase speed to competency and be tailored to the needs of the individual learner. But how?
Result
This leading human resources consulting firm now has a comprehensive assessment strategy as well as insights into the success of their largest onboarding program that will increase efficiency and effectiveness in key aspects of the talent lifecycle such as recruiting and training. CARA also ensured sustainable results by training the client team and supporting their next steps in measurement that will influence the design of the new curriculum.
Solution
The CARA solution was to create an assessment strategy, instrument, test and resulting analysis. Our client then could use this to:
- Correlate key demographics with prerequisite knowledge, resulting in targeted recruiting efforts
- Identify content gaps in curriculum to drive improvement
- Transform the curriculum from a “one size fits all” approach to an efficient program optimized for the needs of the individual learner
- Increase speed to proficiency to address line of business needs
CARA created an assessment strategy to help a global HR consulting firm optimize performance of thousands of mission-critical new hires.
Challenge
A leading human resources consulting firm hires and onboards thousands of call center employees each year in a short window of time. Their legacy training program was comprehensive, but also time-consuming and costly. They wanted to create a new, best-in-class program that would increase speed to competency and be tailored to the needs of the individual learner. But how?
Solution
The CARA solution was to create an assessment strategy, instrument, test and resulting analysis. Out client then could use this to:
- Correlate key demographics with prerequisite knowledge, resulting in targeted recruiting efforts
- Identify content gaps in curriculum to drive improvement
- Transform the curriculum from a “one size fits all” approach to an efficient program optimized for the needs of the individual learner
- Increase speed to proficiency to address line of business needs
Result
This leading human resources consulting firm now has a comprehensive assessment strategy as well as insights into the success of their largest onboarding program that will increase efficiency and effectiveness in key aspects of the talent lifecycle such as recruiting and training. CARA also ensured sustainable results by training the client team and supporting their next steps in measurement that will influence the design of the new curriculum.
The Story
Our client is a leading human resources consulting firm, with more than 20,000 employees operating internationally in more than 130 countries. This leading human resources consulting firm provides consulting services that include: retirement, health and benefits, human capital, surveys and products, communication, investments, outsourcing, and mergers and acquisitions.
Each year the client must hire and train thousands of customer service employees to meet the demand for support of their client’s benefits open enrollment. In a short amount of time these employees need to represent the leading human resources consulting firm professionally and expertly respond to a myriad of technical questions.
Our client, the North American Learning Leader, wanted to understand the best way to recruit, hire and train these employees in order to increase speed to proficiency. She knew her existing “one size fits all” training program could be transitioned into a highly effective, learner-centric program that was less expensive to administer to the organization, but she needed data to make informed decisions.
”Our entire organization is becoming more data-driven. We are using data to make decisions based on facts, not opinions.
The North American Learning Leader
The CARA solution was an Assessment Strategy, instrument, and statistical analysis. CARA’s consultant facilitated an assessment blueprint with the client team, then conducted an item-writing workshop. He also reviewed existing test items. From there, he worked with the team to identify a sample population for a pilot of the assessment and to test the assessment. Once the instrument was piloted, CARA conducted a statistical analysis that suggested how demographics such as geography, prior work experience, and licensing play a part in an employee’s entry-level knowledge.
Based on the partnership with CARA, the client team was able to move forward with operationalizing the next steps, which were:
- Conducting a post-test and comparing pre- and post-test results to assess training effectiveness, test efficacy, and compare to performance metrics
- Analyzing existing training modules in relation to areas where test performance was weak and either improving poorly-written test items or improving the training content
- Administering the pre-test with subsequent populations of new hires, continuing to refine the assessment, and continuing to evaluate the efficacy of learning modules based on pre- and post-test results
Ultimately, this data-driven approach will help the client to identify individualized learning paths for new hires, directing them to learning topics that are matched to their unique needs – saving them – and the line of business, valuable time and resources.
