The ELearning Fieldbook [Electronic resources] : Implementation Lessons and Case Studies from Companies that are Making eLearning Work نسخه متنی

Case 1: Wyndham International, Inc.

Company Facts and Figures

Industry: Hospitality

Scope of Services and Products: Owns, leases, manages, and franchises hotels and resorts throughout U.S., Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, and the United Kingdom

Estimated Number of Employees: 25,000

Year e-Learning Introduced: 1999

Offices and Locations: Headquarters in Dallas, Texas with 165 property locations in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, and the United Kingdom

Web Site: www.wyndham.com

Number of e-Learning Programs in Entire Curriculum: 150+

Introduction

Wyndham International, Inc. is an upscale, luxury hospitality and lodging company. Based in Dallas, Texas, Wyndham owns, leases, manages, and franchises hotels and resorts in the United States, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and the United Kingdom.

At the heart of Wyndham’s operating philosophy is Wyndham ByRequest, an innovative guest loyalty program that stresses personalization of each guest’s stay. To fully integrate the guest program across all hotels and resorts, Wyndham needed a common property management system that would track guest profiles and preferences and also provide management with tools for customer relationship management, rate management, forecasting, and report writing. With this in mind, Wyndham selected MICROS-Fidelio OPERA Enterprise Solution.

Why e-Learning?

Wyndham selected an e-learning approach to:

Provide a cost-effective solution to deliver a consistent message to 3,500 employees at 165 locations

Reduce training related expenses, such as travel, facilities, and support

Provide just-in-time, customized learning and deliver more efficient information at an accelerated pace

The OPERA property management system is a full-featured, Oracle-based system that presents users with a familiar, easy-to-use Windows interface. With the OPERA Enterprise Solution installed in every hotel, Wyndham would have the tremendous resources to further enhance the experiences of their guests.

To successfully implement the new project management system, every employee at a Wyndham hotel would need to attend training on the new software and how it would be used to support the ByRequest program. Traditionally, classroom-based training would have been conducted on- site at Wyndham’s hotels. Given the challenge of reducing training expenses and meeting training needs in a short period of time, the implementation team decided to use an e-learning solution for this project.

For Wyndham, using e-learning to conduct the training resulted in:

Faster implementation

Reduced training expenses

Decreased training time

Successful implementation of an integrated property management system that supports the Wyndham ByRequest program

How Was the Program Aligned with the Business?

The Challenge

Listening and responding to the needs of customers is the core of Wyndham’s brand philosophy and characterizes their approach to hospitality. Wyndham developed a brand-wide initiative, focusing on empowering guests to customize their hotel experience by voicing their needs. Wyndham ByRequest invites guests to personalize each hotel stay to their own preferences and rewards them with meaningful and immediate perks during their stay. Much more than a guest recognition program, Wyndham ByRequest is a service philosophy integral to the Wyndham brand.

Within Wyndham’s proprietary brand, there are three distinct hotel brands: Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, Wyndham Luxury Resorts, and Summerfield Suites by Wyndham. Approximately 30 percent of Wyndham properties are privately managed and franchised and were integrated with the company’s central reservation or property management system. Wyndham needed a way to have all properties communicate with each other so guests could make arrangements for stays at other Wyndham locations while retaining their stay preference information.

The OPERA Enterprise Solution was implemented to seamlessly integrate all of Wyndham’s technology initiatives, including a common property management system, a centralized reservations office, Wyndham ByRequest, and an upgraded Wyndham Web site. This new system would house the ByRequest personal profile information of guests, as well as handle transactions associated with hotel management, such as check-in, guest registration, and accounts payable for all Wyndham property locations.

As the new property management system was rolled out, it was vital to the success of the project to train employees about the system and demonstrate how it would support the Wyndham ByRequest program. So the challenge was how to quickly and economically train more than3,500 employees at more than 165 property locations throughout North America, the Caribbean, and the United Kingdom.

The Solution

Previously, corporate personnel traveled to various Wyndham sites to deliver training sessions, which was costly in terms of travel for trainers and staff, lost work time, and facility expenses. In this case, the OPERA project team selected Centra and its collaboration technology to host live instructor-led, e-learning events.

Together with Centra, Wyndham could deliver training to learners in any location for virtually little expense, excluding employee time, initial development time, and Centra fees. In the first five months of the OPERA training program, Wyndham saved 329 percent using the virtual classroom technology compared with traditional classroom- based training.

Key Business Drivers

Rapidly educate staff about a new property management system software and how it would support Wyndham’s guest loyalty program

Further enhance the guest experience at all Wyndham hotels and resorts

How Was the Program Designed?

The OPERA training program is a live e-learning event and is designed to allow the project team to interact with learners for more effective training. Handout materials accompany the live e-learning sessions and are sent to participants prior to the training event.

With a live e-learning platform, the project team has flexibility in scheduling sessions and the ability to record sessions. This is an important feature because hotel staff tends to be transitional, with an influx of staff during the peak season and a large number of part-time and flex-time employees. Employees who miss their training sessions or need refresher training can easily get access to content.

To ensure that training sessions are relevant for the audiences at the various Wyndham properties, the OPERA team designed courses by job function or task. During a six-month period, the team designed and developed ten courses: Reservations I, Reservations II, Front Desk, Housekeeping, Cashiering, TAP (Travel Agent Processing), Groups, Accounts Receivable, Night Audit I, and Night Audit II. Each course was designed to be delivered in three hours or less, allowing the team to easily pull together and break apart the content, based on the needs at a certain property. For example, an employee at a 1,200-room resort with multiple restaurants has different training requirements than that of an employee at a 400-room hotel. A live e-learning event could easily be modified to target the training needs for a specific group or department.

Prior to the property management system rollout, the instructors review the hotel’s current system and mimic the conditions in the new system to assist with the transition. The instructors have found that this additional level of effort has paid big dividends with the participants in terms of making learning connections to the new system.

Course content was developed in

PowerPoint and included new terms and concepts, as well as traditional classroom elements, such as brainteasers and quiz questions. The five trainers on the OPERA team, who developed the materials, also designed the program to include significant system demonstration time using application sharing via the live e-learning platform tool.

Media and Tools

Custom content, developed in PowerPoint

Video and audio

Adobe Acrobat files and other

Microsoft Office tools

Classes delivered via CentraOne version 6.0

Property management system training environment for instructor demonstrations and learner practice

Just as with traditional classroom-based training sessions, the program is designed so that participants can experiment with the new technology. Application sharing allows participants to work with the new system and perform transactions in a practice environment under the guidance of the instructor. The instructor can ask a participant to run a demonstration and then coach them remotely. During live sessions, instructors also provide time for participants to complete exercises. Participants, each working at their own computer, work through real-life scenarios in the property management training environment while the instructor is available for questions and help during the session.

How Was the Program Deployed?

The OPERA e-learning program was rolled out via the Wyndham International University Web site as properties upgraded their property management system. Wyndham houses the content and hosts the sessions on its servers using purchased Centra licenses.

As a site is ready to go-live with the upgraded system, instructors work with property managers to determine course requirements and employees schedules. Most classes are offered at least twice to accommodate different shifts and worker coverage. Sessions are also recorded for attendees to review content at a later date, or for employees who missed a session.

At the designated session start time, participants log into the live e-learning platform through the Wyndham International University Web site and then click the session link to join the instructor for the class. The instructors conduct the training sessions from Wyndham International headquarters in Dallas, Texas. Most learners participate from PC work stations at Wyndham property locations, but because the sessions are offered over the Internet, they could also participate in the live online sessions from any location.

Learners wear headsets to communicate with the instructor and other class participants. This real- time feedback creates a very interactive learning experience.

Marketing Approach

Program launch presentations were given at every location.

Announcement packages, containing information such as required courses and class dates, were sent to each hotel location.

Global leadership sent e-mails directly to all employees explaining the requirements and purpose of the program.

What Was the Business Impact of the Program?

Because the upgraded property management system enables Wyndham properties to communicate and share guest preference information with each other, a successful employee training program was crucial to business. Successful training means that employees are better prepared to provide customized services for guests, which is at the core of Wyndham’s brand philosophy.

By conducting the OPERA program as a live e-learning event, Wyndham realized a 329 percent return on investment in the first five months of training. e-Learning brought 3,500 geographically-dispersed employees up-to-speed in a short period of time without the travel, facilities, and support costs associated with classroom learning.

In addition to the monetary impacts this training program has had on the organization, the e-learning arm of the Wyndham International University took shape. Wyndham International University offers employee training on various topics from technology to risk management to benefits. Learning is offered through classroom sessions and self-paced or live e-learning sessions. e-Learning has now become a part of the Wyndham culture, with employees preferring to use a virtual learning format over traditional classroom offerings.

Learner Perspectives

98 percent of Wyndham’s online participants have reacted positively to the e-learning solution.

The recorded sessions add flexibility to help maintain work balance.

One participant comments that "…e-learning has made it easier for me to obtain information when I need it, and it is targeted to my individual learning needs."

Summary

Purpose: To effectively train a geographically-dispersed audience about a new property management system while reducing training costs and travel expenses. The new system enhances the guest experience by supporting Wyndham ByRequest and improving communication between properties.

Program Structure: The OPERA project team, tasked with implementing the new property management system, designed and developed training materials by job role. In total, ten courses were developed and all were delivered via Centra’s live e-learning platform.

Number of Learning Hours per Learner: 15 to 25

Total Number of Hours of Learning in the Program: 240

Number of Learners: 3,500 employees in 165 locations

Media and Tools:

Custom content, developed in PowerPoint

Video and audio

Adobe Acrobat files and other Microsoft Office Tools

Classes delivered via CentraOne version 6.0

Property management system training environment for instructor demonstrations and student practice

Deployment Mechanism: Wyndham International University was the gateway used for the training sessions. Wyndham International University is hosted on a customized Centra platform located at Wyndham’s Corporate Headquarters. Hotels ready for implementation attend the virtual training sessions.

Lessons Learned

Just as with traditional instructor-led classroom training, include activities, such as brain- teasers and quiz questions, as well as time for breaks in virtual classes.

Try to encourage more participation in synchronous sessions.

Give participants more control during live sessions and make sessions more interactive.

Recognize that there will be a learning curve with live e-learning sessions.

Provide support materials for on-the-job reference.