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

Case 2: American Skandia

Company Facts and Figures

Industry: Financial Services

Scope of Services and Products: Money management services; Provider of long-term investment products for businesses and individuals

Estimated Number of Employees: 7,000 globally; 800 in the U.S.

Year e-Learning Introduced: 2000

Offices and Locations: Based in Connecticut; Represented in 22 countries on five continents

Web Site: www2.americanskandia.com

Number of e-Learning Programs in Entire Curriculum: More than 1000

Introduction

American Skandia is a company that provides a wide range of financial products in areas such as variable annuities and mutual funds. They are in a highly regulated industry with licensing for new employees and annual National Association of Securities Dealers, Inc. (NASD) continuing education requirements.

The approach that American Skandia took to provide learning to all employees was to build a corporate university, American Skandia University (ASU). Launched in March 2000, and using a combination of classroom training, internally developed e-learning, in-field coaching, and job aids, ASU provides training for all employees. Third-party content from Securities Training Corporation is used for industry-specific online training. Additional training areas such as desktop applications and professional skills are offered via content from Element K and SkillSoft, respectively. The ASU:

Is organized into five colleges similar to a university model with multiple colleges/ specializations under the university umbrella to address needs of a business unit or enterprise-wide core competency

Has several online courses that are used to satisfy 100 percent of the annual Firm

Element portion of the NASD continuing education requirement for the maintenance of an employee’s Series 6 license

Is a portal on American Skandia’s intranet and all American Skandia employees have access to the e-learning modules located on this Web site

Why e-Learning?

American Skandia built its corporate university to:

Offer a diversity of learning options better suited to the varied adult learning styles

Standardize, track, and monitor all training efforts

Bring people up-to-speed consistently and quickly with higher skill levels than they had in the past

Support the rapid rollout of new products and systems

When new employees join American Skandia, they attend a three-day Orientation Program called Beginnings. If they are a new hire in the Variable Annuity or Mutual Fund customer service areas, they continue with a five-week program called Foundations, first launched in April 2000. This case study examines the Foundations program in detail.

How Was the Program Aligned with the Business?

American Skandia is a leader in the financial services industry, which is highly regulated. All registered representatives in a sales capacity, or in the customer service arena, or in other key roles around the firm must pass an entry level exam according to NASD regulations. The Series 6 license is an industry threshold, and is American Skandia’s requirement for continued employment in several customer service roles. The primary business driver for the Foundations program was to teach new employees about the:

Financial services industry

Proprietary software systems

Features and benefits of American Skandia products

Policies and procedures of American Skandia

Skills necessary to provide superior customer service

Additionally, certain employees must pass the NASD Series 6 license examination. Given this critical business driver, ASU built a multi-phased approach to support learners to achieve a higher first-time pass rate than the national average (65 percent in 1999) and the American Skandia benchmark average of 60 percent.

The approach included giving participants in the Foundations program a self-study schedule, self-study materials, online practice exams, a two-day review class, and small group coaching sessions to increase success with the Series 6 examination. In the first year, the first-time pass average improved to 76 percent. Recent classes have seen a general class pass rate average of 90 percent or above. Program participants are motivated to pass because if they are not successful in obtaining their license within the first six months of employment, they must be redeployed to an area where licensing is not required or be terminated. This also results in lost recruiting and training costs for the firm.

“We need new employees to be up-to-speed more quickly and with greater skill levels than in the past,” says Rebecca Ray, Ph.D., Senior Vice President and Director of Training at American Skandia. “We have more than 45 variations of variable annuities and more than 86 funds in 24 different fund families. Our new employees have so much to learn and master in such a short period of time that we have to give them several ways to learn, and support them during the critical first few months of employment, for them to be prepared when they go to the customer service desks.”

Key Business Drivers

Provide excellent customer service in an increasingly complex financial services market by providing effective initial training, and on an ongoing basis during product launches

Increase the first-time pass rate for the NASD

Series 6 License.

Provide ongoing training required to meet the annual Firm Element NASD continuing education requirement

How Was the Program Designed?

The five-week Foundations program has four main components. Participants spend approximately 50 percent of the training day in an instructor-led classroom setting; 30 percent in simulation labs, which mirror the customer service floor; 10 percent on self-study reading materials; and 10 percent in self-paced e-learning. Knowledge assessments are threaded throughout the program. This blended approach to new hire training also uses e-learning modules as part of the lab in the classroom training. So the combination of e-learning courses, simulations, and online tests make up at least 40 percent of the program.

When participants are in the simulation lab, they work on fictional accounts and are monitored by trained coaches (highly skilled employees from the customer service desks) and receive feedback and coaching. The coaches, as well as the instructors, then listen in as trainees begin to take live calls. Tape-recorded calls are replayed, analyzed, and critiqued. Trainees take many knowledge assessments throughout the simulations to confirm that they are mastering industry concepts and proprietary information systems.

In building the curriculum for this program, all of the classroom materials were created in-house and augmented with third-party self-study courses and online modules. The Series 6 self-study materials as well as the industry-specific online modules were purchased from the New York City- based Securities Training Corporation (STC). These materials provide a strong foundation for understanding the industry, as well as how variable annuities products work. American Skandia’s in-house instructors became certified through STC so that they could deliver the two-day, instructor-led Series 6 review class.

“We have an Advisory Committee on both the variable annuity and the mutual fund side, and they review materials, processes, and procedures,” says Ray. “They sit in on classes, and in many cases, help deliver much of the instructor-led modules. We put them all through subject matter expert training so that they feel comfortable in the role of the occasional trainer.

The Corporate Training Team of ASU created (with the help of subject matter experts) the online reference tools for day-to-day use by all customer service employees. These American Skandia- specific modules on products and funds (Product Snapshots and Product @ A Glance) are online, dynamically linked documents that are, in essence, an electronic performance support system.

Additional online modules for Microsoft Office applications and desktop skills, and professional development were provided byElement K and SkillSoft. Quia and Trainersoft products were used to develop online tests.

Media and Tools

DKSystems’ OnTrack for

Training learning management system

Securities Training Corporation for financial service industry content

Element K for desktop skills

SkillSoft for professional skills

Quia and Trainersoft for knowledge assessment

How Was the Program Deployed?

The program is tracked and monitored via American Skandia’s learning management system— DKSystems’ OnTrack for Training. “OnTrack is the backbone of our American Scandia University Web site,” explains Ray. “Employees register for courses and get their transcripts online. We schedule, track, and monitor course and module completions.”

OnTrack and all of the learning resources are available at ASU’s site on the company Intranet. Each of the five colleges in the ASU offers specialized curriculum paths for a specific population.

New employees first experience online learning in the new hire orientation. Says Ray, “In the Beginnings program, we take them right into the PC labs and have them log on so that everyone knows how to get to the university site.”

What Was the Business Impact of the Program?

American Skandia experienced a number of measurable benefits from the new programs. “Originally, we had a 60 percent pass rate at American Skandia,” says Ray. “After our new program was put in place, we began to have pass rates of 85 to 90 percent, which beats the national average.”

The program also has a big impact on the learners. This program greatly reduced learner stress relative to passing the Series 6 license examination. This is in part due to periodic assessments given throughout the program and a series of practice tests taken prior to writing the certification examination. Additional benefits can be seen in the increased scores on the various online knowledge assessments from week-to-week during the Foundations program.

From a learning perspective, 97 percent of the participants stated in their course evaluations that they enjoyed the online learning experience, and many preferred this method of learning for desk- top applications in particular.

Learner Perspectives

Learners were more successful, not only on the knowledge assessments within the program, but also more likely to pass the NASD exam upon completion.

The new blended learning approach greatly reducedlearner’s anxiety regarding the certification exam.

Summary

Purpose: To bring new hires up-to-speed consistently and quickly, and also improve pass rates on NASD Series 6 license exam

Program Structure: Blended learning program combining classroom, simulations, e-learning, and mentoring

Hands-on experience (application) in simulation labs using proprietary systems with coaching and feedback

Instructor-led and supervised online learning

Print and online self-study

Self-paced online module completion

Observation and feedback as well as on-line knowledge assessment is integrated throughout the program

Number of Learning Hours per Learner: Five weeks

Total Number of Hours of Learning in the Program: More than 200 hours

Number of Learners: 20 to 25 per class, ongoing

Completion Requirements:

All new customer service employees must complete the program

90 percent knowledge assessment rates must be maintained throughout the course

Media and Tools:

Simulations

Element K courses

SkillSoft courses

Quia and Trainersoft for assessments

Deployment Mechanism:

Internal company portal

DKSystems’ OnTrack for Training learning management system

Lessons Learned

Delivering product update training directly to employees desktop through e-learning courses quickly became part of an effective deployment strategy.

Partnering with subject matter experts at every phase is critical.