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Delaware North Companies Inc. (DNC), a
hospitality and food services provider based in
Buffalo, N.Y., with 40,000 employees globally,
used to rely on local executives and HR managers
to give management training to new supervisors,
but results varied widely.
Last year, DNC began to roll out a four-level
program for its 3,000 managers— front-line
supervisors to top executives— that delivers
self-paced interactive training via the web,
followed by virtual classes. The higher-level
course work will also include face-to-face
meetings and group projects.
“The virtual classroom is proving to be
highly successful when we need to deliver basic
concepts around foundational management skills,”
says John Kist, DNC manager of talent
development.
DNC and a growing number of organizations use
the web to train employees in management,
teamwork, ethics, languages and other soft
skills. As they expand globally, these companies
rely on such e-learning to deliver
cost-effective soft-skills training with reach,
consistency and some of the richness of
classroom- based training.
Online Delivery
Companies began to use computer-based
training a few decades ago, and many have used
web-based learning for about a decade, mainly
for information technology and other hard
skills. Given the growing appeal of “Web 2.0”
tools such as instant messaging and web
conferencing, soft-skills training via these
socialnetworking tools has a promising outlook.
(For more on Web 2.0, see “Counting
on Collaboration” in the October 2007 issue
of HR Magazine.)
Game-like simulations and 3-D worlds similar
to the popular Second Life also have potential
for teaching soft skills. Companies such as IBM,
Cisco, Intel and the oil companies are looking
into this, says Eilif Trondsen, who studies
technology-enabled learning as program and
research director at SRI Consulting Business
Intelligence in Menlo Park, Calif. “But it is
early. Not a lot are jumping in with both feet.”
Those who are putting their toes in the water
are excited about the possibilities. “We’re
going to do more with elearning,” predicts
Jennie Carlson, executive vice president and
director of HR for U.S. Bancorp in Minneapolis.
“I’m not sure what the limit is for soft-skills
development.”
U.S. Bancorp recently launched a mentoring
program via the web, and Carlson’s HR staff
members are looking into providing other
soft-skills training through e-learning. “To
attract the younger generation, we need to make
learning fun, interesting and easy, and one way
to do that is through technology,” she says.
Managers in many other companies understand
that the younger generation already does just
about everything on cell phones, computers and
networks, and will expect to use these tools
when they enter the workforce. For this reason,
companies are finding ways to deliver soft
skills such as management and language training,
and mentoring, through e-learning.
Management Training At DNC
DNC provides hospitality and food services to
national parks, stadiums, airports and other
venues. It launched an e-learning management
program last year. Each level includes
self-paced interactive modules that managers
complete online, with follow-up meetings in a
virtual classroom via conference phone calls. In
the virtual class, a teacher uses an electronic
white board, polling and other features to see
what participants know and to glean examples to
share among learners.
At the highest level of the DNC management
training, regional and other top executives also
participate in projectbased activities, group
assignments and other activities in actual
classrooms.
Kist says, “Feedback from the learners has
helped us identify what topics are working best
in [the virtual] environment.” The feedback came
from a pilot project involving entry-level and
mid-level managers in the airports business
unit. General soft skills such as managing a
team, effective communication techniques,
delegation, empowerment and conflict resolution
were identified as most amenable to online
training. Functional and technical skills were
found to be best-suited for on-thejob training
and training with the local HR professional.
“A virtual learning environment can lay the
groundwork for delivering a consistent message
on disciplines such as employee relations,
career development and succession planning,”
Kist says. “A strong partnership among managers
and talent development is still critical, which
usually requires direct interaction.”
DNC rolled out the first level companywide
late last year. In 2008, Kist expects to offer
the first level at least twice and the second
and third levels at least once. It partners with
Element K Corp., a Rochester, N.Y.-based vendor
of e-learning and technology.
Like other e-learning vendors, including
SkillSoft PLC of Nashua, N.H., Element K offers
a catalog of content, consulting services, the
platform—including a virtual classroom and
learning management system—and other features.
David Snider, Element K senior director of
marketing, says most customers want some
tailoring. DNC programs were custom-tailored
only 10 percent, but Kist expects to do more.
Snider says about half of his customers use
Element K products for soft-skills training.
Customers can host the platform or use it on a
software- as-a-service model, as DNC does.
Kist says the first level costs less than
$500 per learner.
DNC’s HR staff members apply soft-skills
e-learning to themselves. Kist and about 40
other HR professionals— 40 percent of the
total—study for PHR and SPHR certification. Each
learner works on self-paced modules online and
then participates in weekly virtual sessions
during a 14-week program.
Transferring Knowledge At U.S.
Bancorp
Kist predicts that soft-skills e-learning
will only increase, explaining, “I eventually
want to use this technology to further develop
coaching and mentoring that is in alignment with
our leadership objective.”
U.S. Bancorp officials already do that with a
new mentoring program. Before the tacit
knowledge of the past 40 years walks out the
door with the retiring baby boomers, they want
to make sure that the boomers transfer knowledge
to younger workers—a task not easy to achieve
with 50,000 employees in 49 states and several
foreign countries.
The bank’s Mentor Connect program uses the
web to match mentors with those who want
mentoring. With software developed by Triple
Creek Associates Inc. of Greenwood Village,
Colo., Mentor Connect gathers demographic and
competency information from mentors and from
those who want mentoring, and then it suggests
matches.
“We’re using technology as an enabler for
connection and training,” says Mary Beth
Gaietto, Mentor Connect program manager.
The bank’s HR staff members wanted a
mentoring program for some time, but saw the
dispersed workforce as an impediment. Then,
Gaietto discovered Triple Creek. The software
assesses mentors’ strengths and makes matches
based on the stated needs of those wanting to be
mentored.
Chris Browning, vice president of operations
and client services at Triple Creek, says the
software, called Open Mentoring, has made more
than 50,000 matches in 60 countries for several
hundred corporate clients. Supporting ethnic
diversity is a popular use of mentor
relationships, he adds.
U.S. Bancorp piloted Mentor Connect— its
internal brand for the Triple Creek software—in
March 2007 with 200 employees, and in August
rolled it out for all 22,000 exempt employees.
Within the first week, 152 relationships were
established—95 percent of them agreeable to the
partners, Gaietto says. It is too early to know
the long-term results of the program, she adds.
Most mentoring sessions take place on the
phone between geographically separated
employees. Longer term, the company may use more
Web 2.0 tools to help pairs communicate and for
other soft-skills e-learning.
Language Training At Reuters
Reuters Group PLC in London had different
organizational needs when it turned to web-based
soft-skills training. When Charles Jennings
joined as global head of learning five years
ago, the company had more than 3,000 suppliers
for training, including nearly 100 English
schools.
“Apart from the fact that you can’t really
manage that many relationships, there’s the
issue of consistency,” says Jennings. “If you
have soft-skills training offered by an outfit
in Chicago for the Chicago office and another
source providing the training in London, there’s
no way of knowing we are getting like for like.”
Reuters is best known as a news agency, but
only 2,500 of its 18,000 employees in 90
countries work in news. About 14,000, including
2,000 in India and 1,800 in Thailand, develop,
sell and support financial information products.
English is not the native language for at least
half of the employees, so language training is a
top need, Jennings says.
In 2004, Jennings enlisted GlobalEnglish
Corp. of Brisbane, Calif., to deliver English
lessons online. GlobalEnglish has more than 400
corporate customers with about 80,000 students
in 140 countries, says Deepak Desai, chief
executive officer. Employees tap self-paced
interactive courses on the Internet.
Now, Reuters funds an outside class or
teacher only after an employee masters the
e-learning component and if he or she needs
specialized English for a job. About 1,000
employees study English via e-learning, Jennings
says. The program pre-assesses each learner and
then offers a custom program. A virtual language
lab connects each learner with a native-English
speaker. Pronunciation guides help native
speakers of various languages: A native-French
speaker, for instance, can get assistance with
English words and phrases that are especially
difficult for French speakers.
“The feedback from learners and their
managers has been good,” Jennings says. “Without
being asked, many managers have told me some
person doing the GlobalEnglish course has
improved his ability to speak and write—it is
noticeable.”
Jennings estimates that it costs Reuters less
than $500 per learner per year for
GlobalEnglish. Reuters recently contracted with
Rosetta Stone Ltd., based in Arlington, Va., to
provide e-learning in other languages. The
methods are somewhat different, but delivery is
online.
 Jennings was involved in
early computer- based training in Europe, and
remains a fan of e-learning. At his initiative,
Reuters is adopting more e-learning for soft
skills, including a businessmanagement program
with an online component, and a manager-coaching
program delivered online. “I’m a totally
unreconstructed collaborative-learning
adherent,” he says. “Web 2.0 really gives us the
opportunity to live and work and learn in
virtual communities.”
Evaluating Effectiveness
Despite the success of individual companies
using these web-based tools, measuring
soft-skills training delivered via e-learning is
no easier than measuring soft-skills training
delivered the oldfashioned way.
“There are not a lot of numbers out there
about whether certain e-learning is effective
because what they’re measuring is how much money
they’re saving or how many people they’re
reaching,” says Ryann Ellis, editor of Learning
Circuits, a web-based publication on e-learning
for the American Society for Training &
Development (ASTD), an association for training
professionals, based in Alexandria, Va.
It is relatively easy to measure the learning
of hard skills, whether they’re taught in a
classroom or online. Someone who has studied C++
programming can be tested with appropriate
problems. Soft skills are another story,
according to Ellis. “When you talk about
soft-skills training through e-learning, you
have the same problems of measuring as you do in
traditional training,” she says.
Assessing the contribution to business goals
represents a broader issue for all training,
separate from the delivery method. Officials in
few companies begin to adopt workforce analytics
to help them see mathematical correlations
between, say, a mentoring program and employee
retention. (For more on analytics generally and
how to assess a mentoring program specifically,
see “Data-Driven
Human Capital Decisions” in the March 2007
issue of HR Magazine.)
Despite the uncertainty about whether
learning is taking place or contributing to
goals, the trend will be to deliver more
learning of all kinds via e-learning. ASTD
annual benchmarking studies show a steady
increase in the use of e-learning with no
breakdown on how much is for soft skills. (See
“Learning
Hours Delivered by Technology-Based
Methods”.)
Although she has reservations about measuring
the transfer of soft-skills knowledge, Ellis
continues to push online training. “There is
certainly great potential,” she says. “It
deserves both skepticism and experimentation.”
Bill Roberts is
contributing editor for technology at HR
Magazine.
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