Measuring the Value of Learning

1
Measuring the Value of Learning

• Kelly Archy
• Nancy Persson
• Ray Stevens
• Training 2008 Session 702
• Corporate University Exchange
• Best Practice Presentation

2
Plan for the hour

• What are your measurement challenges?
• Measurement at Staples
• 3 Examples
• US Retail
• North American Delivery
• Corporate
• Your take-aways or best practices
• Q A

3
Who are we? Staples

• Brand Promise We make buying office products
  easy
• International operations in 23 countries
• (US, Canada, UK, Germany, Netherlands, Portugal,
  France, Italy, Belgium, Spain, Sweden, Austria,
  Denmark, Switzerland, Poland, Hungary, Czech
  Republic, Luxembourg, China, Argentina, Brazil,
  India, Taiwan)
• Annual sales 18 billion
• Shopping channels
• Associates 67,000 worldwide
• Stores, distribution and fulfillment centers,
  call centers, regional sales offices, home office

4
Who are we? Staples University

• Learning brand and structure serving associates
  in US Stores, North American Delivery, and
  Corporate functions
• SU Mission Learn, Innovate, Succeed, Repeat
• Leadership curriculum serves leaders
  enterprise-wide
• Total Staples U curriculum comprises more than
  250 programs providing job skills, management
  development, service and selling skills,
  technical training, and leadership development
• In March 2008, Staples U will celebrate our 10th
  anniversary!

Staples U Structure

• Corporate Team
• Leadership Org Development
• Staples U Corporate
• Design and delivery accountability
• 17 total associates,
• Including mgt.

• US Retail Team
• Program Design
• Delivery accountability
• 9 total associates,
• Including mgt.

• NAD Team
• Delivery of sales corporate curriculum
• Customer Service
• Logistics
• Telesales
• 47 total associates,
• Including mgt.

5
Measuring Learning at Staples

• We measure when its aligned with a business
  goal, and will make a difference in driving
  performance.
• Measurements tie directly to company objectives
  and help us drive and shape our learning and
  development initiatives.
• Performance improvement efforts focus on
  critical business priorities
• Drive profitable growth
• Deliver industry leading service
• Differentiate our brand
• Demonstrate market leadership
• Demonstrate our strong corporate values
• As a result, our measurement focuses heavily on
• Impacting sales and/or expenses
• Impacting the customers experience
• Impacting associate development and retention

6
Retail US Stores Training Curriculum

• On-boarding
• Sales Service Training
• Product Knowledge Training
• Machines, Systems and Technical Training
• Management Development

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Retail Example Product Knowledge
Product Services Training Completion
Change of Focus from Transactional to
Transformational
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Product Knowledge Services Completion

• Product Services Knowledge Training
  Completion
• Visibility to stores with current completions
• Visibility to overall training metrics on a
  balanced scorecard

• Associate comfort level CyberScholar Survey
• 97 agreed that CyberScholar training helps them
  do their jobs better
• 96 agreed that they are more likely to sell or
  recommend the products featured in the training
• 96 believe that the training has increased their
  sales performance

9
Customer Satisfaction
10
Customer Satisfaction Courteous Respectful
and Knowledgeable Associates
Total Performance Gap
AllProviders
Top Attribute Rankings
Courteous and respectful associates Knowledgeable
associates Easy to use website Hassle-free
returns Products out on display In stock toner
or printer cartridges Wide assortment of office
supplies Quality of office supplies In stock
advertised items Associates know where products
are
62 (30) 51 (39) 46 (39) 60 (24) N/A
--- 57 (27) 72 (11) 68 (14)
66 (15) 53 (27)
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Product Knowledge Top Line Sales Operating
Profit

• Top Line Sales
• ROI Study
• 30 increase in sales for a featured product over
  a 5 week period.
• 20 maintained lift over 9 weeks.
• Control Group Test
• Isolated the test to show only the product
  knowledge training impact
• Results showed an 8.4 per store, per week
  increase in sales with product knowledge training
• Operating Profit Associate Satisfaction
  improves turnover
• Highly Satisfied Associates have lower levels of
  turnover which improves service delivery to
  Customers.
• Increases Employee skill levels (i.e., Learning
  by Doing effect)
• Highly Satisfied Associates are more motivated to
  provide excellent service

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North American Delivery
Staples Business Delivery (Catalog Staples.com)
1- 19 employees and home office
Quill, Quill.com Medical Arts Press
Contract StaplesLink.com
10 - 100 employees Medical practitioners
SNA Fortune 500 SBA 20 employees or more
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Staples Business Advantage

• Focus on small and regional businesses
• Outbound sales force
• Via contracts
• Office supplies
• Furniture
• Technology
• Copy Print

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SBA Training

• New Hire Orientation
• Staples Way Selling Skills
• Management Training (for high-potentials)
• District Sales Manager Training (Phases I II)
• Leadership Challenge
• Training sessions conducted by Management
  Trainers and Regional Coaches

15
Staples Way

• Prospecting and creating a pipeline
• Approaching customers
• Mailers
• Calls
• At the customer meeting
• Setting expectations
• Determining customer needs
• Closing support

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Training Measurement

• Leadership intuitively supports training efforts
• Annual Sales Meetings
• Regional Meetings
• Leadership Meetings
• Integrated training part of all new launches
• Software
• Technology, Furniture, Copy/Print Selling

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Training Measurement
Differentiated Selling Model

Perfect Order Execution

Strong Acquisition Retention
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Training Measurement
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North American Delivery Industry Position
Staples
5.9B
C
4.6B
4.2B
4.7B
B
A
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Corporate Training Curriculum

• Management Development
• Leadership Development
• Professional Development
• Functional/Technical skills
• Process Excellence program support
• Customized design and delivery

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Corporate Example Process Excellence

• Staples Lean/Six Sigma initiative goal is to
  develop and deploy a large rotating pool of Black
  Belts.
• Aligns with corporate goals of best execution and
  increasing effectiveness/reducing costs
• Training includes Black Belts, Green Belts and
  Red Belts the Staples Brand of the junior level
  of practitioner.
• All Belts are trained in value-based processes.

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Your Take-Aways

• Your take-aways and best practices In groups,
  please discuss
• One idea from this session that you can leverage
  in your organization, OR
• One best practice to share with your peers

23
Questions?