Talent Development App Leads to Better Employee Engagement

ATD BESTEditor’s Note: Congratulations to CA Technologies on their ATD BEST Award for the Guidebook-based mobile talent development solution. We’ve put together a free on-demand webinar about how you can create similar apps for on-boarding, staff and leadership trainings, continuing employee engagement and more. View it now! 

Talent Development is a critical part of running a successful business. Attracting stellar employees is difficult enough – retaining them in a competitive landscape is even tougher. Motivated employees are always looking for opportunities to grow, and companies would do well to feed this desire. This becomes especially important given that only 13% of workers worldwide are actually “engaged.”

This is a challenge being faced by all modern companies, including CA Technologies, which provides IT management solutions that help customers manage and secure complex IT environments to support agile business services. Organizations leverage CA Technologies’ software and SaaS solutions to accelerate innovation, transform infrastructure, and secure data and identities, from the data center to the cloud. CA Technologies’ success comes from its employees, where there is a leaders at all levels philosophy that drives the development and promotion of leadership skills across the organization.

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Opening the door into leadership abilities

CA Technologies Leadership Development Program (LDP) was introduced in 2009 to ensure a pipeline of highly capable leaders at all levels across the organization. This unique 12-month journey provides employees with learning opportunities to help them make business decisions regarding strategy and key performance indicators, and to improve their skills in decision-making, coaching, resilience, and accountability – to name a few. This global program is available to CA Technologies employees in North America, Europe, India, and Asia.

Now in its seventh year, LDP has seen significant success. Based on 2015 Employee Opinion Survey results, LDP Alumni scored higher on Management & Leadership Effectiveness, Culture, and Talent Management. This audience also has higher job satisfaction, and responded more favorably on development and growth opportunities, resources, and support.

Overall, those who have gone through the program have 2% higher engagement than those who did not go through the program.

These results are significant, especially because employee engagement contributes to increased employee effort and performance, and a decrease in the likelihood of departure.

Quick stats:

  • 95% said LDP FY16 met or exceeded expectations
  • 93% said the program was a worthwhile investment in their career development (19% above the industry average of 72%)
  • 60.4% Holistic Net Promoter Score (more than 5x the industry average of 11%)

The key benefits of investing in mobile

In 2015, HR Talent Development began investigating mobile options to support the Leadership Development Program. Their team had the initiative to make improvements to the program, and realized that an app would be a great organizing tool. Geoff Holle, leading the initiative, describes the decision process:

“Our Leadership Development Program is made up of virtual and in-person sessions with additional individual and smaller peer group collaboration. Mobile support was a logical need and the Guidebook platform a perfect fit. Mobile became the thread tying together the different parts of the year long experience for participants.”

Adoption of the mobile app reached 98% for the CA Technologies 2015 programs. In the 9 months since implementing Guidebook, CA Technologies has seen these five key benefits:

  1. Increased participant engagement: Before arriving on-site, attendees can now learn about their facilitators, browse leader guides, and plan out their agenda. For the in-person sessions, live polls were used to further the conversation and excite participants.
  2. Developing a community among the program cohort: Giving colleagues the opportunity to connect and learn together in an intimate group setting is a major benefit of the LDP. Social features like Twitter, photo sharing, contact sharing, and messaging allow people to feel more connected.
  3. Insightful data reveals most relevant content: CA Technologies uploads reference materials and activities in support of program instruction in their mobile guides. These include 360 indicators, Myers-Briggs assessments, and suggested readings. Geoff shares: “When we first did this, we really didn’t know what to expect from the app metrics. We quickly found that it could show us what content people liked best.”
  4. Simple, repeatable app creation: Although each LDP program is unique based on region and audience, they all follow a similar structure. CA Technologies HR Talent Development created apps for 11 programs with minimal internal resources, thanks to Guidebook’s templates which make it easy to clone apps with a click of a button.
  5. Constant connection, year-round: Through the year-long LDP program, CA Technologies supports the career growth of their superstars with in-person sessions, virtual events, and independent study. The app acts as a thread tying all of these elements together. Changes and updates can be managed from a centralized content management system, and sent to attendees instantly.

Most importantly, CA Technologies’ deployment of the LDP app embodies the progressive spirit of their business. Fostering an innovative mindset within their company is a key objective of the programs. As one participant expressed:

“The mobile app addresses a key need in terms of making the content accessible in the modern context we expect.”

Why Guidebook?

Geoff and the Talent Development team tested out a number of different app platforms during the evaluation. Ultimately, Guidebook’s offering best met CA Technologies’ needs for digital transformation while maintaining cost efficiency. Another key factor has been the ease of development through the Guidebook content management system. The swift response time and friendly interaction from Guidebook’s team also during initial rollout gave a positive indicator of what it would be like working with Guidebook long term.

Since implementing Guidebook for LDP in 2015, CA Technologies is now also exploring its potential for use in other areas of the organization. Geoff continues, “There has been great enthusiasm and adoption; ultimately we intend to expand to support additional talent development programs and processes.”

Initiatives include deployment of learning content and resources for all managers, while also providing mobile support for the full Leaders at All Levels resource platform to include live events, podcasts and activities for all employees. Critically, Guidebook is an ideal technology partner that will scale with CA Technologies and serve its varied enterprise needs.

Want to learn more about how Guidebook can be used for your Talent and Development programs? Contact our team today or read about Guidebook for HR!

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