The Challenge

A leading global professional services firm wanted to update its legacy leadership and development programs in its UK office, which employs 17,000 professionals. Each line of business had been responsible for its own learning and development program, which led to fragmented and inconsistent content and channels.

A transformation was required to meet the needs of the organization and future-proof its leadership capabilities. The firm was looking for a partner to provide in-depth insight into the learning needs of all staff levels throughout their careers. TTEC was asked to conduct a full Learning Needs Analysis (LNA) to lay the foundation for future work.

The Solution

The company wanted to optimize the skills necessary to win business and deliver services to its clients. TTEC aimed to discover the leadership needs of different roles within the business toward that goal, what skills enable effectiveness in each role, and what attitudes result in success for the individual and the organization.

A three-pronged approach was adopted: an online survey, focus groups, and interviews with senior leadership. Surveys were sent to approximately one-third of UK employees at all levels, and garnered an impressive response rate of nearly 10 percent (1,000 employees). Next, the team facilitated focus groups with about 400 employees representing all areas of the company. Finally, interviews were conducted with 20 individuals at the Director level and above, both to gain insight into their own learning and development needs, and to understand their views on the capabilities and needs of middle management and junior staff.

The final analysis helped identify what was important to the business in terms of how the firm wins work and how it leads people to execute on that work. From that, the team identified learning and development gaps among three distinct employee groups:

• Entry-level and middle management: Improve project management skills and build confidence and ability to present to and influence others, especially at client meetings.
• Consultants and senior managers: Develop client relationships and win business from new clients.
• Partners: Think strategically and creatively, reacting to unique circumstances and a changing business environment.

Results

The LNA confirmed that employees were interested in professional development initiatives and addressed the fact that the internal Learning & Development team “didn’t know what they didn’t know.”

The output of the LNA is now driving design and curriculum refinement of the client’s professional development program. The client continues to partner with TTEC on the program enhancements, where learning pathways are customized by staff grade to meet their learning needs at the right time using the best delivery mechanisms. It was recently soft-launched to HR employees, with further rollout planned shortly.

TTEC’s partnership approach was key to the success of the work, according to the client. This characteristic of TTEC—together with a “can do” and “will do” attitude—equipped the client with insight to raise staff performance throughout their careers.