Employee Training Program: A Case Study
A leading European retail bank employed Test & Learn™ to evaluate and improve an employee training program.
- The bank had spent two years developing a multi-module employee training program designed to increase productivity.
- Management had been expecting to see reasonably consistent performance gains, but results varied dramatically across branches; the bank lacked insights into what differentiated the top and bottom performers.
- The combination of branch targeting and program refinement recommended by APT was worth over $20 million NPV per year in incremental profit.
The Company:
A leading European bank that provides retail banking services in more than three thousand facilities, mobilizing over fifty thousand employees
The Challenge:
The bank had spent two years developing a multi-module employee training program designed to increase productivity and transform branch employees from a group of focused individuals into a well choreographed team. Bank management believed that the success of the program would depend upon a branch's customer capacity, opportunity for employee improvement and the capability of the trainers. Hoping to learn more, management began implementing the program at a number of locations across the branch network.
Management had been expecting to see reasonably consistent, modest performance gains from the branches that underwent training. Instead, they found huge variations. Nearly 1/3 of these branches had very large performance gains, close to 50% in some cases. Other branches saw modest gains, but business was down at nearly 1/4 of branches locations. Confused by these large variations, and frustrated by difficulties in measuring customer satisfaction, senior managers did not have a sound basis by which to prioritize remaining branches to undergo the training. They lacked insights into what differentiated the top and bottom performers – clearly, a more thorough study was in order.
The bank needed to develop a methodology by which to target branches for the training program that could span its entire organization, from large urban banking centers, to smaller community locations, to newly acquired retail outlets. At the same time, management wanted to gain insight into the exact connection between the training and how it affects product sales, customer retention and growth, transaction growth, and customer satisfaction at the branch. To deliver superior results, the bank also wanted an implementation approach that could be customized to different regional nuances and demographic characteristics.
The bank needed to be able to answer three key questions in a definitive way to maximize returns on its training program: 1) how profitable is the program 2) how should branches be prioritized to undergo the training program; and 3) which program modules should be included at each specific branch location.
The Solution:
The bank chose APT's Test & Learn™ software to model and quantify their investment in employee training. Leveraging APT's powerful analytical tool box, the bank created a way to rigorously evaluate the impact of the training program. Along the way, the APT software evaluated for inclusion the validity of all potential drivers along with thousands of other branch descriptors – to create a statistically significant model based on real field data that could be used to predict the ROI of training employees at additional branches.
In other words, APT determined how to get the most out of every dollar spent on the training program, by considering all available information about branch locations and the success of past implementations of the training.
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Using test vs. control methodology, APT's advanced application suite demonstrated that investment in the employee training program led to clear and sustained profitability. APT optimized a custom control group for each branch at which the program was piloted based on a robust matching of historical financial performance patterns.
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Rigorous statistical measurement identified an opportunity for the bank to refine the training program to handle new customers more effectively. Automated de-averaging of results illustrated that performance gains were concentrated with existing customers.
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Segmentation analysis in APT identified branch location types that saw greater incremental lift following an implementation of the training. This sophisticated analysis significantly reduced the white noise from thousands of potential performance drivers to identify those truly indicative of where the training program would drive the most value. Quantified by APT, these key drivers can be used to predict the ROI for future training implementations, allowing the bank to prioritize locations for a rollout of the training.
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Comprehensive measurements uncovered an unintended decline in transaction volume coincident with the program. Automated analysis allowed for early detection, spurring adjustments to the program where the decline was systemically localized to branches with particular characteristics.
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Test & Learn™ demonstrated that not all components of this multi-module training program were equal in value. This knowledge allowed the bank to reduce investment while improving sales, revenues and customer satisfaction – a combination that drives returns significantly higher. The data clearly showed that certain elements of the program, specifically the more customer-facing training elements, were contributing to business lift while others went largely unnoticed.
Ultimately, APT delivered a prioritized list of locations, from top to bottom, of the branches at which the bank should invest in the training program.
The Results:
Analysis done using APT's Test & Learn™ solution gave senior management confidence in moving forward. With the detailed and accurate information now available, the bank was able to identify the exact locations to target for training, in a universe where resources are constrained. Further, the program's strong overall success encouraged a modification and re-application of the training program to capture opportunity not yet realized in some pilot branches across the network.
The combination of branch targeting and program refinement recommended by APT was worth over $20 million NPV per year in incremental profit.
Next Steps:
