Delivering the Big Picture: Freeman’s Strategic Training Approach
Freeman, a leading provider of integrated services for face-to-face marketing events, has over 4,000 full time employees in offices across 41 cities. They produce over 10,000 face-to-face marketing events annually, including expositions, conventions, corporate events, and exhibits. Earlier this year Freeman was awarded the Bersin Learning Leaders Award for Organizational Management Excellence.
After experiencing several service issues with their previous learning partner, Freeman wanted to make a change. “We looked for a more responsive partner. We are in the service business and wanted a provider equally dedicated to service,” said Judy Owen, Vice President of Training at Freeman.
The training department instituted a search for a partner that could deliver a comprehensive learning solution – a solution that would provide award winning off-the-shelf content, accommodate various types of custom content and digital assets, facilitate virtual classrooms, and manage the traditional classroom experience. “In order to effectively support our business goals, we needed to be able to offer a wide variety of training that was focused, flexible, and cost effective, delivered just in time across the entire organization. And we needed it immediately,” said Owen.
| | "[Freeman’s] centralized learning organization maintains tight business alignment while playing a critical role in the organization’s overall talent management strategy. It uses a… strategic focus on effective management of the entire employment life cycle.”
-ELearning Magazine
Read the full story about the 2008 Learning Leader awards.
|
Working with Element K, Freeman identified knowledge gaps in their business that could be addressed with learning, including a need to retain quality entry-level supervisors, and be more responsive to the training needs of the field. Based on this, Owen’s team created employee development recommendations for all levels of employees that aligned with the competencies identified in job descriptions. These paths helped to ensure employees had the opportunity to develop skills required to grow themselves, their teams, and the business.
Well into the second year of their partnership, training usage is at a rate almost triple what it was the previous year, and Freeman has seen a consistent upward trend in supervisor effectiveness, their customer service scores, and the effective utilization of office productivity tools.
Said Owen, “Freeman is a service business,” and one of the best according to the International Council of Customer Service Organization, who awarded them the 2008 International Customer Service Excellence Award. “All of our internal support business units, and that includes training and development, need to take a service attitude. We expect our learning partner to have the same philosophical approach to service, employee development and training administration as we do. Element K provided us exactly that, with a highly scalable solution, solid curriculum, and a platform we could build on.”
She pointed out that as a training provider, Element K is invisible to Freeman employees. In determining who they were going to partner with, Freeman needed to be sure that the experience for employees was seamless. Owen concluded, “If Element K didn’t perform; the organization would look to my group for answers. Element K’s consultative partnership, flexibility and level of service have been excellent.”
