EMD Serono Leads the Learning Pack
July 01, 2008
EMD Serono's "Week of Learning" puts new corporate university on the map
By Sarah Boehle
When members of EMD Serono's learning and organizational development team unveiled a new corporate university called LEAD (Learning, Education, Advancement, Development) Academy in 2007, they were intent on building visibility for the program and encouraging employees to view learning and development in a whole new way. Their solution was "Week of Learning," a week-long learning event that touched every corner of the organization and put the company’s new corporate university on the map.
Team members at the Rockland, Mass., bio-pharmaceutical company set four simple, yet aggressive, goals for the event: achieve participation by as many employees as possible (including senior management); increase employee awareness of programs available through LEAD Academy; ensure on-the-job application of what was learned; and help everyone to recognize that LEAD Academy's launch signified a renewed commitment to learning and professional development at EMD Serono.
To achieve these goals, a project team representing multiple business functions was formed, and a unique marketing campaign was launched. This campaign was complemented by an out-of-the-box marketing approach designed to raise awareness. (Apples, for example, were distributed at lunchtime with tags that said, "Feed your body. Fuel your mind … Week of Learning!” And decals that read, "Open new doors … Week of Learning!" were placed on the glass security doors at employee entrances.)
Week of Learning began with a company-wide kickoff breakfast and welcoming remarks from EMD Serono's president, and it closed with a congratulatory lunch where participants received an official LEAD Academy sweatshirt. The buzz in the building was sustained throughout the week by additional efforts to maintain excitement including a "student lounge," a Week of Learning scrapbook wall, and complimentary coffee breaks featuring specialty coffee drinks. "Essentially, we turned our headquarters building into a college campus," says Michael Laffin, EMD Serono's director of learning and organizational development.
Training recently spoke with Laffin and Christina Bertsch, the company's associate director of learning and organizational development, about the program's impact, as well as their tips for success.
Training: What results did Week of Learning deliver?
 Laffin: Employee feedback was overwhelmingly positive; industry media and local press covered the event as a unique approach to employee development; and our senior management team recommended that we offer the event again the following year. The most significant quantitative achievement was the fact that 22 different programs ran during the week and an estimated 275 employees participated in some form of training—taking time to learn a new skill, gain a bit of knowledge, or acquire a new ability.
Another thing that Week of Learning did for us was send a loud and clear message to all employees that it was okay to take time out to develop themselves. In fact, during the week, they were expected to do so. Senior management encouraged the entire workforce to keep meetings to a minimum during the week, for example, and to avoid scheduling offsite appointments so that employees would be able to participate. As a result, it almost got to the point where if someone didn't participate in a learning event during Week of Learning, she felt left out. It was that big of a deal.
Training: What best practices can you share with other readers who might be interested in implementing something similar?
Laffin:
• Get a mission—and stick to it. Two-and-a-half years ago, we set a mission for our department to get EMD Serono recognized both internally and externally as a best-in-class learning organization. To that end, we set three strategic themes as our guidelines for making decisions. These include an organizational commitment to learning; quality and breadth of resources; and awareness, involvement and recognition. Week of Learning supported all three of those strategic themes. To achieve our quality and breadth goals, we delivered 22 high-quality programs in the span of five days. To achieve our organizational commitment goal, we had members of the senior management team open up many of the programs throughout the week and aggressively encourage people to participate. Senior team members also led by example by participating in learning programs themselves. In terms of awareness, involvement and recognition, we worked hard to make Week of Learning a major event in the company by using very aggressive marketing and communications to build excitement and visibility for the program.
• Build a brand. After we came up with the name LEAD Academy, we worked with an outside firm to develop a professional-looking logo and graphics. Then, we created a brand and a consistent communications platform that allowed us to systematically organize all LEAD Academy topics and training vehicles into a one-stop user-friendly resource guide. Now, any time the LEAD Academy brand appears anywhere—be it on a sign, in an HTML email or on a desk drop—the look and feel is consistent. As a result, employees know that anything carrying our brand will include information regarding their own professional development.
• Market, market, market. When I joined this department, there were few courses scheduled and everything resided in spiral-bound, printed black-and-white documents that were stacked up in the copy room. Marketing consisted of an email being sent out to employees urging them to visit the copy room and pick up a binder. That was it. When we launched LEAD Academy, we were determined to do things differently. We put marketing into our budget. We branded ourselves quite aggressively, and we put together an impressive-looking resource guide. Then, when we launched the Academy in early 2007, we had our resource guides hand delivered to each employee desk (and FedEx’d to those in the field). All this was essential because if we want to be viewed as important, we have to look like a top-shelf, high-quality entity to our employees. When the guides landed on their desks, it was very clear to all employees that something different was going on, and that learning had a new level of organizational commitment behind it.
 Bertsch:
• Craft a plan. We did an outstanding job of building a parallel marketing and communications plan aligned with the Week of Learning project plan. We started six weeks out, and planned to get in front of employees weekly leading up to the event. The messaging was built around the value LEAD Academy and Week of Learning could deliver to employees.
• Get creative. Information overload was a concern for us, so we made a point to be creative in our messaging in order to get people's attention. We used inspirational quotes and placed our signage and banners in unusual places. Our first desk drop was a little box with an eraser inside and a note that said, "Everyone needs a little improvement." In the cafeteria, we handed out apples with a note attached that said, "Feed your body. Fuel your mind."
EMD Serono Inc. is the U.S. pharmaceutical division of Merck KGaA, which is based in Darmstadt, Germany. The company's U.S. headquarters are in Rockland, Mass. In 2008, it placed 112th on Training magazine's Top 125 list, an annual ranking of organizations that excel at human capital development.
|
RSS
