ACME ANALYSIS AND PROPOSAL FOR

Julianne Wurm, EdD

INTRODUCTION

ACME, a new company which has undergone rapid growth, has surveyed their staff to gather feedback on the work environment and corporate culture. While the survey is rather simple, the data offers a glimpse into the experience as lived by the staff of ACME. While the rating system was a good start, a mixed-methods or even multiple-choice survey would have given more specific information as to the WHY of these responses. The questions asked might have been more specific or had follow ups to understand why participants answered as they did.

To prepare this proposal, a number of assumptions were made. To begin, an unlimited budget, ability to travel and gather for company-wide meetings would be permitted. Since there were no stringent parameters provided, I took the opportunity to create something effective and likely expensive.

This instructional design proposal will follow the ADDIE format:

‣ Analyze

‣ Design

‣ Develop

‣ Implement

‣ Evaluate

I would recommend Acme Inc. as a great place to work. I have opportunities for professional growth at Acme Inc.

My manager gives me constructive feedback to improve.

When decisions are made at Acme Inc.,the best ideas win.

I feel excited to come to work every day. In my experience, company bureaucracy (unnecessary process)is not tolerated at Acme Inc.

I believe Acme Inc. hires only the best people.

The executive team are leading Acme Inc. in the right direction.

I'm comfortable speaking up when I have something to say.

I provide honest feedback to my co-workers

SURVEY QUESTIONS

DATA 1 (A)

While there was a great deal of data, what jumped out right away was the steady drop in employee satisfaction across all questions. The longer staff worked at ACME, the lower the scores became. This table shows what we believe emerged as a critical piece of feedback.

Emp.

q1 q2 q3 q4 q5 q6 q7 q8 q9 q10Less

than 3 months

681 8.85 7.25 8.39 8.40 8.40 8.44 7.50 7.91 8.67 8.98

3-6 months 412 8.59 6.41 7.93 8.01 8.036 7.90 6.89 7.31 8.39 8.48

6-12 months 478 8.53 6.29 7.82 7.91 7.83 7.78 6.56 7.08 8.09 8.40

1-2 years 471 8.34 5.79 7.64.

7 7.66 7.73 7.59 6.37 6.99 7.96 8.26

2-3 years 101 8.15 5.33 7.24 7.69 7.67 7.653 6.08 6.58 7.69 7.92

3+ years 33 8.03 5.82 8.12 7.91 8 7.94 6.76 7.42 8.27 8.27

DELTA 0.4261.0990.4180.4300.385 0.422 0.765 0.648 0.562 0.531

DATA 2 (A)

Tenure Frequency Percent Cumulative Frequency

Cumulative Percent

1-2 years 930 22.60 930 22.60

2-3 years 201 4.88 1131 27.48

3-6 months 756 18.37 1887 45.86

6 months - 1 year 946 22.99 2833 68.85

Less than 3 months 1213 29.48 4046 98.32

3+ years 69 1.68 4115 100.00

The overall employee pool including those that did not take the survey.

ANALYSIS OF DATA: PAIN POINTS 1 (A)

The primary point of pain that emerged from the data is a continual decline in employee satisfaction the longer they were employed by ACME. The time period measured was circumspect but enough to hi-light patterns. More specifically, consistently across the 10 topics surveyed, the honeymoon was rather short at three months with declines after that. This poses a problem for sustained growth as employee retention and/or performance beyond two years is at risk.

This downward trend continued as the tenure increased with the lowest ratings coming from those employed longer than two years. This trend excludes those founding members, year three, whose ratings were second to the new employees. We believe the three-year data is an anomaly based on the founder status of the three-year participants. They have a great stake which brings greater satisfaction. We must ask what are they getting, understanding and experiencing that years one and two are not, What is keeping year three satisfied ( if not only the founder status) and how do we learn from this to use with other staff members

The slope that began with enthusiastic employees surveyed with three months of joining ACME, gave way to less enchanted employees after year one and most notably after year two. This does not bode well for employee retention, institutional knowledge and ultimately customer experience. We can see that communication, development opportunities and bureaucracy are contributing to the disengaged report from participants.

Overall the issues that emerged from the data are indicative of fast growth and a need to develop and reinforce the brand and culture. In addition to increasing dissatisfaction overtime, secondary pain points emerged around the following topics:

‣ My manager gives me constructive feedback to improve. (7.25-5.18) Over time this drops to 4.85-5.16 for tenured employees after the first year. The rating was lower for independent contributors (4.86) versus managers (5.86).

‣ I have opportunities for professional growth at Acme Inc. (7.5-6.75). This too descended as tenure increased (6.3 and 5.85 for year one and year two respectively). The rating here was also lower for independent contributors versus managers.

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LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE TO DATA 1 (D)This proposal will address the most immediate needs gleaned from the survey and outlined previously. For maximum benefit, we will address two distinct target audiences; managers and individual contributors. Their needs are connected yet currently quite different. The activities proposed below will include both whole group and small group opportunities. These will be done using a variety of methodologies and technology. These methodologies include video-conferencing, video content, podcasts and original written content to be consumed both in whole company settings and small group meetings. The learning opportunities will be mostly synchronous and in person to start. These initiatives are designed to address specific skills while building culture, moral and brand connection.

1. Monthly company-wide meeting facilitated by video-conferencing. This will build a shared experience and cement the employee connection to the brand. It will help all employees feel "in the know” regarding company business, news, commendations and future plans. This will build a camaraderie among employees that do not live and work in the same region. It is an excellent time to showcase excellent work and build morale among staff.

2. Managers will receive professional development apart from the staff members. Survey data will be used to develop managerial (e.g., coaching, communication, difficult conversations) skills to enhance the collaboration between managers and individual contributors. This will be developed separately within ACME.

3. Learning teams: Employees will be divided into groups of 12-15 by region and start date. Each member of each learning team will collaborate with a remote instructor to deliver the lesson/activities at one meeting during the year. We will have a member of the L&D team join via video conference. The materials and video content will be developed by AMCE corporate office. Through this ACME will build community among the staff and cultivate often elusive skills that the survey indicated were lacking. Namely, development opportunities, communication skills involved in managing internal and external employee communications which may arise. The teams will meet having already consumed materials prepared by ACME for each topic. By doing this ACME will be providing opportunities for development on a monthly basis.

4. As an immediate step to resolve bureaucracy, and demonstrate the management is listening; a submission method for all employee ideas will be introduced to give all ideas direct access to the executive team. This will begin as a dedicated email enabling all staff to submit ideas to more easily to ACME unfettered by a laborious process. Responses to ideas are not to be expected and the most useful ideas or those to be implemented will be shared at the monthly ACME company-wide meeting. This type of ideation is what keeps companies innovative.

CONTENT PROPOSAL: COMMUNICATION AT ACME 1(D)

4. Engage, talk, build knowledge at work. and develop professionally.

2. Get to know your colleagues-team builder!

1. Start with self-study-watch and read before meeting FLIP the lesson.

3. Access prior knowledge; brainstorm

5. Master ACME communication.

CONTENT PROPOSAL: COMMUNICATION AT ACME 2 (D)

This learning activity will focus directly on some of the more concrete feedback from the employee survey. This will save was a model to be tweaked for the monthly learning teams. This and all monthly sessions will use a number of modalities including: self self-study-study (FLIP lesson) IILT/VILT as well as small group activities. Each session will utilize a different member of the group as an in person co-instructor. They will help with some activities that require an in person presence.

Materials needed: (ARTICLE/PODCAST/VIDEO): Materials will be created and provided by ACME, using the company mission statement to shape the materials. These materials will need to be created for ACME combining the company culture and company protocols within the video. Since we all build knowledge socially, but learn it in different ways, this is designed to engage as many different learners as possible while helping colleagues get to know each other and enjoy themselves.

Flow: This should take about 45-50 minutes.

1. Welcome video will be played (Executive Team member) giving short introduction, the WHY to this meeting and good wishes. Video will be 2-3 minutes.

2. Team builder: Introductions and maybe play Which is not true? Each person tells 3 things about themselves and the others guess which is not true.(12 min).

3. Access prior knowledge: Check in to see who read/watched/listened to the materials provided. Get opinions. What stood out, what was helpful, new? (5-7 minutes).

4. Have each participant describe a difficult c conversation they have had. Not the dialogue but the context, challenge, tone, goal. Give 2 minutes. The LA (Learning Assistant) will collect the papers and out them aside.

6. LA picks a member of the group and brings them to the front. The virtual Instructor will model a difficult conversation. It can be getting overcharged, getting fired, (5-6 minutes).

8. Connect this to the content they came with. Brainstorm what they know Ask the group to critique the interaction. Unpack it.

7. Once the first role play is finished it is time for the students to apply the knowledge from their preparation to analyze the interactions: what went right and what went not so well. Brainstorm what they know Ask the group to critique the interaction. Unpack it. Have them give specific examples from the prep materials to support their position. Let’s turn now to ACME. What are the core elements of ACME communication? This is the time when the theory and the practice should be connecting. (10-12 minutes)

8. Now individuals will pair up and be given a situation (written by a colleague at the beginning of class) that they have to role play using the ACME communication protocols. (3-4 minutes).

9. There will still be 6 situations left to try. Let students volunteer to role-play in front of the class and and have classmates critique (same as #7 but now it is 2 students) . Time permitting.

10. Wrap up

CONTENT PROPOSAL: COMMUNICATION AT ACME 3 (D)

COMMUNICATION (I)August 15, 2016

Greetings ACME staff,

We have made sense of the survey you completed for ACME. We appreciate the insight into your experience at ACME as we grow as an organization. Your input helps us a great deal. In response to what you shared, we are launching several initiatives focused on addressing what was expressed.

For starters, we will begin monthly company-wide meetings in which all regions will be present for 45 minutes via video-conferencing. We are working on the time zone challenges currently- and will let you know shortly the date of our first meeting. We are also offering development to all staff to support you as you continue to grow, you are the foundation of our business. We are putting together monthly learning teams that will offer development you asked for. You managers will share the details of the scheduling and groupings with each of you in the next 3 days.

The last idea will ice implemented immediately. We do want the best ideas to rise to the top. We understand that with too many layers, this does not happen easily. So to cut back on some of the bureaucracy, we have established a direct route to the executive team with your ideas. This is an email that goes straight to the executive team and will be reviewed often. It is only for ideas. We think this will streamline the ideation at ACME.

We believe these will contribute to the culture and professionalism we are actively building.

We value your contributions to ACME, it is you who have made us the success we have become.

Best,

CEO

EVALUATION (E)

Evaluation, in this case, will assess 2 things:

1. Student learning

2. Program effectiveness

1. Evaluating the program detailed here will involve another cycle of input from ACME staff. One week after the learning team meeting a survey on the content will be sent to participants to evaluate their mastery of the content.

2. Another survey would be in order to get an idea of how staff perceive the usefulness. Evaluating their knowledge will show the effectiveness. Ideally, the next survey can drill down to gather more detailed data that underlies the numeric evaluations. If kept short, the feedback cycle can happen bi-monthly and coupled with instructor input the program can be fine tuned to address the needs initially expressed as well as elements that emerge as ACME continues to grow.

THE END