edui 6705 final project
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Running head: DEVELOPMENT OF ABC ORIENTATION AND 90-DAY CERTIFICATION PROGRAM 1
Development of ABC Orientation and 90-Day Certification program
By
Liliana Lucy
Alice F. Moore
Nancy B. Velasco
Elizabeth Zeiger
California State University East Bay
June 5, 2010
DEVELOPMENT OF ABC ORIENTATION AND 90-DAY CERTIFICATION PROGRAM 2
Abstract
ABC’s laser focused vision includes becoming well-known within its six
territorial regions of the United States as the number one provider of widget services to
educational institutions, corporate training departments, and community development
services providers.
It is critical that each employee commit to ABC’s vision, mission, and values. To
help strengthen this position, each employee is required to complete the ABC Orientation
and 90-Day Certification program prior to completing their first 90 days of employment.
The students in this program are the newly hired employees and the teachers are the
subject matter experts throughout the organization or outside consultants called in to
assist. The new employee must complete the certificate and also successfully be deemed
to have performed well and met expectations of the hiring manager. The hiring manager
will conduct a formal 90-day review with this employee after the new hire has worked for
one quarter of the year.
DEVELOPMENT OF ABC ORIENTATION AND 90-DAY CERTIFICATION PROGRAM 3
Rationale for ABC’s Certificate Program
Introduction
Welcome to ABC! Here, the students are the employees or staff in the organization. The
teachers are the subject matter experts throughout the organization. Outside consultants are also
called in to assist.
New Employees and Retention
ABC employees undergo a great deal of prescreening and are carefully selected for
fulfilling predetermined roles and needs within ABC. By the time a job offer is extended to a
new hire candidate, ABC management and Human Resources have a good sense of the
candidates fit with ABC’s culture. It is critical that each employee commit to ABC’s vision,
mission, and values. To help strengthen this position, each employee is required to complete the
ABC Orientation and 90-Day Certification program prior to completing their first 90-Days of
employment. However, completion of this certificate program does not guarantee employment
pass the initial 90-Days. The new employee must complete the certificate and also successfully
be deemed to have performed well and met expectations of the hiring manager. The hiring
manager will conduct a formal 90-day review with this employee after the first the new hire has
worked for one quarter of the year.
Attrition for new employees certainly is a factor to consider. By the time an employee has
reached the point of beginning employment for ABC, much has already been invested
throughout the rigorous screening and interviewing process. The first 90 days are the most
critical because new employees and their managers will discover if this role and organization are
a good fit. We need to make sure the online learning and welcoming process is beneficial and a
positive experience for the new comer. Engagement is a factor that impacts attrition (Angelino,
DEVELOPMENT OF ABC ORIENTATION AND 90-DAY CERTIFICATION PROGRAM 4
& Natvig, 2009). By designing activities online that engage the learner, retention rate is higher.
Engaging activities can include a welcoming discussions, virtual ice breakers, online chatting,
and online collaboration types of activities.
One feature that sets this program apart is that it explores ABC’s culture, mission, values
and so forth in an online rather than traditional learning environment so the learning is more in
the hands of the learner (Howell, Williams, & Lindsay, 2003). It is no longer focused on going to
an on-ground classroom, sitting in hard chairs, and listening to a professor lecture. With online
learning, employees go through a process of self discovery and assessing. They are free to
explore and reflect on their own personal values and mission and ask if they will feel
comfortable at ABC. In the case of ABC, employees are free to ask the tough questions
surrounding their commitment to align with the organization's mission and vision and carry out
the duties associated with their role assignment.
ABC’s Vision
ABC’s laser focused vision includes becoming well known within its six territorial regions
of the United States as the number one provider of widget services to educational institutions,
corporate training departments, and community development services providers.
ABC’s Mission
ABC’s mission is to continuously improve upon and provide widget services that enable our
customers to deliver educational content online seamlessly.
ABC’s Values
ABC values align with the organization’s culture, mission, and vision while recognizing our
talented employees’ role in defining and fostering an environment conducive to progressive
growth.
DEVELOPMENT OF ABC ORIENTATION AND 90-DAY CERTIFICATION PROGRAM 5
1. We value our employees and respect their contributions individually and as a team.
2. We value our customers and desire for them to become our raving fans.
3. We value creativity, experimentation, and thoughtful development of ideas in our ever
evolving development of widget services.
4. We value embracing life and uphold personal commitments to work, family, and
community.
Student Learning and Assessment
Student Learning
ABC’s learning development team advices the following for new employees. To get the
most of the online learning students should:
1. Be open-minded about sharing life, work, and educational experiences as part of the
learning process.
2. Be able to communicate online.
3. Be self-motivated and self disciplined.
4. Be willing to "speak up" if problems arise.
5. Be able to think an idea through before responding.
6. Be able to complete assignments on time.
(Illinois Online Network, 2010)
Facilitators
Facilitators are the guides for the start of the new hires' journey at ABC. As such, they will
guide the students in learning how to learn online. They will keep discussion on track, create a
social and friendly environment, and use various learning options to stimulate learner
participation such as small group discussions and small group assignments (Berge, 1995).
DEVELOPMENT OF ABC ORIENTATION AND 90-DAY CERTIFICATION PROGRAM 6
Each instructor is certified as an instructor at ABC as well as being certified within their
own area of expertise. Not only are they learning professionals who are recognized by their
colleagues in the learning arena, but they can perform in the top quartile of the business process
as well (Summerfield, 2008).
ABC encourages all its training professionals to seek development opportunities through
colleges and universities and corporate training programs. Fees are paid for professional
development organizations where facilitators can take classes to keep up with the latest
techniques.
Assessment
Evaluation is important to gauge the success of a program and to learn where we can make
improvements. We continually evaluate the design of the courses we offer so that could be up
to date with materials and to make improvements to the program.
In each of our courses, Kirkpatrick’s four levels of evaluation are followed. Each class is
sent an online questionnaire “smile sheet” to measure Level 1. Reactions are important because
if learners react negatively to a course, they are less likely to transfer what they learned to their
work (Shepherd, 1999). Assessment exercises are used to measure Level 2 Learning. During
the course, materials are continuously being reviewed through role plays and other exercises to
keep the information fresh in the students’ minds and to help them better retain the information.
Simulations are also used to test for practical skills. Levels 3 and 4, Application and Business
results are done once the employee has ended their 90-day trial period. Performance coaches are
used to help the students transition from training to the work environment. By using
performance coaches, the employees are ready to move ahead on their own at a faster rate. The
PCs provide positive reinforcement where the results are successful and constructive feedback
DEVELOPMENT OF ABC ORIENTATION AND 90-DAY CERTIFICATION PROGRAM 7
and encouragement where they are not. Managers are asked to complete a questionnaire listing
what is working with the new employee and what can be improved or we what emphasize more
in the training.
Additional Assessment Tools
In considering the design our assessments for ABC, the learning group has identified a
resource that provides already prepared assessments. We are considering the staffing capacity
savings associated with using some of these pre-crafted assessments versus designing our own.
The Kenexa (2009) Job Fit, Cultural Fit, and Career Fit Assessment are a set of ready-to-use
exercises to examine if new employees are a fit for ABC incorporation. The assessments are
made up of presentation exercises, role playing, group exercises, and both written and practice
interview sessions. The tools are designed to help the company identify candidates who job
skills, individual needs, and values will match the mission and vision of the company. These
tools also decrease the turnover in the company as well as match the right employee with the
right position. With the three assessment tools this will enhance overall employee commitment
and job satisfaction.
Other relevant assessment tools are utilized in some of the courses that pertain specifically
to the subject attainment being measured. For example, Franklin Covey assessments are used in
the ABC102 Focus Workshop. Overall, careful thought and planning have transpired for each
course. ABC’s assessment methods will continue to evolve with each group of new employees.
Culture and Support Services
Creating culture and a sense of community
It is common for people to feel nervous as they begin a new position in a new organization.
In the beginning, feeling a part of the organization - feeling like a part of the community and
DEVELOPMENT OF ABC ORIENTATION AND 90-DAY CERTIFICATION PROGRAM 8
embracing the culture- takes some time and support of others. As we develop the program for
helping new employees feel comfortable, we do want to create a sense of community. Battista,
Forrey and Stevenson (2008) explore ways of creating community by promoting collaboration.
They suggest having various activities and support services that students may voluntarily
participate in while establishing that sense of community. Having a book club, a mentoring club,
a walking club, and hosting a toast master’s group were some ideas given for communities to
consider even doing online. In our ABC organization, it will be important to pass down the
culture of life balance and also community. The culture of balance does speak to finding hobbies
and activities, family and community involvement to enjoy in addition to the work done in the
organization itself.
Another challenge expressed by hiring managers and the HR Department is the need to
create an atmosphere that promotes personal engagement and provide individual attention. A
similar type of program was offered previously as an on campus requirement. ABC is hoping
this new online approach will help increase enthusiasm for the program and also prove effective
in acclimating new hires to ABC.
Technology innovations have proven fruitful in spurring the advancements of online
learning. Portal based provisioning as seen in the use of Blackboard, SharePoint, Moodle,
CRTeacher, and others make hosting online learning and communicating geographically
commonplace. Wikis, blogging, and social media applications such as Second Life, LinkedIn,
Twitter, My Space, and Facebook serve to blur the lines between personal and business usage
and spread the acceptance of online collaboration. Telecommunications and computer-based
technology solutions have merged to form Unified Communications (UC) -- technology that
DEVELOPMENT OF ABC ORIENTATION AND 90-DAY CERTIFICATION PROGRAM 9
consists of teleconferencing, web conferencing, video conferencing, instant messaging (IM), and
voice over IP (VOIP).
The Internet provides a means for connecting the world together. ABC does plan on
incorporating these technologies to create a feeling of cohesion among the participating
employees. Employees will have opportunity to explore some of these technology software
applications and services within this program. Others are targeted for coverage as elective
course offerings in the future.
Requesting technology and other resources
By default, all new employees receive a computer workstation with core software
application installed. However, the hiring manager may opt to request a variety of other
equipment and software through ABC’s Support Services page in the ABC Portal. In addition to
standard computer equipment, provisioning is available for ergonomic keyboards, speech and
auto movement types of devices, e-readers, smartphones, various blue tooth devices, screen
readers, hearing amplifiers, and more. Hiring managers may also request special cubicle
configurations and other accommodations, especially if there is a medical order on file from the
new employee’s physician.
Once the employee is onboard, that same portal page is used by the employee to request
additional items and services. However, where budget approval is needed, these requests are
forwarded by the portal to the hiring manager for digital signature approval.
Administrative Aspects
Cost Considerations
One other concern expressed by hiring managers and upper management was that of costs
associated with implementing and maintaining ABC's certificate program online. Encouragement
DEVELOPMENT OF ABC ORIENTATION AND 90-DAY CERTIFICATION PROGRAM 10
of online open source software offerings, share ware, and freeware software, tools, and services
have resulted in drastically lowering the costs associated with joining the online development
bandwagon. Werry (2001) is a leader in lobbying around the idea of having an open source free
software consortium to openly access materials for classes and share ideas. He applauds the
concept of partnering for the purpose of advancing use of online portal style for a learning
environment. Open source software is becoming more common place today. ABC may benefit
from different software tools and save initial and ongoing operating expenses. Even the planning
for this program was mostly done using the GoogleDocs platform. GoogleDocs is a free “in the
cloud” type of application that has allowed the learning development team to create, edit, and
share documents.
ABC Policies
ABC’s policies are easily accessed by every employee as they are all located on the
organization’s portal. In fact, printed policies are not considered valid unless printed in a timely
manner as required for use by a court of law. Otherwise, the official policies are digitally stored
and located on the portal.
Levy noted that having policies from the beginning represents one of the keys to having a
high quality online learning course (Levy, 2003). Many of the policies are communicated during
the employee’s Orientation and 90-Day Certification Program. Employees agree to periodically
review and stay informed of changes to policies, particularly as relevant to their particular area or
responsibility. Critical and massively important changes are communicated at organizational
wide staff meetings. Most of these meetings are held online using ABC’s video conferencing
system. Communicating area-specific changes to policies fall under the responsibility of the
management teams in the specific areas impacted. The communication means at that level has
DEVELOPMENT OF ABC ORIENTATION AND 90-DAY CERTIFICATION PROGRAM 11
not been dictated specifically. However, emails, team meetings, and in some cases digital text
messages are common mediums used across the organization. Policies changes that are relevant
to examination and accreditation requirements sometimes require staff to sign either manually or
digitally acknowledging that they have read and agree to follow the policy in question.
Creating a legacy and sustainability
Having a legacy type of organization that lasts and serves the community is part of our
vision, and it is interwoven deeply in how we operate from day to day. It has become an attitude
and spirit that ABC hopes to continue handing down for generations to come. One of the
challenges with any company is the transfer of culture to new employees. Additionally, within
each organization there are certain procedures and policies -- ways of going about doing things.
These impact decision making and outcomes as well.
Levine (2009) makes some interesting observations about how historically story telling does
allow for handing down culture from one generation to the next. In today’s society, instead of
writing on a cave wall, these handed down stories are often in the form of expressive clips posted
to YouTube or various social media outlets such as Facebook or My Space. As we seek to
design the pieces of this new comer’s certificate program in which our new employees learn of
our organization’s history and culture, it would be good to think of including those who have
been employed here for many years. As we capture their stories and share them with those new
to the organization, our culture too can travel via such story telling pathways.
As new employees start in our organization, we do not want a bunch of warm bodies that
are simply going through the motions. We want them to catch the vision of where this
organization is heading. We want them to catch the mission, what we are here to do. We want
them to adopt our values and take them to heart. As Farcht (2010) reminds us, we want every
DEVELOPMENT OF ABC ORIENTATION AND 90-DAY CERTIFICATION PROGRAM 12
employee to embrace the organizational vision, mission, and values. Additionally, we invite
employees to create their own vision, mission, and values statement and seek way to live those
out in the workplace. This article speaks to the challenge of working with purpose and
identifying with that which is important such as the organization’s vision and mission. One key
note is that with employees onboard and committed to the direction of the organization and part
of that direction, then weathering storms that come up is possible. We certainly understand that
not every day is filled will rose petals. However, even in the days of challenges, employees can
participate and engage in work with an upbeat steadiness, determination, and enthusiasm in
performing their duties.
Beyond the walls
Is time and space a limiting factor? Vision wise, at least, one of the hiring managers bravely
asks if ABC has the potential to expand beyond serving just in the United States. Having a vision
for the future is a must for the success of this organization (Levy, 2003). Mobility,
transportability, flexibility across time zones have all led to development of various
technological improvements that reflect embracing the “anytime, anywhere” concept. Modern
laptops, smart phones, encrypted USB sticks, portable drives, iPods, iPhones, and various digital
recording apparatuses further propel communication online, thus ultimately lessening the earlier
bitterness associated with even the thought of offering learning and working online. Today,
ABC needs access to secure computers that connect to the Internet. Yes, this organization could
evolve to serve learning institutions scattered throughout the world. Though ABC
currently views its six regions of the United States as target markets, strategic teams within our
organization are brainstorming ways of branching out world-wide.
DEVELOPMENT OF ABC ORIENTATION AND 90-DAY CERTIFICATION PROGRAM 13
Curriculum and Presentation Considerations
Why online teaching and learning?
At ABC, we want to create an atmosphere of continued learning. This is in recognition to
the fact that technology and modifications for services rendered do change. Our employees need
to have a heart for learning and adapt readily to address and keep up with the change. In doing
so, ABC benefits for the growth in intellectual capital and new solution sets to deliver to our
customers.
One barrier that the leadership at ABC has identified is that employees have various
responsibilities placed upon them, and attending on-ground and on campus classes every month
would not work. Many do travel as a result of their role in the organization. Others are in
positions that require them not to leave their desk or environment in order to obtain new learning
opportunities. Thus, creatively, ABC management tasked the learning and development team to
explore means for bringing learning to our employees and doing so in a manner that is most
flexible. Out of that discovery process came recommendations for developing a program that
gets employees off to a strong and positive start by cultivating a desire to learn and making that a
part of ABC’s culture. ABC101, the orientation class for ABC, is the first impression of our
organization to these new employees, and it is also their first chance to get a taste of learning
online via ABC’s portal.
Frankola (2001) addresses why corporate orientations often have low completion rates, even
if the online programs are mandatory. She reports that corporate e-learners said their top reason
for dropping a course was lack of time. Many had also trouble completing courses from their
desktops because of frequent distractions from co-workers, and some said they could only access
the courses through the company's intranet, so they couldn't finish their assignments from home.
DEVELOPMENT OF ABC ORIENTATION AND 90-DAY CERTIFICATION PROGRAM 14
Frankola suggest strategies to ensure a high course completion rate and advise an institution to
develop a culture that takes online learning just as seriously as classroom training, do individual
comparisons, and/or hold managers accountable for the success of their employees. Other
strategies include using managers as role models, creating a social dimension to e-learning,
making expectations clear up front, providing formal rewards, tracking performance, holding a
team competition, and launching a communications campaign.
Curriculum Design
Even though the article, “Preparing for Distance Learning: Designing an Online Student
Orientation Course” (Bozarth, Chapman, & LaMonica, 2004) focuses on a student orientation
course, it provides some useful advice for an online business tutorial. The authors found that
there is a need for online learners to understand the time commitment required of an online
course and possess or develop strong time management skills. Their research also found
surprising differences between instructors of online courses and their students of what an
orientation to online learning should include. The paper concludes by recommending specific
design, development, and implementation practices for creating an online orientation.
ABC’s learning and development group took these thoughts into consideration and
developed each course’s offerings based on a template which led the group to carefully consider
the course descriptions, learning objectives, teaching methods and strategies, competency
attainment level, and learning outcome. The learning activities also took into consideration the
dynamics of learning in an online environment in which employees are not physically located in
the same place or time zone. It also took into consideration the need to bring employees current
with Net 2.0 technology tools that ABC embraces as a means for communicating key strategies
and also staying in touch with our customers.
DEVELOPMENT OF ABC ORIENTATION AND 90-DAY CERTIFICATION PROGRAM 15
Frank White (1999) urged a paradigm shift from a one-size-fit-all traditional educational
system. He encouraged the critics and inspectors of online learning to evaluate the strengths and
assess the benefits to society. On the horizon of White’s challenge came innovative learning
designers such as Robert H. Lytle (1999) who insightfully challenged educators to objectively
integrate learning systems to encompass the needs of corporations and real world situations.
Bringing flexibility, choices, and ABC's culture to new employees individually via online
learning benefits them individually and ABC as a whole. ABC, like White and Lytle, leverages
the strengths of online technology, delivering learning carefully designed to meet real needs,
while being mindful of expectations expressed by key stakeholders. The key stakeholders are
the hiring managers, the new employees, our security officer, and the Human Resources
Department.
Curriculum selection and continuous improvement cycle
ABC’s new employee Orientation and 90-Day Certification Program is offered completely
online. However, the design has flexibility woven into it. For example, there are materials that
can easily be exported to PDF and stored on a laptop, e-reader, smart phone, or even printed out.
ABC’s learning development group took into consideration that employees learn in unique ways
in the overall design of courses. Additionally, technology changes rapidly and ABC as an
organization continues evolving and transforming as well. Therefore, the program is evaluated
after each cycle and each group of employees, and is assessed for relevancy, accuracy, and
practical acceptance from the ABC employees. Changes are made often in a “just in time”
fashion to capture the most current material possible for new hires. Periodic review of
curriculum is best practice at ABC and in the industry as well.
DEVELOPMENT OF ABC ORIENTATION AND 90-DAY CERTIFICATION PROGRAM 16
The curriculum designed for ABC makes use of a variety of different content building
software applications. Content presented online appeals to our ever increasing multi-sensory
audiences as it more frequently than not has construction rooted in the use of tools such as
Dreamweaver, Flash, Captivate, Camtasia, Photoshop, iMovie, Movie Maker, Final Cut Pro,
Premiere, Finale, MS Presenter, and even the traditional MS PowerPoint. Online learning and
online training programs today really have moved away from the “one size fits all” framework.
ABC embraces this growing perspective as it seeks a new way to reach out and help new
employees feel more at home at ABC.
CEUs
We are pleased to announce that this program looks primarily eligible for receiving
Continuing Education Units (CEUs) through our association with the junior college having a
physical location near ABC. Current plans include incorporating CEU advisors and consultants
as part of this certificate program's stakeholder team. By including them in the planning process
early on it is hopeful that the program will meet CEU requirements during the review process for
accreditation purposes. It also helps to ensure a more solid program that will be of benefit to
these new employees and to ABC as a whole.
ABC’s Learning Portal and LMS Platform
The learning group is currently reviewing hosting provisions for housing of the learning
portal. We are considering various Internet third party hosting possibilities given that many of
these new employees will already be asked to work remotely during their first 90-Days.
However, scoring and progress tracking records will tie back into our in-house Learning
Management System (LMS). Today we are using Lectura for our LMS solution. However, as
communicated in other company wide announcements, there is the possibility of us moving away
DEVELOPMENT OF ABC ORIENTATION AND 90-DAY CERTIFICATION PROGRAM 17
from Lectora in favor of a system that will support a more graphical reporting ingenuity for the
various management teams. The evaluation of the appropriate LMS for ABC is beyond the
scope of the certificate program project and is being scoped separately as part of the LMS
Alternatives Enterprise Project.
Infrastructure Security Considerations
Despite advances and growing acceptance for online learning, the technology water grows
murky as Internet doorways provide opportunity for Internet bullies, intrusions, thievery,
stalking, spoofing, phishing, worms, viruses, malware, and other unwelcome hotspots. Trouble
purposefully targeted to personal computers were at one time just out of spite and often delivered
in joking fashion by some devious computer nerd wishing to wreck havoc to work environments
of others. Over time, attacks have grown to take advantage of sophisticated hacking and other
means of causing destruction or stealing identity and intellectual property for purpose of
deceitful profit.
ABC's technical staff oversees the portal maintenance and safeguarding and take
precautions to safeguard the residing servers from these invasive attacks. Curriculum content
development takes place on computer systems that also have protective measures in place. The
weak link in the chain remains at the employee's computer. Each employee should keep virus
detection and intrusion detection software current to further protect her individual computer.
This protection requirement reflects standard procedures associated with surfing the Internet.
Suzzane Levy (2003) advises to having technical support services available to help students with
such problems is a key component to designing a program of instruction. The participants can
receive full support by phoning ABC's technical hotline or by accessing the Support Services
page from ABC's portal from a computer that is functioning properly.
DEVELOPMENT OF ABC ORIENTATION AND 90-DAY CERTIFICATION PROGRAM 18
Timing Factor
The actual building of this certificate program will take several weeks to complete and fine
tune. We are anticipating piloting with the first group of new employees beginning fourth
quarter of this year. During second quarter the learning group will finalize the course templates.
Third quarter is designated for identifying curriculum content and actually building out the
learning portal. Budget considerations are already under consideration for developing out
additional elective courses in response to input from our hiring managers (stakeholder group).
This is discussed further down in this document.
Program Planning
Program planning took into consideration various inputs from stakeholders. Also,
employees were randomly surveyed to learn of areas throughout ABC that could benefit from
coursework. A dedicated learning and development team spent a considerable number of hours
planning out the courses and sequencing for this program. ABC101 through ABC105 are core
offerings. ABC101 is a prerequisite for the rest of the courses. ABC105 is the capstone, taken
last unless special approval is granted. ABC104 emphasizes travelers. Though some employees
may never be called upon to travel on behalf of ABC, it is anticipated that most employees will
at least interact with other employees who are assigned traveling responsibilities. ABC104
technically is considered as an elective. While most employees will be required to complete
ABC104, hiring managers of new line employees who will have little to no interaction with
employees who travel may opt to have their new employees exempted from taking this particular
course.
DEVELOPMENT OF ABC ORIENTATION AND 90-DAY CERTIFICATION PROGRAM 19
Course Planning for ABC101: Orientation to ABC
The following represent the planning for the orientation course. This course is the
prerequisite for all other courses. One of the reasons HR publishes orientation and “hiring in”
dates on their online calendar is to encourage hiring managers to use the first day or orientation
as a hire in date. The thought being is that the more that start together at the same the better in
terms of creating that sense of online community.
Name of Course
ABC 101: Orientation to ABC
Prerequisite(s)
None
Course Description
The orientation course is required of all new employees and is normally attended within the
first week of starting at ABC. In the orientation course, employees will be introduced to the
culture and makeup of ABC, especially its mission, vision, and values. They will also become
familiar with the benefits package under their starting terms.
Course Objectives
1. Employee should comprehend ABC's mission statement and values well enough to recite
it through a teleconference or web conference.
2. Employee will gain an overall understanding of ABC's organizational structure, and
demonstrate locating a specified employee in the online organizational chart.
3. Employee should access the ABC Portal and identify 5 supportive services available and
best means for contacting each.
DEVELOPMENT OF ABC ORIENTATION AND 90-DAY CERTIFICATION PROGRAM 20
4. Employees shall comprehend the written goals their hiring manager has given them for
the first ninety days' expectations and establish steps towards completing them in the 90-
day probationary period.
5. Employee will ascertain understanding of the comprehensive orientation program by
completing a policy and procedures test to a grade of 75% or higher.
Objective 1
Employee should comprehend ABC's mission statement and values well enough to recite it
through a teleconference or web conference.
Teaching strategy
ABC’s mission and values are held with upmost importance. Throughout the entire
certificate program employees are encouraged to regard mission and values as more than just
words hanging on the wall. They are encouraged to interweave these into the very fabric of
decision making. Content selection is at a concept attainment level.
Teaching method
1. Employees print out job aid printable cards containing mission and values.
2. Employees watch a "raving fan" customer clip, and then join in a discussion forum
sharing what they observed that matches the info on the job card.
3. Employees watch another clip in which company employees at various companies are
asked if they know the mission of the company. (In the clip, many do not know the
mission.)
4. Employees take time to journal why they feel knowing the mission and values are
important.
DEVELOPMENT OF ABC ORIENTATION AND 90-DAY CERTIFICATION PROGRAM 21
5. Employees then are presented with a commitment challenge to commit to learning the
mission statement and the value statements. Employees click to acknowledge their
agreement to the challenge.
Assessment
Employees are required to recite the mission statement and the values by means of
teleconferencing or web conferencing. Alternately, their manager can sign a statement noting
they listened to the employee cite these.
Competency level
Knowledge, Application, and Evaluation
Objective 2
Employee will gain an overall understanding of ABC's organizational structure, and
demonstrate locating a specified employee in the online organizational chart.
Teaching strategy
ABC’s culture includes an emphasis on relationships and understanding the needs
throughout the organization. Our goals work best when employees know each other and work
together. Our online organizational chart serves as a resource to help staff in getting to know
names, positions, and departments. It is hopeful that employees will see opportunities to
embrace our mission statement as they work together. The content style is one of applying the
concept of mission in getting to know others in the organization.
Teaching method
1. Employees will log in to the ABC Portal and find and launch the ABC Org application.
2. The employee will find his or her own photo and profile depicted in the org chart.
3. The employee will find and the names of the rest of the team members.
DEVELOPMENT OF ABC ORIENTATION AND 90-DAY CERTIFICATION PROGRAM 22
4. The employee will go up the org chart and find his manager’s photo and profile.
5. The employee will continue up the organization structure and find the top branch of the
chart that is directly above those already discovered.
6. Then, the employee will be asked to look up and find the profiles for each of the
employees that were introduced during the second interview.
Assessment
1. Employees do not have to commit to memory; however, they do need to know how to
look up the names of each of ABC’s divisions.
2. Employees should be able to recall the names of each member on the immediate team.
3. Employee should know the name of the person that his or her manager reports.
Competency level
Knowledge and Synthesis
Additional notes
Most second interviews do include a variety of employees at various levels of the
organization. If this particular one ended up being an exception, think through how to modify
the assessment section so that it will still be meaningful for the new employee.
Objective 3
Employee should list 5 supportive services available and best means for contacting each.
Teaching strategy
One observation of employees who have worked here for more than a year is that there is
difficulty obtaining supportive services because they were unfamiliar with the choices of services
available. ABC leadership has decided that it would be good to introduce these services to our
DEVELOPMENT OF ABC ORIENTATION AND 90-DAY CERTIFICATION PROGRAM 23
new employees from the beginning. Content style is primarily focused making sure employees
are aware of these services.
Teaching method
1. Employees will explore supportive services as found on the HR page of the ABC portal.
2. After doing so they will participate in the online forum and discuss if there are any clubs
that look like something they would like to join. If they do not find any from available
options, then they are prompted to give suggestions as to a club to add.
3. Employees view some online clips regarding the fact that emergencies happen, conflicts
happen, and life happens. They are then asked to participate in a discussion and given
opportunity to share a time when they faced a difficult experience and needed some help
at a prior position.
4. After engaging in discussion, the employees view a welcoming clip from our employee
relations specialist as she describes ABC’s supportive services and offerings.
5. Employees are then instructed to print out a job aid card that they can keep at their
fingertips that contains brief summaries of services that they can call upon.
Assessment
Employees meet one-on-one with their manager, the employee relations specialist, or other
HR employee to make sure the job card was printed out correctly and to answer any questions
the new employee might have.
Competency level
Knowledge and Application
Additional notes
DEVELOPMENT OF ABC ORIENTATION AND 90-DAY CERTIFICATION PROGRAM 24
Listen for any special needs that the employee may share. Make sure to direct the employee
to the appropriate support service.
Objective 4
Employees shall comprehend the written goals their hiring manager has given them for the
first ninety days' expectations and establish steps towards completing them in the 90-day
probationary period.
Teaching strategy
ABCs has a standard among its leadership of establishing performance objectives for the
first ninety days of employment. This process gives hiring managers opportunity to get to know
the new employee and establish expectations. The goal is to help the new employee feel
comfortable during their first ninety days.
Teaching method
1. Online tutorial on expected steps towards completing the ninety-day review.
2. One-on-one meeting with hiring manager via web or teleconferencing and reading
through a description of the 90-day performance objective that the hiring manager has
prepared.
Assessment
Completing a full time line listing all the dates for expected completion of tasks required for
the first ninety days of employment, reviewed by the supervising manager.
Competency level
Comprehension and Evaluation
Additional notes
DEVELOPMENT OF ABC ORIENTATION AND 90-DAY CERTIFICATION PROGRAM 25
A copy of the employee’s first 90-day objectives should be stored in ABC’s portal -- HR
employment records section.
Objective 5
Employee will ascertain understanding of the comprehensive orientation program by
completing a policy and procedures test to a grade of 75% or higher.
Teaching strategy
Core policies and procedures are reviewed through the orientation process. ABC holds
employees to the highest standards and requires that they abide by the policies and procedures.
It is important that ABC keep policies and procedures current. It is healthy for the operation of
our organization and also reviewed during various examinations conducted by our outside
accountability groups. Content style is primarily concept attainment and awareness of policies
and their location on the portal.
Teaching method
1. Employees will become acquainted with the online policies and procedures as found on
the HR page of the ABC portal. These topics include overall company policy on vacation
days, security protocol, annual reviews, and other procedures.
2. Each employee will receive a series of case studies and will be asked to refer to the
policies and procedures in the HR page to answer them.
3. After doing so they will participate in the online forum and discuss each of the case
studies to see how others handled them.
Assessment
DEVELOPMENT OF ABC ORIENTATION AND 90-DAY CERTIFICATION PROGRAM 26
An online test proctored through the HR website.
Competency level
Knowledge and Comprehension
Course Planning for ABC102: Focus Workshop
This course will help new employees connect to the culture of ABC and gather life skills
that will help with life balance and priorities. The course leans heavily on Franklin Covey
materials as some of our trainers are Franklin Covey certified as Franklin facilitators.
Name of Course
ABC 102: Focus Workshop
Prerequisite(s)
ABC101
Course Description
In this course employees explore the alignment of the organizational, team, and personal
mission and values. They also define their personal roles and reflect on their life purpose.
Employees walk away with a planning system for assisting with weekly and daily planning with
the goal being to better align action -- daily and weekly routines to what matters most.
Course Objectives
1. Employees shall use the Franklin Covey mission building tool, explore and build a
personal mission statement.
2. Using Franklin Covey’s Stress Assessment tool, employees will assess their own typical
stress level and demonstrate use of Franklin Covey’s Time Matrix in prioritizing daily
tasks.
DEVELOPMENT OF ABC ORIENTATION AND 90-DAY CERTIFICATION PROGRAM 27
3. Employee will explore Franklin Covey’s online Time Management Fundamentals
material, and then demonstrate use of learned weekly planning steps inside of MS
Outlook.
Objective 1
Employees shall use the Franklin Covey mission building tool, explore and build a personal
mission statement.
Teaching strategy
ABC values each individual employee and desires to provide outlets for its employees to
grow both personally and professionally. Traditionally, ABC’s leadership team has discovered
that employees embrace the concept of organizational and team mission after they have
developed personal mission statements. Content type focuses on concept attainment and seeks to
relay the concept of “mission” to its employees.
Teaching methods
1. Use of Franklin Covey’s online mission building tool located at
http://www.franklincovey.com/msb/
2. (Optionally) Go through Franklin Covey’s Begin with the End in Mind Liveclick online
training session -- located here online
http://www.franklincovey.com/tc/publicworkshops/liveclicks-webinar-workshops/habit-
2-begin-with-the-end-in-mind--defining-your-contribution-and-leading-with-purpose
3. Discussion forum for posting and sharing personal mission.
4. Job Aids with ABC’s mission, vision, and values listed.
5. Job Aids with employee’s relevant team’s mission statement.
DEVELOPMENT OF ABC ORIENTATION AND 90-DAY CERTIFICATION PROGRAM 28
6. Discussion forum provided to revisit ABC’s organization level mission and opportunity
for employee to share what they like about the organization’s mission statement.
7. Discussion forum provided to share what the employee likes about the team’s mission
statement.
8. Journaling opportunity for employee to share the extent to which personal, team, and
organization missions align or do not align as well as thoughts regarding commitment to
these mission statements.
Assessment
Reviewing the discussion postings and the journals that the employee has posted to see if
there is an understanding of how to construct a mission statement.
Competency Level
Knowledge, Application, Synthesis
Objective 2
Using Franklin Covey’s Stress Assessment tool, employees will assess their own typical
stress level and demonstrate use of Franklin Covey’s Time Matrix in prioritizing daily tasks.
Teaching strategy
ABC leadership recognizes that new employees need some help in developing prioritization
skills for use both inside and outside of the workplace. Stress can be triggered by not having a
sense of how to go about prioritizing life challenges. Franklin Covey has developed learning
tools to assist in this area. It is believed that ABC benefits by equipping employees with the
understanding and skills needed for assessing and prioritizing around the most important.
Content type is that of bridging concept to process. It takes the concept of mission and helps the
DEVELOPMENT OF ABC ORIENTATION AND 90-DAY CERTIFICATION PROGRAM 29
employees gain steps and overall process to prioritize with mission in focus.
Teaching methods
1. Completion of Franklin Covey’s online stress assessment located online at
http://www.franklincovey.com/stress-assessment/.
2. Discussion forum opportunity for sharing surprises and realization employee may have
encountered as a result of the assessment.
3. Four quadrant resulting report depicts employees prioritizing habits as revealed through
the stress assessment -- employees review directions on how to interpret the report
4. Franklin Covey’s online Time Management for Outlook Liveclick training piece located
online here http://www.franklincovey.com/tc/publicworkshops/liveclicks-webinar-
workshops/time-management-for-microsoft--outlook-increasing-your-productivity-
through-the-effective-use-of-outlook
5. Employees can individually practice daily planning as presented in the Franklin Covey
online Liveclick.
6. Those needing additional assistance may contact ABC Support Services for one-on-one
instruction in the use of MS Outlook.
Assessment
1. Outlook tasks are shareable between the employees and their hiring manager. The
employee’s calendar and tasks should demonstrate understanding of prioritizing tasks to
distinguish high important tasks from medium and lower importance task.
2. Outlook calendars are also shareable and should demonstrate thought in daily planning in
noting required meetings and assigned project tasks (if applicable).
Competency Level
DEVELOPMENT OF ABC ORIENTATION AND 90-DAY CERTIFICATION PROGRAM 30
Comprehension, Application, Analysis
Objective 3
Employee will explore Franklin Covey’s online Time Management Fundamentals material,
and then demonstrate use of learned weekly planning steps inside of MS Outlook.
Teaching strategy
ABC leadership realizes the value of planning ahead in a proactive manner and believes it
important to equip each employee with skills for initiating such planning across the organization.
Weekly planning is a natural next step to daily planning. Content type continues on from the
process development expressed in objective 2, thus it is process focused.
Teaching methods
1. Franklin Covey’s Time Management Fundamentals: Achieving your Highest Priorities
Liveclick training session located here online
http://www.franklincovey.com/tc/publicworkshops/liveclicks-webinar-workshops/habit-
2-begin-with-the-end-in-mind--defining-your-contribution-and-leading-with-purpose
2. Job Aid listing out the Weekly Planning steps
3. Employees will use MS Outlook and walk through the Weekly Planning steps following
the job aid (and the Franklin Covey Liveclick)
4. Discussion forums provide opportunities for employees to share new discoveries and
insight experience through the weekly planning process.
5. Journaling opportunity for employees to share the areas of the weekly planning process
that they individually find most challenging and how they hope to smooth out that
challenging spot.
DEVELOPMENT OF ABC ORIENTATION AND 90-DAY CERTIFICATION PROGRAM 31
Assessment
Weekly planning can most certainly contain personal items. Therefore, for this particular
objective employees will be held to an honor system to express to their hiring manager if they
have or have not completed at least one cycle of the weekly planning process steps. Employees
will not be required to show the actual weekly planning materials themselves.
Competency Level
Application, Synthesis and mostly Evaluation
Course Planning for ABC103: ABC’s Technology
ABC long-time employees have often suggested developing a course that will help acquaint
new employees with our core systems. Thus, this course actually came together as a result of
employees participating in a discussion forum and sharing struggles they each had initially.
Name of Course
ABC103: Introduction to ABC’s Technology
Prerequisite(s)
ABC101
Course Description
Employees gain a working understanding of logging in and basic uses of ABC authorized
and assigned technology systems and software applications relevant to assigned roles. They
explore technology resources and support services and place services requests as applicable to
personal need.
Course Objectives
1. Given tutorials on ABC Technology policies, employees will gain understanding of
applicable ABC technology and complete discussion board postings.
DEVELOPMENT OF ABC ORIENTATION AND 90-DAY CERTIFICATION PROGRAM 32
2. Given self-paced modules on the applicable duties of his or her role at ABC, employees
will explore basics of each of the core ABC systems and demonstrate mastery by
completing online exercises.
3. Given training resources relevant to technology available on the ABC Intranet Portal,
employees will learn how to use the support services area and will exercise mastery by
submitting an online requests for copies of the orientation materials on DVD and signing
up for their next course.
Objective 1
Given tutorials on ABC Technology policies, employees will gain understanding of
applicable ABC technology and complete discussion board postings.
Teaching Strategy
While ABC has too many policies to cover all of them during orientation, ABC leadership
feels there are some basic key policies that must be reviewed and understood by all new
employees. These are considered as the core policies for orientation and are in a folder for new
employees inside the ABC Portal’s Policy Page. Content Style is once of concept attainment and
ability to apply policy to various situations, so process would also be appropriate.
Teaching method
1. Employees will be directed to the ABC portal to find tutorials on technology policies and
procedures.
2. Questions will be posted in the Discussion Board to check for understanding of the
policy.
Assessment
DEVELOPMENT OF ABC ORIENTATION AND 90-DAY CERTIFICATION PROGRAM 33
Three scenarios will be posted and employees will be asked to respond based on ABC's
technology policy. The supervising manager will evaluate the responses.
Competency Level
Knowledge, Comprehension, and Application
Additional Notes
Those hiring in as managers have additional policies which are located under the manager
folder inside the ABC Portal on the Policy page.
Objective 2
Given self-paced modules on the applicable duties of his or her role at ABC, employees will
explore basics of each of the core ABC systems and demonstrate mastery by completing online
exercises.
Teaching strategy
Hiring managers in the past have expressed the need for new employees to understand
sections of our core ABC systems that apply specifically to their assigned role. The curriculum
design team carefully crafted these customized modules based on the various roles through out
the organization. They created these modules to feel much like simulations of the real working
environment for our ABC employees.
Teaching method
1. Employees will be directed to the self-paced modules for each of the applicable systems
in his or her role.
2. After each self paced module, employees will be given exercises to complete to help
them practice using the systems.
DEVELOPMENT OF ABC ORIENTATION AND 90-DAY CERTIFICATION PROGRAM 34
3. Employees could access ABCs micro-blogging tool, which allows employees to
communicate with each other and to a broader employee audience in an open forum, to
ask questions about the systems.
Assessment
Once the employee has completed all of the modules necessary, they will be given a set of
exercises designed to test their knowledge of the systems. An 80% grade will represent
understanding of the role.
Competency Level
Knowledge, Application, Synthesis
Additional Notes
Encourage the employees to contact Support Services for technical assistance. The Support
Services team is fairly familiar with all of the modules.
Objective 3
Given training resources relevant to technology available on the ABC Intranet Portal,
employees will learn how to use the support services area and will exercise mastery by
submitting an online requests for copies of the orientation materials on DVD and signing up for
their next course.
Teaching strategy
ABC leadership wants to make sure every employee knows right up front helpful services
available to each employee. Additionally, it is less time consuming to have the employees
requests some services themselves.
Teaching method
DEVELOPMENT OF ABC ORIENTATION AND 90-DAY CERTIFICATION PROGRAM 35
Employees will be shown a self paced module explaining where and how to access the
training materials including ordering business cards, requesting a company credit card, noting
any problems with computer equipment, and requesting for an ergonomic evaluation, and more.
They will be directed to the optional classes relevant to their roles.
Assessment
Employees will be submit an online request to order business cards, request a company
credit card, set a date for an ergonomic evaluation, and enroll themselves in relevant classes.
Employees will submit requests for all four tasks accurately.
Competency Level
Comprehension, Application
Course Planning for ABC104: Technical Equipment for Travelers
ABC leadership suspects that one reason there is more turnover in employees amongst those
that are required to travel is that many of these same employees find themselves miles away from
the main office and struggling with technology. Without the knowledge and comfortable use of
computer equipment and various devices and without knowing how to obtain help, many just get
so frustrated that they quit. This course was designed to meet those challenges. Though not
everyone travels, each employee is encouraged to take this course because we want everyone to
feel like community and be able to fully support those that are scattered in dispersed locations.
Name of Course
ABC104: Technical Equipment for Travelers
Prerequisite(s)
ABC101 and ABC103
Course Description
DEVELOPMENT OF ABC ORIENTATION AND 90-DAY CERTIFICATION PROGRAM 36
Employees gain advice on use of laptops, smartphones, and secured storage devices,
webcams, and eReader devices. Emphasis is placed on understanding how to use the equipment
and seeking help when assistance is needed.
Course Objectives
1. Employees explore tutorials that introduce them to basic operations of various ABC
technology equipment assign to them and digitally acknowledge completing the tutorial.
2. Employees gain understanding of ways to gain after hours support by accessing ABC
portal and by demonstrating placing a service request.
3. Employees practice traveling with assigned technology software and equipment and
communicating back to the main office using available resources.
Objective 1
Employees explore tutorials that introduce them to basic operations of various ABC
technology equipment assign to them and digitally acknowledge completing the tutorial.
Teaching strategy
These tutorials are important for each employee to complete so that if they are a way from
the office they are able to maintain use of each piece of equipment comfortably.
Teaching method
1. Employees will go to the ABC Portal to gain an understanding of how to use smart
phones and laptops by selecting the link corresponding to their equipment and reading
through the applicable documents. User manuals and help tips are available there for
each device and model.
2. Employees will go to the ABC Portal, launch and complete hands on training online via
the tutorial for each device.
DEVELOPMENT OF ABC ORIENTATION AND 90-DAY CERTIFICATION PROGRAM 37
3. Employees access the ABC Portal, and review the required learning areas for each device
in the ABC Knowledge Center or contact the IT desk for further assistance.
4. Familiarize each employee with how to use their smartphone through video clips for the
ABC selected standard smartphone. Links are provided on the ABC Portal Support
Services Resource page.
5. Test each employee to see how well they can use their phone and find resources. Make
sure they know how to leave and respond to voice mail messages, etc. Employee must
score at least 80% on the phone test.
6. Employee will download digital books from ABC’s portal and from Amazon’s site as
needed and send a link to the file location that they used for storing a small book to their
hiring manager.
7. Employees will walk through different scenarios that require them to locate resource
tools provided by ABC and find links related to the device in question.
Assessment
1. Review with each employee their smartphone voice mail accounts and email addresses.
2. Employee will pass a phone assessment test and score at least 80%.
3. Check portals and tutorial to make sure employee have digitally signed completing each
relevant module.
Competency level
Knowledge, Comprehension, Application
Objective 2
Employees gain understanding of ways to gain after-hours support by accessing ABC portal
and by demonstrating placing a service request.
DEVELOPMENT OF ABC ORIENTATION AND 90-DAY CERTIFICATION PROGRAM 38
Teaching strategy
Though some departments designate a liaison to contact IT for support for their particular
area, ABC leadership wants to make sure every employee is comfortable placing support
requests. This is especially important for those who travel and may not have the benefit of
having someone else place the request on their behalf.
Teaching method
1. Allow employee opportunity to role play and practice online placing requests by
providing various scenarios and asking them how they would go about placing requests
for each one.
2. Prepared specific scenarios that simulate the employee residing in a different time zone
and allow the employee opportunity to practice how to submit a request during non-
working hours.
3. Employee will participate in a discussion forum with others in the class to further
enhance learning. They will discuss different obstacles encountered when placing service
requests.
Assessment
Employees will score at least 80% on a scenario based test in which they will be required to
submit various service request to our testing IT help desk.
Objective 3
Employees practice traveling with assigned technology software and equipment and
communicating back to the main office using available resources.
DEVELOPMENT OF ABC ORIENTATION AND 90-DAY CERTIFICATION PROGRAM 39
Teaching strategy
In order to make sure that employees are comfortable with ABC equipment, hiring manger
will have them travel to different locations, connect remotely to the ABC Portal, demonstrate
that they can get from one link to the next, check voice mail on each smart phone, use webcams
and participate in video conferencing (if applicable), correspond via email, conduct file saving
and file transfers as needed. It is hopeful that these test scenarios will help prepare our
employees for future encounters in which employees will be asked to travel and meet with
customers.
Teaching method
1. Access ehow.com to find answer for questions regarding smart phone
instructions http://www.ehow.com/how_2012173_synchronize-treo-computer.html
2. Use PowerPoint with web conferencing to give employees examples and instructions
3. Provide an ABC job aid manual online for easy access. Employees may print the job aid
manual or download it to their e-reader device.
4. Employees will participate in several surveys to determine areas that they still need
assistance. Assistance will be provided on a one on one basis.
5. Employee will participate in online discussion forums with other classmates and
exchange tips regarding use of smartphones and other devices.
Assessment
Employees have passed their solo test of connecting to the home office from a different
location and performing various operations covered in the course. The simulation test must be
passed with a score of at least 80%.
DEVELOPMENT OF ABC ORIENTATION AND 90-DAY CERTIFICATION PROGRAM 40
Competency level
Knowledge, Comprehension, Synthesis
Additional notes
At the hiring manager’s discretion, the simulation testing may include more involved steps
depending on the extent the employee is going to be traveling and representing ABC.
Course Planning for ABC105: Creating and Leaving a Legacy
Name of Course
ABC105: Creating and Leaving a Legacy
Prerequisite(s)
ABC101, (Ideally this is the capstone course and should be taken last. Exceptions are
considered by the Director of Online Teaching and Learning.)
Course Description
In this capstone course, employees are challenged to find their voice, "their seat on the bus”.
Employees explore ingredients of successful organizations and the development of Wildly
Important Goals (WIGs). Employees explore ABC’s WIGs -- both at a top level and team level.
Course Objectives
1. After exploring Good to Great materials, Employees explain the importance of his or her
role in terms of ABC’s vision and mission and complete the Kenexa Job Fit assessment.
2. Employees identify the location of ABC’s Wildly Important Goals (WIGs) and
associated scoreboards as well as demonstrate an understanding of how his or her role
and responsibilities align to support ABC’s WIGs by completing Kenexa’s 4 Step
assessment.
DEVELOPMENT OF ABC ORIENTATION AND 90-DAY CERTIFICATION PROGRAM 41
3. Employees break up into subgroups by ABC division and gain more detailed
understanding of WIGs for their given areas and what is expected from them individually
and complete Kenexa’s goals
Objective 1
After exploring Good to Great materials, Employees explain the importance of his or her
role in terms of ABC’s vision and mission, and complete the Kenexa Job Fit assessment.
Teaching Strategy
Overall goal of this objective is concept attainment, thus concept type of content is
incorporated. ABC’s leadership style has trickled throughout the organization and is based on
the Good to Great “right seat on the bus” concept. We want the employees to understand what
that means and to assess individual commitment to each take “their assigned seat" and journey
along the “vision pathway” of ABC together having unified direction and purpose. Various
methods are incorporated to drive the concept home for our new employees. An assessment is
used to determine if this objective was achieved.
Teaching Method
1. Viewing abridged clips highlighting Good to Great concept “The right seat on the bus”
2. Participating in forum discussion sharing why determining each person’s role and part is
important in propelling ABC forward
3. Personal journaling opportunity to reflect on the new position and thoughts regarding
personal commitment to fully embrace role described in individual job description
received from HR
4. Reading entire Good to Great book which is available in various formats for the
employee to choose from: hardback book, digital book for smartphone, Kindle device,
DEVELOPMENT OF ABC ORIENTATION AND 90-DAY CERTIFICATION PROGRAM 42
iPad, laptop, audio CD, or PC reading pleasure. (It’s a lengthy read, but core to many of
our organization’s concepts and culture)
5. Availability of online glossary of terms that ABC has picked up on from the Good to
Great book
Assessment
1. Consideration is given to Kenexa’s services and administer a “job fit” assessment via
their online testing portal.
2. Prior to completing a Kenexa assessment employees are required to read a statement
certifying that their responses are their’s alone and they are not completing the
assessment with assistance unless authorized by HR. They then are prompted to enter
their employee id to confirm digitally.
3. The employee’s discussion postings and journal will also be taken into consideration.
Competency Level
Application, Comprehension, Evaluation
Objective 2
Employees identify the location of ABC’s Wildly Important Goals (WIGs) and associated
scoreboards as well as demonstrate an understanding of how his or her role and responsibilities
align to support ABC’s WIGs by completing Kenexa’s 4 Step assessment.
Teaching Strategy
At this point, employees are beginning to gain insight into the tools used for keeping ABC
moving forward towards vision. Thus, content approach is to bridge concept to principle.
Employees will be introduced to the WIG building blocks that help ABC maintain alignment.
Teaching Method
DEVELOPMENT OF ABC ORIENTATION AND 90-DAY CERTIFICATION PROGRAM 43
1. Viewing abridged clips highlighting each of the 4 Disciplines of Execution concepts.
2. Participating in forum discussion sharing why establishing WIGs and having alignment
throughout ABC is important.
3. Personal journaling opportunity to reflect on the new position and thoughts regarding
personal commitment to fully embrace role described as it aligns with ABC’s WIGs.
4. Reading entire 4 Disciplines of Execution book which is available in various formats for
the employee to choose from: hardback book, digital book for smartphone, Kindle
device, iPad, laptop, audio CD, or PC reading pleasure. (It’s a short read, and core to
many of our organization’s goal setting habits)
5. Availability of online glossary of terms that ABC has picked up on from the 4 Disciplines
of Execution book
Assessment
Consideration is given to using Kenexa’s services and administering a “4 Steps” related
assessment via their online testing portal. We need to assess the employees’ ability to remember
the steps involved at this point, and ability to define WIGs.
Competency Level
Knowledge, Comprehension
Objective 3
Employees break up into subgroups by ABC division and gain more detailed understanding
of WIGs for their given areas and what is expected from them individually and complete
Kenexa’s goals assessment.
DEVELOPMENT OF ABC ORIENTATION AND 90-DAY CERTIFICATION PROGRAM 44
Teaching strategy
The closure piece seeks to drill down WIG development to a team level and helps the
employee see the steps and tools utilized more at a team level to provide goal alignment
throughout ABC. Thus, the content style focuses on identify processes and learning those
processes.
Teaching method
1. Explore introductory materials “ManagePro” from Performance Solutions Technology,
and complete the online training session provided by Performance Solutions Technology
2. Participate in discussions to identify steps to process through in establishing and
monitoring goals.
3. Break up into practice groups online, and use the ManagePro software to simulate a
group selected goal. The purpose is to gain the skill associated with going through the
identified goal steps using ManagePro.
4. Journal thoughts regarding experiences associated with working in an online group and
also thoughts regarding walking through the goal formation and monitoring steps.
Assessment
Consideration is given to using Kenexa’s services and administer a “Goals” related
assessment via their online testing portal. We need to assess the employees ability to actually
create a goal and demonstrate applying the 4 main disciplines to that process. We also need to
see that the employee is able to link goals created to an overall higher level goal.
Competency Level
Application, Synthesis, Evaluation
DEVELOPMENT OF ABC ORIENTATION AND 90-DAY CERTIFICATION PROGRAM 45
Program Planning Phase 2
As noted earlier, the learning development team had opportunity to gain valuable input from
stakeholders and employees. Given the extent of the feedback, the learning development team
presents the following preliminary course ideas for consideration. Granted, these ideas need
more work and the course planning for these still need developing. However, the learning and
development group feels it important to present these ideas early for a couple of reasons. One, it
is important that our stakeholders know that we have listened to their expressed concerns and are
working to find solutions. Also, each of these courses will require some unknown budget
amount. The learning and development group would like to propose budget planning
considerations for 2011. The recommendation is to scope a phase two project that would seek to
build out a number of elective offerings. These elective courses would then be attended by both
new and existing employees. The recommendation is to budget for and scope staffing capacity
to begin phase 2 planning efforts in first quarter of 2011.
Elective Draft for ABC106: The Power of Teams
Hiring managers have expressed some struggles over finding ways of motivating and
inspiring their employees to work together without grumbling and to stop with comments such as
“that’s not in my job description”. This course may be just the thing. The learning group seeks
to build this course out and develop the rest of the planning for this as part of phase 2.
Name of Course
ABC106: The Power of Teams
Prerequisite(s)
ABC101
Course Description
DEVELOPMENT OF ABC ORIENTATION AND 90-DAY CERTIFICATION PROGRAM 46
Employees explore their strengths, dynamics in working in a team, and turning our
customers into raving fans.
Course Objectives
1. Employees are encouraged to read through the online book Raving Fans and explain
ways for ABC to treat our customers so as to create raving fans and then may participate
in ABC’s Raving Fans Comments Contest.
2. Employees take the Strength Finders online inventory, discover their top five strengths,
and share with their team as they explore and explain how their strengths can best be
utilized at ABC.
3. Employees view team building clips and come up with their top five ingredients for
effective teams and as a team set goals for their area.
Elective Draft for ABC107: Security Considerations
The security course is particularly important for our traveling employees and others
working in geographically dispersed location. It is proposed to begin this course as an elective,
yet consider offering it as a required core course as need is assessed.
Name of Course
ABC107: Security Considerations
Prerequisite(s)
ABC101 and ABC103
Course Description
The course emphasis security precautions for those who work remotely and for those called
upon to provide assistance.
Course Objectives
DEVELOPMENT OF ABC ORIENTATION AND 90-DAY CERTIFICATION PROGRAM 47
1. After watching specially prepared security video clips and participating in forum
discussions, employees will demonstrate understanding of various security measures
relevant to travelers, laptops, smartphones, data files and storage devices, and
surroundings by completing ABC’s security test with a score of at least 80%
2. After reviewing an educational webinar on document classification located in ABC’s
Portal, employees simulate traveling “encounters” and distinguish between information
that is shareable and non-shareable and successfully share appropriate content with online
testing capturing avatars.
3. Employees explore relevant security policies and pass a security policy test with a score
of at least 80%
Elective Draft for ABC108: ABC Conferencing Tools and Best Practices
Initially, this course was under consideration for inclusion as a core part of the core
certificate program curriculum. However, ABC leadership has opted for the learning and
development group to consider this course for inclusion as an elective instead. This decision
came as leadership realized that only a fraction of the organization will use conferencing
resources. However, as conferencing services mature and expertise also travels with that
maturity ABC anticipates revisiting conferencing as possibly a resource for organizational
deployment. Until such a wider spread deployment occurs, this course will be offered as an
elective. Thus, the learning and development group proposes moving it to the elective build out
associated with phase 2. The learning and development group actually started building on this
course prior to the leadership decision. Therefore, some of the teaching methods have been
planned as depicted below.
DEVELOPMENT OF ABC ORIENTATION AND 90-DAY CERTIFICATION PROGRAM 48
Name of Course
ABC108: ABC Conferencing Tools and Best Practices
Prerequisite(s)
ABC101 and ABC103
Course Description
The course covers use of ABC’s web conferencing, teleconferencing, and video
conferencing services. Beyond understanding use of conferencing resources, employees explore
best practices in communicating to geographically scattered locations.
Course Objectives
1. Employees use ABC conferencing services and host and participate in web conferences
and demonstrate use of the web conferencing, teleconferencing, and video conferencing
services and relevant equipment.
2. Employees participate in forum discussions, share best practices regarding collaborating
remotely and discuss meeting and relational etiquette, then score a minimum of 80% on a
Meeting Best Practices assessment.
3. Employees participate in forum discussions, explore, exchange ideas, and communicate
effectively across time zones utilizing ABC conferencing services.
Objective 1
Employees use ABC conferencing services and host and participate in web conferences and
demonstrate use of the web conferencing, teleconferencing, and video conferencing services and
relevant equipment.
DEVELOPMENT OF ABC ORIENTATION AND 90-DAY CERTIFICATION PROGRAM 49
Teaching method
1. Employees will attend three Webinars where they will become familiar with the
technology, learn the basics of how to run a web conference and how to integrate relevant
equipment.
2. Employees will make use of teleconferencing services in at least one of the webinars.
3. Employees will make use of voice over IP (VOIP) in at least one of the webinars.
4. Employees will integrate video conferencing into at least one of the webinars.
Alternatively, employees may be called upon to separate out video conferencing from
web conferencing and use ABC’s professional video conferencing equipment.
5. Employees will use webcams with at least one web conferencing session.
6. Between Webinars, employees will be asked to share their "Aha" moments in the
discussion board. They will also be asked to share best practices and how they have
handled challenges in the past.
Assessment
Employees will be given a 30 minute meeting to conduct using ABC's technology.
Competency Level
Knowledge, Comprehension, and Application
Additional Notes
Make sure arrangements have been made for new employees to receive conferencing
accounts prior to this course.
Elective Draft for ABC109: Social Media Tools
The ideas behind this course actually developed from gathering input from ABC’s
employees. ABC has a suggestion box online for employees to deposit their creative ideas.
DEVELOPMENT OF ABC ORIENTATION AND 90-DAY CERTIFICATION PROGRAM 50
Several employees in one department got together to submit some of the ideas represented here.
Their department also won a free pizza party, but that’s a different story!
Name of Course
ABC109: ABC Social Media Tools
Prerequisite(s)
ABC101 and ABC103
Course Description
The course emphasis social media tools for use by various ABC departments with emphasis
placed on marketing ideas.
Course Objectives
1. Employees participate in webinars and discussion forums and gain hands-on
understanding of the use of social media tools such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter
and are required to demonstrate using these for communicating ABC’s services.
2. Employees review relevant policies on ABC’s Portal and demonstrate understanding of
policies relevant to marketing and customer communications by scoring at least 80% on
ABC’s Customer Communication test.
3. Employees communicate with pilot customers using readily accessible ABC documents
located on the ABC Portal that have been carefully designed for customers and potential
customers.
Elective Draft for ABC110: Leadership Development
The learning and development group propose this course in response to the stakeholder
group that represent hiring managers. Some managers feel that our hiring and review practices
could benefit from adopting a standardized approach across the organization. Additionally, some
DEVELOPMENT OF ABC ORIENTATION AND 90-DAY CERTIFICATION PROGRAM 51
of the managers have expressed that they still are not familiar with some of the services available
on the ABC Portal. The thought is to develop this as a course for new managers, and include
existing managers initially.
Name of Course
ABC110: Leadership Development
Prerequisite(s)
ABC101, management position or recommendation by ABC Leadership required
Course Description
Employees accepting a managerial or leadership role at ABC are required to attend this course.
ABC Leadership VPs may recommend and grant approval for those being mentored for
leadership roles to take this course as well. This course reviews standards required for ABC’s
Leadership and explores resources and available supportive services.
Course Objectives
1. New managers will explore the ABC Intranet Portal and make use of the support services
area to request services relevant to personal needs. (Ordering business cards, requesting a
company credit card, noting any problems with computer equipment, and requesting for
an ergonomic evaluation, and more)
2. New managers will explore, digitally sign acknowledging their responsibility, and
successfully review policies relevant to the ABC’s Leadership team and pass the ABC
Management Policies test by at least 80%.
3. New managers will participate in the online ABC’s Hiring Practices Workshop and pass
the associated assessment test with a score of at least 80%.
DEVELOPMENT OF ABC ORIENTATION AND 90-DAY CERTIFICATION PROGRAM 52
4. New managers will participate in the online ABC’s Performance Review Workshop and
pass the associated assessment test with a score of at least 80%.
Conclusion
ABC will benefit from investing in new employees. As we invest in new employees ABC’s
culture is handed down, standards are established, and our vision continues. Additionally, new
employees have much to offer ABC. It is hopeful that by helping new employees get a good
start during their initial 90-days their transition will go well. Additionally, phase two of the
proposed curriculum build will provide electives that can benefit all employees.
DEVELOPMENT OF ABC ORIENTATION AND 90-DAY CERTIFICATION PROGRAM 53
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