What employees wanted even a few years ago isn’t what they want today. High on everyone’s wish list now is encouragement to grow and ample opportunity for the training and development to make it happen. Unsurprisingly, research shows both companies and employees reap the benefits from these internal development programs, which yield increased job satisfaction levels, internal promotion opportunities, and better retention.
We heard all that—from inside the company and out—and embarked upon a quest to create an internal education program. The obvious starting point was a companywide survey that asked employees which skills they wanted to learn.
“We knew that all kinds of development was taking place internally,” said Richard Stomps, senior learning and development specialist for Resultant. “We’re a curious organization, and we’re a learning organization. But what we wanted to do was get it kind of all under one umbrella and really focus in on it.”
In January 2022, we launched our flagship courses based on the survey results. Resultant employees had asked to sharpen their communication, empathy, and problem-solving skills. In response, we created an outline of classes, including a Design Thinking Workshop, a Crucial Conversations class led by certified Resultant employees, a Consulting 101 session and, finally, Leadership Academy.
Resultant University was born.
Matching classes to need
Each course focuses on an aspect of the survey results and targets a specific area of business. Leadership Academy, for example, provides classes designed to help managers grow their skills and become more effective leaders.
“There are a few courses that make up Leadership Academy, including ‘The Leader as Learner,’ ‘Humble Inquiry,’ and ‘DISC for Managers.’ We walk through how to adjust our management style and how to communicate better with other people to attain the best results. We go through the five behaviors of a cohesive team, and we walk through the importance of having trust in teammates so we can produce the best results.”
Richard underlines that the most important piece of all this is client focus—one of our core values. Classes are centered on real-world application, specifically the impact we have on our partners and clients. Resultant University offers employees the opportunity to learn from teammates about experiences they’ve had in their day-to-day client work.
Resultant University’s client focus aspect is a pretty unusual tie-in for learning and development. Most learning organizations are so internally buried that they don’t see the connection into the client work. When you can have a manager who’s really helping develop employees and employees who are using that development to impact their clients and the people they work with, it’s a huge win.
– Richard Stomps, Senior Learning and Development Specialist, Resultant
Learning from each other
The benefits to employees go beyond the practical application of what is learned. Delivery Analyst Caleb Alles has participated in the Crucial Conversations program and reports that it not only helped with his client work but taught him more about connecting empathetically.
“This course heightened my sense of emotional intelligence and understanding the difference between what actually happened versus my perception. I used these tools the very next day in a workshop that helped clients feel comfortable in bringing up some unspoken conflict among their peer group.”
We’re excited to see where Resultant University grows as it continues to address employee requests and the challenges our teams face. It’s already improving our ability to serve clients and support each other, and with so many curious, lifelong learners within our team, there’s no limit to where Resultant University can go.
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