HOW LEARNNOVATORS HELPED STERIA
INDUCT ITS NEW HIRES USING A SEVEN-STEP PROCESS
INDUCTION TRAINING

THE CUSTOMER

Steria is an IT-enabled business services consulting company headquartered in Paris. Founded in 1969, it has offices in Europe, India, North Africa, and South East Asia. The company works as a trusted transformation partner for a number of private and public sector organizations across the world, taking on its clients’ challenges and developing innovative solutions to address them efficiently and profitably, through a highly collaborative consulting style. It has an employee base of over 20,000 people working across 16 countries.

THE REQUIREMENT

Steria is an IT-enabled business services consulting company headquartered in Paris. Founded in 1969, it has offices in Europe, India, North Africa, and South East Asia. The company works as a trusted transformation partner for a number of private and public sector organizations across the world, taking on its clients’ challenges and developing innovative solutions to address them efficiently and profitably, through a highly collaborative consulting style. It has an employee base of over 20,000 people working across 16 countries.

Steria was of the firm belief that a good induction program would make a significant impact on new hires when they join the organization. It was always on the lookout for innovative practices and systems for its employee induction programs. As a part of this continuous effort, Steria designed a program – the Seven Stage Employee Assimilation Program – which is a seven-stage process that any employee will be taken through during his/her tenure at Steria.

The program was designed to last the first seven quarters of the tenure of the employee, and focused on activities that help the employee settle into the Steria family and efficiently perform his/her role. It comprised of seven phases: First 7 Seconds, First 7 Minutes, First 7 Hours, First 7 Days, First 7 Weeks, First 7 Months, and First 7 Quarters.

Steria trained its employees on the modalities of implementation of this program in its offices across the world through its learning facilitators who were specifically trained to handle this.

However, the company faced multiple challenges with respect to the successful implementation of the training:

• As is the case with any other Instructor-led Training (ILT) program, coordinating the logistical aspect of training was painstaking and expensive.
• The unique approach of the program demanded consistency while delivering training. However, Steria faced challenges in maintaining consistency due to the personal styles adopted by multiple trainers.
• For Steria, new hire training was a continuous affair because the company was on an expansion mode and hence a large number of people were joining the teams in its worldwide locations. This posed another challenge.

Steria partnered with Learnnovators to find the most effective solution to address this business problem.

THE SOLUTION

Learnnovators, after analyzing Steria’s business needs and challenges, proposed a highly flexible ‘localization-ready’ e-learning program for its New Hire Training.

The objective of the proposed program was to equip the new hires at Steria with the Seven-Step Process, which would help them settle into the Steria family and perform their roles efficiently. This e-Learning course mimicked the original program at Steria and was divided into seven stages.

The following were the instructional strategies that Learnnovators adopted:

• Localization-ready Framework: The base version of the course was developed in English on a localization-ready framework. After completing the development of the English version, this framework was used to build the course in multiple languages such as French, German, and Spanish using native translators for translating the base version and native speakers for the voiceover.
•  Culture-agnostic Approach: The characters in the course were depicted using iconic caricatures both for illustrations and animations. This approach helped make the course culture-agnostic for use in diverse locations around the world.
•  Simulated Process Steps: The entire course was made up of the steps involved in the process of the Seven Stage Employee Assimilation Program. Learners were virtually taken through the seven stage process. At each step, they had access to all the required tools (such as Checklists, Workflows, etc.) with them to perform the suggested activities for the step. This strategy helped mimic the actual atmosphere at their workplace. These tools also worked as take-aways for later reference.
•  Learning Agent: The ‘Learning Agent’ helped learners navigate through the process steps in the course.
•  Flexibility: The flexibility of the course that allowed learners to move across the different process steps with ease.
•  Toolbox: The complete list of the required tools to perform the suggested activities for each step, thus enabling learners get a real feel of the process.

The e-Learning course helped Steria successfully train its culturally diverse employees spread out around the world. It also helped Steria cut down on training costs considerably, thereby increasing training ROI.

Learnnovators was able to continue its engagement with Steria well after the successful closure of this particular project due to the success of this program at all Steria locations. Learnnovators, as Steria’s preferred vendor, worked on many other learning requirements that demanded high levels of innovation and creativity.

THE HIGHLIGHTS

The following were the highlights of the New Hire Induction program that Learnnovators developed for Steria:

• Localization-ready framework that helped Steria build the course in multiple languages.
• Features that allowed Steria use the course as a Performance Support System, in addition to using it as a learning tool.

TOOLS USED

Adobe Flash, XML, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Sonic Foundry Sound Forge.