Transforming Workforce Training For Real-World Results

Justin Kean, Senior Director of Training and Development, loanDepot

Justin Kean, Senior Director of Training and Development, loanDepot

Aligning Learning with Business Strategy

To align learning programs with fast-changing business and sales priorities, we primarily develop strong relationship with the business leaders we support. By creating a partnership, we gain early insight into the changing strategies and priorities and can work together on training solutions. We also host a bi-weekly Go/No-Go meeting with our tech team and business partners to discuss upcoming tech initiatives and make sure we have an effective plan for system enhancements, new products or procedural changes.

Learning Through Real-World Practice

We find the stickiest training is the training that most resembles the work that will be done on the job. For instance, our customer service trainings implement role plays to simulate calls from customers and provide opportunities to practice customer service skills in a safe environment. Other trainees fill out QC forms on the simulated call to give feedback and gain deeper understanding of the QC standards they will be expected to meet on the job. In our Sales classes we use a training environment to allow our learners to practice putting loans into the system and learn through doing.

Measuring Learning Through Performance Outcomes

We have found ROI to be difficult to measure in our industry but we are always pushing for more effective ways to show our impact. We examine our new hire programs to determine measurable training objectives for each role and implement assessments aligned to each objective. Since many of the training objectives for new hire training are behavior-based, we need to get creative with how we assess these behaviors. We use some quizzes to assess that learners have acquired the necessary knowledge, but for most of our assessments we use test case assignments, role plays and simulations. These assessments prove that the learners have acquired the skills needed for job performance. We have found that these assessments give us a higher transfer of learning to the job and demonstrate a better measurement of ROI of learning than completion rates, surveys and exams.

"We find the stickiest training is the training that most resembles the work that will be done on the job."

Leveraging Technology for Scalable Training

We support a nationally distributed workforce with a nationally distributed training team. We would not be able to train at all without technology. We leverage MS Teams for our training sessions and try to incorporate as much interaction into those virtual training sessions as the learners will tolerate. We use imbedded functions in Teams, such as Chat, Q&A and Polls to allow learners to ask questions and participate in the training. We also use tools outside the platform to elevate the learning experience and increase effectiveness. We use Sharepoint and microsites to house training content. This makes information, training schedules, resources and activities accessible to all of our learners wherever they are and gives them persistent resources after training concludes. We also incorporate Kahoot! into our training classes as a platform for morning review quizzes, review activities and knowledge checks. Rise 360 provides a platform for testing and we have also been able to leverage this platform for self-paced learning, including test cases. By using all these tools together, we are able to host training sessions of almost any size with a limited staff, giving us scalability in all our training programs.

Validating and Reinforcing Training for Real Impact

We equip leaders and managers to reinforce learning in real time by first validating our training objectives with business leaders. This ensures our training closely matches the actual tasks being performed by the learners on the job. The closer our training matches the real world, the easier it will be for every leader to reinforce the learning on the job. When we roll out new initiatives, where we expect behavior change to happen on the floor, we will often train leaders first. This gives them an opportunity to adapt to the new way of doing things before their teams see it. It also gives us a final chance to encounter questions and challenges to dial in the final training we will present to everyone. These sessions often involve a lot of feedback from the leaders and we get a chance to secure their buy-in before a release. Another tool we are starting to use is micro-learnings post training. For instance, we are training our staff on a new product set that meets the growing needs of the market. We focus a lot on this training on case studies, where they can find this business, and how to approach potential borrowers and partners. As we continue to originate this product, we are working with a product specialist to identify real-life examples of how their contemporaries are using the product to save deals. We will package these up as test cases and send them out to all our sales staff to see how it is being used and to create additional reinforcement.

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SharePoint