Evolving our Professional Services Training Program for Future Leaders
Amy Winchester (CBCL Limited)

According to the Harvard Business Review ’“Learning and Development L&D programs are critical for the success of any organization. These programs both ensure that employees have the skills and capabilities necessary to do their jobs well and demonstrate to those employees that their employers believe they are worth investing in ‘— ultimately boosting company culture and fostering greater commitment to the organization.’”

Over the years, CBCL has encouraged employees to seek and hone their skills through training and development programs. The majority of the training was taken through external providers. In 2017, the company began to develop an internal program that could be focused on creating content and a learning platform more applicable and interesting for employeese day to day work experiences. In the beginning, the framework included professional services training such as project management, accounting, communication, business development and leadership. In the fall of 2018, the program was officially launched as the Professional Development Program PDP, and 20 young staff were welcomed as the inaugural class.

The PDP was aimed at supporting eager and able individuals in the company on their path to becoming successful managers and technical leaders. In addition to their own professional growth, related goals of the program included helping participants feel more connected to our business, inspiring others and disseminating core skills throughout the organization.

Since 2018, over 100 staff have gone through the program. PDP has grown over the years, where many of the courses were further expanded to include the full company. This year, the program has evolved from a limited program offered to a smaller number of staff and is now a full company wide workplace training and development program so that all employees have access to the training they need in the format that works best for them. Annual reviews are completed to track program performance to ensure that training and development is fair, equitable and offered to a range of staff. The program continues to work closely with the leadership team, Human Resources, Quality, Risk Management and Finance to grow and enhance the program.

Many other benefits have been recognized through the program including increased engagement, building relationships amongst participants, facetime with senior staff to participants, cross selling, improved internal processes, collaboration.

Join Amy as she walks through the history of the training program, the benefits, lessons learned and how things continue to evolve.