Siemens Automation & Drives makes

training ‘‘stick’’
Workshops bring measurable improvements in customer satisfaction

t is a familiar scenario. You go off on a training course or coaching session that provides

I you with plenty of new ideas about how to do your job better. Brimming with enthusiasm
about the changes, and eager to get back to the workplace to implement them, you tick
all the ‘‘excellent’’ or ‘‘very good’’ boxes in the post-training questionnaire. You genuinely
were very satisfied with both the content of the training you received and the way in which it
was delivered. And because of this, your instructor or coach is happy, too. It all seems like a
job well done.
Then you get back to the workplace. Your colleagues, possibly thinking your training course
was an excuse to get a few days out, show no enthusiasm for the ideas you have brought
back. Worse, they provide all sorts of reasons why they simply would not work. Implementing
the reforms, alone and unsupported, suddenly does not seem quite so pressing. A couple of
days later, for the sake of harmonious relations with your colleagues and a generally easy
life, you settle back into your old routines. Neither you nor your employer has benefited in any
real way from the training you received.
Steve White, application manager at consulting and training provider Kepner-Tregoe,
describes how his company overcomes such problems by managing the context into which
freshly trained people return. He presents a case study of training and coaching in the
customer-support organization of Siemens Automation & Drives, a manufacturer of electrical
and electronic products such as electric motors, sensors and automation devices.

Focus of the training

The focus of the training during the Kepner-Tregoe workshop, named Resolve, was:
B a system for analyzing technical failures that enables support personnel to process each
customer complaint in a structured manner; and
B analysis tools that support staff can use to isolate the cause of a problem and then
proceed to resolve it.
The training also established a common problem-solving ‘‘language’’, which helps to
standardize documentation relating to problems and so simplify the hand-over of work.

Making the training ‘‘stick’’

According to Steve White, training concepts introduced during a workshop should be
immediately applicable to the workplace. This helps to bridge the gap between theory and
practice. The training itself should be constructed using adult-learning principles to
maximize ‘‘stickiness’’.

DOI 10.1108/09670730810888492 VOL. 16 NO. 5 2008, pp. 29-31, Q Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 0967-0734 j HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT INTERNATIONAL DIGEST j PAGE 29
 When individuals return from their training, they need to know what to do and when to do it.
They must also have the tools available to succeed and the time to integrate the new
behavior patterns into their roles. The organization therefore needs to have people actively
guiding and coaching students while they integrate their learning into the job. Learning
experts suggest that it takes at least three weeks to change people’s minds, and only when
they are supported in their new behaviors for at least the first three weeks will new behaviors
replace old.
To maximize success at Siemens Automation & Drive, technical-support employees were
trained as troubleshooting-process coaches to provide on-site training and to oversee
implementation. ‘‘It is the role of the coach, in particular, which helps to ensure sustainability
for the scheme on site,’’ says Steve White.
Triggers were defined to concentrate people’s efforts on the areas that would bring the
greatest benefit and return on investment. Most of the triggers are time- or event-related. For
example, after a certain period of time, or after a problem has reached a certain level in the
customer-support organization, an employee should implement a particular process in
which he or she had received training.
In addition to defining triggers, the troubleshooting method was integrated into the workflow
and into the database used to process customer inquiries. Adapted templates enable
problems to be documented in accordance with the method.
Compliance with the triggers and the quality and quantity of applications were measured.
Newsletters and periodic team meetings were used to ensure regular feedback to
management and employees regarding the project status.
Regular management and team-leader meetings were held to discuss achievements and
problems, to set goals and to co-ordinate measures. These meetings demonstrated the
commitment of management to achieving change.
The organization also had in place a system for immediately recognizing good work and
rewarding good behavior. ‘‘If your people do a good job, you had better make sure that their
life is in some way improved – and quickly,’’ says Steve White. ‘‘Telling someone they did well
a number of months ago just will not do.’’

The results in practice

Customer-satisfaction values regarding the quality of the service they received increased
during the second half of the roll-out, reaching an all-time high. Customer perceptions
regarding the time required for problem solving also improved. The backlog of long-running
cases – in which the time from customer-service request to final solution is greater than four
weeks – declined substantially. This resulted in fewer problems becoming really critical and
requiring ‘‘emergency rescue’’.
‘‘We can generally conclude that the analytical approach provided by Kepner-Tregoe is
embedded in the minds of the Siemens employees,’’ said Steve White. ‘‘The results
achieved are a consequence of focused hard work, with the role of the trained coaches
deserving particular mention. They provided a good deal of committed implementation
support and assumed a critical role as champions of change.’’
‘‘This role is not restricted only to training and active coaching at the workplace, but also
extends to monitoring results and project communication. With commitment to a common
goal by everyone involved, Siemens employees improved their ability to provide the
customer with an exceptional experience of support.’’

Comment
This review is based on ‘‘Siemens A&D customer support increases customer satisfaction
through effective training and coaching’’, by Steve White, application manager at
Kepner-Tregoe, Windsor, UK. The article highlights, in a practical and direct style, the key

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PAGE 30 HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT INTERNATIONAL DIGEST VOL. 16 NO. 5 2008
 ‘‘ The trained coaches provided a good deal of committed
implementation support and assumed a critical role as
champions of change. ’’

Keywords:
Training evaluation, methods used to ensure that coaching and training for customer-service employees at
Customer service, Siemens Automation & Drive brought about actual changes in behavior back at the
Manufacturing systems, workplace. It demonstrates powerfully that an important training challenge is not how happy
Quality, the students are at the end of the course, but how the business gains as a result of the
Organizational change training. Steve White can be contacted at: swhite@kepner-tregoe.com

Reference
White, S. (2008), ‘‘Siemens A&D customer support increases customer satisfaction through effective
training and coaching’’, Industrial and Commercial Training, Vol. 40 No. 1, pp. 29-33, ISSN 0019-7858.

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