Salesforce is the world’s #1 customer relationship management (CRM) platform. More than 150,000 companies use Salesforce CRM to grow their businesses by strengthening customer relationships.
Background
The 3,000+ person Salesforce India team plays a crucial role in developing the company’s technology and products, as well as assisting in the success of Salesforce customers and their growing developer community of more than 1 million Trailblazers.
An internal Salesforce survey on The Future of Workforce Development, with 750 hiring managers, showed that 68% of them rated interpersonal communication as one of the most important skill sets for employees.
In response, Salesforce’s Learning & Development team introduced CommPetent, a communication excellence program designed to enhance communication competence within the Technology, Marketing & Product group (TMP) to enable effective collaboration across geographies.
Challenge
The Salesforce L&D team had clear criteria for a progressive language learning program that would form part of the CommPetent program for selected employees.
- Remote – the training program should be entirely online accessible.
- Personal – each participant should be supported by an expert personal communication coach.
- Focused – individualized programs should focus on enhancing key communication attributes pertinent to individual roles.
- Measurable – the program should establish clear goals and KPIs for every learner.
Solution
Learnship met the challenge with a bespoke training solution to meet the specific needs of each participant, comprising three key elements.
Learnship Baseline
Every learner took a Learnship Baseline assessment, a 52-minute online business English test to gauge their current proficiency in grammar, listening, reading, and speaking skills.
The assessment mapped each learner’s current ability against the Common European Framework (CEF) language levels in a detailed report highlighting key communications challenges to both learners and their coaches, enabling focused training intervention plans.
Learnship Solo
Every learner had unlimited access to Learnship Solo, a sophisticated online language learning platform built to enable self-study at their own pace, accessible anytime, anywhere, on any device. Solo learning materials and training exercises are available at 11 different levels, aligned with the CEF and based on real-world business scenarios like meetings and conversations to help improve their reading, writing, listening, and English-speaking skills.
Success & Extension
In 2020, 33 talents were nominated by their line managers.
Designed as a 6-month-long solution, and winner of a Brandon Hall Award, the program was extended to 2021 due to its excellent results. In 2021, 39 employees in India successfully applied for CommPetent, agreeing to 3 commitments:
- Enhance by at least one language level, within a six-month period.
- Attend all one-to-one coaching sessions
- Achieve their personal study time goal each month (an average minimum of 4-6 hours)
Results
With more than 3300 online activities completed and a 5/5 rating for 280 Coach sessions attended, the program was judged an unqualified success by its participants.
In a follow-up survey, participants estimated saving an average of 3.8 hours per week from increased productivity due to their improved English communication skills.
For the L&D Team, the primary program goal was for learners to progress one CEF language proficiency level from their original Baseline assessment.
Learners were required to complete all the recommended activities in their study plan followed by a timed Level Progress Test to assess grammar, reading, and listening skills.
94% of learners progressed one or more CEF levels during the program.
The program’s success led Salesforce to develop an executive language coaching program called CommPetent Level 2 for senior-level managers.
