Case Study of Dell: Employee

Training and Development

Michael Dell, the CEO of Dell Computer Corporation, in a recent annual report,
summarized where the CEO stands on the role that learning plays in his company.
He said it was people who produced results in any business, laying emphasis on
how building a talented workforce remained Dells greatest priority as well as its
greatest challenge. This challenge contained two primary issues. The first being
training, developing and retaining their existing employees so they continue
capitalizing on the career opportunities Dells growth provides them. The second
being to actually successfully recruit employees at all levels to support Dell.
The CEO said the company progressed pertaining to both issues in the previous
fiscal year, adding Dell would continue to keep it a critical area of focus. Dell
filled more than half of its executive-level positions with promotions from within
the organization, hiring the remaining externally. Dell also modified its core
training and development programs to improve employee effectiveness as well as,
for the second successive year, compensation programs.
Michael Dell said hyper-growth companies that lack long-established practices
have better chances of adapting with the ever-changing environment, while laying
emphasis on the fact that enough structure had to be in place to ensure that growth
would not go out of control. He said hyper growth needs to be dealt with in a
particular manner regarding learning and leadership development.
Dell Learning was established to meet Dell`s needs pertaining to human resources.
Although training had always been an integral part of Dell, in 1995, it realized the
need for greater emphasis on ensuring the employees were sufficiently skilled to
keep up with the firm`s hyper growth. Dell Learning, following the expansion in
1995, was also assigned a series of objectives:
Bringing learning in line with Dell`s key business
Making learning directly and openly available
Creating a clarity around competencies required to maintain Dells hyper
growth
Providing consistency through a global curriculum
Naturally, as a response to hyper growth, Dell had to structure three fourths of its
training program to target new employees, products and basic job skills. A
centralized corporate team was established for training development and
administration. Training managers were appointed to:
Develop business based educational plans
Hold business leaders responsible for execution of plan
Ensure that sufficient resources exist to execute the plan
Report on the plans impact
In addition to providing strategic direction, the corporate team includes fulfillment
teams that serve Dells different businesses on demand. One team produces
learning tools for training sales and technical audiences on Dells products and
services. Another, Education Services, manages classrooms, registration,
scheduling, tracking, and other logistics. A third group consists of highly
experienced instructional designers who oversee development projects requested
by the businesses. Essentially, the training organization operates as a federation.
There are three parts: Corporate Training, Regional (HR) Training, and Regional
(Non-HR) Training, held together by the senior management team and a series of
Dell Learning councils.
The corporate group comprises six major elements:
1. Corporate and Regional Operations global education planning, financial
management and reporting, and process and infrastructure.
2. Dell Learning Services instructional design services and consulting.
3. Dell Learning Technology Services enables rapid distribution of new
learning technologies.
4. Education Services handles event management, vendor management,
registration, facilities, and a wide range of administrative services.
5. The New Product Training Group provides core training materials for
sales and technological support.
6. The Program Management Office develops strategies and aligns them with
global curricula to support strategic initiatives. The specific areas of focus shift
from year to year based on business needs.
The Corporate Group reports to Human Resources, a few groups, do however,
report to marketing or customer service organizations even though they still take
part in management meetings, operations reviews, and global strategy sessions.
This organizational structure is, in part, a response to Dells hyper growth status.
The companys training charter was revised around the time Dell University was
reassessed and thereby renamed Dell Learning to include:
Education should be business-issue based
Education should be as cost-effective and time-effective as possible
Business managers should be in charge of managing their own training
investments
Education must be flexible and able to scale
All training should be competency based
All learning should be just enough, just-in-time
Learners should be in control
Learning solutions have limited shelf life and should be treated accordingly
Learning occurs everywhere, so our obligation is to leverage it across the
organization
The education function must create access to the intellectual capital of Dell
The establishment of such a charter as well as the nature of the computer business
have forced Dell to take an aggressive take towards technology-enabled learning.
In order to put learners in control, it was essential that learning solutions be
available to them all the time, as well as them being able to control what they learn
and when. Low-tech solutions made that possible, however, classroom learning
never could. Technology has made learning omnipresent and a natural part of
work.
The Dell Learning Technology Services Group was added to the corporate team in
1999 to focus exclusively on utilizing technology and other non-traditional
training methods. Curriculum road-maps and self-assessments have been based on
the skills and knowledge required for job success. The road-maps show logical
sequences of learning; the assessments, determine the gaps between employees
current abilities and required abilities, enabling them to customize their
development. Road-maps include management and executive education, sales,
marketing, finance, technical certifications, and IT.
Most of Dells competitors have corporate universities, however, the biggest
difference between them and Dell is that Dell has put the learners in charge. Most
companies believe its too dangerous to let employees determine what training they
require, however, Dell Learning Technology Services Manager Darin Hartley said:
These are people who raise children, maintain households, manage budgets, and
solve incredibly complex problems every day. We ought to be able trust them to
manage their own learning.
Dell Learning also partners with several universities, community colleges, and
high schools for certain learning needs as they are available online and can be
specifically focused as well as offering educational assistance (advanced degrees)
to employees. The chief financial officer, Tom Meredith, leads Dells alliance team
with the University of Texas, he said there were two kinds of knowledge critical to
success. The first being your associates knowledge and the other being the
knowledge that is required immediately, wasnt required in the past and most likely
wont be required in the future either. He said the first type of knowledge was
provided through degree program, adding that Dell Learning provided the second
type to its employees.
Dell links where employees can find them easily during the normal course of their
work. The ultimate goal is stealth learning -making learning so involved with
work that people cant pinpoint when learning happens. Dells HR created an
Internet-based, online pay-planning tool. Managers use it to record and submit
their plans for merit pay increases for the next fiscal year. The tool comprises
formulas and reminders based on company guidelines, this is considered by them
as part of their job, however, stealth learning is taking place as they learn to
manage their pay budgets and relationships between pay decisions and other
aspects of compensation and performance management.
As opposed to the traditional approach where training budgets are determined by
the trainers or authorized managers, at Dell, individual lists are provided to Dell
Learning by the managers, who have compiled a series of trainings required by
them and the costs that they will incur, allowing flexibility and the ability to scale
learning according to the business needs. That pay as you use philosophy has
been driven by the vice-chairmans office, he said: Ive been in companies where
people are constantly complaining about corporate allocations. They ask what the
training people do with such large sums of money, the complaint, however,
disappears when you take away the allocation. But the training department better
be doing what our managers want or itll go out of business.
Adopting such a technique has shifted talk about training costs in board meetings
to how Dells investment in learning has paid off cost avoidance, increased sales,
increased employee productivity, and better customer service. Seeing as how
several employees say they joined Dell was development, it apparently helps
recruiting too.
In 1998, Dell Learning launched a Web-based global measurement system that
provides online access to training statistics and reporting at global, business,
segment, and departmental levels.
For example:
Training Snapshot Report this documents all training activity, including
classes taken, total tuition and enrollment, and total hours by region, business,
and segment.
Training by Type this report sorts training activity by category, such as
management, executive, customer service, sales, new product, technical, new
hire, business initiatives, professional development, and compliance.
CBT/On-line Training Report this documents all computer-based training and
online training completed for the fiscal year.
Customer Satisfaction Report this is a summary of all training evaluations by
course.
Dell Learnings performance measurement strategy includes a performance
measurement scorecard showing Dell Learnings alignment with business
goals. An enterprise-wide assessment software system and infrastructure
were designed and implemented for delivery of Web-based tests, surveys,
and other assessments.
Despite the internet being heavily prevalent in not only organizations but
our society as a whole, Michael Dell understands the importance of personal
interactions. From the early days of the company, he insisted on holding
semi-annual executive conferences, saying that most communication was
done through technology, adding that it became easier if a personal
relationship had been established. The CEO closed a presentation in a recent
conference while emphasizing the need to hire and develop new talent for
the company to remain in line with its organizational vision.
When the chairmans office initiated QUEST (Quality Underlies Every Single
Task), the CEO, as well as other senior executives, personally ensured quality
tools were provided to every employee and managed the programs evolution from
its initial focus on internal quality to its current external approach to create the best
possible customer experience. The CEO also encourages senior executives to
involve themselves wherever possible to ensure that timely and adequate training is
provided to Dell employees.
Another example of CEO involvement in governance is how the education
functions work is measured at Dell. Its training organization has its operations
review with the chairmans office. Those quarterly sessions go over the total
company investment in learning, areas of focus, deployment of resources, and
results. The chairmans office also looks at training department productivity in
terms of Dells investment in comparison to its competitors.
Dells CEO is also involved in setting strategic direction for training by personally
setting specific targets. Two vice-chairmen directed a study to determine the core
competencies required for leadership success. The study was utilized to determine
what competencies the company should be looking for in potential employees.
Those competencies have been integrated into Dells staffing, promotion,
and performance review processes. More significantly, they form the basis for
development activities across the company. The chairmans office, together with
the executive committee, conducts quarterly meetings on the development of
companys top talent.
The data gathered from leaders across Dell identified two distinct sets of
competencies:
Hiring Criteria they include functional and technical skills, business
acumen, integrity and trust, command skills, and intellectual horsepower.
Depending on the job requirements, a best-in-class candidate should have
demonstrated strengths in most of those areas. In other words, in order to be
minimally successful, employees will need to do their jobs well, understand
the Dell Business Model, be ethical and honest, be willing to speak up and
defend their points of view, and think smart.
The Dell Leadership Profile (DLP) consists of common traits and skills
shared by some of Dells most successful leaders: customer focus, priority
setting, problem solving, dealing with ambiguities, drive for results,
organizational agility, building effective teams, developing direct reports, and
learning on the fly.
Despite these two sets of competencies serving as guidelines for recruitment, they
arent intended to represent all the competencies required to be a successful
leader at Dell. The remaining competencies and performance standards vary
according to the specific job requirements.
The DLP and Hiring Criteria are in an interview guide, available to all groups,
worldwide. The DLP competencies are also used in several projects worldwide
such as organizational HR planning and executive staffing and development. The
profiles are also integrated into Dell Learnings curriculum and performance
management processes. Learning has been singled out as crucial to success for Dell
leaders at any level across the organization. Integrating the competencies into so
many aspects of how Dell does business has made a huge difference, however, the
key to such success in integrating the competencies was due to Michael Dell and
top executives using the same language and approach. Such hands-on involvement
by a CEO has a strong symbolic and practical impact on how learning happens
within an organization.
Michael Dell is always talking about what he learns from at least three important
sources: employees, outsiders, and especially customers. His experience, in the
form of stories, end up in his speeches and presentations to his leadership team.
Hes constantly searching for new ideas from the internet, books, etc, and
providing them to his employees.
In his book: Direct from Dell, Michael describes another deliberate, systemic
learning process: In a direct business like ours, you have, by definition, a
relationship with customers. But beyond the mechanisms we have for sales and
support, we have set up a number of forums to ensure the free flow of
information with the customer on a constant basis. Our Platinum Councils, for
example, are regional meetings (in Asia-Pacific, J apan, the United States, and
Europe) of our largest customers. I n these meetings, our senior technologists
share their views on where the technology is heading and lay out roadmaps of
product plans over the next two years. There are also breakout sessions and
working groups in which our engineering teams focus on specific product areas
and talk about how to solve problems that may not necessarily have anything to
do with the commercial relationship with Dell. For example, is leasing better
than buying? Or, how do you manage the transition to Windows NT? Or, how do
you manage a field force of notebook computers?
When Michael Dell talks about what hes learning, he doesnt just quote authors
and analysts. Most of what he shares, hes learned from employees. At Dell, an
open email policy means that everyone in the company has direct access to the
CEO, which helps support his learning. There have also been periodic lunch
meetings with randomly selected groups of employees. Michael also walks the
halls, drops in on employees to ask what theyre doing, hearing, and thinking. Its
not only a good management technique, but also a good learning strategy.
The CEO promotes learning by acting as a chief marketing officer for learning. He
has set a standard in the company by making it clear that learning is not only
expected, but inspected as well. For example, when Dell mandated that all
managers take instruction on ethics, values, and the legal aspects of management,
Michael sent personal emails to his team to let them know that he expected 100
percent participation, and what the CEO wants, the CEO generally gets, so,
needless to say, 100 percent employees were present.
Michael Dell said: Everyone has to be open to learning all of the time, starting
with me, and everyone must support and encourage their teams to make sure
they have the knowledge and skills to succeed.
It can clearly be determined by the above-mentioned facts that Dell not only lays
key emphasis on programs such as training and development of its employees, but
has figured out innovative and extremely effective and efficient ways to deal with
its training needs given its hyper growth status. It also shows that all levels of
managerial executives are involved in the learning process through a series of
channels and councils, this motivates employees as their seniors are actively
involved in the employees knowledge.