Ipreo New Hire Orientation Training Needs Assessment

The Problem

Ipreo, a large, global financial company, contacted Dashe to help solve an employee turnover problem. The company had a strong new-hire training program, and new analysts in the program were being poached by industry competitors. Additionally, as existing employees retired or were promoted, new analysts were being plucked from the program early, leaving them unprepared to fill their new roles. One of the issues was the length and structure of the training program. New analysts were eager to apply what they were learning but were not considered “field-ready” for 18 to 24 months.

As such, the financial company need Dashe to help—

• Design a program that would train new hires faster with greater proficiency gains early in the program, so new analysts could become field-ready and independent more quickly.
• Create an efficient, scalable training process that could be executed on a quarterly basis to ensure they had a solid pool of analyst ready to backfill in case of retirements, promotions, or company expansions.

The Solution

Dashe approached this problem by conducting a needs assessment and making recommendations for a program restructure. We started by reviewing the existing training material, and then gathered data from key stakeholders—leaders to front-line analysts—via interviews and an online survey designed to gauge understanding, buy-in, and competencies.

In this way, Dashe discovered the core competencies required for success in the analyst role within one month, three months, six months, and nine months. With these findings, we outlined a curriculum structure in three tracks: Gaining Insights, Handling Client Calls, Using Tools. Across the three tracks, we bundled bite-sized learning modules that worked from the basics up to more complex content, delivering a cross section of content and building field-ready proficiency from day one. The training bundles were designed to be transportable, flexible, and adaptable, so they can be used at different points in an analysts learning rotations.

How It Helped

Our approach revealed how the financial company could save valuable time by leveraging eLearning to teach basics and classroom time for application, practice, coaching, and Q&A. By examining the job tasks, we were able to isolate specific skills to target for practice, activities, and reinforcement so new analysts could achieve mastery sooner.

Because we included the “what” and “why” (e.g., value proposition, how it helps them make money) in preliminary instruction, new analysts were motivated to learn and were able to quickly connect the dots between seemingly unrelated tasks and activities. This helped speed time to proficiency, allowing analysts to feel confident and productive on calls with clients and contribute to those conversations in useful ways.

Feedback

Ipreo has been very pleased with the process, quality, and results of this project. They have seen incremental improvements in pass-rates on the assessments that the new analysts take at the end of the initial bootcamp. The time savings they are realizing in new hires becoming competent faster is a win, too.

They keep coming back to Dashe for more—help with assessments, help with other workstreams—so we know their culture has bought into the concept of leveraging blended learning as well as investing in training to retain employees and build a strong organization.