Developing Human Capital: Using Analytics to Plan and Optimize Your Learning and Development Investments

CaseStudyShowing Learning’s Alignment with the Business: VW Credit, Inc.

A new employee at VW Credit, Inc.’s (VCI’s) new hire orientation asked, “How will you know if your training works?” Paige Barrie, the senior manager of VCI Academy, had the answer.

BACKGROUND

As the captive finance company to Volkswagen Group of America (VWGoA), VW Credit, Inc. (VCI) serves two important customer bases: buyers and lessees VW, Audi, Bentley, Lamborghini, and Bugatti products and a 990-dealer network in the US. In addition to providing training for dealership personnel, VCI Academy provides learning and professional development to employees across the company, from credit analysts and collection agents to the business development staff that calls on dealerships.

When she became the leader of VCI Academy, Barrie had a background in performance improvement. The Academy’s diverse team responsible for developing and delivering training included many individuals who had little or no background in instructional design. For Barrie, everything the Academy delivered needed to improve performance in some observable way. “Training for training’s sake is a waste of time and money,” Barrie said. “We had too many people saying, ‘Let’s write a course and create some objectives and then let’s cross our fingers.’” Barrie also saw a recurring problem between her team of designers and the managers asking for training. Stakeholders would say, “I’m not really sure what I want, but I’ll know it when I see it.” ...