The software is designed in a modern way for adult learners, engaging them in active participation while imparting key information, explains Richard P. Finnegan, chief client service officer for TalentKeepers. He says it requires them to take progress checks en route and to participate in leadership simulations, making decisions and receiving instant feedback on relevant topics. A final mastery exam ensures that the content is learned.

The entire RetentionWorks course includes 10 separate modules or “retention competencies” for supervisors and managers aimed at building trust and improving the working climate. In addition, a module is designed to teach team members how to stress their individual concerns to leaders and to appreciate that the “grass is not always greener” elsewhere. Each 75-minute module is followed by an offline exercise.

Each online course is offered in three different learning styles: a robust “Teach Me” mode, a summarized “Guide Me” mode, and a “Let Me Try” mode, which enables learners to test out of the course by taking them directly to the progress checks.

Tumlin and Seeber say they are mightily impressed with the results from RetentionWorks--17 managers have completed the entire course to date. They're especially pleased with the learning module called TrustBuilder, a refreshing reminder of the ingredients of trustworthiness and the Golden Rule. TrustBuilder teaches managers to meet commitments, tell the truth, avoid misrepresenting themselves for personal gain, apologize and admit mistakes when warranted, ask employees about their needs and goals, take responsibility for company policies and trust people.

The course details very specific behaviors and is “set up to be very challenging,” says Tumlin. He calls it “a real eye-opener for people.”

And effective too. Since Sprint’s call center managers began taking the course, morale has increased every quarter, reports Seeber. Meanwhile, retention figures speak for themselves. Every Sprint PCS call center is consistently holding itself below the norm for industry retention, reports Tumlin.

“The course actually improves leaders’ trustworthiness in the eyes of teams by having them complete the course and apply the skills,” says TalentKeepers’s Finnegan. Precisely how effectively the course improves trustworthiness is calculated every quarter via a specific RetentionWorks survey created by the supplier called TalentWatch. The survey gives every manager direct anonymous feedback from the people who work for them.

It asks employees some 20 questions designed to rate the effectiveness of their supervisor on a scale of 1-5. Among questions: Does the manager recognize me when I do a good job? Make me want to come to work? Provide effective leadership?

“The specialists are being motivated by watching the change in how their managers are working,” says Seeber. What’s more, managers can chart their own progress. They begin the learning process by taking a pre-test exam called RetentionQuotient that measures their supervisory and retention skills and a 360 degree survey that rates those skills among colleagues and subordinates. It’s all part of a development plan tailored for every leader.

The pretest and posttest surveys are among the support tools aimed at making RetentionWorks as effective as possible. Other tools include “FirstFit,” a survey for new specialists that asks them to “design the perfect manager” on a scale. From this exercise, managers gain valuable perspective on what is important to their teams. Another tool called HandShake welcomes and orients new specialists to their teams. Lastly, there is PartingWords, an online exit survey that seeks to determine if any leadership issues played a role in an employee’s decision to depart.

Tumlin says RetentionWorks provides structure and discipline to retention training in a flexible manner so teams can manage their workloads. “It also gives us the flexibility to mix and match topics that fit an individual’s and team’s needs, while providing structure in its feedback and status reports,” he adds.

Tumlin also says a key ingredient to the training program is Seeber himself. “A large part of our success is Dick being a bulldog and making sure status reports go out and keep managers informed on how the teams doing,” he claims. Seeber has also turned a spare conference room into a “leadership room” where managers can quietly study their modules away from the din of a busy organization, and take followup classes. “We found that managers and team leaders didn’t have time to sit quietly at their terminals to do this,” says Tumlin. But he says that leaders do seize the opportunities to visit the leadership room.

And lest anyone ask, the RetentionWorks modules are not simple classes that can be taken with less than full attention, insists Tumlin. “Once you get through that first module, you’ll get your brain back into test mode,” he says. “You need to stay focused.”