Honoring the BEST

ASTD presented its BEST Awards last month to 32 organizations from Canada, Hong Kong, India, Singapore, Turkey, and the United States. As the most rigorous and coveted award in the training field, the ASTD BEST Awards recognize organizations that demonstrate business success as a result of their learning and development efforts. These efforts are not just about a financial investment in employee learningthey are also about: Building talent, Enterprise-wide, Supported by their organizations leaders who foster a Thorough learning culture.

These 32 organizations excel at creating a learning culture that is valued and respected, despite a very challenging economic environment. The 2011 BEST winners make sure their employees have the skills to maximize their contributions to their organizations. They are prepared to effectively demonstrate the value of learning to the C-suite and their entire organization, link learning programs and initiatives to business strategies, and maximize effectiveness and efficiency in delivering training. At the Learn from the BEST conference, which followed the awards ceremony, learning executives from these BEST organizations shared their award-winning practices with learning leaders from other companies.

Lets take a look at two different examples that are indicative of the creative thinking and results-oriented learning practices that are benchmarks for excellence.

• At Shell Oil CompanyJiffy Lube International, this years number one winner, training and development plays a critical role in preparing 21,000 workers in more than 2,000 franchise locations to serve 22 million customers. The end goal is to make sure this companys employees provide consistent and correct technical services with a strong focus on customer satisfaction. All employees have training paths and must achieve certifications at certain milestones during their career. The success of this organization depends on the success of its franchisees. Recognizing this, the learning function works with the Franchise Training Committee to review and modify learning and development initiatives. This ensures that the training is relevant and timelyand an easy sell. Franchisees are hungry for the training, which has helped franchise owners tackle one of their most pressing problems: employee turnover.
• At TELUS Corporationa Canadian telecomthe leadership philosophy is simple: leadership is for all and employees are empowered to demonstrate leadership by sharing ideas and opinions that drive performance. One initiative leverages learning-supported decision making to drive process and productivity gains. Team members come together to focus on an urgent business need and tap into their passion and expertise to solve problems. It blends formal problem-solving facilitation and informal, social, and cross-functional collaboration to drive rapid, continuous process improvements. Productivity improvement initiatives delivered an incredible $13 million in business benefits.

These examples showcase the commitment to excellence that this years winners demonstrate. Congratulations to the 2011 BEST organizationsthey prove that learning plays an important part in business success. I encourage your organization to apply for the BEST Awards in 2012. Share with your peers and the entire ASTD community how your company achieves results through learning!