Case Study: Team Members at TSYS Make the Most of Online Learning
By Verity Bissett-Powell

Build it. They will come.

Perhaps that’s true for baseball diamonds in cornfields. But when it comes to online learning tools, it takes a little more work to encourage widespread adoption. It’s worth it, though, to offer your organization’s talent a just-in-time coaching resource that reinforces your overall learning goals.

TSYS, one of the world’s largest companies for outsourced payment services, ‘built it’ and its team members are coming to use it. You may not know TSYS, but chances are they know you. When you swipe your credit card at the local market or enter those digits online at your favorite retailer’s website, it’s likely that TSYS completes your sale. TSYS claims some of the world’s largest financial services companies and retailers among its more than 300 clients in 75 countries. And those clients presented a challenge to the team members at TSYS: Rather than simply react to the request, TSYS team members need to be more proactive and consultative to its customer base—acting more as a partner and less as a vendor.

Leadership at TSYS felt that everybody—not just those who face clients—needed a skill set makeover. “We have internal customers as well as external customers, so we decided that a consultative mindset was appropriate for everybody,” says Susan Klosowski, learning manager in TSYS’ learning and development department. “We each touch so many groups that it made sense to have everybody learn the same basic skills, and that way everyone at TSYS is speaking the same language.”

A carefully crafted learning strategy introduced those basic skills. But TSYS needed to imbed them in their corporate culture—it needed to extend the impact of what was taught in the classroom. TSYS filled that need by aggressively—and effectively—promoting an online learning resource.

The Classroom Is Just the First Stop

To be more consultative, TSYS team members learn soft skills: communication, negotiation, interpersonal skills, decision making, information gathering and questioning techniques, to name a few.  The classroom was the first stop for much of the workforce in North America from the individual-contributor level and up. “Beyond classroom instruction, we needed to have somewhere our folks could go for just-in-time information,” says Shannon Gill, director of learning and development. “Our learners need the right information, at the right time, for the right purpose. We use it for reinforcement of the courses as well.”

What’s notable about the TSYS approach is how it has continued to reinforce skills after class, using an online performance and learning tool that team members access through the company’s intranet. They contracted with Development Dimensions International (DDI) to provide content.

Enter OPAL—the specific online tool used by TSYS uses. Like many organizations, the main struggle with online tools is to get associates to adopt and use them. The promises of cost- and time-effectiveness and just-in-time coaching and expert guidance for leaders can only be realized if employees know how to access and use the tools.

After realizing that not all associates were taking advantage of the online resources, learning professionals at TSYS implemented a number of innovative ways to drive people to web-based learning.

Introduce the resource. In the first classroom training sessions, facilitators introduce OPAL to participants. They review where to find the tool, what information it provides, and how to use it independently, back on the job. “OPAL is introduced in our very first class, which is a prerequisite to all other classes,” says Klosowski. “We go into OPAL and show them tools for development and coaching. We highlight some of the advanced features, like the ability to enter individual learning preferences and get appropriate activity suggestions based on that.”

Introduce it again! “When we ask how many people are aware of OPAL, frequently we see about 75 percent of class put their hands up,” says Klosowski. In every class, facilitators once again access OPAL during the session. They show participants where to find content that ties into the course subject, so people can access more information after class. “We find that this helps reinforce that the tool is there, to remind people what they will find when they log on. After a few classes, many participants are not only telling us they’re very aware of OPAL, they’re using it regularly too,” she says.  

Shannon Gill adds, “We also included post-class exercises, which would send people back to OPAL after class to do some work.” It’s the go-to resource for learning before, during and after classroom training.

CHAT about the tools. “TSYS was challenged because we still weren’t seeing enough people return back out at the desks. In thinking about how to make the training live—ensure it is applied and used—we invented something we call ‘CHAT sheets,’” says Klosowski. CHAT stands for “Coaching, Help, Assistance, and Training,” and Susan Klosowski creates them every month to provide additional learning opportunities. She delves into the online learning tool and collects resources around a specific topic, such as leading change or building trust.

In addition to highlights of content in the online learning tool, the sheet provides a number of resources including a review of key points about the topic and conversation starters for managers and teams to discuss in department meetings. The CHAT sheets also highlight books or articles that address the issue, quotes, job aids, and upcoming classroom courses that provide an opportunity for more learning.

Champion online learning. TSYS team members across the organization champion the online learning tool to colleagues. Rather than use professional outsiders, courses are facilitated by TSYS employees who are certified to deliver the content—and they spread the word about online learning when they aren’t in the classroom.

Because there are more people interested in facilitating classes than classes in need of facilitators, aspiring course leaders are encouraged to act as informal champions for OPAL. It is promoted as a place to go for development and coaching guidance and is frequently recommended as part of the performance management process or as a resource to troubleshoot tough issues on-the-job. “We know this is working because sometimes, when we bring up a topic in a class, participants already know the content because they found it online prior to training,” Klosowski says.

But Are Learners Coming?

In short, team members at TSYS are using the online learning tool. But it’s not enough to build it once. The TSYS team finds that construction, so to speak, needs to be an ongoing effort.

Ryan Sheffield is a program development leader at TSYS, and follows OPAL usage closely. “Since 2006, we’ve had a lot of people try OPAL. Some users become big time OPAL fans and refer to it often, but others seem to forget about it and never come back,” he says. “I think where we struggle is to get people to come back…to make it part of the culture. I am working with our team to get a deeper penetration and increase our user base.”

The tactics Sheffield and his team are likely to use in the future to increase their user base look a lot like the ones they’ve used in the past. Anecdotally, Sheffield sees a link between OPAL usage and the strategies mentioned above to drive adoption. Presently, there’s not as much classroom training going on, and it’s been a few years since champions were trained. “We need to continue to put marketing resources into the tool,” Sheffield says.

Though TSYS saw usage flatten and enthusiasm wane as the company de-escalated its efforts to drive people to OPAL, it also sees some bright spots. “Among our OPAL fans, there are a lot of hits,” Sheffield says. “Once we get team members using OPAL consistently, they are bought in. They see it as a valuable resource.”

A small survey of TSYS team members using the online tool agreed with Sheffield’s observation that user awareness is down. The survey also produced good feedback from online learners.  Users said OPAL has “a wide variety of topics,” “ease-of-use and just-in-time information,” and “an interactive learning experience.”

And, comments from one team member delved even deeper into why a tool like this is so valuable. “I have been with TSYS about 10 years and have taken numerous class room training sessions over that time period, but often when a particular situation occurs it is difficult to remember all the tips and pointers discussed during the class,” says Steve Shoemaker, associate director of training and documentation in the TSYS business support department. “[The online learning tool] provides short bullet points for a particular topic and can be read in a matter of minutes.”

Shoemaker used the tool to coach his team through change in his organization. He’d previously learned techniques in the classroom, but browsed online for a refresher. He says, “By referring to this information before presenting my team with the changes, I feel I was better prepared to respond to their questions and feelings.”

Verity Bissett-Powell is a consultant with the Leadership Solutions Group for Development Dimensions International (DDI).

All About OPAL^®

OPAL^® consists of two learning components:

Advisor provides a wide range of just-in-time practical guidelines for handling tough work situations. It also includes 300+ learning tools—checklists, road maps, planners, and intervention techniques—designed to help people apply what they learn on the job.

Developer is an online mentor for professional development. It helps employees understand and gain skills in 39 important business competencies as well as develop job performance and career plans.