W

At EMC Corp., alignment to thebusiness and a framework built torespond to rapid change are key totraining success. BY SARAH BOEHLE

At EMC Corp., alignment to thebusiness and a framework built torespond to rapid change are key totraining success. BY SARAH BOEHLE

Today, that’s exactly what the 365 training professionalswho work within the learning and development function atinformation storage and data management powerhouse EMCCorporation in Hopkinton, MA, provide to the 30,000 EMCemployees and approximately 50,000 customers and partnersthey serve.

EMC began laying the groundwork for its rise to the top of theinformation storage industry and to the Top 5 of Training maga-

zine’s Top 125 list—rising from 37th place in 2006 to the No. 3slot this year—five years ago, when the company committed todeveloping its educational capabilities as a strategic initiative.

Back then, training at EMC was primarily “event-oriented,”according to Vice President of Education Services Tom Clancy,with training professionals who functioned more as “order-takers”than as business consultants. “We were seen as vendors rather thanbusiness partners,” says Clancy.

From left: Brian Powers, Senior Director,and Tom Clancy, Vice President

EMC3

COREAlignment

CH

AR

LES

KR

ON

AU

ER

At EMC Corp., alignment to thebusiness and a framework built torespond to rapid change are key totraining success. BY SARAH BOEHLE

COREAlignment

hen your industry is characterized by stiff competition and explosive

growth, you need a learning organization that’s aligned to the business

and nimble enough to tackle any challenge that comes its way.

MARCH2007

253913.qxd:a 4/19/07 9:44 AM Page 30

Over the last five years, however, the learning and developmentfunctions at EMC have undergone a complete transformation tobecome not only consultants to the business, but also more alignedwith and responsive to its needs. “We no longer take orders for train-ing,” says Clancy. “Instead, we spend far more of our time in conver-sations with stakeholders in order to find out what’s really needed,what their business problems are, and whether training is the appro-priate solution.”

How did EMC pull it off? In 2002, a number of formal and infor-

mal training organizations within the company were reorganizedinto a single structure boasting three distinct “arms,” includingExecutive Development; EMC University (which is responsible fortalent management, leadership and organizational development,and professional skills training on a global basis); and EducationServices, which delivers technical and sales education by aligninglearning directors to targeted audiences.

These learning directors are considered functional experts andsit on both business- and product-management teams withintheir assigned functions in order to support product launcheswith learning. They also continually manage competency modelsand support business initiatives for organizations across EMC’sglobal business.

Ultimately, according to Brian Powers, senior director of EMCUniversity, this new structure facilitates closer ties between train-ing and the business and allows the training organization to devel-op long-term business-consulting relationships with its internal

clients. “Because of our alignment with our clients’ business, wehave an unobstructed view into each function and a better under-standing of the business and all of the levers that make the opera-tion tick. That structure also allows us to deliver more tailored pro-grams to each functional area and respond to the needs of the busi-ness more quickly,” says Powers.

PROCESS MAKES PERFECT Over the last decade, EMC also has invested consider-able effort into streamlining training and develop-ment through the creation of what Clancy refers to as“standardized, predictable, repeatable processes andprocedures.” These processes and procedures, he says,govern all things training- and development-relatedwithin the company—ranging from course “look andfeel,” authoring guidelines, and global course registra-tion to competency models, individual developmentplans, and ROI measurement.

An employee’s introduction to this structuredlearning environment begins on day one with ahalf-day “EMC Compass” immersion program thatis designed to quickly assimilate new employeesinto EMC’s culture and prepare them for their newroles. During the program, new hires learn aboutthe company’s history, vision, and strategy; its ben-efits and diversity programs; and the learning anddevelopment opportunities available to them asnewly minted EMC employees.

Next up, some new hires, depending on role,complete EMC’s Storage Technology Foundations(STF) program, a curriculum that provides anoverview of the industry. The goal of the baselineprogram, which was established in 2006, accordingto EMC, is to ensure that the new employee has afundamental understanding of the storage industry.

In addition to enterprise new-hire orientation, sev-eral functional organizations within EMC also boastnine-month role-specific orientation and education-

al programs, called “FastStart” programs, which provide educationalroadmaps for each customer-facing job role and serve as the centralportal to all recommended training for each job role within the com-pany. In one functional Fast Start program, for example, new saleshires learn through practicing their roles and responsibilities andsimulate successful work performance via role-based case studies.

CH

AR

LES

KR

ON

AU

ER

EMC3

EMC’s training organization is a single structure with three distinct “arms.”

A FOCUS ON INFORMATIONMANAGEMENT ANDSTORAGE HAS REQUIREDTHE RE-SKILLING OFTHOUSANDS OF EMCEMPLOYEES.

253913.qxd:a 4/19/07 9:44 AM Page 31

EMC3

Following FastStart, employees formally begin building their careersat EMC by working with their managers to develop an IndividualDevelopment Plan (IDP). Each IDP considers an individual’s skills aswell as the needs of the business and, based on that assessment, parlaysthe information into a job-specific learning path that includes clearlydefined curricula in a wide variety of media—from e-learning andclassroom training to hands-on workshops, mentoring, certification,and global job rotation.

This systematic approach to long-term professional developmentmakes educational planning easy for both employees and their man-agers, according to Powers. “As long as they know their region, territo-ry, business function, and the current competencies and skill sets oftheir people, managers can simply direct their employees down theright learning path with a prescribed curriculum. The same is true fromemployees’ perspective,” explains Powers.

These established processes also come in handy in helping theEMC learning and development function to remain nimble in theface of change—which the company faces almost daily. During thelast several years, for example, EMC’s product line has grown almostexponentially (approximately 125 new products were introduced in2006). Overall revenues have followed suit, rising from $6.24 billionin 2003 to almost $11 billion in fiscal year 2006.

Meanwhile, EMC’s business has changed dramatically since thecompany’s founding in 1989, when its focus was almost exclusivelyon proprietary data storage hardware. Today, only about half ofEMC’s business is hardware, and much of the company’s productand service suite is now focused on information management and

storage—a new orientation that has requiredthe re-skilling of thousands of the company’semployees.

Finally, there are the acquisitions—20, to beexact, in the last three years. “The challenge withany acquisition is bringing people on board,integrating them into the company and its cul-ture, and scaling them as quickly as possible,”says Clancy. “To do that, we have had to developa ‘plug and play,’ repeatable set of processes that

govern every decision we make—from the physical infrastructure ofour facilities to operations to course development.”

MANAGING THE TALENT PIPELINE Just how seriously does EMC take employee learning and develop-ment? Let’s just say that when EMC executives talk about viewingtraining as “strategically oriented” and refer to it as a “competitiveweapon,” they put their money where their mouth is. All told, in fact,the company spent $120 million—five percent of its payroll—onemployee learning and development and tuition reimbursementprograms in 2006.

Yet, EMC’s commitment to training and education doesn’t stopwith its own staff. The company also relies on training to meet thebiggest challenge it anticipates facing in the years to come: a severeshortage of qualified IT storage professionals.

According to a 2006 EMC Education Services Study, more thanone million new storage profes sionals will be needed globally by2012. More than 20 percent of those professionals, says EMC, willneed to possess a comprehensive knowledge of information manage-ment and storage.

Yet, according to Clancy, the U.S. is only graduating approximate-ly 140,000 college graduates each year in the areas of science andengineering, and only 18 out of every 100 ninth graders completecollege. “We realize that the talent pipeline is receding and that wehave to go back into colleges, high schools, and secondary schools,and sometimes even further back than that, to ensure that we have atalent pipeline and a competitive work force.”

Already, EMC is hard at work deploying external programsdesigned to meet these challenges. The company encouragesmath and science education at the secondary, middle, and ele-mentary school levels, for example, by regularly donating com-puter technology to augment classroom teaching, and by spon-soring intensive teacher training and development in the areas ofmath and science education.

EMC also sponsors several regional and national math, science,and engineering competitions, including FIRST (For Inspirationand Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics competitions,in which high school students conceptualize, design, and build arobot with the help of EMC engineering mentors.

At the post-secondary level, meanwhile, EMC established aninnovative Academy Program last year that currently offers morethan 60 global colleges and universities a product-agnostic curricu-lum entitled, “Storage Technology Foundations” (STF). Like theinternal EMC training program for new hires that it mirrors, theexternally focused STF Academy program introduces college and

All told, EMC spent$120 million, or fivepercent of its payroll,on employee learn-ing and development and tuition reimbursement programs in 2006.While training has become serious business for EMC, intertwined inthe programs is some serious employee fun.

FIR

EW

ALK

PH

OT

OS

: DA

N M

CQ

UA

ID

THE BIGGESTCHALLENGE EMCANTICIPATES IS ASEVERE SHORTAGE OFQUALIFIED IT STORAGEPROFESSIONALS.

253913.qxd:a 4/19/07 9:44 AM Page 32

NFP= Information provided, but not for publication ND= Information not disclosed N/A= Not applicable BP= Honored for best practice OTI= Honored for outstanding training initiative* New entry; not ranked in the 2006 Top 100

Company Name/Location/Primary Business

Total TrainingBudget

CorporateUniversity Additional Information

Annual Revenue

2005Rank

No. of Employees

Tuition Reimburse-ment

TrainingBudget as aPercentageof Payroll

2006Rank

Full-Time Part-Time SMEs

The Ritz-Carlton HotelCompany, L.L.C.Chevy Chase, MD Hospitality

21,296U.S.

31,342worldwide

4 NFP$1.6BU.S.

$2.4Bworldwide

NFP Yes73 - The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company Since this luxury hotel chain developed and implemented its proprietary customer relationship management softwareMystique—which makes it easy to call guests prior to arrival—in 2005, it’s seen an 81 percent user satisfaction rate, and the generation of $524,805 inadditional revenue. To effectively expand use of the system last year, the company’s learning division partnered with operations to hold weekly training con-ference calls, distribute technical training manuals, deploy localized training environments, pre-record Web demos, and deliver knowledge assessments andtraining dashboards.

Pricewaterhouse-Coopers LLPNew York, NYProfessional Services

29,000U.S.

140,000worldwide

13 NFPNFP

$20.8Bworldwide

7% Yes

EMC CorporationHopkinton, MATechnology;Information LifecycleManagement

26,500worldwide

37 $120M$9.7Bworldwide

NFP Yes

Verizon WirelessBasking Ridge, NJCommunications

58,000worldwide

6 NFP$32.3Bworldwide

5.3% Yes

General Mills, Inc. Minneapolis, MNManufacturing

17,460U.S.

28,144worldwide

10 NFP$9.8BU.S.

$11.6Bworldwide

NFP Yes

510 600 Pricewaterhouse-Coopers LLP Professional skill development is a way of life at this accountancy through instructional approaches such as self-pacedlearning and on-the-job training. These skills are focused on at conferences like Go Audit 1, a two-week group-learning experience for first-year Assuranceassociates, which 4,200 learners attended between January and October 2006. Advisory University, an annual, week-long event, includes 150 technicaland professional development courses, leadership sessions, and networking.

365 - EMC Corporation By 2012, the world will need more than a million new IT/storage profes sionals, according to EMC, and that poses quite a challenge.EMC has adopted a unique approach to this shortage of skilled labor. Its Academy Program offers colleges and universities a product-agnostic curriculumentitled, “Storage Technology Foundations,” which introduces students to the world of data storage. The program is gaining momentum every where, particu-larly in India. EMC recently signed up its 25th Indian college, GSS Institute of Technology at Bangalore, which joins universities that include Delhi College ofEngineering and BITS Pilani. The EMC Academy Program also is pop ular in the U.S., Mexico, and Ireland.

820 5 Verizon Wireless Identification of high-potential diverse employees for the Insights For Success-Diverse Leadership Workshop was a key focus in 2006 atthis wireless telecommunications company. Since the program’s inception in 2003, 28 percent of graduates have made lateral moves within the company, orreceived promotions, and 98 percent have been retained. The best features of the program, participants say, are learning from diverse executive presenters,networking, sharing experiences, and assessing/aligning their personal and professional goals.

NFP NFP General Mills, Inc. With 360 salaried employees to support all of this manufacturing corporation’s customers—ranging from Wal-Mart to Sysco andKroger—customer service training needs are assessed on several factors: customer service measures, an internal General Mills Customer Service survey thatis completed by the sales division, and feedback from customers and sales. Among its training priorities is a new hire ability to service customers quickly, asapproximately 50 account operations specialists are hired annually. An intensive 3.5-week program for new team members includes technical system train-ing; how to manage the customer; and how to work cross-functionally with sales reps, buyers, distribution, and logistics.

30

700

-

846

NFP

YesTraditional

YesVirtual

and Other

YesOther

YesVirtual

and Other

YesTraditionaland Virtual

2

3

4

5

1

No. of Trainers

he task of ranking the top companies of employee-sponsored workforce training anddevelopment is no easy feat. This year, Training’s sixth annual report, adds 25 morecompanies to the list…Training Top 125. Each company has been measured on quan-

titative (75 percent to total score) and qualitative (25 percent to total score) data. There are fun-damental questions kept in mind to arrive at the rankings: Is training tied to business objec-tives? Size of organization? Number of trainers? Employee turnover and retention? Leadershipdevelopment? Certification? Dollars spent on training? Percentage of payroll? And, much,much more. An outside research and statistical data company, under the guidance of Trainingmagazine, appropriately scores companies on this and much more data supplied by companies.Then, our editors subjectively review each application. Inside the Top 125 companies, you’llfind an enormous amount of investment, dedication, and commitment to learning and devel-opment excellence. This year, there were 49 newcomers to the list…two in the Top 10, and 7 inthe Top 50.

Congratulations to this year’s Training Top 125.

T

Company Name/Location/Primary Business

Total Train-ing Budget

CorporateUniversity

Additional Information

Annual Revenue

2005Rank

No. of Employees

Tuition Reim-bursement

TrainingBudget as aPercentageof Payroll

2006Rank

Full-Time

Part-Time SMEs

EMC CorporationHopkinton, MATechnology;Information LifecycleManagement

26,500worldwide

37 $120M$9.7Bworldwide

NFP Yes365 -

EMC Corporation By 2012, the world will need more than a million new IT/storage profes sionals, according to EMC, and that posesquite a challenge. EMC has adopted a unique approach to this shortage of skilled labor. Its Academy Program offers colleges and universities a product-agnostic curriculum entitled, “Storage Technology Foundations,” which introduces students to the world of datastorage. The program is gaining momentum every where, particularly in India. EMC recently signed up its 25th Indian college, GSSInstitute of Technology at Bangalore, which joins universities that include Delhi College of Engineering and BITS Pilani. The EMCAcademy Program also is pop ular in the U.S., Mexico, and Ireland.

- YesOther3

No. of Trainers

university students to the world of data storage and is designed tobolster their knowledge of the overall industry.

Forward-thinking? Certainly. But when one considers the trainingand development function’s mission at EMC, such educational outreachactivities make perfect sense. “Our primary goal with education,” saysClancy, “is to ensure our workforce’s readiness to provide excellent serv-ice to our customers, and to do that, we have to ensure that every single

person servicing our products is adequately prepared.“As more and more universities and colleges begin to offer STF,

the program will provide industry benchmarks for hiring employ-ees out of college who already understand storage,” says Clancy. “Italso will reduce cycle times for hiring and on-boarding, and it willsupply us with the talent we need for continued growth in the yearsto come.” t

© 2007 The Nielsen Company. Reprinted with permission from Training, www.trainingmag.com. For more information about reprints from Training, please contact FosteReprints at (866) 879-9144.

253913.qxd:a 4/19/07 9:44 AM Page 33