Core Conversion Training Plan - CUNA Councils

Training & Development

Core Conversion Training Plan INNOVATIVE STAFF DEVELOPMENT - CUNA HR/TD EXCELLENCE AWARD ENTRY

TRAVIS CREDIT UNION | TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT

Updated Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Contents Overview ......................................................................................................... 2 Innovation ....................................................................................................... 6 Sustainable ...................................................................................................... 8 Quality ............................................................................................................. 9 Integration..................................................................................................... 11 Business Outcomes / Impact ......................................................................... 12

Travis Credit Union Mission Statement: “We are dedicated to building lifelong relationships with our members to help them achieve their financial goals.”

1 INNOVATIVE STAFF DEVELOPMENT - CUNA HR/TD EXCELLENCE AWARD ENTRY

Overview Celebrating 65 Years of Service Travis Credit Union (TCU) was established in 1951 to serve military and civilian personnel at Travis Air Force Base. In December 1999, TCU acquired a community charter extending the benefits of credit union membership to anyone who lives, works, worships or attends school in the 12 county areas we serve in California. With 23 branch locations, we are honored to be the financial institution of choice for more than 163,000 members, with more than $2.3 billion in assets.

Figure #1: Travis Credit Union corporate office in Vacaville, CA.

Core System Conversion Project TCU had been using the same core operating system since 1983. Beginning in 2015, TCU made the decision to move off the current core operating system that it had been using for over 30 years. Because this new system was nothing like the old one it had a major impact across all lines of business (31 departments through all 7 counties) in which we operate. In order to complete a successful conversion, the TCU training team had to identify, develop and execute a precise training plan for approximately 600 employees.

Getting Started This was the largest training initiative to date for TCU, so it was essential that we developed a clear plan for success. We created the following process to develop our training strategy: Visited CU’s to Learn Conversion Best Practices

Developed Training Strategy

Conducted Company Wide Training Needs Assessments

Defined Training Based on Needs Assessment Results

Developed Training Plan

Using this process, the training team was able to determine the appropriate curriculum for each department, the type of training required and create a calendar to train employees from August 15, 2015 - November 1, 2015, for a go-live date of November 4, 2015.


Conversion Training Plan Training developed a comprehensive Conversion Training Plan for each department manager, helping them understand their role in the training process and set training expectations. The plans provided managers a checklist to guide them in their responsibilities as well as the following information: 1. Introduction – identified training contacts and the expectations of each role. 2. Training Design – presented the overall objectives of the training, the training strategy and the three major training deliverables: General User Training, Department Specific Training and Employee Practice Time. 3. Courses – outlined the content of the General User Training programs – including forecasted training courses and course agendas. 4. Logistics – provided a forecast of the Training Schedule and a forecast of the hours needed for each employee to complete the required training courses and assignments. 5. Appendix – provided a list of super users, sub-team leads and projected training schedule.

Figure #2: Sample of the conversion training plan.


General User Training The training learning objectives consisted of the employees gaining the following after completing the program: 1. an overall understanding of the purpose of the core system conversion 2. an overall understanding of the functions with which he/she works 3. hands-on experience in the use of the core system functions that person uses to perform his/her job The system training was delivered to employees using the following blend of training methods: Type Self-led courses and activities

Instructor Led Webinars Instructor led classrooms

Method      

Computer based e-Courses and video recordings Leader-led “Training in a Box” meetings Practice worksheets GoToMeeting Offered at corporate 3 remote locations

Length 30 minutes

2 hours 4 hours

In a 3-month timeframe, 5 trainers had created job aids, conducted 337 instructor-led sessions, 26 online courses/webinars and had 13,471 training hours completed by the credit union employees by system go live day.

Figure #3: Day 1 of training offered at remote training location inside a branch. Remote locations were set up for conversion to reduce the need for employees to travel for classroom sessions.


Department Specific Training For the Department Specific Training courses, the training team worked with the 17 subject matter expert (SME) trainers. To help the SME trainers identified in the process, we authored the: 1. SME Trainer Playbook - outlined the roles and responsibilities for the training development and delivery. 2. SME Trainer Toolkit - provided development resources to assist with creating training. 3. Self-Led Training for SME Trainers – instructed how to develop quick demonstration videos with screen casting to standardize department specific training.

Figure #4: Sample of SME Trainer Playbook


Innovation This training was innovative as it changed the way the credit union did its business: 1. Made training decisions based the results of the needs assessments and data analysis. 2. Helped to break down operational silos and foster a partnership approach to solving business issues. 3. Improved interdepartmental communications to maximize efficiencies.

Needs Assessment The training team conducted a training needs analysis for every department in the organization to identify and define training strategy.  

Met with 31 departments to identify which of the 99 training requirements were needed for each position in the organization. This information was used to create a training forecast that: o o o o

Grouped the required training into 7 categories: inquires, transactions, credit card module, new account opening, maintenance, processes and technical. Defined what to cover in training agendas and time needed for topics. Identified the number of employees that needed to complete the training. Determined the number of training sessions that needed to be scheduled.

Figure #5: Sample of Training Needs Assessment Document

Our approach enabled us to gain buy-in from department leaders, collaborate with key decision makers, align resources and create a training program that exceeded the expectations of the organization.


Conversion Training Experience Webpage One of the innovative processes introduced was the creation of the Conversion Training Experience webpage. The 4-step model used to communicate and reinforce the training included: 1. View Training Plan- the Conversion Training Plan identified the key elements and steps necessary for credit union employees to use the relevant functionality of the system conversion. 2. Enroll in LMS – directed the staff to the Learning Management System (LMS) to enroll in their training. 3. Utilize Resources – this page provided information, tools and resources for all staff, managers, super-users and SME trainers. 4. Practice and Assess – this page provided practice assignments and activities for staff to complete after completing each general user classroom topic.

Figure #6: Conversion Training Experience Webpage

This page reduced calls made to the Training Department by 67% as the credit union staff was able to retrieve the answers to most of their questions from these pages.

Figure #7: Conversion Training Experience Webpage – Utilize Resources page and Practice & Assess page


Sustainable Training to Policy & Procedures Due to the nature of the conversion, we anticipated the need to develop and deliver training within short time constraints. Therefore, we made a decision to use our new system’s policies and procedures as the primary training tool. To accomplish this, we did the following: 1. Worked with the conversion sub-team leads to identify the 120 policies and procedures that needed to be developed. 2. Taught 39 of credit union’s policy and procedure writers how write more effective procedures using a standard template. 3. Implemented a process that trainers had a 45-day window to review and test the new policies and procedures to develop the training. 4. Provided feedback to the policy and procedures writers on questions or points of clarification in their documents. This process reduced the need to develop lengthy training manuals, caught procedural errors before being published to the staff and made it possible to deliver the scheduled conversion training as planned. By leveraging policies and procedures as the primary training tool, we established a best practice for us to use on further training projects.

Standard Training Design To ensure course consistency, we developed a Trainers Playbook outlining the roles and responsibilities for the development and delivery of the training 

Training development was completed with the following model which has now become our standard:

Step 1: Develop Project Plan

Step 2: Develop Learning Objectives

Step 3: Outline Training Content & Plan

Step 4: Create Instructor & Participant Guides

Step 5: Conduct Training

Step 6: Survey Participants


Quality Employee Feedback At the end of each training course, participants were asked to provide feedback, via a class survey, to measure the effectiveness and quality of the program delivered:   

98.08% of the students gave a rating of Excellent/Good to the overall training. 99.53% of students strongly agreed or agreed that they were engaged in the sessions. 97.65% of students said they could immediately apply what they learned. Figure #8: Employee results from classroom survey.

Below are some student comments when asked what the most valuable part of this course was: 

“Doing everything hands on, rather than just sitting and watching.”



“Overall class was a great time to practice all of the information that I've been practicing at the branch. Appreciate the time spent on training us.”



“The most valuable part of this course is making sure we retain the information by practicing and also making the class enjoyable.”


Reinforcement of the Training Due to the time between attending classroom training and the system go live day, knowledge retention was a concern. To address this, the training was designed to allow staff to repeat the activities after class: 1. Staff were required to practice what they learned in class a minimum of 30 minutes each day. 2. Classroom workbooks were designed to be used after class with procedures as practice worksheets with scenarios for students to repeat at their desks. 3. Through the LMS, 7 skill checks were assigned to the staff with the purpose assessing how well the system processes were being understood and retained.

Figure #9: Sample participant guide used during and after class.


Integration Leveraging Subject Matter Experts To train the staff on specific department functions the Training Department conducted meetings with 31 departments to identify SME trainers. Trainers met with the SME trainers individually to help plan and implement steps for training. The training subject matter experts represented several departments including Branch, Training, Human Resources, Information Technology, Loan Servicing, Call Center, Real Estate, Card Services, Collections and Consumer Lending.

Cross-Functional Collaboration One of the biggest successes from this process was the increased collaboration and teamwork displayed between departments. To help leverage this partnership, we developed an e-learning video series designed to easily and quickly show SME Trainers how to create a screencast. This training method allowed SME Trainers to record and narrate common procedures to teach their team members the new system. Using these tools, the Call Center SME Trainer created 5 online courses for her 63 Call Center employees. This was a first for the department and allowed them to track 100% completion of the training by their staff. The courses were made available to other departments to access and learn new system functions. The Call Center SME Trainer’s efforts eliminated the need for the other departments to develop the training. Therefore, 21 departments were able to use her courses to also train their staff – saving 95% of the credit union resources to work on other conversion tasks.


Business Outcomes / Impact Staff Readiness Training led a group of 15 team members tasked with developing and implementing the conversion training program. The team met at least one a week and had a total of 64 meetings. We used these meetings to identify the training needs, validate training agendas and provide feedback on the team’s progress. Efforts helped to improve the training readiness of the frontline staff.

Corporate Strategic Goal One of the strategic goals set by the TCU Executive Team and Board Members was a Successful Core System Conversion. To measure this goal, a Conversion Scorecard was develop: 7 elements evaluated the member experience and 3 for risk management To achieve this goal, training all employees to process the key transactions for their areas using the new core operating system was essential.

Business Impact We would not be able to do business if the employees were not trained properly. The system impacted how we process all transactions and account opening, from the teller line to accounting. On the day of go live we were able to open our doors and serve our members.


Core Conversion Training Plan - CUNA Councils

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