Video Case Study: The Global Challenge of Employee Development

Today’s business environment is unlike any other before it. The course of business can change in the blink of an eye with new technologies and new ways of thinking. The environment is now more global and more integrated than ever before, and while this is an exceptional sign of progress, it brings about a host of new challenges.

It starts with people. Every time people are brought on to an organization, the workplace becomes more and more diversified. Being a global organization only magnifies this effect.

When a company expands their reach beyond domestic borders, they must learn how to maximize and capitalize on their diverse workforce. They must adopt new programs to train and align these associates. Solutions must bridge language and communication differences.

Building trust and creating a seamless process for decision-making around the world become top priorities.

At Emergenetics, we think this is one of the best parts of global expansion. The breadth of experiences and perspectives that people bring to a team is invaluable. As globalization becomes more prevalent, cultural diversity brings about varying levels of skills, education, and life experiences. At a time when flexibility, innovation, and creativity are pillars of success in a competitive environment, diversity is critical for an organization to come out on top. A company with a truly diverse workface has an extraordinary opportunity to harness differences to propel results forward through new ways of thinking and diverse solutions to common problems.

Understanding is Step 1. Individuals who understand themselves, work more cohesively with others and produce at higher levels. Through this self-awareness, you can make work matter to individuals, and ensure that teams are more connected and able to take advantage of new ways of thinking. Knowing who a person truly is—their story, what drives them, and how they operate—provides organizations with a broadened and empowered way to see results.

With Western Union’s global Employee Development Program, Emergenetics insights became the common language that everyone could relate to and easily understood. Within the language of Emergenetics, everyone’s unique insights surfaced and could be used to drive innovation, growth, and communication.

Diane Lujan, Senior Manager of Leadership and Development at Western Union had this to say about what a common language can bring to a team: “It helped give credibility to right-brained thinking in a left-brained world, and we were able to appreciate both (thinking preferences) in delivering marketing and customer centricity.”

A common language like this bridges the gap between people, departments, offices and even countries…it also unlocks the power of your employees’ self-awareness and understanding. When every member of a team is fully self-aware- about how they prefer to work, think and behave- and they are able to share this information…amazing things happen. Productive things. Profit-enhancing things.

How to do it: Western Union unleashed the power of their 9,000+ global employee base by developing an Employee Development Program designed to teach interpersonal skills, optimize teams, and identify shared goals. Implementing a training program that touched thousands of employees, dozens of languages and more than a handful of different countries, required serious customization and robust metrics.

The Leadership and Development team at Western Union rolled this out with measurable, clear business impact. Now, you and your organization have the opportunity to see exactly what they did, hear from the Senior Manager who implemented the program via our Video Case Study Series.