Our Work.

A university needed to streamline employee time tracking. The campus had over 100 ways of tracking time, and over two-thirds of employees were still recording their hours on paper. This meant inefficiency and inaccuracies in pay and employee leave. The university developed a new time tracking software. And they needed employees up to speed and excited about the change, so they turned to Emerson Human Capital Consulting for help.

Our work included change management and learning plans that reflected new operational roles and responsibilities. We launched the Local Implementation Manager model for department communication and built support for the new LIMs. We also created the online training knowledge base, including trainer support, UPK tutorials, procedures and job aids for all roles. The new tool is a big win for the university, aligning time tracking with strategic priorities and redirecting cost savings to students and research.

A major healthcare organization was launching a professional services procurement system that would impact all 28 of its suppliers and potentially touch 5,000 employees. The new technology would replace outdated, non-integrated systems, and inconsistent, manual processes. They asked Emerson to build communication and training for this important new tool.

The focus of our project was to improve understanding, confidence, and usage, while decreasing user dissatisfaction. We then conducted an executive team workshop to craft a message to describe the vision for employees. We developed a manager toolkit that business leaders could share with their teams, the end users. The toolkit addressed challenges and solutions, where to go for help, and upcoming training.

We also developed three role-based support guides focused on the end-to-end process and interactions needed to successfully transact business. We also conducted train-the-trainer sessions for our client’s training team. Leadership was thrilled with the results.

One executive remarked, “This is how change management should be done.”

A major internet services provider was growing fast, both organically and through acquisition. They had data centers spread across five continents and 48 markets. As a result, there were discrepancies between regional onboarding programs. And they had to fix that, quickly. Corporate talent management needed to efficiently and effectively onboard more than 2,000 employees in 2018. But they saw this as an opportunity — to use the best-of-the-best onboarding resources and develop a global solution. They asked Emerson for help.

We worked with them to create a global onboarding experience. We conducted interviews with the corporate management team and recent new hires to gather content and insights. Then we built two distinct learning courses, each encompassing 120+ onboarding activities, to be completed by new-hire individual contributors or managers. Each employee had a custom program with nine learning paths.

We also created two Learning Channel portal pages to enable employees to launch and track their own progress to success.

One of the world’s biggest professional services firms believes strongly in ongoing learning for its employees. They asked Emerson to develop an engaging learning program for direct-hire consultants. We used a “Hero’s Journey” theme to tie the courses together.

Also, we used concepts like allies/mentors, sharpening weapons, and facing conflicts to teach business skills like strategic networking, data visualization, storytelling, and presentation.

When a data management company wanted to create home-grown change agents, they reached out to Emerson for help. We developed a six-hour instructor-led course to teach employees to be change professionals.

The course included an introduction to a new change management methodology, creation of a change plan, and Emerson’s messaging approach. We partnered with company instructors to deliver the course, which covered methods, tools and overcoming barriers to success. The first conduct prepared seven in-house leaders to carry the course forward.

A major technology company recognized their executives needed greater awareness of and sensitivity to diversity issues to make their multicultural teams more effective. Emerson presented the Broadening the Perspective workshop which helped participants understand diversity and multiculturalism as tools that help companies gain a competitive advantage.

Based on an in-depth cultural assessment, we designed a custom solution that included leadership training, awareness training, and management/team leader training.

The result: innovation and risk-taking behavior – which had diminished due to workforce and environment changes – increased. Company leadership attributed the change to a more affirming and inclusive environment. Comments from participants of the workshop attest to its success: “Exceeded my expectations…. Should be mandatory …for all new hires, middle management and senior executives.” “I now have more consideration for using diversity as a tool instead of just a ‘difference to overcome.’” “My expectations were much lower. I thought it would be a waste of time. I was totally wrong.”

The support site of a major network storage and data management company contained a wealth of information for its partners, distributors and service providers. But the site was hard to navigate and discouraging to users. Partners would rather call the company for answers than use the self-service reference material on the site. Leadership asked Emerson to help encourage people to use the site as it was intended.

We created simple YouTube-style videos to promote and teach the features of the site. The two-to-five-minute interactive demos helped people navigate and find information. Each demo guided the user through one feature of the site, such as looking up the status of a bug fix or ordering new parts.

The videos were interactive and provided real training, not just exposure. The program exceeded our client’s expectations and improved site traffic and user experience.

A major U.S. clothing retailer hired a premier strategy firm to develop a new retail concept and sales/service model. Then the company turned to us for implementation. We developed and conducted the training, communication and coaching required for the concept store.

Our longstanding relationship with this client, across many years and many projects, has made us their go-to partner for human capital implementations.

A major credit card company engaged Emerson to help their leadership group create a positive and inclusive work environment. We developed a workshop for executives.

At the end of the workshop, the participants were able to provide real-life examples showing how diverse cultural perspectives can cause workplace misunderstandings, describe how culture impacts work behavior, identify how improved communication skills across diverse teams increase productivity, and list solutions to create a more inclusive and affirming work environment.

A large U.S. government agency had redesigned business processes as part of a comprehensive IT implementation: the Virtual Case File project. They needed their employees to use the new processes quickly and effectively. Emerson designed and facilitated tactical change management workshops, training 2,000 agents from all 56 field offices in a six-week period.

Participants rated the project highly, stating that it was one of the most effective and best organized implementation efforts in the organization.

A large U.S. government agency needed to make sure their people were sharp enough to face today’s challenges. We helped them develop the Intelligence Career Service. Working with a dedicated group of employees, we helped determine the mission-critical competencies needed for three distinct roles – intelligence analyst, language analyst and surveillance specialist.

We also surveyed the entire intelligence and language analyst workforce to learn first-hand how they could better perform their jobs. In the process, we helped embed the knowledge, skills and abilities vital to the core capability of this world-class agency.

A large gas retailer knows that customers who consistently have a good experience remain loyal to the brand, become repeat customers, and act as brand ambassadors. This leads to increased sales.

Emerson designed a consistent, repeatable onboarding experience for sales associates, store managers and district managers that reinforces the company’s core values. Their new company university consists of web pages, on-the-job activity cards and support guides for managers and peer advisors. Participants use individual learning plans, learning checkpoints and knowledge checks to manage their progress.

A major oil and gas company needed to replace its loss prevention system. The project included teaching and reinforcing the processes and tools necessary to ensure proper loss prevention.

Emerson helped design and develop instructor-led and eLearning courses, as well as train-the-trainer and other implementation support.

Emerson helped a major bank deliver their bi-annual Senior Leadership Forum in a new way. We had supported their previous forum and, months later, we returned to design interactive breakout sessions targeting “priority behaviors” critical to the bank’s desired culture.

Feedback from the president was that the experience was “transformational.” Participants’ responses to the more engaging, interactive and less scripted format were overwhelmingly positive.

A major online news and social media company is always looking for ways to improve. In 2009 they wanted to kick employee skills up a notch, clarify roles and streamline operations.

Leadership asked Emerson to focus on their key departments: Product Development/Marketing, Product Engineering and Finance.

Together, we built functional, professional and industry capability models, defining specific competencies – over 200 in all. We re-designed roles, built targeted assessments, and determined learning strategies to help people develop their skills and reach the new standards.

The company rolled out the program to its entire global organization.

A large state government organization discovered that an inconsistent on-boarding experience turned enthusiastic new hires into flight risks. They asked Emerson to help them create a consistent and easy program that would span large and small groups at any location.

We designed a new curriculum and partnered with internal experts to develop a blended program, incorporating e-learning, instructor-led sessions and self-directed training. Our client launched the new program, ensuring new employees feel welcome and prepared to succeed.

A specialty foods producer wanted to improve their sales process, particularly for their premiere brand. They launched a sexy million-dollar ad campaign that included a variety of pop icons like Levi Johnston, Snooki and Charlie Brown. To gain the success they hoped for, however, they knew they needed an aligned sales team to tell the same story.

They hired Emerson to help.

Before we began our work, the sales team had pushed this brand to their grocery clients by focusing on health benefits and the fact that this company is the biggest grower/supplier of nuts in the world. We reframed their story to be about limited shelf space, small margins and the ROI that would result by adding even just one bin of long-shelf-life pistachios on the floor.

The sales team also leaned toward “wonderful results” as part of their message but, instead, we had them focus on the “squeeze” – the challenge for profit in a tight market.

The result? Our message frame was incorporated into their sales pitch. To ensure continued success, we followed up and with sales training to ensure all future sales pitches were aligned around the common story.

A major clothing retailer decided to reinvent roles for store employees, hoping to realize cost savings through reduced management headcount and more efficient operational processes. After redefining roles for all retail employees — from sales associates to district managers — they needed to train existing and new employees to perform those roles.

Emerson worked with the company’s learning and development team to analyze existing training, design appropriate methodologies for each level, and develop training that was modular, user-friendly and sustainable.

The result was a program comprising four, level-specific programs covering topics from new hire on-boarding to operational processes to leadership skills development.

A major clothing retailer is always trying to create a better shopping experience for its customers. They introduced hand-held mobile point-of-sale devices so associates could meet any customer need, right on the sales floor.

Emerson developed an instructor-led solution that was delivered to employees by HQ staff. The program included a video, a graphic-novel-style learner guide, and realistic in-store scenarios for practice with the new tools.

Our solutions connected with their young workforce and the store team was successful from the very first day.

A major university’s IT department provides technology services to a world-class university, so there isn’t much room for error. The 360-member team was proud of its outstanding work, but leaders knew IT needed to improve how they manage, plan and forecast when partnering with university clients and health care subsidiaries. They asked Emerson to help improve their value to the organization.

​We conducted a series of highly facilitated working sessions and collaborated with key stakeholders to reshape the IT division and make sure project management and business acumen complemented their team’s top-notch IT skills. The result? Twenty-two job models and associated competencies, a training needs analysis for each role and a training development plan. The results were integrated into curriculum planning, recruiting, career progression planning, succession planning, and performance management. With our help, the university met its goal: an IT department worthy of the Harvard of the South.