All over the world, talent development professionals work every day to help create a world that works better. They do this by developing the knowledge, skills, and abilities of others. Each year, the ATD Excellence in Practice Awards celebrate the efforts of individuals and organizations whose commitment to excellence sets them apart.

The ATD Excellence in Practice Award for leadership development is presented to a practice that increases the managerial or leadership ability of an individual, or the managerial/ leadership capacity of an organization. TELUS, based in Las Vegas, is one of the most recent winners of this award.

TELUS International’s global leadership development program, the Learning@TI road map, provides a continuous, progressive journey as team members grow their career at TELUS International.

“Through the Learning@TI road map, team members are prepared and ready for their next role before their promotion so that they can hit the ground running,” explains Michelle Braden, TELUS International’s CLO and vice president of Global Learning Excellence. “It is key to how we support our fast growth while maintaining our high engagement and high performance.”

As team members advance in the company, they are required to develop skills according to their role. Depending on the development phase, the content is facilitated through self-paced learning, blended learning during a boot camp experience, hands-on application, coaching, and shadowing, among others.

Given that TELUS International is a global provider of exceptional customer service and next-gen IT consulting, part of the impetus behind the development program is to ensure global consistency. For example, leaders around the world understand that putting customers first is instrumental to TELUS International’s success.

The Learning@TI road map also focuses on team member engagement to combat the high attrition rate within the industry. Since the road map’s implementation in 2015, engagement scores for TELUS International have increased from 80 percent to 84 percent. In addition to the engagement metric, business impacts such as first-call resolution and quality of service ratings are analyzed. Finally, promotion rates are looked at as part of the program’s evaluation.

Following the internal success of the TELUS International learning and training program, the company has developed a learning solutions package that allows clients to improve their own new hire training, drive engagement, and improve overall customer experience.

The 2018 application will open on July 1. Entry deadline is Sept. 21, 2018.