Dictionary.com defines excellence as "possessing outstanding quality or superior merit; remarkably good." The practices and solutions from across the scope of talent development that appear on the following pages embody that definition. They each have earned an Excellence in Practice Award, which recognizes practices that have demonstrated clear and measurable results of achieving organizational goals, meet a demonstrated need, have appropriate design values, and clearly align with other performance improvement initiatives.

ABN AMRO Bank

Net Promoter Score Complaints Program

Category: Change Management

Partners: EarlyBridge; Faculty of Skills

The competency-based program delivers a customer experience that focuses on engaging customers around their emotions before resolving their complaints. The initiative leverages skill coaches and artificial intelligence.

Albertsons Companies

Assistant Store Director Training Program

Category: L&D

The initiative develops leaders through an immersive 10-week, on-the-job program at a training store and blended learning training sessions. Participants work closely with a cohort of peers. More than 950 associates have gone through the program.

Bell Partners

Certified Bell Maintenance Technician

Category: Learning Technologies

This e-learning, technology-based practice certifies maintenance staff and helps reduce knowledge gaps. It leverages virtual reality to assess, train, and upskill talent.

Charles Schwab

New Employee Recruitment and Development Program

Category: Onboarding

A two-week onboarding cohort helps new-to-career employees acclimate to software environments, processes, and tools during their first nine months. The program uses coaching, mentoring, and on-the-job training, which helps provide participants with a support network and sets them up for success.

China Telecom

Performance Improvement Practice for Sales Specialist in Business Hall

Category: L&D

China Telecom used a blend of learning and training modalities to enhance sales skills and performance improvement among sales specialists.

Cognizant

Developing the Leaders of Tomorrow

Category: Leadership/Management Development

Partner: Vyond

This 10- to 12-week, multipronged approach builds enterprise-wide leadership development to provide frontline leaders with new-age leadership skills and a growth mindset. The practice has resulted in increased retention, and 55 percent of frontline leaders received promotions.

IGNITE Hackathon

Category: L&D

The blended learning hackathon spans 21 weeks, covering four phases: nomination, qualifier, ideation, and build. It helped associates work collaboratively in a community model and develop minimum viable products through an immersive and curiosity-driven learning experience in soft skills and technology trends.

Project & Program Management Community

Category: L&D

The initiative is an immersive, interactive, and comprehensive certification that goes beyond conventional project management programs. It empowers and upskills associates with the right set of project and program management competencies and tools.

Systemic Sales Transformation

Category: Sales Enablement

Partner: Productivity Dynamics

The multiyear initiative improves the skills of the global sales force to expand the business of selling to companies looking for digital transformation solutions.

D&H Distributing

Sales Foundations Learning Series

Category: Sales Enablement

The 13-module, interactive program elevates the sales force and positions account representatives as proactive business advisors.

EPAM Systems

Engineering Excellence

Category: L&D

Engineering Excellence is an innovative educational system catering to employees with different backgrounds, providing tailored learning paths that strategically align with various roles and project scopes. The practice uses a skills self-assessment, learning framework, and mentoring process to address inconsistent skill sets across the company.

Infosys BPM Limited

Techno Domain Specialization

Category: Career Development

To enable career development and drive internal talent growth, the Techno Domain practice has multiple cloud-enabled assessments, learning plans, and incentivized badges for each domain learners complete, leading to better employee retention.

Kia

Onboarding - Step 2 (Understanding Value Chain)

Category: Onboarding

The program is the second part of an overall five-step onboarding practice that uses a unique, value chain board game covering the various roles and functions of divisions across the organization.

Leidos

CareerPrint

Category: Learning Technologies

This cybersecurity career development tool helps employees self-assess their capabilities against a target baseline of cybersecurity skills tailored to the organization's standardized work roles as well as the National Initiative Cybersecurity Education Cyber Workforce Framework. The initiative addresses skills gaps and develops employee skills.

LocumTenens.com

Internship Program

Category: Managing the Learning Function

The cohort-based program provides students with professional and personal development opportunities while building a talent pipeline across the organization. The initiative enabled more internship consistency and cross-department collaboration, expanding the impact on diversity, equity, and inclusion and strengthening workforce development with local colleges and universities.

LPW Training Services

Focus Up: The PM Advantage Pathway

Category: Career Development

The 18-month initiative aims to help interested employees and external contractors accelerate their project management skills. The training journey includes multiple modalities of training, certification testing, and simulated project management as well as exposure, mentorship, and career planning.

Mars China

China Impactful Leadership Camp

Category: Leadership/Management Development

The seven-week learning journey leverages practice in the flow of work, timely feedback, coaching, and social learning. Nearly 100 leaders have gone through the program in three years, which has resulted in them accelerating their capabilities while driving business growth.

Ministry of Home Affairs, Singapore

Training Institute Model of Excellence (TIME)

Category: Managing the Learning Function

TIME is a two-step approach comprising a self-assessment and an external validation component that evaluates eight specific areas to enhance the learning function and build future readiness.

NetEase Games

Reserve Supervisor Training Program

Category: Leadership/Management Development

This initiative provides customized learning courses to equip newly promoted frontline managers with the required skills and qualities in management positions and create a sustainable talent training and development model.

Sands China Limited

The Knowledge

Category: L&D

The training initiative focuses on rebranding initiatives the company implemented to create passionate brand ambassadors, equipping them to deliver bespoke guest experiences while keeping team members engaged and motivated. Structured with three stages, the program presents participants with unique challenges and offers exclusive rewards and recognitions. Upon completing each stage, participants earn an exclusive pin.

SAP

Year One Success for All in Customer Success

Category: Onboarding

During this comprehensive, yearlong program, participants learn the fundamentals for success in their new role, including in-depth knowledge of the portfolio and services, tools, functional and professional skills, and behaviors for helping customers make a smooth transition from on-premise software to the cloud.

Siemens

MyGrowth

Category: L&D

MyGrowth takes a user-centered approach, aligning with business needs and combining self-reflection tools with highly personalized learning pathways; career progression tools; and continuous, frequent conversations about development, well-being, and performance. The program has had a 505 percent increase in digital learning hours since 2019.

Sinopec Management Institute

International Sales Professionals Development Program

Category: L&D

The practice develops qualified international sales professionals to meet urgent business needs. Based on an efficient select-train-assess-transfer model, this initiative has successfully developed an internal talent pipeline for international sales.

TELUS

Gamified Learning for Efficient Performance Improvement

Category: Performance Consulting/Performance Improvement

Partner: The Training Arcade

The gamification framework has direct impact on client key performance indicators, removes the traditional challenges of content creation, and empowers subject matter experts to build meaningful and engaging content for the front line. That led to a 34 - 76 percent performance improvement range.

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

MyMentoring Program

Category: Coaching and Mentoring

Partner: Chronus

The practice is organized around four pillars: connections, DEI focus, cohort-based, and recognition and education. The framework enables employees to engage in one-on-one career mentoring, inclusive onboarding, engagement circles, and leadership development courses. MyMentoring entails ongoing measurement and evaluation, a Mentoring Council, Mentoring Day, and Mentoring Awards.

Unisys

U-Lead Journeys

Category: Leadership/Management Development

The program spans eight weeks (two hours per week), encompassing five online modules, three virtual instructor-led sessions, a variety of one-on-ones, 360-degree feedback, goal setting, and 120-day postprogram content for learning retention. That has led to higher engagement and reduced learning time.

University of South Florida

Online Instructor Certification Program

Category: L&D

The initiative has quickly upskilled hundreds of faculty. The four-week, redesigned certification provides faculty with best practices in digital learning and online pedagogy. Cohort participation increased while maintaining high feedback, serving as a key initiative in ensuring academic continuity.

Ziraat Bank

Banking School Program

Category: L&D

The comprehensive learning and talent development initiative offers a structured curriculum, real-world internships, and a university partnership for academic excellence. Over several months, participants gain in-depth knowledge and skills in banking operations, risk management, customer service, and digital banking, leading to increased employability and enhanced performance.

ZTE Corporation

Supply Chain Lean Empowering Project

Category: L&D

Through a series of operations knowledge management and efficiency improvement measures carried out in three years, ZTE established an efficient lean talent empowerment system to facilitate solutions to business problems, such as long production lead time, while exploring the talent value activation and evaluation model to effectively guide behavior change of lean talents.