2021 Agenda

Host & Chairman’s Virtual Welcome

Heads of Learning Panel Session

Key Trends Shaping Learning & Talent Development

What is the next chapter for corporate learning? During this session, we will explore some of the key trends taking place in L&D and how they translate into strategy and action. Join us as our panel of talent and learning leaders from the financial services sector will discuss the shifts taking place within the learning organization, and how they are embracing change and opportunity to position their organizations for the future. Topics to be discussed include:

• Upskilling and reskilling – what are the new workforce and leadership skills needed
• Long term challenges of remote working and hybrid workforce structures
• Improving learning experiences and engagement
• Learning’s Role in DEI
• Carving a bigger role as strategic business partner
• Perspectives on what the future of learning will look like

Moderator:

Panelists:

Upskilling and Reskilling Leads to a Flexible Workforce of the Future

The need to focus on preparing employees for the future has never been more apparent. For many businesses, upskilling and reskilling their workforce is essential to meet the changing demands of their customers, while driving retention, increasing diversity and enhancing productivity among their employees.

During this session, Karen Wilson and Karen Humphries will provide an inside look into how Bank of America’s award-winning onboarding, coaching and development program, The Academy, in partnership with the company’s Global Human Resources and Learning & Leadership Development organizations, reskilled and realigned more than 33,000 teammates across the company to help meet its clients’ needs during the pandemic. These job changes enabled teammates to learn new responsibilities and systems, and to work with new teams.

Hear lessons learned and best practices for executing a large-scale redeployment effort, and how this is shaping the go-forward strategy at Bank of America: The flexible workforce of the future.

Preparing for Learning in the Flow of Work

Workflow learning is designed to drive business outcomes and focus on the learner.  During this session, we will examine the various ways to achieve learning in the flow of work and how to put your employees in touch with the right resources at the right time and right place. As learning organizations prepare to manage learning in new ways, it’s important that the operational model for learning is ready to provide seamless learning services to employees – transformation of Learning Operations is as critical as the transformation of learning itself. In this session, we will explore challenges the session participants have seen in the formation of their learning eco-system, and consider the lessons learned in the development of (LxP) environment for a global faculty team.

Creating the environment for learning in the flow of work
• Lessons we’ve learned
• Case Study: Global Leadership Faculty through Social Collaboration
• Situational Analysis – why change?
• Infrastructure and Solution alignment
• The human touch
• Community Mangers
• Moderators
• Build it and they might come – making collaboration come alive

Learning vs. Change Management: Models, Modalities, and Mayhem

This session will explore the intersection between Learning and Change Management, focusing on the similarities and differences between these disciplines. We will also discuss the potential negative impact of conflating these concepts (i.e., role and project confusion) and how L&D professionals can bring clarity. Finally, the session will address when and how to partner with Change Management Professionals to best sustain change.

Personal Development for the L&D Professional

Designed to boost your skills, our Personal Development for the L&D Professional sessions are mini high impact presentations designed to provide easily digestible bite-sized information and tangible take-a-ways for you the L&D professional.

SPEED NETWORKING SESSION

Meet and connect with your peers during our round robin speed networking session. The AI powered system will randomly match you with another learning leader for a three minute 1:1 video chat. Once the timer hits the three-minute mark, you will be re-matched with a new partner. Make 5 new contacts within 15 minutes!

IMPLEMENTING A CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT CULTURE TO PRODUCE UNCANNY BUSINESS RESULTS!

During this session, Matt Boschi, Vice President of Training at United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM), will share some of the methods he used to help take UWM from a virtual unknown to a mortgage industry superpower. He’ll cover the best practices his teams have used to not only make UWM, the nation’s top wholesale mortgage lender, but also earned them the # 1 ranking in Training’s top training organizations list of 2021.

This presentation is intended to arm company leaders and training leaders with the tools necessary to successfully implement a learning culture and produce better business results through better training.

In this journey, Matt will explore seven sure-fire methods to deliver better training while simultaneously improving team member performance/business results. He will discuss how to flip-the-classroom into skill-based learning environments and how to get your company to buy into “learner-focused, skill-based training.” You’ll also hear how UWM leveraged the seven plays of the PERFORM model to instill a companywide continuous improvement mindset and conquered the wholesale mortgage lending market.

Ramp Reps 5x Faster by Creating Personalized Training at Scale

Lessonly is an enablement solution that helps sales teams onboard at scale, close more deals, and hit quota faster.  Learn how they can help teams improve speed-to-productivity, utilize personalized coaching to streamline professional growth and improve confidence with on- demand practice and skill building.

Panel Session

USING TECHNOLOGY TO PERSONALIZE LEARNING & DRIVE BETTER BUSINESS RESULTS

Providing learning content based on choice, preference and performance continues to be an important challenge for many L&D organizations. Technology plays a key role in facilitating the advancement of customized learning and improving employee engagement. Our panelists will share how they are leveraging various digital tools to improve the learner experience. Topics of discussion will include:

• Personalized learning and meeting the expectations of the modern workforce
• Learning technology that supports customized learning: AI, VR, AR, learning analytics, video, social learning, gamification
• Barriers to implementing new technology and strategies for overcoming them
• Future predictions

Moderator:

Panelists:

BREAK

Workforce Transformation

Hear how Allego is helping organizations deliver fresh, bite-sized learning and content that employees need to succeed in today’s dynamic, virtual business environment.

Successful Tips for Setting Managers Up for Success

Are you setting your managers up for success? During this session Kamaria Scott, Manager of Enablement & Engagement shares how FIS is re-examining the manager experience. Hear how they are defining new skill sets, clarifying role expectations, removing obstacles, and focusing on developing managers that can live and thrive during change and ambiguity.

Small Pilot, Big Impact: 10 Major Lessons from a Single Microlearning

For years, the Operations Executive Leadership at Independence Blue Cross has been asking Operations Academy for Training Impact and ROI analyses. And for those years, we couldn't deliver anything beyond a Kirkpatrick Level 2 - Knowledge. We couldn't prove behavior change and we definitely couldn't define true dollars-and-cents impact. Until now.

This case study explores the big impact that a single microlearning had on our organization. The call center within Operations has over 700 agents and using real performance data we were able to pinpoint who needed support in the area of documenting calls. We were then able to deliver a targeted microlearning to those agents to help boost their knowledge and performance.

For the first time, our team was able to deliver the holy grail of proving ROI. But we also learned so much more and we were able to tell a compelling story to leadership and now we're ready to share that story with you!

Host & Chairman Day One Wrap Up

Conclusion of Day One

Host & Chairman Day Two Welcome

Re-thinking Team Training: Building and Nurturing Strong Team Dynamics at Scale

Over the past year, we have all been forced to work, manage, and connect in new ways. The role of middle managers has been especially challenging and stressful as companies are expecting managers to do things they are not equipped to do — manage virtual and hybrid teams, support disengaged and burnt out employees, and navigate difficult social conversations. A recent global Future Forum study showed that middle managers (managing 1-6 people) are 46% less satisfied with their jobs than senior executives (managing at least 15 people). 

The role of the manager is changing and will continue to evolve as working environments become more nuanced and team dynamics are no longer nurtured through a weekly team lunch or monthly happy hour. Combine that with a once-in-a-generation transition that will result in the formation of a 2-tier system — those who work from home and those who show up in the office — and the existing inequities become magnified. Employee churn will continue to hamper productivity and cause headaches for HR and senior business leaders.

The skills that are needed from managers to drive performance and engagement — empathy, well-being, belonging — are communal skills that need to be learned and applied as a team. We can’t solely train managers by extracting them from their teams and then expect them to go back and successfully apply these concepts. We need to support managers by training them alongside their teams, but team training today is only reserved for the top 5% of executive teams through professional facilitators and executive coaches. In this session we will talk about practical approaches for team training at scale to help managers live into the new role they need to play for the 95% of teams that aren’t supported today.

High Tech Learning: Leading the Digital Transformation in Workforce Development

In a time where there’s no shortage of technological innovation, there’s an increased need for soft-skills. Automation means employees have the time and capacity to turn from endless paperwork to providing personalized service in addressing client concerns. Simulator technologies are valuable in allowing teammates to practice a deeper understanding and heightened empathy for the events that shape clients’ lives, before they even step into the job, allowing them to be fully prepared for these interactions.

During this session, Mike Wynn will provide an inside look into how Bank of America’s award- winning onboarding, coaching and development program, The Academy, leverages high-tech tools to empower employees with hands-on practice and interactive coaching before they even step into client interactions. He will discuss how Virtual Reality (VR) Coaching Simulators and AI- Powered Conversation Bots can prepare employees to serve clients in the digital age, where relationship building is more important than ever.

Bank of America’s simulators prepare teammates to advise clients during major life events by putting teammates in immersive situations so they can gain empathy for all situations. During this session attendees will gain insight around the following:

• Why Bank of America has invested in simulator technologies - Virtual Reality (VR) Coaching Simulators and AI-Powered Conversation Bots
• The benefits of these technologies, and how they shape real-world interactions
• How to unlock the power for these technologies for your workforce

Panel Session

Innovating Risk, Compliance & Regulatory Training: Demonstrating Impact

Learning leaders continue to be under increased scrutiny from regulators who not only want to know that training took place but want evidence of the ‘effectiveness’ of that training. And although progress has been made over the past several years, research shows that compliance training continues to struggle with the aged old problem of engagement. During this session, we will explore strategies for engaging the modern learner and solutions to track learning impact and behavior change. We will explore:

• Engagement strategies for a distributed workforce
• Collecting and utilizing data to identify risks and compliance hotspots
• Digital tools that enhance learning and behavior change
• Measuring impact and providing evidence that learning occurred
• The ‘art’ of meeting the requirements of Compliance, Audit and Regulators while also delivering impactful training

Moderator:

Panelists:

How Financial Services Firms Build DE&I Capability Using Immersive Learning Simulations

Although many financial services leaders acknowledge the need for diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I), they face challenges with executing on a DE&I imperative. Challenges abound when trying to engage learners in a safe environment across the enterprise. 

One solution to these challenges has been the use of immersive simulations to teach, coach and practice diversity-related skills. The rise of simulations within the financial services sector is due in part to their engaging learner experience, ease and depth of deployment. 

In this session, we’ll take a closer look at how L&D teams are using simulation technology to build DE&I skills and awareness within their workforce.  You’ll get a tour through a DE&I simulation in action, and see how it was authored (it’s easier than you think). And you’ll get a chance to see the holy grail - the powerful behavioral data that can be tracked within simulations.

Personal Development for the L&D Professional

Designed to boost your skills, our Personal Development for the L&D Professional sessions are mini high impact presentations designed to provide easily digestible bite- sized information and tangible take-a-ways for you, the L&D Professional.

This session will focus on “Making it Work: The Case for Positive Partnerships.” #TeamLife is ubiquitous. For L&D professionals, effective partnership can make or break a project. This session will focus on how to operate a spirit of “positive partnership,” and how to identify and mitigate elements of toxic collaboration.

L&D’s Role in Fostering DEI

During this session, we will explore learning’s role in fostering diversity, equity and inclusion, and how to drive those initiatives across the organization. We will examine how to collaborate with D&I and other key partners in your organization to ensure that your L&D programs are aligned with DEI priorities and business outcomes.

Panel Session

Onboarding: Increasing Speed to Productivity

Onboarding challenges have grown significantly over the past year and a half.  The pandemic changed—perhaps permanently -- new hire orientation and training approaches.  And as financial services organizations work to get back on their feet post pandemic, new hire ‘speed to productivity’ has taken center stage.   Learn how your peers are building robust onboarding programs which are key to developing and retaining an engaged workforce.  Our panelists will share how they are accelerating the ‘speed to productivity’ process and explore how the lessons learned in 2020 will continue to shape the future of onboarding.  Topics to discuss:

• Benefits of longer onboarding journeys
• Strategies to help remote & hybrid new hires feel connected to team and culture
• Methods of pre-boarding and pre-start training
• Tech tools that support seamless onboarding and accelerate productivity
• How much do you invest in onboarding—finding the right ROI balance for your organization
• What’s next?

Panelists:

Innovations in Early Career Training

Organizations invest a significant amount of money and resources into their entry level training programs. Seen as a fruitful means to filling the talent pipeline of an organization, they aim to develop new hires--with little professional experience-- and equip them with the skills and knowledge they need to quickly thrive and contribute to the company. As the financial service industry continues to evolve and restructure, many organizations are taking a step back to rethink their entry level training strategy. Hear how one organization is bringing innovation to entry level training.

Host & Chairman Day Two Wrap Up

Conclusion of Conference