The retail redeployment: How’d they do it?
See how we changed the way we work to keep everyone working.
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In her 30 years at Verizon, Adriana Lange has seen a lot. But the Director of Learning and Development had never been offered a challenge as big or as daunting as this: Find a way to retrain 5,300 retail employees (in quick order) so that they can keep working to serve our customers while their stores are temporarily closed.
“As soon as I got the call, my team went to work figuring out how we could make that happen in such a short time frame,” Adriana said.
Training a new representative to handle general customer service inquiries typically takes over a month, but Adriana and her team realized that this particular group of employees has advantages over external new hires.
“They already know a heck of a lot,” said Adriana. ”They know our pricing, our promos, our products. They know Verizon. That allowed us to take the training from five weeks of classroom time to one day.”
But the actual training was only one small part of the project.
“Yes, the training is a gargantuan task, but all of the details that wrap around the training are equally as gargantuan.”
The team had to consider basic operational issues like: How do you identify the employees? How do you get them the equipment they need? Who do they report to? How do they fill out their timesheets?
“I’m really happy to say that as the team came together, it was an awesome cross-functional collaboration to make it happen. It was just amazing,” she said.
As Adriana engaged with multiple teams to bring the project to life, she saw her fellow V Teamers answering the call again and again.
“We always show up in a crisis. We’re putting this massive effort forth so that we can ensure that all of our V Teamers have a way to help. I think that’s when we V Teamers shine - when we’re asked to do the impossible - and we do it.”
Yes, the training is a gargantuan task, but all of the details that wrap around the training are equally as gargantuan.
The team had to consider basic operational issues like: How do you identify the employees? How do you get them the equipment they need? Who do they report to? How do they fill out their timesheets?
“I’m really happy to say that as the team came together, it was an awesome cross-functional collaboration to make it happen. It was just amazing,” she said.
As Adriana engaged with multiple teams to bring the project to life, she saw her fellow V Teamers answering the call again and again.
“We always show up in a crisis. We’re putting this massive effort forth so that we can ensure that all of our V Teamers have a way to help. I think that’s when we V Teamers shine - when we’re asked to do the impossible - and we do it.”
