STORY OF IMPACT Essilor Transforming Managers into Effective Leaders with Scalable, Technology-Driven Solutions Sector: Healthcare Medical Equipment & Supplies Essilor is the world leader for corrective lenses. From design to manufacturing, the group develops a wide range of lenses to correct and protect eyesight. Its headline brands include Varilux,® Crizal,® Transitions,® Definity,® Xperio,® and Foster Grant.® Essilor can be found in over 100 countries with more than 55,000 employees worldwide. Forbes consistently ranks Essilor among the 100 World’s Most Innovative Companies. The company is also known for establishing the Essilor Vision Foundation. The mission of this charitable organization is to eliminate poor vision and its lifelong consequences. One of the primary goals of the foundation is to provide eyeglasses for children in need. 1 ©2015 Center for Creative Leadership. All rights reserved. The Challenge Domestically, a core strategy for Essilor of America has been growth through acquisitions. This strategy has allowed the organization to expand rapidly in markets, services and product categories. Matt Jones, Vice President of Talent Management for Essilor of America, says the first-tier supervisors and managers leading laboratories have a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences. “It’s no surprise that these employees bring a vast amount of functional knowledge to the business, but also have varying levels of exposure to basic leadership principles,” he says. Essilor of America first turned to “off-the-shelf” solutions to fill the gap. While they were able to deploy the training quickly and saw some success, the initiative was generally viewed as unsuccessful because it lacked business context. Lab supervisors found it difficult to apply learnings from office-based role-plays to their own work environment. Essilor began to phase out this basic solution in favor of custom courses that directly fit the need; however, they simply could not keep up with the variety of needs required in an increasingly expanding and complex organization. Though Essilor has a successful global leadership curriculum, it lacked an introductory program in basic supervising and management skills. To address the needs of its diverse workforce, the company knew it needed to shore up its continuum of leadership development in support of first-tier supervisors. ©2015 Center for Creative Leadership. All rights reserved. 2 Solution Essilor partnered with global leadership experts at the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL®) to launch a blended learning solution for first-line supervisors that heavily leverages an online curriculum that could be quickly deployed across a broad geography. CCL’s existing eLearning resources are being adopted as appropriate and are complemented by newly created communication guides and job aids that reflect Essilor’s core values, workplace environment and needs. Additional courses are being custom-developed to address topics appropriate to the Essilor workplace. “Ultimately we’re getting the best of both worlds,” Jones says. “We’re using a blended approach that incorporates proven, off-the-shelf resources where appropriate, and building custom courses where necessary.” 3 ©2015 Center for Creative Leadership. All rights reserved. The program is based on CCL’s 70/20/10 framework, which is a research-based model for optimizing learning and development. CCL surveys indicate that roughly 10 percent of behavioral change and lessons learned by leaders can be attributed to coursework. Twenty percent involves learning from others, while the remaining 70 percent is linked to workplace experiences. Essilor’s new EDGE Leadership Program addresses all three dimensions of learning: formal training, mentoring, and workplace experiences. When all courses are complete, the formal portion of the program will span 54 topics organized around 10 leadership competencies vital to Essilor—from managing conflict to developing people. A single topic is introduced each month as a one-hour, online training module. To support the “learning from others” portion of the framework, each training topic cascades from the top down across three levels of leadership. Managers complete each month’s web-based course and then are prepped via a live webinar to model and reinforce the required behaviors. Coaching guides and “huddle” materials give them the tools they need to conduct mini sessions with the managers and firstline supervisors on their team. They are encouraged to bring each topic to life by sharing their own personal experiences and lessons learned. To support workplace learning, practical tools and online job aids provide real-time, step-bystep guidance in how to address the issues and opportunities that must be navigated each day. “We are on our way toward building a comprehensive program that prepares supervisors on the front line to lead the way,” Jones says. “As a bonus, everyone benefits, including the managers who serve as coaches and mentors.” ©2015 Center for Creative Leadership. All rights reserved. 4 Results Since its launch in 2012, the EDGE Leadership Program has been offered to thousands of first-line supervisors and is making a noticeable impact on Essilor’s operations. “We feel confident it is creating the foundation we need, and one we can build on, as individuals move from basic supervision through to global leadership positions,” Jones says. Creating a shared learning experience worldwide Though EDGE Leadership was initially designed for 1,300 first-line supervisors and managers at Essilor of America, the program has “gone viral.” Steve Cunningham, Senior Vice President of Human Resources for Essilor of America, says EDGE may ultimately address a need that overshadows its original intent. “We see potential in using this curriculum in other regions, particularly our emerging markets, where leadership skills are vital but resources to invest in those skills are limited,” he says. Linking leadership development to talent management Though participation in the EDGE Leadership Program is entirely voluntary, there are incentives for participation. Completion of the curriculum is a prerequisite for new management candidates. In addition, a portion of the annual bonus objective for managers is tied to their support of the program. As a result, leadership development and talent management are now more closely linked. Building strong levels of engagement Essilor now offers select EDGE courses to an additional 1,500 supervisors in 48 countries around the globe—creating a shared understanding of what it means to lead an Essilor team. The EDGE courses and supporting materials will also be offered through the company’s global learning management system, Essilor University. 5 ©2015 Center for Creative Leadership. All rights reserved. Data collected by Essilor shows that EDGE Leadership is engaging leaders across multiple levels of supervision. Nearly 80% of first-line supervisors and managers in the United States have completed the training. Nearly half of all managers are using coaching guides and huddle tools to reinforce the program and cascade learning to their teams. Those who embrace the program have become its most vocal supporters. Turning classroom learning into action Ultimately, EDGE Leadership is impacting what happens in the workplace. One example: After the launch of a training module focused on the importance of a shared vision, a third of lab supervisors voluntarily worked with their teams to create their own vision statement and enthusiastically shared their vision with others in the organization. “It’s counter to Essilor’s culture to innovate just to be clever,” Cunningham says. “We like innovations that are grounded in research, but effectively (and simply) address a need. This is true for our products, and it’s true for the training that we provide. EDGE is a good cultural fit.” ©2015 Center for Creative Leadership. All rights reserved. 6 The Center for Creative Leadership (CCL®) is a top-ranked, global provider of leadership development. By leveraging the power of leadership to drive results that matter most to clients, CCL transforms individual leaders, teams, organizations and society. Our array of cutting-edge solutions is steeped in extensive research and experience gained from working with hundreds of thousands of leaders at all levels. Ranked among the world’s Top 5 providers of executive education by the Financial Times and in the Top 10 by Bloomberg Businessweek, CCL has offices in Greensboro, NC; Colorado Springs, CO; San Diego, CA; Brussels, Belgium; Moscow, Russia; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Johannesburg, South Africa; Singapore; Gurgaon, India; and Shanghai, China. CCL - Americas www.ccl.org +1 800 780 1031 (US or Canada) +1 336 545 2810 (Worldwide) [email protected] Greensboro, North Carolina +1 336 545 2810 Colorado Springs, Colorado +1 719 633 3891 San Diego, California +1 858 638 8000 CCL - Europe, Middle East, Africa www.ccl.org/emea CCL - Asia Pacific www.ccl.org/apac Brussels, Belgium +32 (0) 2 679 09 10 [email protected] Singapore +65 6854 6000 [email protected] Addis Ababa, Ethiopia +251 118 957086 [email protected] Gurgaon, India +91 124 676 9200 [email protected] Johannesburg, South Africa +27 (11) 783 4963 [email protected] Shanghai, China +86 21 5168 8002, ext. 801 [email protected] Moscow, Russia +7 495 662 31 39 [email protected] Affiliate Locations: Seattle, Washington • Seoul, Korea • College Park, Maryland • Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Ft. Belvoir, Virginia • Kettering, Ohio • Huntsville, Alabama • San Diego, California • St. Petersburg, Florida Peoria, Illinois • Omaha, Nebraska • Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan • Mt. Eliza, Victoria, Australia Center for Creative Leadership® and CCL® are registered trademarks owned by the Center for Creative Leadership. ©2015 Center for Creative Leadership. All rights reserved. 2.15
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