Summary of Initiative

To ensure Convergys supports long-term career growth and the development of skills for a lifetime, we created the Leadership Development Portal. This training curriculum helps our employees develop customer service, work and life skills and build a career path from entry level into management.

The Need

Convergys’ 130,000 global employees handle more than 8 billion customer experience interactions each year. Headquartered in the United States, we employ primarily high school graduates at more than 40 sites in 20 states. As the complexity of entry-level customer service jobs increases, it is more difficult to identify candidates who possess the basic math, grammar, typing, problem-solving and communication skills required to succeed. Therefore, once we find the right candidate, we invest to ensure he or she has the up-front and ongoing training needed to be successful in the job, as well as for long-term career advancement.

The Solution

Convergys provides robust new hire training and ongoing training through our online Convergys University portal. We also encourage continuing education outside of Convergys and offer tuition reimbursement.

New hire training is paid and is a minimum of three weeks but can be up to 12 weeks depending on the client and complexity of the work. Some, like health care programs, include industry certifications. To ensure ongoing training for our employees, Convergys developed the Leadership Development Portal life skills series. A differentiated training strategy and coaching program that develops life skills, this series supports learning agility, interpersonal communications and technical skills. The program helps workers continue to learn postgraduation and enables career progression for those who are interested in a managerial path or a role in a different part of the company, such as training, quality or recruiting.

Partnerships and Enabling Public Policies

Convergys partnered with the United Nations on the Sustainable Development Goals to support improving access to lifelong learning and employment opportunities. In the United States, we developed numerous local partnerships with community organizations specializing in workforce development and training. This includes universities and nonprofits in the communities in which we live and work to support our current and future employees. We also support international partnerships such as the Points of Light affiliate Hands on Manila in the Philippines and a program for high school seniors in El Salvador and Nicaragua. Both partnerships aim to support learning development and workforce skills.

Outcomes/Benefits

Convergys’ results have delivered benefits for our employees and clients:

• We invest in approximately 14 million hours of employee-based training per year.
• 79 percent of our front-line managers are promoted from within.
• Since 2007, we’ve invested more than $7 million in tuition reimbursement for U.S.- based employees.