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Conversation skills for 180 managers, moved online within days
Staying in conversation with employees supports sustainable employability and lowers absenteeism. From that conviction KPN decided to train around 180 managers in conversation skills. When the pandemic arrived a week before the start, the whole program moved online within days.
Managers walked into conversations unprepared
Operational managers in the stores, the field engineering organization and Customer Service steer employees and customer processes directly, and their teams saw somewhat higher absenteeism than the rest of KPN. Many managers went into conversations unprepared, without a plan, and found them tense.
HR business advisor Alinda Kiemel: 'How do you start and hold a good conversation? What may you ask and what not? We wanted to address this absenteeism and help our managers improve the dialogue on the work floor.'
Four virtual moments, with practice in between, moved online within days
KPN asked three providers to think along and chose Relevance, which offered the most complete set of learning interventions, taught the HR advisors how to lead intervision sessions themselves, and worked the most common cases per department into the practice material.
Seventeen groups of ten to twelve managers, from Groningen to Maastricht, followed a four-month program: online assignments and four virtual moments. A morning of theory and an afternoon of practice with actors in time slots on MS Teams, an intervision session a month later, a second training day, and a closing intervision. In between, the CrossKnowledge platform offered extra practice and deepening material.
After the first sessions the trainers fed back what was hard: asking open questions, getting to the point, staying businesslike without becoming too empathetic. The program doubled down on those points, from listening and leaving silence to summarizing on content and feeling.
E-learning and platform
Online assignments plus practice and deepening material on the CrossKnowledge platform.
Virtual training days with actors
Theory in the morning, practice with professional actors in the afternoon, in MS Teams time slots.
Intervision led by KPN's own HR advisors
Two sessions per group, with the HR advisors trained by Relevance to lead them.
Own cases
The most common cases per department in the material, and managers bringing their own.
Conversations that are no longer daunting
Almost a year on, conversations have become less daunting for the managers, thresholds are gone, and Customer Support reported absenteeism 2% lower, which Alinda Kiemel is careful to attribute to an interplay of factors including working from home.
The intervision sessions turned out to be the most valued part: store managers in Groningen ran into the same things as their colleagues in Maastricht, and experienced and young managers learned from each other. KPN has since professionalized its own absenteeism workshop, and both that workshop and the skills training are now part of the standard training offer and onboarding of new managers.
The success of the training lay in the variety of learning moments. Combining e-learning with intervision and practice on the platform, and letting people bring their own cases, gave them tools to do better tomorrow.
Alinda KiemelHR business advisor, KPN (translated from Dutch)
The biggest takeaways
- 1
Variety is what worked: e-learning, virtual practice with actors, intervision and the managers' own cases.
- 2
Teach HR to lead intervision and the organization keeps the capability after the program ends.
- 3
The training only counts if it becomes standard: KPN put it in the onboarding of every new manager.
A one-page PDF with the key items, the numbers and the biggest takeaways. Handy for a meeting, or to forward.
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