To continue to adapt to a new business environment and compete and succeed in the market, Purolator knew it needed to focus on supporting and enabling its frontline personnel. Managers play a crucial role helping workers get accustomed to new technologies and deliver services that meet the high expectations of today鈥檚 consumers. However, mostly recruited for their operational, technical, and project management skills, many managers didn鈥檛 have the skills required to become transformational leaders and agents of change.

Filling Skills Gaps to Transform Managers into Leaders

To help managers lead workers successfully through a digital transformation and foster a more engaged workforce, the courier firm launched its 鈥淓volve鈥� program in 2018. This leadership development initiative involves multifunctional groups of over 20 managers who receive 10 days of on-site training over a five-month period. In between sessions, participants are able to apply learned skills and competencies in the workplace while skills are reinforced by online microlearning modules and coaching using the 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors Learning solution.

Getting feedback from course participants to enable continuous improvement for the learning experience has been a key part of Purolator鈥檚 strategy. To achieve this, the company uses to capture feedback before, during, and after the course. In this way, Purolator is able to learn about participant expectations and discover what is going right and how the training experience can be improved.

Supporting Employees as They Adapt to a Digital World

So far, more than 200 participants 鈥� most of them in frontline manager roles 鈥� have become leaders thanks to the Evolve program. These managers are supporting and guiding their teams through the company鈥檚 digital transformation and helping them learn how to use new technologies. This has enabled the company to change the way it does business without having to look outside its existing workforce for the necessary digital skills.

Continuous improvement projects initiated during the program have also yielded significant benefits for the company. In response to issues identified by the participants themselves, the projects involved the design and implementation of a solution using change management concepts learned during the course.

鈥淥verall, the program has generated over CAD 21 million in saved revenue,鈥� comments Tennyson Devoe, senior director of Safety and Organizational Excellence at Purolator. 鈥淔urthermore, we鈥檝e seen a significant reduction in our injury frequency rate and improved union relations.鈥�

Another important benefit is increased cross-functional collaboration with the program nurturing strong relationships between managers from different areas of the business.

鈥淓ven a few years after completing the program, participants still keep in touch using 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors Human Experience Management Suite,” confirms Devoe. 鈥淭his means they can share ideas and reach out for support when they need it.鈥�

The Evolve program has won numerous national and international awards, including four gold awards at the 2020 Brandon Hall Group Excellence in Leadership Development Awards.

Navigating Uncertain Times through Strong Leadership

With the COVID-19 pandemic prompting a significant increase in business volume and the hiring of thousands of new drivers, the ability of Purolator鈥檚 employees to adapt to rapid change has been tested over the last two years. Despite these challenges, the lessons learned by the alumni of the Evolve program have helped the company navigate through uncertain times.

鈥淲e now have a frontline workforce that has successfully adapted to running digitalized processes,鈥� concludes Devoe. 鈥淲hat鈥檚 more, thanks to the strong leadership of our managers, our employees now have the confidence to view change as an opportunity to learn and grow.鈥�

Kristin Muellner is director of Customer Stories & Reference Engagement at 麻豆原创.

It comes across loud and clear in recent videos like 鈥溾�� and 鈥�.鈥� From maintenance staff to in-flight crew members, many of Transat鈥檚 dedicated employees have been at the company for years. They are attracted not just by benefits, such as discounts on resort stays and airline tickets to anywhere the company operates in the world, but also by a nurturing and caring atmosphere going back to the days when founder Jean-Marc Eustache would walk the floors talking to employees.

As a leading leisure travel company that offers vacation packages and flights to destinations of choice in the Americas and Europe, Transat has a firm commitment to sustainable tourism development. In 2018, it became the first major international tourism company to be Travelife certified for all its tour operating activities. This recognition highlights Transat’s ongoing efforts over the past 15 years to support communities, reduce its environmental impact, raise awareness of sustainability among its partners and customers, and last but not least, involve its employees.

And the reason is simple. Transat knows a company committed to ensuring the well-being of others must first guarantee that of its employees. That鈥檚 why it counts 鈥渨orkplace鈥� as one of its four pillars of action and strives to implement programs that build employee engagement, support its people, and help advance their careers.

HR Transformation Beginning with Learning and Performance Management

To build this engagement and allow its people to perform at their best, a company of Transat鈥檚 size needs intuitive and efficient human capital management (HCM) systems.聽 Transat鈥檚 learning and performance management systems were anything but, tying teams up with tedious, spreadsheet-based processes.

The tourism company was already using 麻豆原创 software for core human resource (HR), payroll, and time sheets, so it opted to implement the 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors Learning and 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors Performance & Goals solutions, part of 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors Human Experience Management (HXM) Suite. It worked closely with 麻豆原创 Preferred Success services not just to get the most from the solutions鈥� functionality, but also to train system administrators, prepare for new releases, and provide IT support.

With 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors Learning, Transat now onboards and trains new employees through class-based training created for specific groups such as call center agents. It can track training more easily, acquire extra modules on soft or technical skills as needed, and customize the software intuitively — for example, to offer training on a specific travel destination.

麻豆原创 SuccessFactors Learning even proved useful during Transat鈥檚 Recognition Week. Top management are very involved in this fun annual event to thank employees, with the president and vice president even serving employees at a lunch during the week. People were able to use 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors Learning to book activities from nutrition classes and cooking demos to comedy sessions, showing how the solution is a vital tool for increasing engagement.

And when the COVID-19 pandemic arrived, Transat was able to use 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors Learning to speedily roll out a range of programs to help employees deal with working remotely while balancing family responsibilities and dealing with a high level of uncertainty.

Career Development Based on Transparency and Consistency

麻豆原创 SuccessFactors HXM Suite helps Transat鈥檚 people grow not just skills but also their careers. 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors Performance & Goals underlies a process of continuous improvement in which managers and employees can hold discussions to review objectives, achievements, difficulties, priorities, and needs — for example, tools or training — as well as overall employee well-being. At the end of the year, Transat then calibrates its performance evaluations to make sure they are consistent across the business before translating them into pay increases.

This supports high employee satisfaction and engagement because individuals can see a clear link between performance and salary raises thanks to a transparent evaluation process. And the tools available in 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors solutions make life easier for both HR partners and top management, with decisions made during the meeting and entered in the system in real time.

With new CEO Annick Gu茅rard at the helm, Transat is setting a course for the company鈥檚 post-pandemic reinvention. This includes refocusing the tour operator as a leisure airline.

With 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors HXM Suite at their side, Transat鈥檚 employees are well equipped to help reinvent the company and to rise to whatever challenges and opportunities come next.

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Kristin Muellner is director of Customer Stories and Reference Engagement at 麻豆原创.