Case Study: Reuters
The Challenge
In 2002, Reuters began moving technical jobs to Asia, which enabled the company to develop a new technological infrastructure for a much lower cost. This change, however, had the unintended consequence of increased complexity in managing projects across time zones, cultures, and languages. Reuters urgently needed to improve communication between regional offices to knit together a far-flung global operation while quickly bringing new hires up to speed on its products, clients, and markets.
"I saw the projections for 2010, by which time we expected to have thousands more employees in Asia, including more than half of our technologists, and I knew the communication problem was going to get much worse," said Rich Taylor, Vice President and Head of Learning, Reuters. "Reuters Learning & Development needed to head off this crisis and we needed to implement a solution fast because people can't learn English overnight. At best, we had only a few years to solve a problem that threatened to overwhelm us."
Reuters needed to improve operational effectiveness so that its teams could be faster, more accurate, and better prepared to meet customer needs:
Speed to Market
Speed is the key to success in the global news and information business. Reuters competes in milliseconds to get stories, photos, videos, and financial data onto the international wires. It needed to address the challenge of delivering news and data faster using an increasingly geographically diverse workforce. In order to accomplish this, the company needed its teams to work together more efficiently and therefore required its employees to share a common language.
Speed to Competency
Reuters was hiring thousands of new employees in off-shore locations and transitioning knowledge to them as quickly as possible. The company needed to help them learn both business English and effective interpersonal skills so they could be productive members on virtual teams in a global company.
Customer Service
Reuters had significant gaps in customer satisfaction, sometimes as much as 10 points out of 100 when compared with their nearest competitor. "The impact of incidents of poor customer service is not insignificant," said Taylor. "We have about 30 large accounts called FGAs (Focus Group Accounts) and these pieces of business are collectively worth billions of dollars of revenue—not millions, billions. They have every reason to expect and demand superlative customer service."
The Approach
Reuters needed a global training solution that:
- focused on realistic business situations for communicating in English
- could be deployed quickly
- was completely scalable
- was accessible whenever an employee had time to study
- was an effective learning tool
- was engaging for employees
- could improve problems with pronunciation
- offered lessons for English language and interpersonal skills for the workplace
- provided meaningful measurement of users' performance
- enabled managers to track each employee's progress and quantify the value of the company's investment
And in 2005, Reuters launched an online English training program using the GlobalEnglish Corporate Learning Service™.
"We believe that English taught in the context of common business situations—such as meetings, negotiating with vendors, or making sales calls—is more effective than lessons based on common social interactions," said Taylor. "Language experts reminded us that we needed a solution that taught English from native language, meaning that instructions were available in native language and not just in English. Lastly, for our employees in India, we needed a tool to help them with pronunciation that could help lessen their accents. Our extensive research found that only one vendor could meet all of these needs: GlobalEnglish."
Taylor continued, "The GlobalEnglish Corporate Learning Service has the features that we need to be successful with our program: it teaches business English and is delivered 100% online in more than 12 native languages. It leverages the latest in learning technologies for teaching not only grammar and reading, but also speaking and listening."
Business Results
Employee Engagement
Three hundred percent increase in learner utilization with 80 percent of users rating the GlobalEnglish service GOOD, VERY GOOD, or EXCELLENT.
Increased Performance
Eighty-one percent of users have improved in their ability to respond to questions/requests in English and 86 percent have improved in their ability to produce and understand email in English.
Improved Teamwork
Seventy-nine percent of users have improved in their ability to participate in meetings and over 50 percent have improved in their ability to help other non-native speakers use English.
Cost Savings
Over $2.2 MM (USD) in hard cost savings over the past three years.