Investing in employee learning and development

John: [00:00:18] Welcome to HRD TV. I'm John Corrigan with HRD America. And today, I'm joined by Loren Rosario-Maldonado, chief people officer at Telvista and Outsourcing Contact Center, headquartered in Dallas. Telvista was named one of HRD America's best places to work this year. And today we're going to find out why. Loren, thanks for joining me. How are you?

Loren: [00:00:41] I'm good. How are you, John?

John: [00:00:43] I am doing well. Congratulations, first of all, on being named to HRD America's best places to work. And, you know, we're going to get some more information about this, too. Even to be nominated, you must have a low attrition rate. What steps has this to take in to reduce turnover during this great resignation? 

Loren: [00:01:03] What haven't we done should be the question. We focused a lot on building up on our employee centered practices, so building a lot of leadership to learn through learning and development projects and programs. We launched a leadership development program. We're about to launch a leadership program for for women employees, for our female employees, and continue to build upon our employee value. Proposition has been the biggest effort on our part. We've always been very people centered, but we augmented those practices. And so that's what has gotten us to to continue to mitigate the attrition. 

John: [00:01:50] Speaking of this employee value proposition, what types of benefits and perks does this to offer?

Loren: [00:01:57] We offer your standard benefits, and we're also adding more benefits in terms of learning and development. We do offer not only leadership development, but we're also adding resources that can help the rest of the of the employees build upon their professional development. Most recently, we launched a program where employees, a select group of employees, can earn, can earn scholarships to earn degrees and multiple levels of degrees, whether it's a bachelor's, master's or even a doctorate degree to help build on those perks. 

John: [00:02:42] Excellent. We've heard a lot from companies that are really honing in on learning and development, nurturing their workforce over the past year. Why is that so important for Telvista right now? 

Loren: [00:02:53] It's important because we're a call center, and one of the things that we've noticed is that we we have created various career paths along the different tracks. And what we've noticed is that employees want to see more of that. They want to see more development. They want to see more engagement. And we have the standard things right, like townhalls and focus groups with the employees. But adding the professional development component helps reach a wider net of employees while at the same time helping develop them during their tenure with us.

John: [00:03:35] Now, another special area that HR leaders have been focused on over the past year has been rewards and recognition. What can you tell me about how Telvista tackles that amongst its workforce?

Loren: [00:03:48] We do have employee awards and recognitions through either peer reviewed recognition programs or employee employee level awards that are recognized throughout our town halls and throughout our our other meetups throughout the month, quarter and the year. And we'll be building on that as the months progress because we have created various focus groups that help feed us information about how to drive those activities within the organization. So one one key aspect of those programs is that we have to make sure that they're not, you know, one and done type programs, right, that we're continuing to gauge where the company is headed while at the same time incorporating the feedback we get from employees at all levels of the organization. 

John: [00:04:42] I guess it's fair to say that for any company that wants to kind of mirror what Telvista is doing, that really listening and getting employee feedback, would you say that's the number one key to making a best place to work? 

Loren: [00:04:55] Absolutely. Absolutely. Like I said before, we've always been employee centered. What has evolved, I would say, within the last 2 to 3 years is that we've we have become more transparent, more transparent about those initiatives. We have the various focus groups and we feed back information not only to leadership but back to the focus group so that we have complete transparency and a bi directional feedback loop across the different layers and levels of the organization. 

John: [00:05:29] As we get ready to wrap up here. You've touched on a few initiatives that you're looking to really follow through on next year. Are there any goals or anything else that you have not already mentioned that Telvista is looking to accomplish to really maintain its status as a best place to work? 

Loren: [00:05:44] I would say augment what we have been doing, incorporating more of the of the feedback. This, in addition to the professional development, is a big priority for us above and beyond. Upskilling and reskilling the employees is making sure that employees, you know, grow throughout their tenure in the organization. And even if they leave the organization, they will always we strive to make sure that they leave better than when they started. And skilling reskilling, leadership and professional development are key ways to do that. 

John: [00:06:23] Well, Telvista is certainly setting an example for other companies to follow. And so are you as an HR leader. Loren, I appreciate you taking the time today and thank you for sharing your insight. 

Loren: [00:06:34] Thank you so much. 

John: [00:06:36] And thank you, everyone, for watching. This has been another episode of HRDTV.