Company: Alight Solutions, Lincolnshire, IL
Company Description: Alight is a leading provider of next-level human capital and business solutions. Our purpose is to power confident decisions, for life. We do this by providing our clients’ employees with the tools, technology, resources and guidance to make more well-informed decisions around their health, wealth and wellbeing. We currently provide services to 36 million employees and dependents worldwide.
Nomination Category: Sales Awards Achievement Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Sales Training or Coaching Program of the Year - All Other Industries
 Nomination Title: Alight’s Retiree Solutions New Sales Agent Training Program
- Briefly describe the nominated organization or individual: history and past performance (up to 200 words):
Total 170 words used.
Alight’s Retiree Solutions New Agent Sales training program for contact center agents has a track record of tremendous continuous improvement over the past years. What started as a few Word documents and PowerPoint slides is now a full suite of blended learning curriculum with synchronous and asynchronous learning activities. Our training program for new sales agents breaks down an immense amount of complex knowledge that involves highly regulated health insurance industry content into digestible and transferable learning made simple for our contact center agents. Our training program has the unique challenge of scaling upwards of five hundred temporary agents annually to coincide with Medicare’s Open Enrollment season. Because of this, the agents need comprehensive knowledge acquisition during our training program, so they are fully prepared to assist customers immediately upon release from training. With the addition of a video-based practice tool called Rehearsal, the Training Arcade, a gaming platform, and a new train the train program, the new agent sales training program has been taken to a whole new level.
- Outline the nominated achievement since July 1 2021 that you wish to bring to the judges' attention (up to 250 words):
Total 216 words used.
Over the past 16 months, significant enhancements to our new agent training program helped us accomplish major goals which were instrumental to the success of our organizational achievements. The Retiree business was a recent acquisition for Alight, so in addition to our enhancement initiative, all 400+ learning artifacts in our program had to be rebranded to meet Alight’s brand standards. In addition to overcoming this challenge, the following achievements were accomplished:
- Implemented an innovative practice program using Rehearsal—a video-based practice and coaching platform designed to allow our agents to record themselves completing practice scenarios, and submit the recordings for mentors to review, provide comments, and personalized feedback and coaching. This provided our new agents multiple opportunities to practice and receive feedback on their newly acquired skills, which increased knowledge retention and improved transfer to the job.
- Implemented a gamification platform called the Training Arcade, which increased agent engagement, reduced training time, and provided question level feedback which helped focus future training opportunities.
- Constructed a Train-the-Trainer (T3) program to take top performing agents through a four-week immersion of foundational virtual training and facilitation skills to transform them into virtual trainers to deliver the new agent training program to new contact center agents. This ensured the new agent training program was delivered with consistency to all new agents.
- Reference any attachments of supporting materials throughout this nomination and how they provide evidence of the claims you have made in this nomination (up to 250 words):
Total 189 words used.
The following documents provide further information about the program achievements.
Rehearsal Provider Look Up (jpg) – This shows an assignment that the agents completed in the new Rehearsal platform.
Provider Lookup Rehearsal Activity (MP4) – An example response to the “Provider Look Up” assignment from an agent using the Rehearsal platform
Quotes from Agents Regarding Rehearsal (ppt) - These are quotes from users of the newly implemented Rehearsal platform
Jeopardy! Gameboard (png) – A view of the Jeopardy game board created for OEP Readiness.
Training Arcade Dashboard (png) – This dashboard view shows the high-level reporting we can see from the games we develop.
Train the Trainer Overview (ppt) - A trainer recruiting video is included in this Train the Trainer Overview document which describes what the program entails.
Retiree Health Solutions Facilitator Handbook (pdf) – This guide provides the details provided during the train the train session to our experienced agents who delivered the onboarding training program
Quotes from Train the Trainer participants (ppt) – Newly certified trainers share their thoughts on the trainer the trainer program.
Retiree Solutions Results (pdf) – Dashboard of sales and service numbers
- Which will you submit for your nomination in this category, a video of up to five (5) minutes, explaining the nominated achievement since July 1, 2021, OR written answers to the questions? (Choose one):
Written answers to the questions
- If you are submitting a video of up to five (5) minutes in length, provide the URL of the video here, OR attach it to your entry via the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above, through which you may also upload a copy of your video. If you are submitting written answers to the questions for this category, provide them in the spaces below.
- Explain why the achievement you have highlighted is unique or significant. If possible compare the achievement to the performance of other players in your industry and/or to the nominee's past performance (up to 250 words):
Total 246 words used.
The significance of the above enhancements in the new agent training program are seen in the results to our business outcomes and agent performance improvements:
- Targeted use of a Rehearsal activities reduced the number of new agent complaints to an acceptable level in less than one month.
- Our Sales to benchmark soared to 161%, with a sales closing ratio of 84.5%
- After implementing our enhanced new agent training program, Alight’s Retiree solutions Net Promoter Score improved 10.4 points from 68 up to 78.4, a full 2 points above our competitors
- Increased agent quality scores from 83.85 to 89.8, showing faster speed to quality proficiency
- Successful completion of training requires 80% or higher on final assessments. In 2023, our average agent’s assessment scores were 93%, significantly higher than standard
- 96% of learners coming out of our onboarding program were confident in their ability to apply what they learned to their role. This shows the learners were highly engaged with the content in our program
- Initial implementation of Training Arcade game reduced our OEP readiness training from 4 hours to 2 hours, a cost savings of over $26K in agent non-productive time.
- A good national average employee engagement score is 50%. Alight’s overall company engagement score is 71%. While 71% is a strong score, the engagement score of learners coming out of our onboarding program were significantly higher coming in at 89%, attesting to the high engagement factor of our new agent program
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