HP, Inc - Customer Service Training Team of the Year
Company: HP, Inc., Boise, ID
Company Description: HP is a cutting-edge, leading technology brand with a steadfast mission to continuously innovate and reinvent for the digital world. The global brand reimagines technology with a vision of creating experiences that elevate how individuals and businesses live, work and play. The company dominates the world stage in personal computes, printers, software and solutions for consumers and businesses.
Nomination Category: Customer Service & Call Center Awards Team Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Customer Service Training Team of the Year - Internal - Technology Industries
Nomination Title: HP’s Customer Support Work of the Future, Learning Strategy & Enablement Team
HP is a leading enterprise technology brand with a steadfast mission to continuously innovate and reinvent for the digital world. The global brand reimagines technology, elevating how individuals and businesses live and work through revolutionary products that meet their every need. With a team of the world’s most innovative thought leaders constantly working towards HP’s next impressive product, the company continues to dominate the world stage in personal computers, printers and software that consumers and businesses rely on.
Since the company’s 1939 beginnings in a Palo Alto garage, to its current position as a leading Fortune 100 technology company, HP has passed countless milestones. From going public and expanding globally in the 1950s, to shipping its 10 millionth LaserJet printer in 1993 and acquiring Samsung Electronics printer business in 2017, the company has leveraged its solid foundation to become a nearly $60 billion-dollar annual business with 27,000+ patents. While the company continues to innovate, a specialized team has been focused on elevating the company’s Customer Service training to an unprecedented level. This nomination is for HP’s Customer Support Work of the Future, Learning Strategy & Enablement Team, and their initiatives to raise the bar in customer service even further.
HP’s Customer Support Work of the Future, Learning Strategy & Enablement Team is wholly-supported at the highest level of corporate leadership, understanding that customer satisfaction is the key to success and maintaining their dominating industry position. With that in mind, the Team is focused on developing and implementing best-in-class training initiatives that elevate each customer’s experience.
The Team’s training offerings include:
Data Analytics Training as part of its Work of Future efforts, a data-driven certification program that is creating a niche talent pipeline for HP as it moves towards the future.
Project Management Professional Acceleration Program, a skills-based training supporting individual team needs as identified by their leaders, and part of its Work of Future efforts.
Sustainability Training, educating employees about how they can create positive social impact, support the company’s sustainable practices, and support its goals centered around circular economy.
Tools Training that is leveraged when HP rolls out new support tools for customer service and contact center personnel, ensuring the new tool or software is leveraged efficiently and effectively.
The team also develops training programs with the well-being of CS employees in mind, including an Ergonomics video utilized during the pandemic when HP employees worked remotely. The video walked them through the ideal setup for their home office, from correct monitor height to tips on taking breaks.
The audience served by the HP Team is immense, employing 7,000+ badged customer service employees and 10,000+ contractors. To date, more than 36,000 learning hours have been completed.
The Team is several steps ahead of their competitors, offering training opportunities focused on the future of the brand instead of best practices to keep up with the competition. Perhaps the defining aspect of the team’s training efforts is the various levels offered, which includes Literacy (beginner), Fluency (knowledgeable) and Mastery (expert). HP’s training programs provide opportunities for employees to learn the basics for increased knowledge and improved job performance (Literacy), receive customized training based on their team’s needs (Fluency), and receive certifications that place them on a track for elevated positions requiring specialized skillsets (Mastery).
Their overall goal is to make HP more efficient and productive, with considerable collaboration among “students” and subject matter that impacts all areas of the business. Thanks to the team’s collective efforts, employees are learning how to effectively problem-solve, develop new skills, change their mindsets to align with business needs, and understand root problems in order to resolve issues.
With the help of a 3rd party, the team has also made training exceptionally easy for CS employees. A “hub” exists that houses all training opportunities, with employees clicking on a tile that takes them to the curriculum selected. This internal network saves their place in a training, allowing them to return as time allows. They also study mega-trends with the industry that might influence HP in the future, establishing trainings centered around futurist job titles, and upskilling employees so their various roles never become obsolete. Their goal is to always keep employees learning.
Included with this nomination are several pieces of supporting material that demonstrate the efforts and successes of HP’s Customer Support Work of the Future, Learning Strategy & Enablement Team. This includes:
A visual of the HP portal housing training opportunities
An example of how they market training opportunities to employees
Work of Future Skills Learning Path (8 skills under WoF efforts), which have generated 36,000 learning hours among HP employees, plus an additional 9,000 hours through HP’s in-person Summer School and GrowthZone Day
A link to a training example (Sustainability Training) |
A link to the Ergonomics video
Employee feedback specific to the Sustainability Training
Moments of Pride demonstrating internal appreciation for the Team’s efforts