Customized onsite courses for two divisions and a subsidiary
SIZE
USAA provides insurance, banking, investments, retirement products, and advice to more than 11 million members. Known for its legendary commitment to members, USAA is consistently recognized for outstanding service, financial strength, and employee well-being.
USAA was founded in 1922 and has 33,000 employees globally and 12 campuses across 6 U.S. cities. It is headquartered in San Antonio, Texas.
PROBLEM
Initially, USAA contacted Instructional Solutions to provide bedrock business writing skills to their Procurement Group. The Procurement Group negotiates with outside vendors and contractors. Procurement employees write contracts, summarize recommendations, and support project development. USAA wanted to improve the efficiency, precision, and effectiveness of this group’s business writing.
The training was embraced by the procurement department, which then urged the entire Enterprise Intelligence Division to offer three levels of business writing across the division.
SOLUTIONS
Multiple courses were developed as the training expanded from the Procurement Group to all of the Enterprise Intelligence Division and then to a USAA Subsidiary.
The initial training to the Procurement Group was an onsite customized course based on Instructional Solution’s Effective Business Writing Techniques course. The training was so successful that two additional courses were offered to Procurement employees: Executive Summary Writing and Managing Information Overload.
A year later, these courses were offered to all employees in the Enterprise Intelligence Division. Hundreds of employees were trained across a three-year engagement.
Writing requirements at USAA are sophisticated. Employees convey complex information, often synthesize it to recommend solutions, present highly technical financial information, need to persuade and foster connections with colleagues, vendors, and members, and also need to write with an earnest, professional voice that represents the mission of USAA.
Again in 2018, USAA’s subsidiary, USAA Real Estate, contracted Instructional Solutions to deliver similar training to three segmented groups: managers, senior managers, and senior leadership. The training for managers and senior managers was similar to that offered for USAA Enterprise Intelligence, with additional focus on financial writing and on summarizing investment risks and recommendations. The training for senior leadership was a new, customized course focused on persuasive and leadership writing, as well as regulatory writing.
EVALUATION HIGHLIGHTS
The wide expansion of the training and recommendation to offer this training to other areas of USAA is the strongest recommendation that the training was effective.
Prior to training, participants rated their business writing skills as:
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beginner 0%
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adequate 73.91%
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had major skill 26.09%
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expert 0%
After training, participants rated their business writing skills as:
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beginner 0%
-
adequate 0%
-
had major skill 82.61%
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expert 17.39%
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