training and development case study report

The essential components of a successful L&D strategy

Over the past decade, the global workforce has been continually evolving because of a number of factors. An increasingly competitive business landscape, rising complexity, and the digital revolution are reshaping the mix of employees. Meanwhile, persistent uncertainty, a multigenerational workforce, and a shorter shelf life for knowledge have placed a premium on reskilling and upskilling. The shift to a digital, knowledge-based economy means that a vibrant workforce is more important than ever: research suggests that a very significant percentage of market capitalization in public companies is based on intangible assets—skilled employees, exceptional leaders, and knowledge. 1 Intangible Asset Market Value Study, Ocean Tomo.

Learning and development—From evolution to revolution

We began in 2014 by surveying 1,500 executives about capability building. In 2016, we added 120 L&D leaders at 91 organizations to our database, gathering information on their traditional training strategies and aspirations for future programs. We also interviewed 15 chief learning officers or L&D heads at major companies.

Historically, the L&D function has been relatively successful in helping employees build skills and perform well in their existing roles. The main focus of L&D has been on upskilling. However, the pace of change continues to accelerate; McKinsey research estimates that as many as 800 million jobs could be displaced by automation by 2030.

Employee roles are expected to continue evolving, and a large number of people will need to learn new skills to remain employable. Unsurprisingly, our research confirmed our initial hypothesis: corporate learning must undergo revolutionary changes over the next few years to keep pace with constant technological advances. In addition to updating training content, companies must increase their focus on blended-learning solutions, which combine digital learning, fieldwork, and highly immersive classroom sessions. With the growth of user-friendly digital-learning platforms, employees will take more ownership of their professional development, logging in to take courses when the need arises rather than waiting for a scheduled classroom session.

Such innovations will require companies to devote more resources to training: our survey revealed that 60 percent of respondents plan to increase L&D spending over the next few years, and 66 percent want to boost the number of employee-training hours. As they commit more time and money, companies must ensure that the transformation of the L&D function proceeds smoothly.

All of these trends have elevated the importance of the learning-and-development (L&D) function. We undertook several phases of research to understand trends and current priorities in L&D (see sidebar, “Learning and development—From evolution to revolution”). Our efforts highlighted how the L&D function is adapting to meet the changing needs of organizations, as well as the growing levels of investment in professional development.

To get the most out of investments in training programs and curriculum development, L&D leaders must embrace a broader role within the organization and formulate an ambitious vision for the function. An essential component of this effort is a comprehensive, coordinated strategy that engages the organization and encourages collaboration. The ACADEMIES© framework, which consists of nine dimensions of L&D, can help to strengthen the function and position it to serve the organization more effectively.

The strategic role of L&D

One of L&D’s primary responsibilities is to manage the development of people—and to do so in a way that supports other key business priorities. L&D’s strategic role spans five areas (Exhibit 1). 2 Nick van Dam, 25 Best Practices in Learning & Talent Development , second edition, Raleigh, NC: Lulu Publishing, 2008.

• Attract and retain talent. Traditionally, learning focused solely on improving productivity. Today, learning also contributes to employability. Over the past several decades, employment has shifted from staying with the same company for a lifetime to a model where workers are being retained only as long as they can add value to an enterprise. Workers are now in charge of their personal and professional growth and development—one reason that people list “opportunities for learning and development” among the top criteria for joining an organization. Conversely, a lack of L&D is one of the key reasons people cite for leaving a company.
• Develop people capabilities. Human capital requires ongoing investments in L&D to retain its value. When knowledge becomes outdated or forgotten—a more rapid occurrence today—the value of human capital declines and needs to be supplemented by new learning and relevant work experiences. 3 Gary S. Becker, “Investment in human capital: A theoretical analysis,” Journal of Political Economy , 1962, Volume 70, Number 5, Part 2, pp. 9–49, jstor.org. Companies that make investments in the next generation of leaders are seeing an impressive return. Research indicates that companies in the top quartile of leadership outperform other organizations by nearly two times on earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA). Moreover, companies that invest in developing leaders during significant transformations are 2.4 times more likely to hit their performance targets . 4 “ Economic Conditions Snapshot, June 2009: McKinsey Global Survey results ,” June 2009.
• Create a values-based culture. As the workforce in many companies becomes increasingly virtual and globally dispersed, L&D can help to build a values-based culture and a sense of community. In particular, millennials are particularly interested in working for values-based, sustainable enterprises that contribute to the welfare of society.
• Build an employer brand. An organization’s brand is one of its most important assets and conveys a great deal about the company’s success in the market, financial strengths, position in the industry, and products and services. Investments in L&D can help to enhance company’s brand and boost its reputation as an “employer of choice.” As large segments of the workforce prepare to retire, employers must work harder to compete for a shrinking talent pool. To do so, they must communicate their brand strength explicitly through an employer value proposition.
• Motivate and engage employees. The most important way to engage employees is to provide them with opportunities to learn and develop new competencies. Research suggests that lifelong learning contributes to happiness. 5 John Coleman, “Lifelong learning is good for your health, your wallet, and your social life,” Harvard Business Review , February 7, 2017, hbr.org. When highly engaged employees are challenged and given the skills to grow and develop within their chosen career path, they are more likely to be energized by new opportunities at work and satisfied with their current organization.

The L&D function in transition

Over the years, we have identified and field-tested nine dimensions that contribute to a strong L&D function. We combined these dimensions to create the ACADEMIES framework, which covers all aspects of L&D functions, from setting aspirations to measuring impact (Exhibit 2). Although many companies regularly execute on several dimensions of this framework, our recent research found that only a few companies are fully mature in all dimensions.

1. Alignment with business strategy

One of an L&D executive’s primary tasks is to develop and shape a learning strategy based on the company’s business and talent strategies. The learning strategy seeks to support professional development and build capabilities across the company, on time, and in a cost-effective manner. In addition, the learning strategy can enhance the company culture and encourage employees to live the company’s values.

For many organizations, the L&D function supports the implementation of the business strategy. For example, if one of the business strategies is a digital transformation, L&D will focus on building the necessary people capabilities to make that possible.

Every business leader would agree that L&D must align with a company’s overall priorities. Yet research has found that many L&D functions fall short on this dimension. Only 40 percent of companies say that their learning strategy is aligned with business goals. 6 Human Capital Management Excellence Conference 2018, Brandon Hall Group. For 60 percent, then, learning has no explicit connection to the company’s strategic objectives. L&D functions may be out of sync with the business because of outdated approaches or because budgets have been based on priorities from previous years rather than today’s imperatives, such as a digital transformation.

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To be effective, L&D must take a hard look at employee capabilities and determine which are most essential to support the execution of the company’s business strategy. L&D leaders should reevaluate this alignment on a yearly basis to ensure they are creating a people-capability agenda that truly reflects business priorities and strategic objectives.

2. Co-ownership between business units and HR

With new tools and technologies constantly emerging, companies must become more agile, ready to adapt their business processes and practices. L&D functions must likewise be prepared to rapidly launch capability-building programs—for example, if new business needs suddenly arise or staff members require immediate training on new technologies such as cloud-based collaboration tools.

L&D functions can enhance their partnership with business leaders by establishing a governance structure in which leadership from both groups share responsibility for defining, prioritizing, designing, and securing funds for capability-building programs. Under this governance model, a company’s chief experience officer (CXO), senior executives, and business-unit heads will develop the people-capability agenda for segments of the enterprise and ensure that it aligns with the company’s overall strategic goals. Top business executives will also help firmly embed the learning function and all L&D initiatives in the organizational culture. The involvement of senior leadership enables full commitment to the L&D function’s longer-term vision.

3. Assessment of capability gaps and estimated value

After companies identify their business priorities, they must verify that their employees can deliver on them—a task that may be more difficult than it sounds. Some companies make no effort to assess employee capabilities, while others do so only at a high level. Conversations with L&D, HR, and senior executives suggest that many companies are ineffective or indifferent at assessing capability gaps, especially when it comes to senior leaders and midlevel managers.

The most effective companies take a deliberate, systematic approach to capability assessment. At the heart of this process is a comprehensive competency or capability model based on the organization’s strategic direction. For example, a key competency for a segment of an e-commerce company’s workforce could be “deep expertise in big data and predictive analytics.”

After identifying the most essential capabilities for various functions or job descriptions, companies should then assess how employees rate in each of these areas. L&D interventions should seek to close these capability gaps.

4. Design of learning journeys

Most corporate learning is delivered through a combination of digital-learning formats and in-person sessions. While our research indicates that immersive L&D experiences in the classroom still have immense value, leaders have told us that they are incredibly busy “from eight to late,” which does not give them a lot of time to sit in a classroom. Furthermore, many said that they prefer to develop and practice new skills and behaviors in a “safe environment,” where they don’t have to worry about public failures that might affect their career paths.

Traditional L&D programs consisted of several days of classroom learning with no follow-up sessions, even though people tend to forget what they have learned without regular reinforcement. As a result, many L&D functions are moving away from stand-alone programs by designing learning journeys—continuous learning opportunities that take place over a period of time and include L&D interventions such as fieldwork, pre- and post-classroom digital learning, social learning, on-the-job coaching and mentoring, and short workshops. The main objectives of a learning journey are to help people develop the required new competencies in the most effective and efficient way and to support the transfer of learning to the job.

5. Execution and scale-up

An established L&D agenda consists of a number of strategic initiatives that support capability building and are aligned with business goals, such as helping leaders develop high-performing teams or roll out safety training. The successful execution of L&D initiatives on time and on budget is critical to build and sustain support from business leaders.

L&D functions often face an overload of initiatives and insufficient funding. L&D leadership needs to maintain an ongoing discussion with business leaders about initiatives and priorities to ensure the requisite resources and support.

Many new L&D initiatives are initially targeted to a limited audience. A successful execution of a small pilot, such as an online orientation program for a specific audience, can lead to an even bigger impact once the program is rolled out to the entire enterprise. The program’s cost per person declines as companies benefit from economies of scale.

6. Measurement of impact on business performance

A learning strategy’s execution and impact should be measured using key performance indicators (KPIs). The first indicator looks at business excellence: how closely aligned all L&D initiatives and investments are with business priorities. The second KPI looks at learning excellence: whether learning interventions change people’s behavior and performance. Last, an operational-excellence KPI measures how well investments and resources in the corporate academy are used.

Accurate measurement is not simple, and many organizations still rely on traditional impact metrics such as learning-program satisfaction and completion scores. But high-performing organizations focus on outcomes-based metrics such as impact on individual performance, employee engagement, team effectiveness, and business-process improvement.

We have identified several lenses for articulating and measuring learning impact:

• Strategic alignment: How effectively does the learning strategy support the organization’s priorities?
• Capabilities: How well does the L&D function help colleagues build the mind-sets, skills, and expertise they need most? This impact can be measured by assessing people’s capability gaps against a comprehensive competency framework.
• Organizational health: To what extent does learning strengthen the overall health and DNA of the organization? Relevant dimensions of the McKinsey Organizational Health Index can provide a baseline.
• Individual peak performance: Beyond raw capabilities, how well does the L&D function help colleagues achieve maximum impact in their role while maintaining a healthy work-life balance?

Access to big data provides L&D functions with more opportunities to assess and predict the business impact of their interventions.

7. Integration of L&D interventions into HR processes

Just as L&D corporate-learning activities need to be aligned with the business, they should also be an integral part of the HR agenda. L&D has an important role to play in recruitment, onboarding, performance management, promotion, workforce, and succession planning. Our research shows that at best, many L&D functions have only loose connections to annual performance reviews and lack a structured approach and follow-up to performance-management practices.

L&D leadership must understand major HR management practices and processes and collaborate closely with HR leaders. The best L&D functions use consolidated development feedback from performance reviews as input for their capability-building agenda. A growing number of companies are replacing annual performance appraisals with frequent, in-the-moment feedback. 7 HCM outlook 2018 , Brandon Hall Group. This is another area in which the L&D function can help managers build skills to provide development feedback effectively.

Elevating Learning & Development: Insights and Practical Guidance from the Field

Another example is onboarding. Companies that have developed high-impact onboarding processes score better on employee engagement and satisfaction and lose fewer new hires. 8 HCM outlook 2018 , Brandon Hall Group. The L&D function can play a critical role in onboarding—for example, by helping people build the skills to be successful in their role, providing new hires with access to digital-learning technologies, and connecting them with other new hires and mentors.

8. Enabling of the 70:20:10 learning framework

Many L&D functions embrace a framework known as “70:20:10,” in which 70 percent of learning takes place on the job, 20 percent through interaction and collaboration, and 10 percent through formal-learning interventions such as classroom training and digital curricula. These percentages are general guidelines and vary by industry and organization. L&D functions have traditionally focused on the formal-learning component.

Today, L&D leaders must design and implement interventions that support informal learning, including coaching and mentoring, on-the-job instruction, apprenticeships, leadership shadowing, action-based learning, on-demand access to digital learning, and lunch-and-learn sessions. Social technologies play a growing role in connecting experts and creating and sharing knowledge.

9. Systems and learning technology applications

The most significant enablers for just-in-time learning are technology platforms and applications. Examples include next-generation learning-management systems, virtual classrooms, mobile-learning apps, embedded performance-support systems, polling software, learning-video platforms, learning-assessment and -measurement platforms, massive open online courses (MOOCs), and small private online courses (SPOCs), to name just a few.

The learning-technology industry has moved entirely to cloud-based platforms, which provide L&D functions with unlimited opportunities to plug and unplug systems and access the latest functionality without having to go through lengthy and expensive implementations of an on-premises system. L&D leaders must make sure that learning technologies fit into an overall system architecture that includes functionality to support the entire talent cycle, including recruitment, onboarding, performance management, L&D, real-time feedback tools, career management, succession planning, and rewards and recognition.

L&D leaders are increasingly aware of the challenges created by the fourth industrial revolution (technologies that are connecting the physical and digital worlds), but few have implemented large-scale transformation programs. Instead, most are slowly adapting their strategy and curricula as needed. However, with technology advancing at an ever-accelerating pace, L&D leaders can delay no longer: human capital is more important than ever and will be the primary factor in sustaining competitive advantage over the next few years.

The leaders of L&D functions need to revolutionize their approach by creating a learning strategy that aligns with business strategy and by identifying and enabling the capabilities needed to achieve success. This approach will result in robust curricula that employ every relevant and available learning method and technology. The most effective companies will invest in innovative L&D programs, remain flexible and agile, and build the human talent needed to master the digital age.

These changes entail some risk, and perhaps some trial and error, but the rewards are great.

A version of this chapter was published in TvOO Magazine in September 2016. It is also included in Elevating Learning & Development: Insights and Practical Guidance from the Field , August 2018.

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Jacqueline Brassey is director of Enduring Priorities Learning in McKinsey’s Amsterdam office, where Nick van Dam is an alumnus and senior adviser to the firm as well as professor and chief of the IE University (Madrid) Center for Learning Innovation; Lisa Christensen is a senior learning expert in the San Francisco office.

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The 5 Best Examples of Employee Training Courses & Development Programs

LinkedIn’s latest Workplace Report found that people who aren’t learning in your organization will leave. 

So, how can you help employees upskill to be better at their jobs and motivate them to stay in the company? One effective tool available to L&D teams is employee training and development programs.

In this article, we’ll define employee training and development and its importance, showcase five concrete examples of training programs (with high-profile case studies), and provide four tips to help you get your development programs up and running.

First, what is employee training and development?

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What is employee training and development? 

Employee training and development is the process of designing, creating, and delivering courses for employee learning.

For example, L&D teams use training and development programs to onboard new hires, match mentors with mentees to boost professional development, or close an organization’s skills gaps through upskilling or reskilling initiatives. 

By providing thorough and customized training and development programs, you and your team can enhance employees' skills so they excel in their roles, increase their job satisfaction, and clarify their career development.

Next, let’s look at how training and development programs contribute to your company's business goals. 

The importance of employee training courses

The benefits of employee training programs range from those that impact employees to those that affect an organization’s bottom line.

Employee training programs are essential for organizations seeking an upskilled and knowledgeable workforce. L&D teams can leverage training and development to empower employees to gain the skills they need to succeed in their company and industry.

Without precisely planned training programs, companies can’t expect to make an impact on employee retention. Well-designed development programs make it easy to showcase that your organization cares about employees’ professional growth. If they see the company as one that supports their career development, they will be more likely to stay. 

In fact, according to our survey of over 1,000 American employees, self-directed learning and career development training were seen as the most appealing options for people looking to reskill:

Streamlined and robust training programs will also increase employee performance, improve job satisfaction, and boost employee engagement. 

Next, let’s look at the five best examples of employee training and development programs.

5 best examples of employee training & development programs (with case studies)

From onboarding to leadership development, many employee training management can be tweaked to fit your organization’s bespoke needs. 

Today, we’ll look at five examples of employee training and development programs, each with a quick case study for some real-world inspiration.

1. Onboarding

Onboarding or new hire training helps new employees understand their roles and responsibilities and how they fit within the organization.

L&D leverages employee onboarding training programs to introduce new hires to the organization. The learning process will include standardized milestones that help new employees understand and learn about the company, co-workers, and their new role. 

Case study: Onboarding at Aircall

Aircall is the cloud-based call center and phone system of choice for modern businesses. 

With 650 employees, the company is growing fast. To meet the pace of their growth, the L&D team restructured their onboarding program to make it scalable, interactive, and collaborative.

Leveraging 360Learning , the team at Aircall increased the efficiency of their onboarding training programs by empowering subject-matter experts to work with the L&D team to create business-specific onboarding courses .

By boosting knowledge sharing across the organization, the L&D team has scaled their onboarding and broader employee training with impactful, demonstrable results ranging from onboarding 40 new hires with only one full-time employee to impacting professional development with high numbers of employees contributing to course creation. 

2. Technical upskilling 

Upskilling is training that gives employees new skills and competencies to help them do their jobs better.

Skill development is a crucial area of learning and development. By designing and deploying upskilling employee training programs, L&D teams can increase employee productivity, streamline succession planning, and increase employee retention.

Technical training focuses on teaching employees the specific skills they need, including operating machinery and using company software. By increasing employee competencies, technical upskilling can ensure that they are performing at a high level in their current roles and that they will prepared for future positions.

Case study: Upskilling at Amazon

Amazon’s $1.2 billion Upskilling 2025 programs focus on supporting employees to learn critical skills for the in-demand, higher-paying technical or non-technical roles.

For example, the Amazon Technical Academy equips non-technical Amazon employees with the necessary skills to pursue successful careers in software engineering. The in-person training courses leverage instructor-led and project-based training sessions with a significant focus on applying the skills in the real world.

Amazon also included a new skill development program, AWS Training and Certification, which helps employees of all roles and backgrounds to work in the AWS cloud. The learning program includes instructor-led training, gamification, and exam certification. 

3. Professional development

Encouraging your employees to participate in professional development training can be an incredible way to help them upskill and boost their career development.

Professional development training programs utilize various learning approaches, such as mentoring, self-paced eLearning, and online webinars, to enable employees to achieve their career goals and increase job satisfaction.

Successful L&D teams will also leverage professional development plans alongside career development training programs to help support employee retention, boost upskilling, and help meet the organization’s business goals.

Case study: Professional development at Netflix

The streaming giant Netflix runs the 12-week Pathways Bootcamp , a part-time training program that equips employees with the necessary development skills. 

After completion, employees gain access to post-course training materials and online tutorials to help them face common programming challenges the streaming industry faces. Employees can also engage in mentoring opportunities with Netflix professionals to help with their career development. 

To enhance company culture, the Pathways Bootcamp development program focuses on learners from historically underrepresented communities. The New Grad Program also helps new hires build community and networks through training programs on Netflix culture, including professional development. 

4.  Mentoring

Mentoring is a type of training that promotes human connections and involves transferring knowledge, skills, and experience from one person to another. 

As a training method, mentoring includes traditional one-on-one or reverse mentoring, where older, more experienced individuals learn from younger ones. Mentorship programs promote and strengthen a culture of learning and drive diversity initiatives.

Case study: Mentoring at Spotify

Employees at Spotify can use the music streaming platform’s internal talent marketplace, Echo , to build their career portfolios and generate connections across a global workforce. 

One of the ways Echo offers job opportunities is through mentoring, which allows employees anywhere across the globe to connect and learn from a mentor at Spotify. Echo uses artificial intelligence to match mentors and mentees based on skills automatically, and best practices developed by the L&D team guide the relationship. 

5. Leadership development

Leadership training is a type of soft skill training that focuses on interpersonal abilities, emphasizing leadership qualities and skill sets that influence directing others.

Leadership training aims to cultivate skilled leaders capable of positively impacting their teams and contributing to the company's success. Effective leadership development programs will prioritize soft skills such as communication, decision-making, conflict resolution, and delegation.

Case study: Leadership development at Bank of America

At the Bank of America, the leadership investment initiatives offer a range of leadership development training programs.

For example, the Women’s Next Level Leadership Program focuses on helping multicultural women with their career development through assessments, strategies, and tactics offered in an eight-month virtual online learning experience.

Additionally, the New Manager Program empowers new or promoted managers’ upskilling to lead their teams successfully. The training program includes interactive and personalized learning resources to fit each individual employee’s learning style and needs.  

With those inspiring employee training and development examples in mind, let's shift our focus to helping you establish an impactful talent management program.

4 tips for creating a great training course

If you’re going to design and manage training and development programs that impact employee upskilling and meet business goals, we’ve got four tips to get you started. 

First, you’ll need to ensure that your training goals align with your organization’s business goals.

1. Align training goals with business goals

A successful employee training program provides team members with valuable skills to achieve company goals.

You'll need to conduct a training needs analysis to ensure you achieve this alignment between these objectives. As a critical aspect of learning and development decision-making, a training needs analysis will identify the skills your employees need to do their job well. 

For example, suppose your analysis shows that your workforce needs help to meet the demands of the digital and hybrid working environment. In that case, you can design upskilling and reskilling development programs that build on existing skills or train employees in new areas.

2. Choose an employee training method that is right for your needs

Depending on the results of your training needs analysis and identified skills gaps, you may need to implement different training methods in your development programs. 

Here are some different learning preferences and training methods to consider when decking your development plans:

• In-person training : Any form of learning where the employee is present in person, such as instructional seminars or hands-on training. 
• Online employee training : Also called virtual or eLearning, online training takes place on the Internet and can include online courses, mobile learning , and collaborative learning experiences. 
• Blended learning : Combines online training methods with in-person training. 
• Peer training : An active and engaging learning approach that empowers employees to build training courses based on their skill sets.

3. Employee training tools

You will need an employee training tool to help design, curate, manage, and measure your training programs company-wide. 

A learning management system is the go-to solution for creating, distributing, and monitoring your online training courses. However, when it comes to creating impactful employee training programs, we recommend that you invest in an all-in-one solution. 

A modern and competitive learning platform like 360Learning will empower you to automate your L&D busy work with a click, leverage AI to identify and grow the skills you need, and collaborative learning-based academies to drive your upskilling training programs. 

Leveraging a learning platform will help you deliver your training programs quickly, save you time and money in the long run, and generate metrics and reports to prove your impact on business goals.

4. Improve training and development programs and measure ROI

We recommend that you measure the impact of your training programs, collect feedback, and update employee training materials to ensure they are as effective as possible.

Proving the return on investment (ROI) of your training and development programs is vital in justifying your budget and getting that crucial stakeholder buy-in and support. You can collect metrics such as engagement, program completion, and relevance scores to illustrate how employees consume your training courses. 

We recommend that when you start designing your training programs, you start with the end in mind . Ensure that before you plan your training, you understand the organization’s business goals and your organization’s skills gaps. 

Starting with the end in mind will make proving ROI so much easier. For extra tips on measuring the impact of your training programs, check out our 3 Data-Based Ways To Prove Training ROI (+ Free Training ROI Calculator) .

Collaborative learning empowers training and development

You’re welcome to use these 25 employee training templates and checklists for better training programs and these best practices in training and development to help kick off your training program journey. 

Better yet, a comprehensive learning platform like 360Learning combines collaborative learning Academies, AI-powered L&D, and the features of an LMS and an LXP to help you design, curate, and manage training programs at scale and pace. 

Book your free online demo now to see how we can help you create an outstanding training and development program that will fit in with the five examples above!

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How to Use Case Studies in Your Employee Training Sessions

Case studies can be powerful tools for learning and training. They're evidence-based stories that showcase the outcomes you want, so using them as the basis for your training can make the training itself more engaging and more effective. The question is, how can you use a case study to enhance your training for learners? There are several options.

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Table of Contents

Design a case study to fit the training, develop training to fit a case study, use a longitudinal case study to demonstrate outcomes of training, use miniature case studies to prove individual points, thread a case study throughout training, ask trainees to predict case study outcomes, discuss potential alternative outcomes in case studies, turn a case study into an immersive simulation, create a framework case study and encourage trainees to fill it out.

First up, you have one major decision to make. Do you design training around a case study, or do you design a case study to fit your training? Both perspectives are equally valid as long as the study results and the training program goals are aligned.

Let’s say you choose to design a case study to fit your desired training. For example, you're trying to implement the  Delivering Exceptional Phone Service  reproducible training course for your customer service team. To back up the training, you want a case study that showcases how putting the techniques taught in the course into practice will bolster positive outcomes with customer service.

You have two options here.

• The first is simply writing a case study based on your own experiences, accentuating the necessary details relevant to the training, and pruning it down to the bare essentials to prove your point.
• The other option is to seek out existing case studies performed by renowned research firms that support your points.

In either case, you can then use the case study as a "real world" example of how the techniques in the training can be put to actual use and how they tangibly impact positive outcomes. Make sure to highlight specific aspects of the case study and how they relate to the practices put forth in the training module for better retention.

Your second option, as an alternative, is to develop your training to fit an already existing case study.

The process looks a little something like this:

• Begin by finding a case study that results in the outcomes you're seeking. For example,  this case study from Train Like a Champion  focuses on getting training to produce long-term results, something that every company can benefit from implementing.
• Next, review the case study. Look for salient details and mechanisms used to achieve the outcomes you desire. Ideally, the case study itself will support those mechanisms and expound upon how to use them.
• Finally, develop a training module that integrates the case study and its data, as well as the mechanisms you uncovered, to train your employees to achieve those same outcomes.

You can accompany the training module with the case study, with details and data uncovered along the way, or you can use it as a companion piece or use it as cited sources or proof for the claims you're making. None of these choices are inherently wrong, so pick the ones that work best with your staff and your means of training to create a better learning experience.

Longitudinal case studies are case studies that look at and measure specific data about their subjects over a long period. Such case studies can follow individuals throughout a particular period of years, their careers, or their entire lives. For example, longitudinal studies are often used in medicine to help study the long-term effects of various substances and illnesses.

A longitudinal case study can be a powerful tool for building training. You can point to specific, hard evidence that certain kinds of training not only improve short-term results and benefits for employees, clients, and companies but can increase the value of employees throughout their careers.

Using this kind of case study can be an essential part of encouraging your employees to take the training seriously. After all, it's one thing to encourage employees to participate in training because it benefits customers or the company, but it's quite a different incentive if you can showcase how that training will improve their career prospects.

The tricky part about this is that case studies can prove many different points because different people have different career trajectories and leverage different skills in different ways. That is why it can be essential to begin with training modules such as  What's My Leadership Style  to help employees identify which individuals to follow in the case study and which outcomes are most relevant to their specific situations.

If finding specific, relevant longitudinal studies isn't possible, an alternative approach involves leveraging small-scale case studies to reinforce key points throughout your training process. For example, throughout a comprehensive  customer service training  course, you can use specific case studies that highlight varied responses to an irate customer, showcasing how different approaches lead to distinct outcomes. These case studies provide tangible examples to support decisions about adopting a placating, resistant, or combative tone in customer interactions.

The benefit to this option is that there are, in general, many more small-scale case studies than there are more extensive, longitudinal case studies. Moreover, it's much easier to find them and use them to prove your points. Long-term case studies can have surprising outcomes, and they can have findings that contradict your studies and policies. That can be difficult to reconcile unless you're willing to wholly adjust your training and direction.

The biggest potential drawback to this option is that there are many small-scale case studies, many of which can have contradictory outcomes. With the vast pool of small-scale case studies available, there is a risk of cherry-picking examples that selectively support a specific viewpoint, regardless of their overall value. This practice could compromise the integrity of the training content and may not provide a holistic representation of the topic at hand. Trainers should exercise caution and ensure that the chosen case studies are relevant, unbiased, and contribute substantively to the overall learning objectives.

If you think back to some of the more effective textbook designs for schools in higher education, you may find a through-line. Many effective textbooks include an ongoing, long-term set of examples, or "characters," they follow along the way. For example, in courses where you learn a language, a textbook will often have a set of characters who interact in varying situations to showcase quirks of language, particularly conversational use of the language.

A case study can be used in this manner for your training. Fortunately, many comprehensive and overarching training courses have these kinds of examples and case studies built into them.

The goal is to allow your trainees to explore training in a multifaceted way. That might include links to studies, links to infoboxes, video interviews, and much more.

An added benefit of this training method is that you can make a single training module much more comprehensive in terms of answers to common and uncommon questions. Training employees from a point of knowledge can be surprisingly challenging because it can be tricky to judge even what the trainees don't know. Providing in-depth, interlinked, embedded answers to questions for trainees to explore helps bring everyone to the same page.

One thing that sets effective training apart from ineffective training is the level of interactivity. When training is interactive and engaging, trainees learn much more from it by participating in "real-life" examples and demos of the training in action. This approach enables participants to apply their knowledge in real-life situations, promoting a deeper understanding and emphasizing their problem-solving ability to choose appropriate resolutions.

One way to help encourage engagement in training is with a case study that puts that training into action. Divide the case study between setup and resolution, and have the trainees read the setup portion of the training. Cut it off as the individuals in the case study are making their decisions based on the training (or ignoring the training).

Then, ask the trainees to predict what the outcomes will be. Encourage them to write down their predictions. Then, you can progress with the case study and reveal the actual results of the training. While some case studies may follow predictable paths, introducing occasional curveballs keeps participants on their toes. These unexpected twists challenge trainees’ critical thinking skills and their ability to adapt their problem-solving strategies. You can then discuss why they made the predictions that they did and what led them to their decisions, whether right or wrong.

This interactive approach not only transforms training into a participatory experience but also creates a platform for meaningful discussions.

Like the above, you can leverage case studies and predictions to speculate. How would the outcome have changed if the individual in the case study made a different choice or acted differently?

What changes would your employees make?

"After reading a case study together or independently, you can have your participants write a different ending to the case study. For example, if you read a story about a woman who improved her communication skills after attending a workshop (just like the one your students might be in), have them write what would happen if she didn't attend the workshop. Have them write what would happen if she was engaged/not engaged. Ask them to consider what is going on in the woman's life that might impact her ability to communicate appropriately or efficiently during the time of training. Writing a different outcome prompts participants to consider the whole story and not just the parts that are presented to them." –  TrainingCourseMaterial

For an interesting case study of your own, you can ask your trainees to read a situation and convey how they would act in that situation before implementing the training in the first place. Then, progress through the training modules. When finished, ask the trainee to revisit, see how accurate their behavior is to the goal, and ask them what changes, if any, they would make.

Once again, studies show that the best training is training produced in the form of an immersive simulation.  

Look for industry case studies about particular incidents.  Several agencies  produce comprehensive investigations into the circumstances behind industrial accidents, often in factory, warehouse, or shipping processes. These case studies can form the basis of a scenario wherein you ask your employees to role-play how they would respond if the incident occurred in your facility.

You can then use the realities of the investigation to enforce consequences in the simulated disaster. For example, say you're training employees to handle a chemical spill in a warehouse. The established procedures outline specific actions to be taken. Within the simulation, introduce a scenario where one employee is found unconscious within the chemical spill. This introduces a critical decision point: will someone attempt a rescue, and if so, will they do so without proper preparation? You can then remove this individual from the training scenario because their actions led to them being incapacitated.

There are many such examples. Always remember that most, if not all, industrial and commercial regulations are built on the back of people dying because of loopholes or unforeseen circumstances.

This approach allows employees to engage with the training material in a hands-on, realistic manner. It not only reinforces the importance of adhering to established protocols but also highlights the potential repercussions of deviating from proper procedures. The immersive nature of these simulations helps employees internalize the lessons, making the training more impactful and applicable to their day-to-day responsibilities.

Finally, another way to use case studies for training is to turn your trainees into case studies themselves. Build a framework or a template of a case study, with questions about the scenario, their responses, the training, and their behavior after the training. Encourage trainees to fill out these case study templates, then participate in training, and fill them out again. For added value, track these employees for months afterward to see where they've gone, how they've implemented their training, and how it has improved their careers.

The use of case studies can be a powerful training tool, but they can only be effective if coupled with practical training modules. After all, you can't know how to reach your goals without knowing where you are. That's why we offer dozens of training options in our reproducible training library, as well as dozens more assessments (both instructor-led and self-guided) to help establish baselines and build awareness.

Check out our training library, and find case studies that align with your company values and learning objectives.

To learn more about how to help your employees, check out our  What’s My Leadership Style  course. This course is a management development tool, leadership style assessment, and online training workshop. This comprehensive tool is designed to pinpoint an individual's leadership style, offering valuable insights for organizational leaders, managers, and supervisors. By utilizing this tool, professionals can enhance their performance and cultivate the skills necessary to evolve into effective and impactful leaders within their respective roles.

Do you have any questions or concerns about using case studies in your employee training sessions to provide the best outcomes for your learners? If so, please feel free to leave a comment down below, and we'll get back to you! We make it a point to reply to every message we receive, and we would be more than happy to assist you or your company however we possibly can.

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About our author

Bradford r. glaser.

Brad is President and CEO of HRDQ, a publisher of soft-skills learning solutions, and HRDQ-U, an online community for learning professionals hosting webinars, workshops, and podcasts. His 35+ years of experience in adult learning and development have fostered his passion for improving the performance of organizations, teams, and individuals.

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Training Industry

Case study: how mcdonald’s integrates learning into the employee experience.

Striving to be the “best first job,” McDonald’s knows many of its employees are at the beginning of their career path. Some, still in high school, may not have the resources to attend college and are beginning to wonder, “What happens next?” Some may be working to finish high school or college to gain the skills and education requirements needed to take the next step in their careers. Still others may be looking to sharpen their English skills to communicate better with customers and open more doors in the future.

With an estimated 1.9 million employees dispersed across the globe, supporting employees’ unique personal and professional goals would call for an innovative, comprehensive, solution — which is why McDonald’s launched Archways to Opportunity ® in 2015.

The Archways to Opportunity program helps McDonald’s employees across the globe improve their English skills, earn a high school diploma, work toward a college degree, and create an education and career plan with the help of career advisors. With the recently launched Archways to Careers app, McDonald’s employees can now access many of these professional development opportunities — and new ones — at their fingertips. Rob Lauber, chief learning officer at McDonald’s, says the app helps employees “find and unlock” their passions, identify related career opportunities, and make a plan to achieve them.

Let’s examine how McDonald’s has integrated professional development into the employee experience to set its workforce up for success not only at the Golden Arches but in life.

Archways to Opportunity: A Brief Overview

Since its launch in 2015, Archways to Opportunity has :

• Awarded high school and college tuition assistance to over 35,000 employees, totaling over $90 million.
• Had over 750 employees graduate from its career online high school program and over 7,250 employees graduate from English Under the Arches (launched in 2007).
• Increased access to education for over 50,000 people through its various programs.

While these initiatives undoubtedly benefit employees, they’re also good for business. For example, McDonald’s believes English Under the Arches has helped retain employees. Through a blended learning approach, the initiative seeks to teach employees the “English skills that restaurant employees need most,” such as common words and phrases they will encounter on the job.

McDonald’s education benefits are another way it attracts and retain employees in an industry currently facing a major labor shortage . Its employees are eligible for tuition assistance after working at least 15 hours per week for 90 days. Crew workers are eligible to receive $2,500 per year, and managers are eligible to receive $3,000 per year.

As John Colborn, director of the Aspen Institute’s Skills for America’s Future initiative, explains , “When companies like McDonald’s provide these kinds of programs, they not only enhance life opportunities for their workers, they also gain a more engaged and talented workforce.”

With the benefits the Archways to Opportunity program has brought to both employees and the company, Lauber says it “made perfect sense” to take the next step in supporting employees’ professional growth: launching a career development app.

Archways to Careers: Vision, Strategy and Measurement

McDonald’s launched its career development app, Archways to Careers, to supplement the Archways to Opportunity program with “personalized, one-on-one” professional guidance, Lauber says. By providing learning on demand, the app also aims to help reduce common barriers (e.g. transportation, costs and scheduling conflicts) for employees looking to advance their careers.

Unlike an in-person course or workshop, Lauber says, an app proved the best way to “touch as many people as possible.” For busy restaurant workers, it’s critical that they can access everything from career coaching to English courses on the bus ride to work, between the breakfast and lunch rush, or in the comfort of their own home.

With help from an existing partner and a coaching company, the app took roughly 10 months to build. A key part of the process was seeking and implementing feedback on the app’s progress to ensure the finished product would meet employees’ needs and deliver the value it was expected to, Lauber says. As the app is largely targeted toward learners who are just entering the workforce, McDonald’s decided to “support employees more directly” through one-on-one career coaching sessions with objective, third-party career advisers, Lauber says. According to the press release , the credentialed advisors will help restaurant employees “chart a path to achieve the future job or career they desire.”

Employees can also view education requirements and salaries for roles and industries that, based on conversations with employees, McDonald’s found to be of high interest, such as health care, technology and finance.

Measurement

McDonald’s will measure the app’s success in several ways, including monitoring downloads and tracking user engagement with career advisers on the platform. Of course, Lauber says, “Like any app, it’s only as good as its current version … we’ll be looking for ways to improve the app going forward with future releases.”

A Learning Experience

The Archways to Careers app expands the reach of McDonald’s career development opportunities. However, employees also gain numerous opportunities for personal and professional development on the job, whether it’s learning to communicate with co-workers of different backgrounds or using soft skills like empathy to understand customers’ points of view and provide stellar customer service. Lauber says, “The experiences people in our restaurants get, just from working there, set [them] up with excellent life skills.”

McDonald’s goal is to engrain professional development into the employee experience. As a result, even if employees don’t take advantage of the career development opportunities they’re offered, they still benefit from a “host of development opportunities while working in the restaurant,” Lauber says. They are constantly learning new skills, and refining old ones, on the job.

Although McDonald’s employees are each unique in their career aspirations, backgrounds and personal interests, they have one thing in common: an employee experience shaped by learning and development.

• #Archyways to Opportunity
• #employee experience
• #learning application
• #mobile learning
• #professional development
• #training application
• #Workforce Development

Sarah Gallo

Sarah Gallo is the associate editor at Training Industry, Inc. and the co-host of The Business of Learning, the Training Industry podcast .

This topic is proudly sponsored by

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Home » Human Resource Management » Case Study of Dell: Employee Training and Development

Case Study of Dell: Employee Training and Development

Michael Dell, the CEO of Dell Computer Corporation, in a recent annual report, summarized where the CEO stands on the role that learning plays in his company. He said it was people who produced results in any business, laying emphasis on how building a talented workforce remained Dell’s greatest priority as well as its greatest challenge. This challenge contained two primary issues. The first being training, developing and retaining their existing employees so they continue capitalizing on the career opportunities Dell’s growth provides them. The second being to actually successfully recruit employees at all levels to support Dell.

The CEO said the company progressed pertaining to both issues in the previous fiscal year, adding Dell would continue to keep it a critical area of focus. Dell filled more than half of its executive-level positions with promotions from within the organization, hiring the remaining externally. Dell also modified its core training and development programs to improve employee effectiveness as well as, for the second successive year, compensation programs.

Michael Dell said hyper-growth companies that lack long-established practices have better chances of adapting with the ever-changing environment, while laying emphasis on the fact that enough structure had to be in place to ensure that growth would not go out of control. He said hyper growth needs to be dealt with in a particular manner regarding learning and leadership development.

Dell Learning was established to meet Dell`s needs pertaining to human resources. Although training had always been an integral part of Dell, in 1995, it realized the need for greater emphasis on ensuring the employees were sufficiently skilled to keep up with the firm`s hyper growth. Dell Learning, following the expansion in 1995, was also assigned a series of objectives:

• Bringing learning in line with Dell`s key business
• Making learning directly and openly available
• Creating a clarity around competencies required to maintain Dell’s hyper growth
• Providing consistency through a global curriculum

Naturally, as a response to hyper growth, Dell had to structure three fourths of its training program to target new employees, products and basic job skills. A centralized corporate team was established for training development and administration. Training managers were appointed to:

• Develop business based educational plans
• Hold business leaders responsible for execution of plan
• Ensure that sufficient resources exist to execute the plan
• Report on the plan’s impact

In addition to providing strategic direction, the corporate team includes fulfillment teams that serve Dell’s different businesses on demand. One team produces learning tools for training sales and technical audiences on Dell’s products and services. Another, ‘Education Services’, manages classrooms, registration, scheduling, tracking, and other logistics. A third group consists of highly experienced instructional designers who oversee development projects requested by the businesses. Essentially, the training organization operates as a federation. There are three parts: Corporate Training, Regional (HR) Training, and Regional (Non-HR) Training, held together by the senior management team and a series of Dell Learning councils.

The corporate group comprises six major elements:

• Corporate and Regional Operations – global education planning, financial management and reporting, and process and infrastructure.
• Dell Learning Services – instructional design services and consulting.
• Dell Learning Technology Services – enables rapid distribution of new learning technologies.
• Education Services – handles event management, vendor management, registration, facilities, and a wide range of administrative services.
• The New Product Training Group — provides core training materials for sales and technological support.
• The Program Management Office – develops strategies and aligns them with global curricula to support strategic initiatives. The specific areas of focus shift from year to year based on business needs.

The Corporate Group reports to Human Resources, a few groups, do however, report to marketing or customer service organizations even though they still take part in management meetings, operations reviews, and global strategy sessions.

This organizational structure is, in part, a response to Dell’s hyper growth status. The company’s training charter was revised around the time Dell University was reassessed and thereby renamed Dell Learning to include:

• Education should be business-issue based
• Education should be as cost-effective and time-effective as possible
• Business managers should be in charge of managing their own training investments
• Education must be flexible and able to scale
• All training should be competency based
• All learning should be just enough, just-in-time
• Learners should be in control
• Learning solutions have limited shelf life and should be treated accordingly
• Learning occurs everywhere, so our obligation is to leverage it across the organization
• The education function must create access to the intellectual capital of Dell

The establishment of such a charter as well as the nature of the computer business have forced Dell to take an aggressive take towards technology-enabled learning. In order to put learners in control, it was essential that learning solutions be available to them all the time, as well as them being able to control what they learn and when. Low-tech solutions made that possible, however, classroom learning never could. Technology has made learning omnipresent and a natural part of work.

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Tolulope J Ogunleye

Overtime, study had shown that to be relevant in any field of work there is need for continuous learning through training and development. The study is aimed at finding out the need for employees training and development in an organization. The need for improvement to change the phenomenon of low productivity and poor service delivery attributed to the employee’s in-adequate experience, calls for investigation on how effective training and development of employee can facilitate improved corporate performance using the banking industry as a field of discuss.. The study concluded that training and development brings about career growth for the employees and bankers thus the study recommended that all organization must do induction training at entry point into the banking sector.

Akash Gupta

research jounaral

Sowkarthika V

Organization and individual should develop and progress simultaneously for their survival and attainment of mutual goals. So every modern management has to develop the organization through human resource development. Employee training is the important sub-system of human resource management. Training is the act of increasing the knowledge and skills of an employee for doing a particular job. Training is a short-term educational process and utilizing a systematic and organized procedure by which employees learn technical knowledge and skills for a definite purpose. In other words training improves, changes, moulds the employee’s knowledge, skill, behavior, aptitude, and attitude towards the requirements of the job, and organization. While the former refers to training given it employees in the areas of operations, technical and allied areas, the latter refers to developing an employee in the areas of principles and techniques of management, administration, organization and allied areas .This paper aims to attempt the need of training and development programmes in respective organization and examine the methods and evolution of training programmes was discussed.

Interal Res journa Managt Sci Tech

Training plays an important role in the effectiveness of organizations and to the experience of people in work. Training has implications for productivity, health and safety at work and personal development. All organizations employing people need to train and develop their staff. Most organizations are cognizant of this requirement and invest effort and other resources in training. Indian organizations have realized the importance of training as a tool to achieve their strategic goals. It is not viewed by the organization as a cost any longer but as an investment on one of its most dynamic assets, namely, employees. Many organizations consider training as a strategic employee retention tool. It helps the organization create a smarter force capable of meeting any situation and challenges

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UN Summit of the Future: AI opportunity for everyone

Sep 21, 2024

[[read-time]] min read

Editor’s note: This week in New York City, leaders from around the world are gathering for the 79th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) — including the first ever “ Summit of the Future ” — where Google CEO Sundar Pichai delivered a keynote address today.

What follows is a transcript of the remarks, as prepared for delivery.

Introduction

Mr. Secretary-General, President of the General Assembly, excellencies, ladies and gentlemen — it’s a privilege to join you today.

I’m energized by the summit’s focus on the future. We have a once-in-a- generation opportunity to unlock human potential, for everyone, everywhere.

I believe that technology is a foundational enabler of progress. Just as the internet and mobile devices expanded opportunities for people around the world, now AI is poised to accelerate progress at unprecedented scale.

I’m here today to make the case for three things:

• Why I believe AI is so transformative
• How it can be applied to benefit humanity and make progress on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals
• And where we can drive deeper partnerships to ensure that the technology benefits everyone

Expanding opportunity through technology

But first let me share why this is so important — to me personally, and to Google as a company.

Growing up in Chennai, India, with my family, the arrival of each new technology improved our lives in meaningful ways. Our first rotary phone saved us hours of travel to the hospital to get test results. Our first refrigerator gave us more time to spend as a family, rather than rushing to cook ingredients before they spoiled.

The technology that changed my life the most was the computer. I didn’t have much access to one growing up. When I came to graduate school in the US, there were labs full of machines I could use anytime I wanted — it was mind blowing. Access to computing inspired me to pursue a career where I could bring technology to more people.

And that path led me to Google 20 years ago. I was excited by its mission: to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.

That mission has had incredible impact:

Google Search democratized information access, and opened up opportunities in education and entrepreneurship. Platforms like Chrome and Android helped bring one billion people online.

Today, 15 of our products serve more than half a billion people and businesses each. And six of them – such as Search, Maps and Drive – each serve more than 2 billion. There’s no cost to use them, and most of our users are in the developing world.

The AI opportunity

Today we’re working on the most transformative technology yet: AI.

We’ve been investing in AI research, tools, and infrastructure for two decades because it’s the most profound way we can deliver on our mission — and improve people’s lives.

I want to talk today about four of the biggest opportunities we see, many of which align with the SDGs.

One is helping people access the world’s information and knowledge in their own language.

Using AI, in just the last year, we have added 110 new languages to Google Translate, spoken by half a billion people around the world. That brings our total to 246 languages, and we’re working toward 1,000 of the world’s most spoken languages.

A second area is accelerating scientific discovery to benefit humanity.

Our AlphaFold breakthrough is solving big challenges in predicting some of the building blocks of life, including proteins and DNA. We opened up AlphaFold to the scientific community free of charge, and it’s been accessed by more than two million researchers from over one hundred and ninety countries. Thirty percent are in the developing world - for example over 25,000 researchers just in Brazil. Globally, AlphaFold is being used in research that could help make crops more resistant to disease, discover new drugs in areas like malaria vaccines and cancer treatments, and much more.

A third opportunity is helping people in the path of climate-related disaster, building on the UN's initiative for “Early Warnings for All.” Our Flood Hub system provides early warnings up to seven days in advance, helping protect over 460 million people in over 80 countries.

And for millions in the paths of wildfires, our boundary tracking systems are already in 22 countries on Google Maps. We also just announced FireSat technology, which will use satellites to detect and track early-stage wildfires, with imagery updated every 20 minutes globally, so firefighters can respond. AI gives a boost in accuracy, speed and scale.

Fourth, we see the opportunity for AI to meaningfully contribute to economic progress. It’s already enabling entrepreneurs and small businesses …empowering governments to provide public services… and boosting productivity across sectors. Some studies show that AI could boost global labor productivity by 1.4 percentage points, and increase global GDP by 7%, within the next decade.

For example, AI is helping improve operations and logistics in emerging markets, where connectivity, infrastructure and traffic congestion are big challenges. Freight startup Gary Logistics in Ethiopia is using AI to help move goods to market faster and bring more work opportunities to freelance drivers.

These are just early examples. And there are so many others across education, health and sustainability. As technology improves, so will the benefits.

The risks of AI

As with any emerging technology, AI will have limitations … be it issues with accuracy, factuality, and bias … as well as the risks of misapplication and misuse, like the creation of deep fakes.

It also presents new complexities, for example the impact on the future of work.

For all these reasons, we believe that AI must be developed, deployed, and used responsibly, from the start.

We’re guided by our AI Principles, which we published back in 2018. And we work with others across the industry, academia, the UN, and governments in efforts like the Frontier Model Forum, the O.E.C.D., and the G7 Hiroshima Process.

Preventing an AI divide

But I want to talk about another risk that I worry about.

I think about where I grew up, and how fortunate I was to have access to technology, even if it came slowly.

Not everyone had that experience. And while good progress has been made by UN institutions like the I.T.U., gaps persist today in the form of a well known digital divide.

With AI, we have the chance to be inclusive from the start, and to ensure that the digital divide doesn’t become an AI divide. This is a challenge that needs to be met by the private sector and public sector working together. We can focus in three key areas:

First is digital infrastructure.

Google has made big investments globally in subsea and terrestrial fiber optic cables.

One connects Africa with Europe, and two others will be the first intercontinental fiber optic routes that connect Asia Pacific and South America, and Australia and Africa.

These fiber optic routes stitch together our network of 40 cloud regions around the world that provide digital services to governments, entrepreneurs, SMBs and companies across all sectors.

In addition to compute access, we also open up our technology to others. We did this with Android; and now our Gemma AI models are open to developers and researchers, and we will continue to invest here.

A second area is about investing in people.

That starts with making sure people have the skills they need to seize new opportunities.

Our Grow with Google program has already trained one hundred million people around the world in digital skills.

And today I’m proud to announce our Global AI Opportunity Fund. This will invest one hundred and twenty million dollars to make AI education and training available in communities around the world. We’re providing this in local languages, in partnership with nonprofits and NGOs.

We’re also helping to support entrepreneurs for the AI revolution. In Brazil, we worked with thousands of women entrepreneurs to use Google AI to grow their businesses. In Asia, where fewer than six percent of start-ups are founded by women, we’re providing many with mentorship, capital, and training.

An enabling policy environment

The third area is one where we especially need the help of the member countries and leaders in this room: creating an enabling policy environment. One that addresses both the risks and worries around new technologies, and also encourages the kinds of applications that improve lives at scale.

This requires a few things:

• Government policymaking that supports investments in infrastructure, people, and innovation that benefits humanity,
• Country development strategies and frameworks like the Global Digital Compact that prioritize the adoption of AI solutions,
• And smart product regulation that mitigates harms and resists national protectionist impulses — that could widen an AI divide and limit AI’s benefits.

We are excited to be your partner, and to work with you to make sure bold innovations are deployed responsibly so that AI is truly helpful for everyone.

The opportunities are too great … the challenges too urgent ... and this technology too transformational, to do anything less.

Related stories

How AI can bring new opportunity in the UK

Google.org announces new AI funding for students and educators

How teachers and students helped bring Google Classroom to life

How we’re increasing transparency for gen AI content with the C2PA

A breakthrough in wildfire detection: How a new constellation of satellites can detect smaller wildfires earlier

New initiatives to help small businesses grow with AI

Let’s stay in touch. Get the latest news from Google in your inbox.

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The study of plain CT combined with contrast-enhanced CT-based models in predicting malignancy of solitary solid pulmonary nodules

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To compare the diagnostic performance between plain CT-based model and plain plus contrast CT-based modelin the classification of malignancy for solitary solid pulmonary nodules. Between January 2012 and July 2021, 527 patients with pathologically confirmed solitary solid pulmonary nodules were collected at dual centers with similar CT examinations and scanning parameters. Before surgery, all patients underwent both plain and contrast-enhanced chest CT scans. Two clinical characteristics, fifteen plain CT characteristics, and four enhanced characteristics were used to develop two logistic regression models: model 1 (plain CT only) and model 2 (plain + contrast CT). The diagnostic performance of the two models was assessed separately in the development and external validation cohorts using the AUC. 392 patients from Center A were included in the training cohort (median size, 20.0 [IQR, 15.0–24.0] mm; mean age, 55.8 [SD, 9.9] years; male, 53.3%). 135 patients from Center B were included in the external validation cohort (median size, 20.0 [IQR, 16.0–24.0] mm; mean age, 56.4 [SD, 9.6] years; male, 51.9%). Preoperative patients with 201 malignant (adenocarcinoma, 148 [73.6%]; squamous cell carcinoma, 35 [17.4%]; large cell carcinoma,18 [9.0%]) and 326 benign (pulmonary hamartoma, 118 [36.2%]; sclerosing pneumocytoma, 35 [10.7%]; tuberculosis, 104 [31.9%]; inflammatory pseudonodule, 69 [21.2%]) solitary solid pulmonary nodules were gathered from two independent centers. The mean sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, PPV, NPV, and AUC (95%CI) of model 1 (Plain CT only) were 0.79, 0.78, 0.79, 0.67, 0.87, and 0.88 (95%CI, 0.82–0.93), the model 2 (Plain + Contrast CT) were 0.88, 0.91, 0.90, 0.84, 0.93, 0.93 (95%CI, 0.88–0.98) in external validation cohort, respectively. A logistic regression model based on plain and contrast-enhanced CT characteristics showed exceptional performance in the evaluation of malignancy for solitary solid lung nodules. Utilizing this contrast-enhanced CT model would provide recommendations concerning follow-up or surgical intervention for preoperative patients presenting with solid lung nodules.

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Introduction.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in the world 1 , 2 . The imaging evaluation of a solitary pulmonary nodule (SPN) is complex, however, which can be improved by early detection and prompt treatment 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 . The American National Lung Screening Trial (NLST) 2011 showed that CT screening for lung cancer reduced mortality by 20% compared to chest X-rays 9 . Although plain CT is prominent in lung nodule detection, it is limited in differentiating benign from malignant 10 , 11 , 12 . To facilitate timely and personalized patient treatment, it is crucial to accurately characterize the nature of lung lesions. Performing a tissue biopsy is an invasive procedure, done especially on smaller nodules or in difficult-to-reach areas of the lung 13 , 14 . The PET-CT scan plays a crucial role in the diagnosis of pulmonary nodules. Nevertheless, it is associated with a notable incidence of false negatives, exemplified by cases where lung adenocarcinoma presents as subsolid nodules, as well as false positives, with pathological findings indicating inflammatory pseudotumors and tuberculosis. In addition, PET-CT requires expensive equipment and increases patients' financial burdens. In contrast to PET-CT, contrast-enhanced CT is relatively low-cost and remains the primary preoperative examination for most patients with lung nodules in developing countries. Contrast-enhanced CT helps to highlight blood vessels and other structures, making it easier to identify abnormalities such as tumors 15 . Lung nodule CT contrast enhancement reflects the nodule blood supply. The region without enhancement is strongly predictive of benign hypovascular lesion, and the region with a rich blood supply may reflect underlying nodule angiogenesis and indicate nodule malignancy 16 , 17 , 18 . Thus, a model for diagnosing lung nodules using contrast-enhanced CT is needed.

A study focusing on contrast-enhanced CT showed high sensitivity to differentiate benign and malignant nodules by using 15HU enhancement as a cut-off value (sensitivity 98%), however, the specificity for malignancy was only 50–60% 17 . These results showed that the only feature of enhancement value is not enough to effectively differentiate benign from malignant. In practical clinical work, radiologists will comprehensively consider the imaging features of nodule size, margin, and location, especially the heterogeneity of enhancement. This suggests that we need to incorporate more features to build the model, rather than just a single enhancement value feature.

This study aims to establish and authenticate two models that rely on plain CT and contrast-enhanced CT to predict the malignancy of solitary solid pulmonary nodules in a dual-center investigation. Through a comparative analysis of the diagnostic effectiveness of the two models, the study endeavors to elucidate the optimal preoperative diagnostic approach for solitary solid pulmonary nodules.

Materials and methods

Ethics approval.

The study was conducted in compliance with the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki and received approval from the Ethics Committees of the Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital (TMUCIH), and Second Hospital of Shanxi Medical University (SHSMU) (No. bc2021327), and all procedures adhered to pertinent guidelines and regulations. Informed consent was obtained from all participants.

A retrospective analysis of data from dual centers was conducted in this study. Between January 2012 and July 2021, 392 patients with pathologically confirmed solitary pulmonary nodules were recruited from center A, and 135 patients from center B. Both centers had the same inclusion and exclusion criteria: requiring patients to have a primary solitary solid lung nodule with a diameter less than 30mm on CT, to have received both plain CT and contrast-enhanced CT within one month before surgery, to have clear histologic types as indicated by postoperative pathology reports, and to have no metastasis. The study employed exclusion criteria consisting of four conditions: (1) solitary solid lung nodules with a diameter of 30mm or greater, (2) patients who underwent preoperative therapy such as neoadjuvant chemotherapy or radiotherapy, (3) patients with an unclear pathology result, and (4) unavailable contrast-enhanced CT images.

Clinical and radiological data

We retrospectively collected and analyzed radiological data from two hospitals. The study enrolled a total of 392 patients at Center A and 135 patients at Center B who met the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Preoperative contrast-enhanced and plain CT scans were acquired using SOMATOM Sensation 64, GE Discovery 750HD, GE Revolution, and Philips IQon. RadiAnt DICOM Viewer (version 2021.1) was used for image evaluation, in a lung window setting (width, 1450HU; level, -500HU) and a mediastinal window setting (width, 350HU; level, -500HU) respectively. After mutual consultation, two radiologists (C.X.N 10-year experience and Z.W.J 9-year experience) resolved discrepancies between CT characteristics given by each radiologist. Two clinical characteristics (1) age; (2) gender, fifteen plain CT characteristics (3) diameter (4) nodule location_1 (left upper, left lower, right upper, right middle, right lower); (5) nodule location_2 (peripheral, central); (6)shape (round/oval, irregular); (7)margin (smooth, lobulated, spiculated); (8) calcification; (9) fat; (10) necrosis; (11) cavitation; (12) air bronchogram; (13) pleural indentation; (14) vascular invasion; (15) post obstructive pneumonia; (16) satellite nodules; (17) Plain CT value and four enhanced CT characteristics (18) subjective enhancement (uniform, heterogeneous, no); (19) enhanced CT value; (20) enhancement difference; (21) enhancement rate (enhancement difference / plain CT value).

Computed tomography examination

CT examinations were performed at dual centers, utilizing the GE Discovery CT 750 HD and Siemens Somatom Sensation 64 CT system at the Center-A, and the GE Revolution CT, GE Discovery CT 750 HD, and Philips iQon spectral CT at the Center-B. The examinations consisted of an acquisition both with and without iodine contrast. The inspiratory scans are performed with the patient in the supine position from the apex to the base of the lungs. The scanning protocol was as follows: at Center-A, tube voltage 120 kVp with automatic tube current modulation. The iodine contrast agent Visipaque (Iodixanol, 270 mg/ml) was administered at an amount of 1.5 mL/kg and injection rate of 2.5 mL/s. Contrast agents were administered intravenously through the upper extremity. Scanning was performed 70 s after the start of the injection. At Center-B, tube voltage 120 kVp with automatic tube current modulation. The iodine contrast agent Visipaque (Iodixanol, 320 mg/ml) was administered at an amount of 60 ml and injection rate of 3.5 mL/s. Contrast agents were administered intravenously through the upper extremity. Scanning was performed 60 s after the start of the injection. The pitch, acquired slice thickness, and reconstructed slice thickness varied among the GE, Siemens, and Philips CT systems. Specifically, the GE CT system had a pitch of 0.984 and acquired and reconstructed slice thickness of 1.25 mm, the Siemens CT system had a pitch of 0.95 and acquired and reconstructed slice thickness of 1.5 mm, and the Philips CT system had a pitch of 1.23 and acquired and reconstructed slice thickness of 1.0 mm.

Model construction and evaluation

Our two models for lung nodule malignancy classification were built using 392 nodules from Center-A as a training cohort and 135 nodules from Center-B as an external validation cohort. Clinical and CT characteristics were normalized using a feature standardization method 19 . Based on the training cohort, model 1 (plain CT only) was built with two clinical and fifteen plain CT characteristics based on logistic regression ( P  < 0.05 in univariable analysis). Model 2 (plain + contrasted) was built with two clinical, fifteen plain CT characteristics, and four enhanced CT characteristics. In the external validation cohort, we verify the classification efficiency of the two models.

Statistical analysis

The present study utilized the Students' t-test to compare continuous data, which were expressed as mean values accompanied by standard deviation (SD), and categorical data, which were presented as percentages (%). Additionally, the Kolmogorov–Smirnov test was employed to compare non-normally distributed continuous variables, which were presented as medians with interquartile ranges (IQR). Statistical significance was determined by a p-value of 0.05 on both sides. The evaluation of the two cohorts involved the assessment of various performance metrics, including the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, negative predictive values (NPV), and positive predictive values (PPV). SPSS software version 20.0 (IBM Corp.) was used for the statistical analyses.

Participants

A total of 527 preoperative patients with a solitary pulmonary solid nodule were gathered from two independent institutions in China, with a median size of 20.0 (IQR, 15.0–24.0) mm and a mean age of 55.9 (SD, 9.8) years, of which 52.9% were male. The training cohort comprised 392 patients from Center-A, with a median size of 20.0 (IQR, 15.0–24.0) mm, a mean age of 55.8 (SD, 9.9) years, and a male representation of 53.3%. The external validation cohort consisted of 135 patients from Center-B, with a median size of 20.0 (IQR, 16.0–24.0) mm, a mean age of 56.4 (SD, 9.6) years, and 51.9% male. All clinical and CT characteristics are summarized in Table 1 .

The development of two models for predicting pulmonary nodule malignancy

Three hundred and ninety-two nodules (adenocarcinoma, 115 [75.2%]; squamous cell carcinoma, 23 [15.0%]; large cell carcinoma, 15 [9.8%]); pulmonary hamartoma, 87 [36.4%]; sclerosing pneumocytoma, 27 [11.3%]; tuberculosis, 74 [31.0%]; inflammatory pseudonodule, 51 [21.3%]) were in the training cohort. To compare the diagnosis difference between plain CT and enhanced CT for solid pulmonary nodules. We constructed two logistic regression models that without and with contrast enhanced CT characteristics. In the plain CT model, a total of twenty-one variables were generated, with vascular invasion (1.0877) and pleural indentation (0.5985) being the two most significant variables for predicting nodule malignancy, and fat (− 0.9334) and smooth (− 0.7732) being the two most important variables for predicting nodule benign. In the contrast-enhanced CT model, twenty-five variables were generated, with heterogeneous enhancement (1.8129) and vascular invasion (0.9249) being the two most significant variables for predicting nodule malignancy, and fat (− 0.9425) and round/oval (− 0.7041) being the two most important variables for predicting nodule benign. The detailed variables information of the two models are shown in Tables 2 and 3 .

Classification performance of the two models

The present study reports on the performance of two CT-based models in a training cohort. The model 1 (plain CT only) demonstrated a mean sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, PPV, NPV, and AUC (95%CI) of 0.85, 0.84, 0.84, 0.77, 0.90, and 0.92 (95%CI, 0.89–0.95), respectively. Model 2 (plain + contrast CT) exhibited a mean sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, PPV, NPV, and AUC (95%CI) of 0.91, 0.87, 0.88, 0.81, 0.94, and 0.95 (95%CI, 0.93–0.97), respectively. In the external validation cohort, the mean sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, PPV, NPV, and AUC (95%CI) of model 1 (plain CT only) were 0.79, 0.78, 0.79, 0.67, 0.87, and 0.88 (95%CI, 0.82–0.93). Model 2 (plain + contrast CT) were 0.88, 0.91, 0.90, 0.84, 0.93, 0.93 (95%CI, 0.88–0.98), respectively. The detailed prediction performance of model 1 and model 2 in two cohorts is shown in Table 4 . The AUC curves for the two models in the two cohorts are shown in Fig.  1 . Model 2 (plain + contrast CT) showed the highest diagnosis performance, we modeled the model as logistic distribution in the equation shown in Supplementary Materials 1 . Examples of the cases are shown in Figs.  2 and 3 .

The AUC curves of model 1 and model 2 in the two cohorts.

Examples of malignant case A 58-year-old female patient with a 25mm diameter, peripheral, irregular, lobulated, cavitation, pleural indentation lesion located in the left lower lobe. The mean density of the nodule was 41 HU on plain CT and 64 HU after contrast (heterogeneous enhancement). Model malignancy classification scores: Malignant (73.52%); Benign (26.48%). Histology: Adenocarcinoma.

Examples of benign case A 50-year-old female patient with a 16 mm diameter, peripheral, round, smooth lesion located in the right lower lobe. The mean density of the nodule was 36 HU on plain CT and 100 HU after contrast (uniform enhancement). Model malignancy classification scores: Malignant (0.08%); Benign (99.92%). Histology: Sclerosing pneumocytoma.

Our dual-center study demonstrated that model 2 (plain + contrast CT ) with twenty-five CT variables which include four contrast-enhanced variables (enhanced CT value, enhancement rate, uniform enhancement, heterogeneous enhancement) had better prediction performance (0.93 [95%CI, 0.88–0.98]) than model 1 (plain CT only) (0.88 [95%CI, 0.82–0.93]) for solitary solid pulmonary nodules.

Various models, including the Mayo Clinic model, the Veterans Affairs (VA) model, and the Brock model (PanCan model), have been developed utilizing clinical and CT characteristics to assess the malignancy of lung nodules 20 , 21 , 22 . The Mayo Clinic model identified age, smoking history, cancer history, nodule diameter, spiculation, and upper lobe as predictors of malignant nodules 20 . The Brock model was developed to detect malignancy in nodules through low-dose CT screenings, utilizing predictors such as age, sex, family history of lung cancer, nodule location, emphysema, nodule size, and spiculation 21 . The Veterans Affairs utilized logistic regression to design a model specifically for solitary nodules, estimating the likelihood of malignancy based on factors such as age, nodule diameter, smoking history, and time since quitting smoking 22 . However, prior research has demonstrated that while these models exhibit strong performance on their respective datasets, their utility for detecting large lung nodules is limited, necessitating optimization of model characteristics before clinical application 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 . Our study showed similar relative variables for predicting nodule malignancy in the model, like nodule location, nodule diameter, shape, age, and gender. Furthermore, our model incorporates a greater number of semantic features, such as air bronchogram, pleural indentation, vascular invasion, postobstructive pneumonia, cavitation, necrosis, calcification, satellite nodules, and fat, as well as enhancement characteristics such as enhanced CT value, enhancement rate, uniform enhancement, and heterogeneous enhancement. The importance of semantic features has already been proved by previous study 28 . Xiang et al. showed six radiological characteristics (diameter, lobulation, calcification, spiculation, pleural indentation, and vascular invasion) were adopted as important predictors in their SVM model for the diagnosis of solid solitary pulmonary nodules with AUC 0.89. Our model 2 (plain + contrast CT) showed a higher AUC of 0.93 since we included more semantic features and enhancement characteristics (enhanced CT value, enhancement rate, uniform enhancement, heterogeneous enhancement).

The significance of CT enhancement level in the determination of malignancy in lung solid nodules has been established 18 , 29 . A lack of significant enhancement on contrast-enhanced CT (< 15HU) is indicative of a benign nodule. Consequently, contrast-enhanced CT has been widely utilized as the primary imaging examination technique before surgery, particularly in less developed nations 12 . Our study showed a logistic regression model based on plain CT only for predicting malignancy of solitary solid pulmonary nodules with sensitivity 0.85, specificity 0.84, and diagnostic accuracy 0.84 in the training cohort and 0.79, 0.78, 0.79 in the external validation cohort. When we added contrast-enhanced CT features into the model, it improved the diagnosis performance with a sensitivity of 0.91, specificity of 0.87, and diagnostic accuracy of 0.88 in the training cohort and 0.88, 0.91, and 0.90 in the external validation cohort. A study showed the diagnostic sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of radiologists are approximately 0.76, 0.73, and 0.88 in a Chinese dedicated cancer hospital 24 . This means that compared with the subjective experience of radiologists, our model 2 has a 12% higher sensitivity and 18% higher specificity for diagnosing lung cancer. It effectively reduces the missed diagnosis of lung cancer and avoids excessive surgery caused by misdiagnosis. This again suggests enhanced CT could be the basis for solitary solid pulmonary nodules preoperative diagnosis especially when preoperative biopsy and PET-CT are not applicable. At the same time, due to the use of iodinated contrast agents, increases the risk of patient allergies and contrast-induced nephropathy. Developing more safe and lung cancer-specific contrast agents in the future is a direction for improving enhanced CT application.

The present study has identified certain limitations. Firstly, model 2 (plain + contrast CT) utilized in the study comprises only fundamental clinical information such as age and gender, while other factors such as smoking history, cancer history, and family history of cancer are worth considering for inclusion. Secondly, the enhanced CT values ​​used in the model are affected by scanning parameters, different contrast agent concentrations, and scanning time. Therefore, it is necessary to study the differences in enhancement characteristics between different CT equipment in the future. The study data solely comprised clinical patients, and thus, the efficacy of the model for lung cancer screening patients requires further verification. Additionally, the evaluation of the model was restricted to two datasets, and therefore, additional validation at various centers is necessary before its clinical application.

To conclude, a logistic regression model was constructed utilizing plain + contrast-enhanced CT characteristics, exhibiting superior efficacy in the assessment of malignancy in solitary solid lung nodules when compared to only plain CT-based models. The utilization of this model 2 (plain + contrast CT) enables radiologists to provide recommendations concerning follow-up or surgical intervention for preoperative patients presenting with solid lung nodules.

Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available upon request from the corresponding author, [email protected], upon reasonable request.

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These authors contributed equally: Wenjia Zhang, Xiaonan Cui and Jing Wang.

Authors and Affiliations

Department of Medical Imaging, Shanxi Medical University, NO.56 Xinjian Road, Taiyuan, 030000, Shanxi, The People’s Republic of China

Wenjia Zhang & Jinliang Niu

National Clinical Research Center for Cancer, Key Laboratory of Cancer Prevention and Therapy, Tianjin, Department of Radiology, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute & Hospital, Tianjin, The People’s Republic of China

Xiaonan Cui, Weijie Zhu & Zhiqi Li

Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, School of Public Health, Hangzhou Medical College, Hangzhou, The People’s Republic of China

Department of Radiology, The Second Hospital of Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan, The People’s Republic of China

Sha Cui & Jianghua Yang

Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, The Second Hospital of Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan, The People’s Republic of China

Junjie Meng

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W.Z., J.W., W.Z. and J.M.: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing—Original Draf, Formal analysis; J.W.: Statistical analysis; S.C.: Writing—Review & Editing; J.Y.: Writing—Review & Editing, Project administration; Z.L.: Writing—Review & Editing, Supervision; X.C.: Validation, Writing—Review & Editing; J.N.: Investigation, Supervision, Project administration.

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Correspondence to Jinliang Niu .

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Zhang, W., Cui, X., Wang, J. et al. The study of plain CT combined with contrast-enhanced CT-based models in predicting malignancy of solitary solid pulmonary nodules. Sci Rep 14 , 21871 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-72592-9

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-72592-9

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