King told ZDNet Australia that she worked with an IBM project manager as St George worked at rolling out the program across the bank. About 1100 managers are expected to be trained on the eMPOWER Management Development program.
One of the criteria St George had was that the solution it selected could be interfaced with its own internal learning management system, Eluminate. "We have about 250 managers on our first wave as participants, and also have their direct managers involved as coaches--so we're touching around 330 managers across the business," King said.
The results of the tests that participants are required to complete after each theme have been set up so that staff are able to access the information through Eluminate, even after they have completed the course, King said.
She estimated that the program has been six months in implementation. "It's the first time in a number of years we've had a management program which has run across all divisions, so it's quite a large project," King said. "We have at least another two waves which will go through it."
Areas such as leadership, management fundamentals, staffing, teamwork and coaching are covered in the eMPOWER modules and the course is a mixture of online self-training, coaching, simulation, teaming and classroom learning.
"Experienced managers are incorporated into the program as mentors, alongside e-facilitators who support and motivate the students," Amy Poynton, principal of IBM Learning Services for Australia/New Zealand, said in a statement. "This combination of concurrent hands-on and online training means the skills learned are infused directly into the workplace during the course of the program."
