GearsCRM
Providing skill-based training for employees’ day-to-day needs.
Management Training for a Salesforce Implementation Trusted Advisor
GearsCRM is a Salesforce Platinum Consulting Partner and provider of Salesforce consulting services. Clients rely on them as a trusted adviser in the selection, design, optimization and deployment of effective Salesforce implementations. Their in-depth business experience and technical knowledge helps clients implement and roll out their Salesforce initiatives for maximum business impact and ROI.
The Challenge
Kira Perry, Human Resources Director at GearsCRM, joined five years ago as their first HR employee and built their HR department from the ground up. As part of her role, she leads learning and development as well as keeps an active pulse on employee satisfaction. After sending out an annual engagement survey to all of their employees, it became clear to Kira that despite high engagement scores there was one thing that employees were asking for but GearsCRM wasn’t providing: formal management training programs.
Kira states, “We were promoting new managers and those who did not have prior leadership experience, so there was definitely a gap that was recognized, and we had to come up with a solution.” Harry Radenberg, CEO and Founder, adds that “Most of our training at the company was around technical training because our product is very technical. We knew we had to start to introduce more skill-based training for our employees’ more day-to-day needs.”
The Solution
GearsCRM started working with AceUp by enrolling five of their managers in a one-on-one coaching program paired with four group trainings for their core teams. The initial competency GearsCRM focused on was Managing Conflict and Difficult Conversations. “One of the things we really like about AceUp is that they are able to find coaches that fit well with each team. Our sales team enjoys role-playing, as an example, and then our other teams want more practical action steps, and there were coaches for both of these,” Harry says.
After strong early results, GearsCRM has expanded the one on-one coaching and group training to nearly 25 percent of their employees, focusing mainly on three competency areas: Managing Conflict and Difficult Conversations, Developing a Coaching Approach to Management, and Collaborating Across Divisions and Teams.
The Results
On an individual level, one-on-one coaching has been an incredible resource for the team, “a totally safe place to work on a skill that they may not have been comfortable approaching their manager about” says Kira. In the cohort, there are a group of managers who had begun to manage their peers, those who they were friends with prior to managing them, and Harry notes that this group has seen specific business impact. “The managers are now able to manage their peers more effectively and be more firm where they need to be,” Harry explains. Employees have said, “Wow, I totally get now why I have had conflict with this other team member.” A great deal of self-awareness has come from these programs that has led to increases in communication and productivity.
There has also been a greater sense of collaboration due to the group training programs. “People really appreciate all being in the same room, even if virtually. They are seeing that they are all struggling in the same areas and that it is okay to talk about these in a safe zone together,” Kira observes in regard to the group trainings. She adds that as the company grew, there began to be more of a divide between departments, so these programs have been a way to bring everyone together. “The program has fostered more collaboration and has reduced the divide.” GearsCRM will continue their management-focused training with both one-on-one coaching and group training, enrolling new managers as they are promoted and continuing to support current leaders. “We hope to see that our management team becomes more cohesive and starts to grow as a team even more,” Harry says.
Kira was attracted to AceUp because she “liked that AceUp was a one stop shop. We had all the trainers and coaches at our disposal.” She also needed to work with an organization who had coaches that could adapt and work with various personality types. Harry explains that “we have developers, we have project managers, we have hybrid roles that are both managers and technical. So it was appealing that with AceUp we could tailor to all types of personalities and roles.”
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