Training Industry Magazine - July/August 2018 - 44
CASEBOOK
INTEGRATING BLENDED LEARNING
INTO A SALES ACADEMY
BY STEPHANI MAGER
As millennials now represent more
than 50 percent of the workforce
and Generation Z begins to enter it,
personal, engaging and relevant new
hire onboarding programs are becoming
increasingly more important. These
tech-savvy generations are seeking
blended learning, a combination of faceto-face and digital training, and access
to advanced technologies in order to
perform at the highest level in their job
roles.
MetLife, Inc., the number one provider
of employee benefits in the U.S., is no
stranger to training the technologically
advanced generations. Each year,
MetLife employees visit colleges and
universities with business schools and
sales programs to recruit college seniors
nationwide. These students then apply
to participate in MetLife's 12-month sales
training program, called Sales Academy.
Anna Lavery, the assistant VP of learning
solutions at MetLife, says the program is
specifically focused on building product
knowledge and refining an individual's
selling skills. Upon completion of the
program, the individuals are then placed
into their roles as either a sales account
executive or a sales associate within one
of MetLife's U.S. locations.
The Improvements
In previous years, this sales training
program consisted of product and
| 44
market knowledge and leveraging
role plays to practice speaking and
positioning with benefits brokers and
employers. Fresh out of college, MetLife's
sales trainees were still in an education
mindset. As such, Lavery says they would
take the textbook knowledge they
received on a product, such as dental
USING TECHNOLOGY
AND BLENDED
LEARNING PROVIDES
THE PERSONAL,
ENGAGING AND
RELATABLE
TRAINING THAT
MILLENNIALS CRAVE.
insurance, and instead of presenting
it in a way the recipient could relate
to, the trainees would tell whomever
they were talking to everything they
knew about dental insurance. With the
breadth and complexity of the products
it became apparent that a new approach
was needed to enhance positioning and
solution selling skills, says Lavery. The
knowledge was there, but confidence
needed to be improved on.
A year ago, this training program
went through a curriculum change to
include an on-demand social learning
and coaching platform from Advantexe
Learning Solutions. The platform is
cloud-based, making it easily accessible
on a computer, mobile phone or tablet.
This integration allowed for MetLife
trainees nationwide to communicate,
practice together, give feedback and
grow with one another. The platform
appealed to MetLife because "the ability
to practice remotely and get feedback
socially fit for this cohort of learners,"
says Lavery. "They're comfortable
with technology and with recording
themselves."
Knowing where the gap in the curriculum
was from previous years, MetLife wanted
to make sure that whatever platform
they picked would provide the right
solution to help their trainees. The
program provides blended learning for
their nationally dispersed sales force.
This includes webcasts with subject
matter experts, e-learning programs,
on-the-job exercises and in-person
learning labs - a face-to-face classroom
experience held every six to eight weeks.
Out of the more than 1,700 college
seniors who apply to attend the training
program, 18 are selected each year.
After graduating from college, Lavery
says that these 18 individuals begin the
12-month onboarding program, starting
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https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/trainingindustry/tiq_fall2023
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/trainingindustry/tiq_summer2023
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https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/trainingindustry/tiq_spring2022
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/trainingindustry/tiq_winter2022
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