Spread the Learning

Sharing Success Across Organizations

How do you rebuild your learning strategy and put it at the center of your organization after it took a back seat? Teradyne, the leader in test and automation solutions employing more than 5,000 people, gained inspiration from subsidiary Universal Robot’s emerging strategy.

After the economic downturn of 2008, Teradyne dissolved its learning team. In the years since employees across the organization lacked the structure and development tools needed to grow in an evolving industry. The prior learning solutions were focused on role–specific training and on-the-job learning without support from a solid infrastructure. As such, Teradyne needed to build a new solution to foster its leaders of the future.

Enter Universal Robots, which specializes in robotic arms. A new employee development solution was underway at Universal Robots, headed up by Heather Nault, Global Training and Development Director. Universal Robots successfully implemented a solution and infrastructure that let employees drive their careers forward.

Universal Robots’ solution focused on understanding what success looks like in each role and creating a set of core employee competencies for the company. Employees had access to their role competencies and what they needed to achieve before moving laterally or upwards.

Tied to the competencies were development and learning modules. Employees could create their own unique learning roadmap tailored to their goals and current skillset. Modules included both role–specific learning, industry topics, and broader categories for all employees and customized training for managers to rally around this new learning strategy.

As a result, Universal Robots benefited from higher employee satisfaction and manager engagement scores, and Teradyne took notice. Looking to benefit in the same way, Teradyne looked to Heather to lead the charge in creating a future–focused solution that would boost employee engagement and grow emerging leaders for Teradyne and its subsidiaries.

While not every aspect of Universal Robots’ solution is transferable, Teradyne will inherit the fundamental principles of Universal Robots’ successful learning strategy that marries the business and employee needs.