- Training and Development
Training and Development
Life-long learning is a way of life at BCE. Our award-winning training and development programs are supported by the latest technology and encourage employees to play a proactive role in planning and managing their careers at Bell and afterwards.
ONGOING LEARNING
Career Development Centre: a central, bilingual facility for online learning and career development. Available anywhere, anytime, the service offers centralized access to several
e-learning initiatives and leading-edge programs, such as Click & Learn, the Virtual Leadership Centre and Growing@Bell.
Click & Learn: offers more than 400 on-line learning solutions for employee development. In 2005, 9,561 Bell Canada employees registered for a total of 27,281 online courses.
The Virtual Leadership Centre: an innovative portal designed to provide all Bell employees with access to best in class leadership practices, tools and resources and become self-sufficient continuous learners. It focuses on change management, partnering, innovation, creating employee value, coaching, mentoring, growing talent, higher education and executive development. The centre was relaunched in 2005 with the addition of a powerful new search engine.
Career Evolution portal: launched in 2005, the portal provides employees with profiles of the various types of jobs within the Bell Canada family, employment resources and helpful tips for managing their careers and career progression.
Ongoing focus
- Deploy Customer Excellence training for front-line employees to improve customer service.
- Implement Six Sygma training to reduce our cost structure and simplify processes.
- Reinforce the acquisition of IP skills across the company. Redesign jobs and deploy required training (e.g. in sales, operations and support) to align with IP-related process and tools.
- Continue to offer a Coaching Mastery Program to Bell Canada leaders.
- Continue to build leadership through targeted programs for executives, front-line and mid to senior level leaders.
- Intensify communication and leadership coaching for executives and next generation talent.
CONTINUED EMPLOYABILITY
Bell People First is our program to fill vacancies with qualified internal candidates before hiring externally, thereby supporting professional growth and development through career mobility. Managers are encouraged to look to Bell employees first in job replacements. In 2005, there were just over 1,000 employees redeployed under Bell People First.
jobs@bell: A self-serve career portal housed on Bell's intranet and accessible to employees across Bell Canada. Employees can search for jobs, apply directly on line and use on-line resumé creation and interview coaching tools. In 2005, 8,524 employees moved across business units to embrace new challenges. Over 2,791 promotions took place.
growing@bell: A Web-based career management tutorial.
Mentor Match: An on-line mentoring program that matches protégés to an appropriate mentor from a cross-sectional pool of potential candidates.
TRAINING COURSES
In 2005, we invested more than $30 million in training and development, down from $32.5 million in 2004. In line with our focus on cost control, training was deployed primarily through in-house and on-line programs.
| Training Delivery (% of Registrations) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | |
| Classroom | 15% | 57% | 16% |
| Online | 81% | 41% | 78% |
| Other (virtual classes, books) | 4% | 2% | 6% |
| Total | 100% | 100% | 100% |
| Employee group | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | |
| Management | 20% | 51% | 30% |
| Unionized (clerical) | 44% | 30% | 51% |
| Unionized (sales) | 2% | 0% | 0% |
| Unionized (craft) | 3% | 11% | 10% |
| Other Non-Management | 31% | 8% | 9% |
| Total | 100% | 100% | 100% |
| Training Programs (% of Registrations) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | |
| General Business Skills | 54% | 29% | 41% |
| Telecom/Technology | 37% | 38% | 17% |
| Computer Skills | 6% | 14% | 24% |
| Health & Safety | 1% | 3% | 3% |
| Project Management | 2% | 4% | 7% |
| Other Courses | 0% | 12% | 8% |
| Total | 100% | 100% | 100% |
Note : In 2005 Bell undertook a major initiative to create one entry point for all training registrations in the company. The centralized database captures all training activity through the CDC, from an employee's initial registration to ongoing training pursuits. The 2005 training figures therefore reflect the integrated data.
Environmental training
Environmental training is not tracked through Bell's Career Development Centre, and consequently not accounted for in the above tables.
Specialized environmental training is provided by our Corporate Responsibility and Environment Group to employees in operations groups either face-to-face or via an on-line application. Our objective is to train new employees within their first six months on the job. On-site environmental courses cover topics such as internal environmental evaluation, hazardous residual materials, recyclable materials and environmental incidents.
In 2005, a total of 1,315 employees completed the on-line training, and 848 received
face-to-face training, meeting our overall environmental training target last year of 2,100 employees.
