1. Using Enterprise
Social Networking
in Training:
Two Case Studies
Jim Wallace
Kris Felstehausen

2. Introduction
• Introductions
• Case Studies
– Hewlett-Packard Corporation
– “Company B” (a large benefits administration company in northern
suburbs)
• Lessons Learned
• Q&A

3. Hewlett-Packard Case Study

4. Company Profile
• Large geographically dispersed organization
• Heavy dependence on technology
• Large number of virtual employees
• Large number of tech-savvy employees
• Significant number of younger employees who have grown up
with social media

5. Goal
• Provide social business media (Jive software branded as “HP
Connections”) to aid sales teams in finding information, locating
experts to assist with their sales challenges, collaborating within
their teams, and learning from the experiences of others.
• Speed adoption of enterprise social media for workplace
collaboration
– Month 1: 400 users
– Month 4: 6,600 users
– Month 6: 13,000 users
– First year: 25,000 users

6. Problem
• 75,000 globally dispersed sales people, plus marketing and
sales enablement
• Vendor-provided (Jive) training focused on capabilities and
functionality of the tool, not on how to use it in your job

7. Approach
• Engage business social media and collaboration expert to
model processes
• Change L&D behavior and work within the platform itself
• Adopt a three-pillar design

8. Approach
• Learn2Connect collaboration space:
• xxx

9. Approach
• Personal trainers
– Highly consultative
– Experts in the tool itself and learners’ business context
– Assist with formal training
– Create job aids and blog posts based on learners’ questions
– Respond to requests for assistance

10. Approach
• Leadership involvement

11. Approach
• Ongoing
– Gradually incorporating social media use into other classes
– TTT on teaching in a social media environment

12. Challenges
• Learn2Connect
– Marketing primarily interested in replicating their SharePoint folder
structure in HP Connections
– “Hey, it works for us”
• Ongoing
– Teacher-centered training vs. student-centered training
– “Sage on the stage” vs. “guide on the side”
– Instructor fear of being asked questions about technology they
don’t understand

13. Results
• After 1 year, there are 60,000 users (goal was 25,000)
• Learners have incorporated HP Connections as part of their
daily operations to share documents, account plans, and sales
strategies. They are responding to customers faster and more
accurately as they are now connected with peers and subject
matter experts.
• Over and over, learners expressed how they appreciated the
way the program modeled the behavior. Because we were
standing beside them sharing their experience they quickly
grew confident in using HP Connections.

14. Results
• Users are more active than industry standard
Passive Users Active Heavy
Contributors Contributors
Industry 90% 9% 1%
HP 80% 16% 4%
• ASTD Excellence in Practice award
• Submitted for Brandon Hall Group award (Best Use of
Social/Collaborative Learning)

15. “Company B” Case Study

16. Company Profile
• Large, global company
• Heavy dependence on technology
• Large numbers of virtual employees
• Large numbers of tech-savvy employees
• Significant numbers of younger employees who have grown up
with social media
• Uses matrixed team structure

17. Social Media Background
• Company B has two main divisions: one large (~80% of total
business); one small (remaining 20%)
• The social media tool (Jive branded as “Spark”) was
implemented by the smaller division of the company without
involvement by, or consultation with, the larger division
• Spark tool appeared on company intranet without
announcement, communication, or training within the larger
division
• Management within the larger division was not informed of the
purpose or use of Spark; no requirements for use were
mandated or suggested

18. Overview of Project to Incorporate Social Media
• A large curriculum (~4 weeks long) was being revised to
enhance its effectiveness
• Audience for this curriculum was exempt, technical, younger,
college graduates who needed to learn to test and configure a
complex in-house system
• Audience was global (mostly US and India) and widely
dispersed; many worked, and needed to attend training,
virtually
• Our directive was to incorporate the use of the Spark social
media site into this curriculum as we revised it

19. Goals for Using Social Media
• The directive to incorporate social media into this new
curriculum came from the local Program Manager who hired
Hudson to revise the curriculum (a grassroots effort)
• There was no higher management directive or support for this
effort within either the L&D area or from the business sponsors
of this training
• The Program Manager saw a natural fit between the use of
social media in training and this particular curriculum and
audience

20. Anticipated Benefits of Using Social Media
Because the audience was attending training virtually, and because
many of the people hired into this job were more intellectual and
introverted by nature, the following assumptions were made:
•Audience members would appreciate the ability to respond to
conceptual or problem-solving questions via discussion posts on Spark
rather than trying to verbally share their answers over the phone
•Discussions questions on Spark would encourage the class to engage
in conceptual and problem-solving discussions that were not currently
occurring because teachers lacked the skill to generate these types of
discussion over the phone (they just lectured and demonstrated – they
rarely asked questions or checked understanding)

21. How We Incorporated Social Media
• We planted conceptual and problem-solving questions within
system/tool exercises, directing learners to post their answers to the
questions on the social media site
• Students were encouraged to read each others’ answers and reply
• While debriefing exercises, teachers were directed to go onto the site
and verbally review discussion posts with the class
• Example Question:
– While you were configuring the selection logic for this new transaction,
there were several ways you could have constructed the formula. Post the
formula you used and list some of the pros and cons of using this
particular formula.

22. Company B Results: Signs of Failure
• First sign of failure was when presenting the social media strategy to
business sponsors and lead SMEs during development kick-off
– We had to sell the idea HARD; there was no enthusiasm or buy-off from
business sponsors or SMEs
• Second was when working with SMEs to develop the training; SMEs
continued to express concern with the strategy and showed no
enthusiasm
• Third was during the train-the-trainer for the pilot; teachers expressed
doubts about the use of Spark and showed no interest or enthusiasm
• Final outcome: the use of social media during the pilot was not
successful and we were directed to remove the program from the
curriculum during pilot changes

23. Why Did It Fail?
• No company-wide business purpose for the social media site; in fact,
today it is hardly even used
• No management buy-in or support for using the site in training
• No mandate or encouragement for teachers to use the site during
training
• No technical support for using the site:
– Teachers had to set up their own group on the site and administer the
group themselves
– There was no technical support for people using the site
– There was no ability to make changes to the site to accommodate training
needs

24. Summary

25. Lessons Learned
• Business objectives (e.g. increased sales productivity and
effectiveness) are essential for success.
• The use of social media collaboration in training should model
the use of social media collaboration in daily workflow.
• Expertise in modeling processes and interactions is essential.
• Leadership support and involvement are vital.
• Instructor buy-in appears to be a widespread problem.
• Personal Trainers are a key factor for success.

26. Q&A
• Do you have any experiences using social media in training that
you are willing to share?
• What questions do you have about these two case studies?