Chains upgrade to online training, downgrade teaching expenses

Logistical challenges have forced some foodservice operators, such as contract feeder Delaware North Cos., to give online training a try. But other companies, including Darden Restaurants Inc., are making a transition to the new teaching technology for strategic reasons. "We entered the world of online training out of sheer necessity," said Sherri Steinback, manager of technical training and special projects for Buffalo, N.Y. based Delaware North. "We were rolling out a new financial application to over 125 units, and we needed an efficient way to train a diverse group scattered across the country." Recalling the soul searching done by her company in 2000 as it readied that systemwide software rollout, she explained, " The reality was that we had three technical trainers and well over 600 people to train, so online was our obvious solution."	One of the major benefits of online training is the wide accessibility. Teaching materials are stored on a central computer server and can be accessed over the Internet or a private wide-area network connection. Shown at left is the first page for event analysis online training at Sportservice, a division of Delaware North Cos.
Online training involves the use of teaching materials stored in an electronic format on a central computer server or servers. That material is accessed by targeted trainee groups using an Internet or private wide area network connection and Web browsing software. As a result, online training can contribute to significantly lower travel time and expenses related to instruction, users say. Depending on the speed of the network connection involved, content for online training may or may not include multimedia components, such as streaming audio or video in addition to text and simple illustrations or still photo images. Because online training features content that is centralized and easily updated and because that content is accessible from virtually any computer set up to surf the Internet, including those computers at employees' homes, online training is different from computer based training. CBT requires the trainees to have instructional materials on a CD ROM or loaded onto the hard drive of their computer, making the distribution of updated materials more challenging than when one is using an online training infrastructure. Like CBT, online training condenses the time needed to cover course work, compared with classroom instruction. The reason is that online training permits users to work at their own pace and eliminates unnecessary rest room and coffee breaks, users said. Users of online training also point to the ability of such a system to monitor and track trainee progress easily, and to "shadow" or electronically looking over the shoulders of trainees while they train. Among other things shadowing provides online training managers with insights into how targeted user groups interact with the course content and delivery system, users said. Upfront costs are higher for online training versus conventional instructional techniques, but the return on investment can be higher as well, some advocates maintained.
Both Delaware North and Darden, parent of the Red Lobster and Olive Garden casual dining chains, among others, were aided in their distribution of online training through earlier development of high-speed, wide area networks. Delaware has an intranet portal called MyDNC, and Orlando, Fla. based Darden's various divisions have their own branded entryway to a portal called DiSH, an acronym for Darden information Super Highway.	Sherri Steinback, manager of technical training and special projects at Delaware North, says the company used online training to roll out a new financial application and train employees across the country. She says the company saw a 70 percent savings over conventional training techniques.
Delaware North's Steinback said the learning curve was fairly steep for her company's first round of creating online training content, and the job required the use of an outside contractor. But she added that the payback, both monetarily and educationally speaking, was impressive. "We calculate that our online [Training] provided a 70 percent savings" over conventional training techniques, Steinback said. "The other pleasant surprise was that online [training] resulted in a reduction of help calls" for technical support once the financial software was installed and in use, she added. But unlike the "Field of Dreams" in the popular Kevin Costner fantasy movie, Steinback and her associates found that when it comes to online training, it is not necessarily true that "if you build it, they will come." "We faced the challenge of an inexperienced employee base the majority of employees had never looked at the computer for training purposes before," she said. "We had to put as much effort into marketing and executing that training as we did in developing it." Added Steinback, "The good thing and probably the better news was that once our employees moved to online, they very rarely would seek an alternative." With online training "we use pre and post training tests to demonstrate competencies," Steinback noted. Delaware North's system tests trainees on critical content and, if necessary, returns them to the course work in question until they understand it. "If they need to demonstrate 100 percent competency, we're going to keep kicking them back until they get it right," Steinback said. Delaware North is ready to move to "a new level" with its online training, Steinback added, and noted, "We're evolving from developing and rolling out isolated online learning programs in a kind of reactive mode to a more strategic approach." An example of that new approach is the company's emerging online training for "front line" managers and employees or "anyone who touches the customer, from cashiers to reservations agents," she said. The first component of that initiative, which involves food cost analysis, is scheduled to roll out in May. Reported Steinback: "We're building what is called 'DNC Virtual University' one course at a time. "She said trainers at Delaware North would not "limit ourselves to using our own material. "We're building some [content], buying some and, ultimately, we will be reconstructing some by buying the right to adapt what we buy," Steinback added. During 2002 more than 700 students took about 1,900 online courses tied to just one enterprise software package, she said. The Delaware North representative and other users of online training attribute the popularity of the format to the flexibility it provides trainees in that they often can access training materials at their convenience 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Agreeing with Steinback about employee support for online training, Red Lobster director of operations development, Randy Babitt, explained, "A lot of our managers like having the ability to access [training] information from outside the restaurant." He added that employees also appreciate being able to "bookmark" their place in online training course work so that they may easily resume instruction as time permits. Though Babitt works for Red Lobster, he has been involved in companywide online training initiatives, "so I can speak for Darden," he said. "In the year coming up, we're going to expand the role of Web based training. "The No. 1 thing you have is consistency" in the training message, Babitt added. "You have the opportunity to ensure that you train your employees the same way wherever they are around the country." Babitt said Red Lobster and the other Darden divisions "do a lot of modifications" to management, service and back of the house training materials, so "a lot of manuals get outdated quickly."
In "old school" training techniques, the Darden representative said, manuals constantly must be updated and the revised sections printed and distributed to the restaurants, where "you cross your fingers and hope the managers throw out the old sections and replace them with the new. "It's so much easier" to update material with online training "because there is nothing to deploy back out to the restaurant," Babitt continued.
Among other things, Babitt said, Darden has used online training to help managers learn to use the company's Web based labor scheduling software. He said Darden also has used online training to help all employees learn how to navigate PeopleSoft's human-resources management software. That software allows employees to check or change W 4 forms, review benefits and handle other HR related chores after logging onto computer kiosks in each restaurant. "We've never rolled out something that hit all 135,000 employees at one time," Babitt said of the PeopleSoft installation and startup. However, with online training customized for each class of employee, he said, the dinnerhouse operator "did this [rollout] at one time" and "without manuals." Babitt noted that a lot of online training content is created internally, but the larger training applications go out to contractors, such as Get Thinking, an Orlando based creator of online training content. Chad Hostetler, Get Thinking's vice president of operations, said online training "is appropriate for a lot of topics, particularly in foodservice, with its relatively high [employee] turnover. You can use [online training] for an endless audience without additional expense." According to Hostetler, the online content needed to replace an hour's worth of classroom time could be developed in 10 to 12 weeks if the client has conventional instructional materials on hand. The need to create user interfaces, make recordings and lay other groundwork means that when one is creating online training content, "the first minute is the most expensive to create," Hostetler said. Depending on the characteristics of the content, such as the degree of interactivity desired and amount of streaming audio or video included, he said his company might charge "from $35,000 to $70,000 for the first hour [of content] with cost savings beyond that." In his experience, Hostetler said, chains or groups with 50 to 100 or more restaurants or contract sites are in a position to maximize their return on investment in online training. The greater the employee turnover, the greater the potential return, he added. Smaller organizations also can realize a return on investment, the content specialist said, "but the numbers won't be as big." Even the staunchest online training advocates do not see a day anytime soon when e learning will completely replace one to one exchanges between the living and breathing trainer and trainee. "Classroom [training] still exists, but we're looking at online [approaches] first," said Delaware North's Steinback. "We're moving toward 'blended' learning," combining online instruction with classroom and traditional job shadowing, she added. "It saves money and gets operators back to where they need to be most in the units." Sherri Steinback, manager of technical training and special projects at Delaware North, says the company used online training to roll out a new financial application and train employees across the country. She says the company saw a 70 percent savings over conventional training techniques. One of the major benefits of online training is the wide accessibility. Teaching materials are stored on a central computer server and can be accessed over the Internet or a private widearea network connection. Shown at left is the first page for eventanalysis online training at Sportservice, a division of Delaware North Cos.