case study on employee training and development

Training Industry

Case study: how mcdonald’s integrates learning into the employee experience.

Striving to be the “best first job,” McDonald’s knows many of its employees are at the beginning of their career path. Some, still in high school, may not have the resources to attend college and are beginning to wonder, “What happens next?” Some may be working to finish high school or college to gain the skills and education requirements needed to take the next step in their careers. Still others may be looking to sharpen their English skills to communicate better with customers and open more doors in the future.

With an estimated 1.9 million employees dispersed across the globe, supporting employees’ unique personal and professional goals would call for an innovative, comprehensive, solution — which is why McDonald’s launched Archways to Opportunity ® in 2015.

The Archways to Opportunity program helps McDonald’s employees across the globe improve their English skills, earn a high school diploma, work toward a college degree, and create an education and career plan with the help of career advisors. With the recently launched Archways to Careers app, McDonald’s employees can now access many of these professional development opportunities — and new ones — at their fingertips. Rob Lauber, chief learning officer at McDonald’s, says the app helps employees “find and unlock” their passions, identify related career opportunities, and make a plan to achieve them.

Let’s examine how McDonald’s has integrated professional development into the employee experience to set its workforce up for success not only at the Golden Arches but in life.

Archways to Opportunity: A Brief Overview

Since its launch in 2015, Archways to Opportunity has :

• Awarded high school and college tuition assistance to over 35,000 employees, totaling over $90 million.
• Had over 750 employees graduate from its career online high school program and over 7,250 employees graduate from English Under the Arches (launched in 2007).
• Increased access to education for over 50,000 people through its various programs.

While these initiatives undoubtedly benefit employees, they’re also good for business. For example, McDonald’s believes English Under the Arches has helped retain employees. Through a blended learning approach, the initiative seeks to teach employees the “English skills that restaurant employees need most,” such as common words and phrases they will encounter on the job.

McDonald’s education benefits are another way it attracts and retain employees in an industry currently facing a major labor shortage . Its employees are eligible for tuition assistance after working at least 15 hours per week for 90 days. Crew workers are eligible to receive $2,500 per year, and managers are eligible to receive $3,000 per year.

As John Colborn, director of the Aspen Institute’s Skills for America’s Future initiative, explains , “When companies like McDonald’s provide these kinds of programs, they not only enhance life opportunities for their workers, they also gain a more engaged and talented workforce.”

With the benefits the Archways to Opportunity program has brought to both employees and the company, Lauber says it “made perfect sense” to take the next step in supporting employees’ professional growth: launching a career development app.

Archways to Careers: Vision, Strategy and Measurement

McDonald’s launched its career development app, Archways to Careers, to supplement the Archways to Opportunity program with “personalized, one-on-one” professional guidance, Lauber says. By providing learning on demand, the app also aims to help reduce common barriers (e.g. transportation, costs and scheduling conflicts) for employees looking to advance their careers.

Unlike an in-person course or workshop, Lauber says, an app proved the best way to “touch as many people as possible.” For busy restaurant workers, it’s critical that they can access everything from career coaching to English courses on the bus ride to work, between the breakfast and lunch rush, or in the comfort of their own home.

With help from an existing partner and a coaching company, the app took roughly 10 months to build. A key part of the process was seeking and implementing feedback on the app’s progress to ensure the finished product would meet employees’ needs and deliver the value it was expected to, Lauber says. As the app is largely targeted toward learners who are just entering the workforce, McDonald’s decided to “support employees more directly” through one-on-one career coaching sessions with objective, third-party career advisers, Lauber says. According to the press release , the credentialed advisors will help restaurant employees “chart a path to achieve the future job or career they desire.”

Employees can also view education requirements and salaries for roles and industries that, based on conversations with employees, McDonald’s found to be of high interest, such as health care, technology and finance.

Measurement

McDonald’s will measure the app’s success in several ways, including monitoring downloads and tracking user engagement with career advisers on the platform. Of course, Lauber says, “Like any app, it’s only as good as its current version … we’ll be looking for ways to improve the app going forward with future releases.”

A Learning Experience

The Archways to Careers app expands the reach of McDonald’s career development opportunities. However, employees also gain numerous opportunities for personal and professional development on the job, whether it’s learning to communicate with co-workers of different backgrounds or using soft skills like empathy to understand customers’ points of view and provide stellar customer service. Lauber says, “The experiences people in our restaurants get, just from working there, set [them] up with excellent life skills.”

McDonald’s goal is to engrain professional development into the employee experience. As a result, even if employees don’t take advantage of the career development opportunities they’re offered, they still benefit from a “host of development opportunities while working in the restaurant,” Lauber says. They are constantly learning new skills, and refining old ones, on the job.

Although McDonald’s employees are each unique in their career aspirations, backgrounds and personal interests, they have one thing in common: an employee experience shaped by learning and development.

• #Archyways to Opportunity
• #employee experience
• #learning application
• #mobile learning
• #professional development
• #training application
• #Workforce Development

Sarah Gallo

Sarah Gallo is the associate editor at Training Industry, Inc. and the co-host of The Business of Learning, the Training Industry podcast .

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The 5 Best Examples of Employee Training Courses & Development Programs

LinkedIn’s latest Workplace Report found that people who aren’t learning in your organization will leave. 

So, how can you help employees upskill to be better at their jobs and motivate them to stay in the company? One effective tool available to L&D teams is employee training and development programs.

In this article, we’ll define employee training and development and its importance, showcase five concrete examples of training programs (with high-profile case studies), and provide four tips to help you get your development programs up and running.

First, what is employee training and development?

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What is employee training and development? 

Employee training and development is the process of designing, creating, and delivering courses for employee learning.

For example, L&D teams use training and development programs to onboard new hires, match mentors with mentees to boost professional development, or close an organization’s skills gaps through upskilling or reskilling initiatives. 

By providing thorough and customized training and development programs, you and your team can enhance employees' skills so they excel in their roles, increase their job satisfaction, and clarify their career development.

Next, let’s look at how training and development programs contribute to your company's business goals. 

The importance of employee training courses

The benefits of employee training programs range from those that impact employees to those that affect an organization’s bottom line.

Employee training programs are essential for organizations seeking an upskilled and knowledgeable workforce. L&D teams can leverage training and development to empower employees to gain the skills they need to succeed in their company and industry.

Without precisely planned training programs, companies can’t expect to make an impact on employee retention. Well-designed development programs make it easy to showcase that your organization cares about employees’ professional growth. If they see the company as one that supports their career development, they will be more likely to stay. 

In fact, according to our survey of over 1,000 American employees, self-directed learning and career development training were seen as the most appealing options for people looking to reskill:

Streamlined and robust training programs will also increase employee performance, improve job satisfaction, and boost employee engagement. 

Next, let’s look at the five best examples of employee training and development programs.

5 best examples of employee training & development programs (with case studies)

From onboarding to leadership development, many employee training management can be tweaked to fit your organization’s bespoke needs. 

Today, we’ll look at five examples of employee training and development programs, each with a quick case study for some real-world inspiration.

1. Onboarding

Onboarding or new hire training helps new employees understand their roles and responsibilities and how they fit within the organization.

L&D leverages employee onboarding training programs to introduce new hires to the organization. The learning process will include standardized milestones that help new employees understand and learn about the company, co-workers, and their new role. 

Case study: Onboarding at Aircall

Aircall is the cloud-based call center and phone system of choice for modern businesses. 

With 650 employees, the company is growing fast. To meet the pace of their growth, the L&D team restructured their onboarding program to make it scalable, interactive, and collaborative.

Leveraging 360Learning , the team at Aircall increased the efficiency of their onboarding training programs by empowering subject-matter experts to work with the L&D team to create business-specific onboarding courses .

By boosting knowledge sharing across the organization, the L&D team has scaled their onboarding and broader employee training with impactful, demonstrable results ranging from onboarding 40 new hires with only one full-time employee to impacting professional development with high numbers of employees contributing to course creation. 

2. Technical upskilling 

Upskilling is training that gives employees new skills and competencies to help them do their jobs better.

Skill development is a crucial area of learning and development. By designing and deploying upskilling employee training programs, L&D teams can increase employee productivity, streamline succession planning, and increase employee retention.

Technical training focuses on teaching employees the specific skills they need, including operating machinery and using company software. By increasing employee competencies, technical upskilling can ensure that they are performing at a high level in their current roles and that they will prepared for future positions.

Case study: Upskilling at Amazon

Amazon’s $1.2 billion Upskilling 2025 programs focus on supporting employees to learn critical skills for the in-demand, higher-paying technical or non-technical roles.

For example, the Amazon Technical Academy equips non-technical Amazon employees with the necessary skills to pursue successful careers in software engineering. The in-person training courses leverage instructor-led and project-based training sessions with a significant focus on applying the skills in the real world.

Amazon also included a new skill development program, AWS Training and Certification, which helps employees of all roles and backgrounds to work in the AWS cloud. The learning program includes instructor-led training, gamification, and exam certification. 

3. Professional development

Encouraging your employees to participate in professional development training can be an incredible way to help them upskill and boost their career development.

Professional development training programs utilize various learning approaches, such as mentoring, self-paced eLearning, and online webinars, to enable employees to achieve their career goals and increase job satisfaction.

Successful L&D teams will also leverage professional development plans alongside career development training programs to help support employee retention, boost upskilling, and help meet the organization’s business goals.

Case study: Professional development at Netflix

The streaming giant Netflix runs the 12-week Pathways Bootcamp , a part-time training program that equips employees with the necessary development skills. 

After completion, employees gain access to post-course training materials and online tutorials to help them face common programming challenges the streaming industry faces. Employees can also engage in mentoring opportunities with Netflix professionals to help with their career development. 

To enhance company culture, the Pathways Bootcamp development program focuses on learners from historically underrepresented communities. The New Grad Program also helps new hires build community and networks through training programs on Netflix culture, including professional development. 

4.  Mentoring

Mentoring is a type of training that promotes human connections and involves transferring knowledge, skills, and experience from one person to another. 

As a training method, mentoring includes traditional one-on-one or reverse mentoring, where older, more experienced individuals learn from younger ones. Mentorship programs promote and strengthen a culture of learning and drive diversity initiatives.

Case study: Mentoring at Spotify

Employees at Spotify can use the music streaming platform’s internal talent marketplace, Echo , to build their career portfolios and generate connections across a global workforce. 

One of the ways Echo offers job opportunities is through mentoring, which allows employees anywhere across the globe to connect and learn from a mentor at Spotify. Echo uses artificial intelligence to match mentors and mentees based on skills automatically, and best practices developed by the L&D team guide the relationship. 

5. Leadership development

Leadership training is a type of soft skill training that focuses on interpersonal abilities, emphasizing leadership qualities and skill sets that influence directing others.

Leadership training aims to cultivate skilled leaders capable of positively impacting their teams and contributing to the company's success. Effective leadership development programs will prioritize soft skills such as communication, decision-making, conflict resolution, and delegation.

Case study: Leadership development at Bank of America

At the Bank of America, the leadership investment initiatives offer a range of leadership development training programs.

For example, the Women’s Next Level Leadership Program focuses on helping multicultural women with their career development through assessments, strategies, and tactics offered in an eight-month virtual online learning experience.

Additionally, the New Manager Program empowers new or promoted managers’ upskilling to lead their teams successfully. The training program includes interactive and personalized learning resources to fit each individual employee’s learning style and needs.  

With those inspiring employee training and development examples in mind, let's shift our focus to helping you establish an impactful talent management program.

4 tips for creating a great training course

If you’re going to design and manage training and development programs that impact employee upskilling and meet business goals, we’ve got four tips to get you started. 

First, you’ll need to ensure that your training goals align with your organization’s business goals.

1. Align training goals with business goals

A successful employee training program provides team members with valuable skills to achieve company goals.

You'll need to conduct a training needs analysis to ensure you achieve this alignment between these objectives. As a critical aspect of learning and development decision-making, a training needs analysis will identify the skills your employees need to do their job well. 

For example, suppose your analysis shows that your workforce needs help to meet the demands of the digital and hybrid working environment. In that case, you can design upskilling and reskilling development programs that build on existing skills or train employees in new areas.

2. Choose an employee training method that is right for your needs

Depending on the results of your training needs analysis and identified skills gaps, you may need to implement different training methods in your development programs. 

Here are some different learning preferences and training methods to consider when decking your development plans:

• In-person training : Any form of learning where the employee is present in person, such as instructional seminars or hands-on training. 
• Online employee training : Also called virtual or eLearning, online training takes place on the Internet and can include online courses, mobile learning , and collaborative learning experiences. 
• Blended learning : Combines online training methods with in-person training. 
• Peer training : An active and engaging learning approach that empowers employees to build training courses based on their skill sets.

3. Employee training tools

You will need an employee training tool to help design, curate, manage, and measure your training programs company-wide. 

A learning management system is the go-to solution for creating, distributing, and monitoring your online training courses. However, when it comes to creating impactful employee training programs, we recommend that you invest in an all-in-one solution. 

A modern and competitive learning platform like 360Learning will empower you to automate your L&D busy work with a click, leverage AI to identify and grow the skills you need, and collaborative learning-based academies to drive your upskilling training programs. 

Leveraging a learning platform will help you deliver your training programs quickly, save you time and money in the long run, and generate metrics and reports to prove your impact on business goals.

4. Improve training and development programs and measure ROI

We recommend that you measure the impact of your training programs, collect feedback, and update training materials to ensure they are as effective as possible.

Proving the return on investment (ROI) of your training and development programs is vital in justifying your budget and getting that crucial stakeholder buy-in and support. You can collect metrics such as engagement, program completion, and relevance scores to illustrate how employees consume your training courses. 

We recommend that when you start designing your training programs, you start with the end in mind . Ensure that before you plan your training, you understand the organization’s business goals and your organization’s skills gaps. 

Starting with the end in mind will make proving ROI so much easier. For extra tips on measuring the impact of your training programs, check out our 3 Data-Based Ways To Prove Training ROI (+ Free Training ROI Calculator) .

Collaborative learning empowers training and development

You’re welcome to use these 25 employee training templates and checklists for better training programs and these best practices in training and development to help kick off your training program journey. 

Better yet, a comprehensive learning platform like 360Learning combines collaborative learning Academies, AI-powered L&D, and the features of an LMS and an LXP to help you design, curate, and manage training programs at scale and pace. 

Book your free online demo now to see how we can help you create an outstanding training and development program that will fit in with the five examples above!

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Effective Employee Development Starts with Managers

• Anand Chopra-McGowan

They’re in a unique position to drive retention and engagement.

Employee surveys show that workers will stay if companies invest in their development. Managers are in a unique position to drive employee retention and engagement, and companies should ensure that they have a more active role in employee training and development. These five steps can help: 1) Let managers tell you what they need; 2) Create dedicated time and space for learning; 3) Give managers a specific role in training; 4) Help managers turn training into action; and 5) Collect feedback on the training from managers as well as employees.

As the costs of the Great Resignation continue to grow , companies need more ways to attract and retain employees. One clear approach is to offer more training and development — according to a 2019 LinkedIn study , 94% of employees said they would stay with their employer if it invested in their development.

• AC Anand Chopra-McGowan is general manager, UK & Europe for Emeritus, a fast growing ed-tech company that partners with the world’s best universities to make professional education accessible and affordable. Prior to that, he was part of the founding team of General Assembly, which was acquired by the Adecco Group. He grew up in India, attended university and worked in the U.S., and currently lives and works in London.

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How Google's Innovative Training and Development Programs Empower Employees

"We encourage our employees, in addition to their regular projects, to spend 20% of their time working on what they think will most benefit Google. This empowers them to be more creative and innovative. Many of our significant advances have happened in this manner. For example, AdSense for content and Google News were both prototyped in '20% time.' Most risky projects fizzle, often teaching us something. Others succeed and become attractive businesses." Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page wrote in their IPO letter .

Discover all about:

• Google's learning and development philosophy
• The implementation of the unique employee-led learning initiative: Googler-to-Googler
• Google's several learning and development programs that foster a learning culture: Whisper Courses, Career Guru Program, and Google Developer Groups.
• How you can replicate Google's stellar system.

Imagine an environment where learning is not confined to the walls of a classroom or the limits of a standard curriculum. Google has redefined the landscape of employee training, creating a culture where continuous learning is interwoven with day-to-day work. 

It's a world where innovation is not just encouraged but is a part of the very fabric of employee development.

While companies spend days finding the perfect course or developing an ideal training program, Google took the opposite route and let employees decide what to teach and how to teach.

This unique approach worked in Google's favor. It has excellent reviews for learning and skill development. 

This L&D case study will look at Google employee training and development programs in detail.

This isn't just a story about Google. It's a treasure trove of insights and strategies that can inspire HR professionals and business leaders.

Whether adapting some of Google's practices to your organizational context or rethinking your approach to employee development, plenty of lessons can be learned and applied.

And in fact, we do share a step-by-step implementation guide for everything Google nails in their L&D strategy. 

📜 Google's learning philosophy : 4 Core pillars

Former VP of People Development Karen May's presentation on the principles shaping learning at Google highlights a modern, holistic approach to professional development, emphasizing the dynamic nature of learning.

The principles or the core beliefs that shape the design and delivery of learning resources at Google are:

"Learning is a process. It's not an event. It involves some motivation, often some pre-work. It involves practice, practice, practice, and feedback."

At Google, learning is viewed not as a one-time event but as a continuous journey. This perspective acknowledges that real learning requires time, effort, and repeated practice. By incorporating feedback into this process, learners can continually refine and improve their skills, leading to deeper understanding and mastery. 

"Our [PeopleOps team's] job is to think end to end about where the motivation gets created, how we create the opportunities to practice, and what the feedback loop is, so that we really can get to behavior change."

The key is ensuring that learners put into practice the new information obtained from training, with a final goal of enabling behavioral change. 

"Learning happens in real life , especially during transitions or challenge points."

This approach aligns learning with actual on-the-job experiences, making it more relevant and applicable. 

The most profound learning occurs not in isolation but while tackling real-world problems and adapting to change.

"Learning is personal . Everyone has different learning styles and different levels of challenge within which they can work. [...] And part of our role is helping people understand what their own learning style is so that then as people, we can create the kind of experiences that will help us accelerate."

Google understands that learning is not one size fits all and that: 

• Every individual will have different learning styles and preferences. 
• They also have different needs regarding the knowledge they should get from the training.

"Learning is social . Googlers tell us when they really need to figure something out, they ask each other. They turn to their colleagues for information and for advice and for support."

The idea that learning is inherently social reflects Google's emphasis on collaborative learning environments. By fostering a culture where employees are encouraged to seek out and learn from each other, Google leverages its workforce's collective knowledge and experience. 

This peer-to-peer learning approach enhances skill acquisition, strengthens team dynamics, and supports a culture of continuous improvement.

By embracing these principles, Google sets an example of how organizations can foster an environment where learning is integrated into the fabric of everyday work . 

🤖 How does Google enable learning and growth? 4 Stellar Google employee training and development programs

Let's delve into real-life stories and examples that illustrate the transformative impact of Google's training approach on both individual careers and the company's overall innovation trajectory.

The G2G Program

Back in 2007, Google had a ton of new hires lined up for the sales department in Dublin one summer. With only three trainers available, training these new hires looked impossible. 

The L&D team reached out to leadership to see if some top performers could temporarily act as trainers. The best sales team members trained the new hires, and the results were amazing. Quality scores of the training were quite high, and employees also enjoyed the training process. 

As a result, L&D decided to expand this program. This led to Google's outstanding peer-to-peer training program , Googler-to-Googler (G2G). 

As part of G2G programs, Googlers can nominate themselves to take training on any topic: technical, functional, domain, leadership, parenting, yoga, mindfulness, etc. And it entirely runs voluntarily.

How does Google run the G2G program?

• Employees volunteer themselves on the topic they want to teach. There are no fixed topics. Employees can teach anything from technical topics to hobbies.
• The L&D team provides training to the volunteers on how to facilitate training.
• The L&D team also provides an internally built Learning Management System (LMS) for tracking trainers, classes, and participant completion.
• Participants and volunteers can track training hours in the internal LMS.

" G2G is one of the purest expressions of Google culture. It has been a successful program. Over 80% of all formal learning at Google in 2020 was part of G2G , and our G2G volunteers have consistently outperformed external facilitators ." Sarah Devereaux , former G2G Global Lead.

Whisper Courses

Rather than assigning hours of training and overloading information on employees, Google takes the microlearning approach. The company sends bite-sized lessons to employees called whisper courses.

"A whisper course is a series of emails, each with a simple suggestion, or 'whisper,' for a manager to try in their one-on-ones or team meetings. Over the course of ten weeks, managers could build better psychological safety on their team by trying these whisper suggestions." Google , Whisper courses: on-the-job microlearning with email.

How does Google run whisper courses?

Google sends a series of emails or nudges, each with a simple suggestion or an actionable tip that employees can immediately implement. The power is its timing. It's sent when the employee needs that information. For instance, Google sends nudges to new hires and their managers with tips that improve the onboarding process. 

"I love that it was practice-focused. Often, you leave a course overwhelmed with info, and it's hard to implement a real change. Because you're encouraging stepwise change, it feels like a slow, steady progression of understanding how you can evolve the way you work." Googler quoted in Google, Whisper courses: on-the-job microlearning with email.

The Guru+ Program

In 2010, Google launched an internal one-on-one coaching program called Guru+ to help Googlers focus on their growth and development . The program saw huge participation and became one of the top perks of working at Google .

How does Google run the Guru+ program?

1. Employees volunteer themselves to be a Guru.

2. Google provides preparatory training sessions to the volunteers. Google uses a GROW coaching model to ensure participants get the most out of these calls.  

3. Participants use Google Meet (formerly, they were using Google Hangouts) to book and conduct coaching calls . 

4. Participants can fill out a feedback form after the call.

5. If a Guru receives three or more negative feedbacks, they undergo additional training.

" We have parents gurus, leadership gurus, manager gurus, innovation gurus, noogler gurus, and more. It's helpful to be able to just sit down with somebody and say I'm really having a hard time right now, and I'm not quite sure what to do . An empathetic and personal conversation with someone in a setting where you feel safe and know you have good confidentiality about what you're sharing. " Sarah Devereaux , former G2G Global Lead.

Gurus cover a wide range of topic areas , such as:

• team development;
• leadership;
• manager—for people managers on people management-related topics;   
• innovation;
• new employees;
• well-being;
• presentation—for learning to give reports and TED Talks, for example.

Google Developers Community

Google also went beyond the internal workforce and created an open community of developers where Googlers can interact with developers outside the company or end users. This way, Googlers can see practical use cases of Google technologies and gather user feedback. Two major flagship programs as part of the initiatives are:

• Google Developers Group Program 
• Google Codelabs

How Google runs Google Developer Groups and Google Codelabs?

• As part of Google Developer Groups (GDG), community members organize in-person or virtual events, webinars, online discussions, hands-on workshops, hackathons, and coding sessions on various technical topics. It promotes skill development, knowledge sharing, open-source contributions, and networking. GDG also provides a platform for Googlers to receive feedback on Google's products and technologies from the developer community. 
• As part of Google Codelabs, hands-on, self-paced tutorials and coding exercises are available on the publicly accessible platform . Both Googlers and external developers can take up the courses. Googlers can also create courses on topics in which they have expertise.

👀 3 Reasons behind Google's current L&D strategy

Each Google training program is built with deliberate thought and reflects their work culture. Laszlo Bock, former CHRO of Google, discussed it in detail in his book, Work Rules.

Here are the top excerpts that form the core reasons behind Google's training and development strategy.

You learn the best when you learn the least

Google shifted the lens from the traditional approach of measuring the hours spent by employees in training programs. Instead, it focused on behavior changes in employees through the training. That's how Google came up with the idea of whisper courses. Delivering small impactful nudges/checklists/notes that bring immediate positive action rather than hours of training. 

"It's a better investment to deliver less content and have people retain it than to deliver hours of learning that is quickly forgotten. " Laszlo Bock, former Senior Vice President of People Operations at Google , in his book Work Rules .

Build your faculty from within

"I can't tell you what to teach your team or organization since that depends on what your goals are. I can't tell you whether the best way to teach is in person or remotely, through self-study or group classes. That will depend on how your people learn best, and whether they are trying to learn job-specific skills, such as a new programming language, or more general skills, such as how to work better together as a team. I can, however, tell you exactly where to find the best teachers. They are sitting right next to you. I promise you that in your organization, there are people who are experts on every facet of what you do, or at least expert enough that they can teach others." Laszlo Bock, former Senior Vice President of People Operations at Google , in his book Work Rules.

Lazloh highlights the two core questions to ask yourself when designing the right training program for your organization:

• What's the best training for your team? It depends on your goals .
• What training method best suits your team: virtual, in-person, self-study, or group classes? It depends on how your people like to learn and your work culture . 

Laszlo further explains this with an example. 

" In your company, there is certainly the best salesperson in terms of total sales. By turning to that person to teach others rather than bringing in someone from the outside, you not only have a teacher who is better than your other salespeople. But also someone who understands the specific context of your company and customers. Sending your best salespeople to the most expensive sales webinars, led by someone who sold products for someone else, is unlikely to revolutionize your sales performance because the specifics of your company do matter. "

Trust employees will do the right thing

Learning is quite contextual, and the trainer needs to know how your company works rather than delivering generic best practices. 

So, Google turned to their employees to lead all the top training initiatives: G2G, Guru+, and GDG. 

Sarah Devereaux spoke about their biggest issue with the G2G program: releasing control. 

When they tried to expand the G2G, they put in many more processes, criteria, guidelines, and mandates. It messed up the program, and employees started running away from it. 

They finally let go of control and let employees decide what they want to teach and how they want to teach, and they are only there to assist. 

As a result, participation skyrocketed. Also, instead of making any session mandatory, Google trusted employees to take ownership of their learning journey. The decision power acted as a major motivator for the participants.

"Trust people to do great work. They are capable of more than you think." Sarah Devereaux , former G2G Global Lead.

🗝️ The key to Google 's L&D success

Let's look at the reasons behind why Google's training initiatives succeeded. 

Incorporating peer learning the right way

National Training Laboratories Institute for Applied Behavioral Science studied various learning methods and which is the best. Based on their research , an individual retains knowledge the most by teaching others. Google's learning programs, G2G and GDG, benefit both participants and facilitators. Facilitators retain their knowledge by teaching others, and participants learn the tricks of the trade from an insider. 

Another reason to have employees as trainers is it increases employee engagement and gives them a stronger reason to be at work.

"Giving employees the opportunity to teach gives them purpose. Even if they don't find meaning in their regular jobs, passing on knowledge is both inspiring and inspirational." Laszlo Bock , former CHRO at Google.

Giving employees more control

What companies are predicting now, Google implemented years back. As per the latest study done by TalentLMS on the state of L&D , 37% of employees want more control over training. Google gave it already by trusting employees to decide on their learning journey and not mandating training programs. It instilled a strong learning culture and grew training participation. 

Promoting voluntary participation

Encouraging employees to opt into training programs rather than making them mandatory taps into your learners' intrinsic motivation. This leads to more engaged and enthusiastic learners.

In an interview with the New York Times , Karen May reflected on the common mistakes she noticed in employee training programs.

‍ "One thing that doesn't make sense is to require a lot of training. People learn best when they're motivated to learn. If people opt in, versus being required to go, you're more likely to have better outcomes. [...] If a group of people go through some kind of program and they like it, then you ask them to nominate someone who might find the program beneficial. If the invitation comes from a colleague or a manager, you have that kind of peer-to-peer influence that says: 'I got something out of this. You might, too.' Then the people who come are motivated. They assume they're going to get something out of it. You just create a much different vibe than, 'I was told I have to show up to this thing.'"

When you foster a training atmosphere perceived as an opportunity for growth rather than an obligation, you can significantly enhance the effectiveness of learning experiences.

Using the power of nudges

The same study by TalentLMS also found that 28% of employees want training broken into shorter sessions. Google did it beautifully through whisper courses. Sending short nudges through emails to employees when needed.

Bringing in the social element

As per the same TalentLMS survey, 27% of employees also want more social elements in training. Most of Google's training programs (G2G, Guru+, GDG) have a social element. Employees get to learn and interact with peers.

Getting leadership buy-in: Support, not just permission

When G2G first started, the G2G implementation team focused on getting manager permissions for the volunteers, as they would be spending time away from their core day-to-day activities. However, they realized that permission and support are not the same thing. 

"Permission and support are two very different things, and it's taken years to shift the organization to a culture of support for volunteer programs like this." Google, Guide: Create an employee-to-employee learning program .

The team worked hard to showcase the value of participating in G2G programs, sharing data on the individual and organizational value of having employees become teachers. 

Having manager support can seamlessly integrate such activities into your people's (weekly) tasks and workload. 

➡️ Impressed with how Google's training process stands out? Also, check how Google handles onboarding and performance reviews . 

🌱 How can you run a development process like Google?

Using Zavvy, you can recreate Google's successful training programs. 

✔️ Assign transparent career paths

You can define career paths for each department to show the role progression clearly . For each progression level, you can define competencies, so employees know what is needed to grow. This transparency will let employees own their learning journey and develop competencies accordingly.

✔️ Create courses easily

You can create custom courses that support your organization's learning requirements. You can design self-paced training for employees.

With the collaborator feature, employees can also create courses on topics they have expertise in.

✔️ Send whispers to your people 

Create small training nudges with a simple suggestion, and send them to your people. This is a very accessible yet effective form of training your people. 

Choose the communication platform of your choice: Slack, Email, or Teams .

The best part is that you can apply Google's whisper methodology to your entire company (not just managers). 

✔️ Bring the social element to learning

You can create group challenges or quizzes for employees.

We have helped Freeletics in the past by running leadership roundtables. The leadership development program had a combination of short weekly nudges, courses, and group sessions to discuss leadership challenges.

✔️ Facilitate mentorship connections

• You can match employees with mentors for coaching calls. You can send surveys to employees to find volunteers.
• You can also share a quick checklist (or course if needed) with mentors and participants on conducting coaching sessions. 

✔️ Take advantage of external training options

Suppose you're trying to teach highly specialized content. In that case, content aimed at your most senior leaders or content that could be very sensitive, peer-to-peer programs might not be the ideal choice. 

Instead, you can use Zavvy's extensive learning library with over 10.000 from top-notch providers. 

Alternatively, set up recurring learning events with professional trainers.

✔️ Encourage learner motivation with voluntary sign-ups

One thing that has made the G2G program successful at Google is that the employees participate voluntarily and are supported by a culture that values learning.

You can either assign Zavvy journeys to employees or publish them to the library so that employees can enroll themselves or do both. 

To publish a journey to the library, you must first enable the "self-enrollment" option in the journey settings. 

After training sessions, encourage participants to share their experiences and what they learned with their peers. This not only reinforces their own learning but also promotes the program to others.

All courses on Zavvy have a share function; encourage your learners to use it and spread the word about the best materials they engage with. 

Since self-enrollment is active, your employees would have no issues signing up for courses recommended by their peers.

Track the courses that receive the most love from your people and try to replicate what makes them successful.

✔️ Provide LMS to support and track learning

Lastly, you can support employees in creating their learning and development plans . Also, you have a centralized LMS to keep track of all training in one place.

✔️ Use the 1:1 software conversations between mentors and mentees

You can easily replicate Google's career conversation worksheet with Zavvy's 1:1 software. You can adapt elements from the worksheet into a template that everyone in your company can use in their mentorship or coaching conversations. 

You add questions and agenda items to structure coaching sessions better. But each coaching pair will be free to make the template their own. 

Plus, the coach can set up the recurrence of the meetings once. Then Zavvy's automation will take care of all the rest: creating Google calendar invites and events for all participants and sending reminders before each session. 

✔️ Collect feedback on your training experiences

Google meticulously tracks the quality of their training initiatives. Especially for their Guru program, coaches are evaluated by those they coach.

With Zavvy, you have 2 ways of collecting feedback on your training and coaching initiatives: 

• Add a survey step to your learning journeys. 
• Create a training evaluation survey and send it out to your cohorts of learners.

📅 Ready to adapt Google's best practices? Get Zavvy's 360 growth system for your employees. Book a demo to see it in action.

Lorelei is Zavvy's Content Marketing Manager. She is always on the hunt for the latest HR trends, fresh statistics, and academic and real-life best practices to spread the word about creating better employee experiences.

More From Forbes

Re-thinking training and development in a post-covid world: a case study.

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(This article was co-authored with  Mohamed Matar , General Manager of  EMIC Training .)

Since well before our current crisis, smart companies have been asking tough questions about traditional approaches to training and developing their people.  The early 21 st  Century fantasy of “all-online digital learning” has largely not played out, especially since some of the most important management competencies are best taught and learned in-person.  “The soft stuff,” it turns out, is actually the  hard  stuff, and managers seeking to develop interpersonal skills, emotional intelligence, and the ability to engage and influence others aren’t going to improve much via an on-line module.

That said, 2020’s entirely unexpected change of course is forcing all of us to rethink how we can develop and train our people and create and strengthen organizational capabilities and culture when we simply cannot get together in person.  Managers must coach more (as they should do anyway), and HR and training departments have to get more creative in their programming.  Simply putting people-development on pause until we “get back to normal” is not an option, because we’re not going “back to normal” anytime soon, if ever.  

While it’s still not clear what “the way we work” will look like in a post-Covid world—the answer to that question will likely take years, not months, to figure out—in talking with our colleagues and clients some good ideas for acting in the present are starting to emerge.  The better organizations are actively wrestling with the questions of how to invest in their people to develop skills (including new skills to lead change and stay resilient through this pandemic), fortify their cultures, and help employees execute and create value for all their stakeholders.

The  National Bank of Bahrain (NBB ), a strategic client of EMIC and a company whose management team I’ve been working with for the last two years, offers an instructive case study. Many thanks to NBB’s leadership for being willing to share some of what they’ve been doing and learning.

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In March, realizing the seriousness and likely long-term effects of the Covid crisis, NBB made it a priority to start looking for people development alternatives such as e-learning and virtual training.  This effort was seen as mission-critical for the bank and thus was driven by the executive team working together, not just by the HR function.  The business rationale was clear:  maintain employee engagement; ensure that all workers could continue to build their skills, including new skills to deal with this crisis; and keep up the momentum of company-wide recruiting and succession planning efforts.  

Here are some of the lessons NBB has learned about developing their people during this pandemic:

Be Courageous  

NBB didn’t re-invent the wheel—rather, they mustered the courage to commit to the path they had established and continue to fund it, even though slashing the training budget would have been an easy way to cut costs. What NBB did instead was conduct a thorough training needs analysis, framed by the realities of the crisis.  The needs and wants of team members at every level in the organization led to the creation of a monthly virtual training calendar, with interactive (as much as possible over videoconferencing) programs led by NBB’s own staff as was well as renowned speakers and experts from around the globe. The subject matter for the sessions has ranged from technical finance and banking training to guidance on leading change and how managers can become better coaches—and much of this effort has been realized without significant added cost.  Dana Buheji, Chief Human Resources Officer, notes: “Despite the current situation, our commitment to continue human capital development, mentor the best talent, and groom leaders from within remains a strategic priority. It’s critically important to us to continue to enable and empower our staff to carry on their professional development without disruption.”

Plan, Consult, and Make Decisions in an Inclusive Way

Accountability is one of NBB's values, and one way that value is realized is in the expectation that each employee is accountable for his or her own development.  Managers are taught and incentivized to involve their employees in the design and planning of all important business and change initiatives to foster innovation and commitment and highlight areas for improvement.   If the company and unit’s vision and direction are clear to them, employees can add more value than external consultants, and they will be more likely to get behind even difficult change efforts:  people best support change if they feel it’s being done  with  them and not  to  them. Consulting, collaborating with, and involving team members has been emphasized as especially important during this time when everyone is required to work from home.

Challenge with Support

In Bahrain, the holy month of Ramadan is typically a low season for training and development efforts, and Ramadan’s overlap this year with the Covid-19 pandemic created even more headwind than usual for most companies in the Region.  Counter-intuitively, NBB saw Ramadan and working from home as an  opportunity;  senior management encouraged employees to make Ramadan a month of learning and growth. Every employee was expected to attend a minimum of five (5) training sessions, including online modules and sessions led by internal staff and managers who don’t normally lead classes.  Running almost 800 employees through five programs each was an ambitious goal, but the company stepped up: in June 2020 the total training hours amounted to 18,028—or 163% higher than the same period last year. Employees played their part, including being willing to engage in valuable teaching and learning in off-hours and over weekends.  The benefits have been immediately tangible in terms of morale and performance.

“We Are All in This Together” 

NBB’s culture has always revolved around respect, recognition, and teamwork at all levels.  Thus, the training programs were designed and re-designed to give all employees an equal opportunity for growth and learning—and in many cases including senior executives and front-line managers and employees in the same virtual classrooms.  While the pandemic has created challenges for NBB’s “We are all in this together” mantra by forcing people to work apart, it has also highlighted the robustness and resiliency of the company’s values and commitments.  The bank has doubled down on investing in its capabilities and culture, and the results are already showing in performance and customer satisfaction. NBB believes they will move forward and succeed by working together.  As the old proverb goes, “If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.”

The unimaginable challenges of 2020 have made business-as-usual difficult if not impossible in almost every sector.  As is usually the case, the organizations that are creative and tenacious on focusing on what they  can  do, rather than what they can’t do, to maintain momentum, growth, and the engagement of their people and their customers will be the ones who survive and eventually thrive.   Jean-Christophe Durand, CEO of NBB, makes the case clearly and passionately:  “Investing in the personal growth and professional development of our people has always been a strategic priority at NBB. We know that empowering our people to unleash their full potential strengthens our base for internal excellence and external customer service, and our commitment has not flagged in spite of the pandemic.”

What are you and your organization doing to invest in your people right now?  Is it a priority?

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Training and Development Case Studies: Lessons from Top-Performing Companies

• Introduction

Training and development case studies provide valuable insights into how top-performing companies have successfully implemented training and development initiatives. By studying these case studies, organizations can learn from the successes and failures of others and apply the lessons to their own training and development programs. These case studies can provide valuable information on how to create practical training and development programs, how to measure the success of those programs, and how to ensure that the programs meet the organization’s needs. By studying these case studies, organizations can better understand the importance of training and development and how to implement it effectively.

Table of Contents

How to leverage training and development case studies to improve employee performance, the benefits of investing in training and development case studies, the impact of training and development case studies on employee retention, how to use training and development case studies to create a positive workplace culture, the role of training and development case studies in enhancing employee engagement.

Training and development case studies can be a powerful tool for improving employee performance. Case studies can help motivate employees and provide tangible examples of how their performance can be enhanced by giving real-world examples of successful training and development initiatives.

Ensuring they are relevant to their current roles and responsibilities is essential when leveraging case studies to improve employee performance. For example, if the case study is about a successful training program for customer service representatives, it should be shared with employees in customer service roles. This will help ensure the case study is meaningful and applicable to the employees’ current positions.

It is also essential to ensure that the case studies are presented in an engaging and accessible format. For example, case studies can be shown in videos, infographics, or interactive presentations. This will help to ensure that the case studies are engaging and memorable for the employees.

When presenting the case studies, allowing employees to discuss the case studies and ask questions is essential. This will help ensure that the employees understand the key takeaways from the case studies and can apply them to their roles.

Finally, it is essential to provide employees with feedback on their performance after they have had an opportunity to review the case studies. This will help ensure that the employees can apply the lessons learned from the case studies to their roles and that their performance is improving.

By leveraging training and development case studies to improve employee performance, organizations can ensure their employees are motivated and equipped with the knowledge and skills necessary to succeed.

Investing in training and development is essential for any organization that wants to remain competitive in today’s ever-changing business environment. Training and development can help organizations to improve employee performance, increase productivity, and reduce turnover. Training and development can help organizations stay ahead of the competition by providing employees with the skills and knowledge they need to stay current in their field.

Case studies are an effective way to demonstrate the benefits of investing in training and development. Case studies provide a detailed look at how a particular organization has implemented training and development initiatives and the results they have achieved. By examining the successes and failures of a specific organization, other organizations can learn from their experiences and apply the same strategies to their own training and development programs.

Case studies can provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of different training and development strategies. For example, a case study may show how a particular organization implemented a new training program and the results it achieved. This can provide other organizations with an understanding of the types of training programs that are most effective and how to implement them. Additionally, case studies can provide insight into organizations’ challenges when implementing training and development initiatives. This can help organizations to identify potential problems before they arise and develop strategies to address them.

Case studies can also provide organizations with an understanding of the costs associated with training and development. Other organizations can understand the financial implications of investing in training and development by examining the costs associated with a particular organization’s training and development initiatives. This can help organizations make informed decisions about their training and development programs.

Finally, case studies can provide organizations with an understanding of training and development’s impact on employee morale and engagement. By examining the results of a particular organization’s training and development initiatives, other organizations can understand how training and development can improve employee morale and engagement. This can help organizations create training and development programs tailored to their needs and goals.

In conclusion, case studies effectively demonstrate the benefits of investing in training and development. Case studies provide organizations with an understanding of the successes and failures of a particular organization’s training and development initiatives, the costs associated with training and development, and the impact that training and development can have on employee morale and engagement. By examining case studies, organizations can gain valuable insights into the effectiveness of different training and development strategies and develop strategies tailored to their specific needs and goals.

The impact of training and development on employee retention has been widely studied in recent years. Studies have shown that employees who receive training and development are more likely to stay with their employer for extended periods. Movement and action can help employees develop their skills and knowledge, increasing job satisfaction and improving performance.

To better understand the impact of training and development on employee retention, it is essential to look at case studies conducted on the subject. One such case study was conducted by the University of Michigan in 2017. The study looked at the impact of training and development on employee retention in a large manufacturing company. The study found that employees who received training and development were likelier to stay with the company for extended periods. The study also found that employees who received training and development were more potential to have higher job satisfaction and better performance.

Another case study was conducted by the University of California in 2018. This study looked at the impact of training and development on employee retention in a large retail company. The study found that employees who received training and development were likelier to stay with the company for extended periods. The study also found that employees who received training and development were more potential to have higher job satisfaction and better performance.

These case studies demonstrate the positive impact that training and development can have on employee retention. Training and development can help employees develop their skills and knowledge, increasing job satisfaction and improving performance. This can lead to increased employee retention, benefiting both employers and employees.

Training and development case studies can create a positive workplace culture by providing employees with real-life examples of how their peers have successfully navigated challenging situations. By sharing these stories, employees can gain insight into approaching similar issues in their work environment.

Case studies can be used to illustrate the importance of effective communication, collaboration, and problem-solving skills. For example, a case study could demonstrate how a team of employees worked together to develop a creative solution to a complex problem. This type of case study can help to foster a culture of collaboration and innovation.

Case studies can also be used to demonstrate the value of professional development. By highlighting the successes of employees who have taken advantage of training opportunities, employers can encourage their staff to pursue further education and development. This can help to create a culture of continuous learning and growth.

Finally, case studies can be used to demonstrate the importance of diversity and inclusion in the workplace. By highlighting employees’ successes from different backgrounds, employers can create an environment where everyone feels valued and respected.

Using training and development case studies to create a positive workplace culture, employers can foster an environment where employees feel empowered to take the initiative and contribute to the organization’s success.

Training and development case studies can be an effective tool for enhancing employee engagement. By providing employees with real-world examples of how their peers have successfully implemented new skills and strategies, case studies can help motivate and inspire employees to take ownership of their development.

Case studies can be used to illustrate the value of training and development in various ways. For example, case studies can be used to demonstrate the impact of exercise on employee performance. By providing employees with examples of how their peers have achieved success through training, case studies can help create a learning and development culture. Additionally, case studies can be used to demonstrate the value of training and development in terms of employee engagement. Case studies can help motivate and inspire employees to take ownership of their development by providing examples of how their peers have successfully implemented new skills and strategies.

Case studies can also illustrate the importance of employee engagement in the workplace. By providing employees with examples of how their peers have successfully implemented new skills and strategies, case studies can help to create a culture of collaboration and engagement. Additionally, case studies can be used to demonstrate employee engagement’s value in organizational performance. By providing employees with examples of how their peers have achieved success through collaboration and engagement, case studies can help to create a culture of engagement and performance.

Finally, case studies can be used to illustrate the importance of employee engagement in terms of organizational culture. By providing employees with examples of how their peers have successfully implemented new skills and strategies, case studies can help to create a culture of trust and respect. Additionally, case studies can demonstrate employee engagement’s value in terms of organizational culture. By providing employees with examples of how their peers have achieved success through collaboration and engagement, case studies can help to create a culture of trust and respect.

In conclusion, training and development case studies can be an effective tool for enhancing employee engagement. By providing employees with real-world examples of how their peers have successfully implemented new skills and strategies, case studies can help motivate and inspire employees to take ownership of their development. Additionally, case studies can illustrate the importance of employee engagement in terms of organizational performance, culture, and trust.

Training and development case studies provide valuable insights into how top-performing companies have successfully implemented training and development initiatives. By studying these case studies, organizations can better understand the strategies and tactics that have been successful in the past and use them to create their own successful training and development programs. By taking the time to analyze and learn from these case studies, organizations can ensure that their training and development initiatives are practical and successful.

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How to Use Case Studies in Your Employee Training Sessions

Case studies can be powerful tools for learning and training. They're evidence-based stories that showcase the outcomes you want, so using them as the basis for your training can make the training itself more engaging and more effective. The question is, how can you use a case study to enhance your training for learners? There are several options.

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Design a case study to fit the training, develop training to fit a case study, use a longitudinal case study to demonstrate outcomes of training, use miniature case studies to prove individual points, thread a case study throughout training, ask trainees to predict case study outcomes, discuss potential alternative outcomes in case studies, turn a case study into an immersive simulation, create a framework case study and encourage trainees to fill it out.

First up, you have one major decision to make. Do you design training around a case study, or do you design a case study to fit your training? Both perspectives are equally valid as long as the study results and the training program goals are aligned.

Let’s say you choose to design a case study to fit your desired training. For example, you're trying to implement the  Delivering Exceptional Phone Service  reproducible training course for your customer service team. To back up the training, you want a case study that showcases how putting the techniques taught in the course into practice will bolster positive outcomes with customer service.

You have two options here.

• The first is simply writing a case study based on your own experiences, accentuating the necessary details relevant to the training, and pruning it down to the bare essentials to prove your point.
• The other option is to seek out existing case studies performed by renowned research firms that support your points.

In either case, you can then use the case study as a "real world" example of how the techniques in the training can be put to actual use and how they tangibly impact positive outcomes. Make sure to highlight specific aspects of the case study and how they relate to the practices put forth in the training module for better retention.

Your second option, as an alternative, is to develop your training to fit an already existing case study.

The process looks a little something like this:

• Begin by finding a case study that results in the outcomes you're seeking. For example,  this case study from Train Like a Champion  focuses on getting training to produce long-term results, something that every company can benefit from implementing.
• Next, review the case study. Look for salient details and mechanisms used to achieve the outcomes you desire. Ideally, the case study itself will support those mechanisms and expound upon how to use them.
• Finally, develop a training module that integrates the case study and its data, as well as the mechanisms you uncovered, to train your employees to achieve those same outcomes.

You can accompany the training module with the case study, with details and data uncovered along the way, or you can use it as a companion piece or use it as cited sources or proof for the claims you're making. None of these choices are inherently wrong, so pick the ones that work best with your staff and your means of training to create a better learning experience.

Longitudinal case studies are case studies that look at and measure specific data about their subjects over a long period. Such case studies can follow individuals throughout a particular period of years, their careers, or their entire lives. For example, longitudinal studies are often used in medicine to help study the long-term effects of various substances and illnesses.

A longitudinal case study can be a powerful tool for building training. You can point to specific, hard evidence that certain kinds of training not only improve short-term results and benefits for employees, clients, and companies but can increase the value of employees throughout their careers.

Using this kind of case study can be an essential part of encouraging your employees to take the training seriously. After all, it's one thing to encourage employees to participate in training because it benefits customers or the company, but it's quite a different incentive if you can showcase how that training will improve their career prospects.

The tricky part about this is that case studies can prove many different points because different people have different career trajectories and leverage different skills in different ways. That is why it can be essential to begin with training modules such as  What's My Leadership Style  to help employees identify which individuals to follow in the case study and which outcomes are most relevant to their specific situations.

If finding specific, relevant longitudinal studies isn't possible, an alternative approach involves leveraging small-scale case studies to reinforce key points throughout your training process. For example, throughout a comprehensive  customer service training  course, you can use specific case studies that highlight varied responses to an irate customer, showcasing how different approaches lead to distinct outcomes. These case studies provide tangible examples to support decisions about adopting a placating, resistant, or combative tone in customer interactions.

The benefit to this option is that there are, in general, many more small-scale case studies than there are more extensive, longitudinal case studies. Moreover, it's much easier to find them and use them to prove your points. Long-term case studies can have surprising outcomes, and they can have findings that contradict your studies and policies. That can be difficult to reconcile unless you're willing to wholly adjust your training and direction.

The biggest potential drawback to this option is that there are many small-scale case studies, many of which can have contradictory outcomes. With the vast pool of small-scale case studies available, there is a risk of cherry-picking examples that selectively support a specific viewpoint, regardless of their overall value. This practice could compromise the integrity of the training content and may not provide a holistic representation of the topic at hand. Trainers should exercise caution and ensure that the chosen case studies are relevant, unbiased, and contribute substantively to the overall learning objectives.

If you think back to some of the more effective textbook designs for schools in higher education, you may find a through-line. Many effective textbooks include an ongoing, long-term set of examples, or "characters," they follow along the way. For example, in courses where you learn a language, a textbook will often have a set of characters who interact in varying situations to showcase quirks of language, particularly conversational use of the language.

A case study can be used in this manner for your training. Fortunately, many comprehensive and overarching training courses have these kinds of examples and case studies built into them.

The goal is to allow your trainees to explore training in a multifaceted way. That might include links to studies, links to infoboxes, video interviews, and much more.

An added benefit of this training method is that you can make a single training module much more comprehensive in terms of answers to common and uncommon questions. Training employees from a point of knowledge can be surprisingly challenging because it can be tricky to judge even what the trainees don't know. Providing in-depth, interlinked, embedded answers to questions for trainees to explore helps bring everyone to the same page.

One thing that sets effective training apart from ineffective training is the level of interactivity. When training is interactive and engaging, trainees learn much more from it by participating in "real-life" examples and demos of the training in action. This approach enables participants to apply their knowledge in real-life situations, promoting a deeper understanding and emphasizing their problem-solving ability to choose appropriate resolutions.

One way to help encourage engagement in training is with a case study that puts that training into action. Divide the case study between setup and resolution, and have the trainees read the setup portion of the training. Cut it off as the individuals in the case study are making their decisions based on the training (or ignoring the training).

Then, ask the trainees to predict what the outcomes will be. Encourage them to write down their predictions. Then, you can progress with the case study and reveal the actual results of the training. While some case studies may follow predictable paths, introducing occasional curveballs keeps participants on their toes. These unexpected twists challenge trainees’ critical thinking skills and their ability to adapt their problem-solving strategies. You can then discuss why they made the predictions that they did and what led them to their decisions, whether right or wrong.

This interactive approach not only transforms training into a participatory experience but also creates a platform for meaningful discussions.

Like the above, you can leverage case studies and predictions to speculate. How would the outcome have changed if the individual in the case study made a different choice or acted differently?

What changes would your employees make?

"After reading a case study together or independently, you can have your participants write a different ending to the case study. For example, if you read a story about a woman who improved her communication skills after attending a workshop (just like the one your students might be in), have them write what would happen if she didn't attend the workshop. Have them write what would happen if she was engaged/not engaged. Ask them to consider what is going on in the woman's life that might impact her ability to communicate appropriately or efficiently during the time of training. Writing a different outcome prompts participants to consider the whole story and not just the parts that are presented to them." –  TrainingCourseMaterial

For an interesting case study of your own, you can ask your trainees to read a situation and convey how they would act in that situation before implementing the training in the first place. Then, progress through the training modules. When finished, ask the trainee to revisit, see how accurate their behavior is to the goal, and ask them what changes, if any, they would make.

Once again, studies show that the best training is training produced in the form of an immersive simulation.  

Look for industry case studies about particular incidents.  Several agencies  produce comprehensive investigations into the circumstances behind industrial accidents, often in factory, warehouse, or shipping processes. These case studies can form the basis of a scenario wherein you ask your employees to role-play how they would respond if the incident occurred in your facility.

You can then use the realities of the investigation to enforce consequences in the simulated disaster. For example, say you're training employees to handle a chemical spill in a warehouse. The established procedures outline specific actions to be taken. Within the simulation, introduce a scenario where one employee is found unconscious within the chemical spill. This introduces a critical decision point: will someone attempt a rescue, and if so, will they do so without proper preparation? You can then remove this individual from the training scenario because their actions led to them being incapacitated.

There are many such examples. Always remember that most, if not all, industrial and commercial regulations are built on the back of people dying because of loopholes or unforeseen circumstances.

This approach allows employees to engage with the training material in a hands-on, realistic manner. It not only reinforces the importance of adhering to established protocols but also highlights the potential repercussions of deviating from proper procedures. The immersive nature of these simulations helps employees internalize the lessons, making the training more impactful and applicable to their day-to-day responsibilities.

Finally, another way to use case studies for training is to turn your trainees into case studies themselves. Build a framework or a template of a case study, with questions about the scenario, their responses, the training, and their behavior after the training. Encourage trainees to fill out these case study templates, then participate in training, and fill them out again. For added value, track these employees for months afterward to see where they've gone, how they've implemented their training, and how it has improved their careers.

The use of case studies can be a powerful training tool, but they can only be effective if coupled with practical training modules. After all, you can't know how to reach your goals without knowing where you are. That's why we offer dozens of training options in our reproducible training library, as well as dozens more assessments (both instructor-led and self-guided) to help establish baselines and build awareness.

Check out our training library, and find case studies that align with your company values and learning objectives.

To learn more about how to help your employees, check out our  What’s My Leadership Style  course. This course is a management development tool, leadership style assessment, and online training workshop. This comprehensive tool is designed to pinpoint an individual's leadership style, offering valuable insights for organizational leaders, managers, and supervisors. By utilizing this tool, professionals can enhance their performance and cultivate the skills necessary to evolve into effective and impactful leaders within their respective roles.

Do you have any questions or concerns about using case studies in your employee training sessions to provide the best outcomes for your learners? If so, please feel free to leave a comment down below, and we'll get back to you! We make it a point to reply to every message we receive, and we would be more than happy to assist you or your company however we possibly can.

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About our author

Bradford r. glaser.

Brad is President and CEO of HRDQ, a publisher of soft-skills learning solutions, and HRDQ-U, an online community for learning professionals hosting webinars, workshops, and podcasts. His 35+ years of experience in adult learning and development have fostered his passion for improving the performance of organizations, teams, and individuals.

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Home » Management Case Studies » Case Study of IBM: Employee Training through E-Learning

Case Study of IBM: Employee Training through E-Learning

“E-learning is a technology area that often has both first-tier benefits, such as reduced travel costs, and second-tier benefits, such as increased employee performance that directly impacts profitability.” – Rebecca Wettemann, research director for Nucleus Research

In 2002, the International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) was ranked fourth by the Training magazine on it’s “The 2002 Training Top 100”. The magazine ranked companies based on their commitment towards workforce development and training imparted to employees even during periods of financial uncertainty.

Since its inception, IBM had been focusing on human resources development : The company concentrated on the education and training of its employees as an integral part of their development. During the mid 1990s, IBM reportedly spent about $1 billion for training its employees. However, in the late 1990s, IBM undertook a cost cutting drive , and started looking for ways to train its employees effectively at lower costs. After considerable research, in 1999, IBM decided to use e-Learning to train its employees. Initially, e-Learning was used to train IBM’s newly recruited managers.

IBM saved millions of dollars by training employees through e-learning. E-Learning also created a better learning environment for the company’s employees, compared to the traditional training methods . The company reportedly saved about $166 million within one year of implementing the e-learning program for training its employees all over the world. The figure rose to $350 million in 2001. During this year, IBM reported a return on investment (ROI)’s of 2284 percent from its Basic Blue e-Learning program. This was mainly due to the significant reduction in the company’s training costs and positive results reaped from e-learning. Andrew Sadler, director of IBM Mindspan Solutions, explained the benefits of e-learning to IBM, “All measures of effectiveness went up. It’s saving money and delivering more effective training,’ while at the same time providing five times more content than before.” By 2002, IBM had emerged as the company with the largest number of employee’s who have enrolled into e-Learning courses.

Though there were varied opinions about the effectiveness of e-Learning as a training tool for employees, IBM saw it as a major business opportunity and started offering e- ­learning products to other organizations as well. Analysts estimated that the market for e-Learning programs would grow from $2.1 billion in 2001 to $33.6 billion in 2005 representing a 100 percent compounded annual growth rate (CAGR).

Background Note

Since the inception of IBM, its top management laid great emphasis on respecting every employee. It felt that every employee’s contribution was important for the organization. Thomas J. Watson Sr. (Watson Sr.), the father of modern IBM had once said, “By the simple belief that if we respected our people and helped them respect themselves, the company would certainly profit.” The HR policies at IBM were employee-friendly. Employees were compensated well – as they were paid above the industry average. in terms of wages. The company followed a ‘no layoffs’ policy. Even during financially troubled periods, employees were relocated from the plants, labs and headquarters, and were retrained for careers in sales, customer engineering, field administration and programming.

To widen their knowledge base and broaden their perspectives, managers were also sent for educational programs to Harvard, the London School of Economics, MIT and Stanford. Those who excelled in these programs were sent to the Advanced Managers School, a program offered in about forty colleges including some in Harvard, Columbia, Virginia, Georgia and Indiana. IBM’s highest-ranking executives were sent to executive seminars, organized at the Brookings Institutions this program typically covered a broad range of subjects including, international and domestic, political and economic affairs. IBM executives were exposed to topical events with a special emphasis on their implications for the company.

In 1997, Louis Gerstner (Gerstner), the then CEO of IBM , conducted a research to identify the unique characteristics of best executives and managers. The research revealed that the ability to train employees was an essential skill, which differentiated best executives and managers. Therefore, Gerstner aimed at improving the managers’ training skills. Gerstner adopted a coaching methodology of Sir John Whitmore, which was taught to the managers through training workshops.

IBM trained about 5000 new managers in a year. There was a five-day training program for all the new managers, where they were familiarized with the basic culture, strategy and management of IBM. However, as the jobs became more complex, the five-day program turned out to be insufficient for the managers to train them effectively. The company felt that the training process had to be continuous and not a one-time event.

Gerstner thus started looking for new ways of training managers. The company specifically wanted its management training initiatives to address the following issues:

• Management of people across geographic borders
• Management of remote and mobile employees
• Digital collaboration issues
• Reductions in management development resources
• Limited management time for training and development
• Management’s low comfort level in accessing and searching online HR resources

Online Training at IBM

In 1999, IBM launched the pilot Basic Blue management training program, which was fully deployed in 2000. Basic Blue was an in-house management training program for new managers. It imparted 75 percent of the training online and the remaining 25 percent through the traditional classroom mode. The e-Learning part included articles, simulations, job aids and short courses.

The founding principle of Basic Blue was that ‘learning is an extended process, not a one-time event.” Basic Blue was based on a ‘4- Tier’ blended learning model’. The first three tiers were delivered online and the fourth tier included one ­-week long traditional classroom training. The program offered basic skills and knowledge to managers so that they can become effective leaders and people-oriented managers.

In the second tier, the managers were provided with simulated situations. Senior managers trained the managers online. The simulations enabled the managers to learn about employee skill-building, compensation and benefits, multicultural issues, work/life balance- issues and business conduct in an interactive manner. Some of the content for [his tier was offered by Harvard Business School and the simulations were created by Cognitive Arts of Chicago. The online Coaching Simulator offered eight scenarios with 5000 scenes of action, decision points and branching results. IBM Management Development’s web site, Going Global offered as many as 300 interactive scenarios on culture clashes.

In the third tier, the members of the group started interacting with each other online. This tier used IBM’s collaboration tools such as chats, and team rooms including IBM e-Learning products like the Team-Room, Customer-Room and Lotus Learning Space. Using these tools, employees could interact online with the instructors as well as with peers in their groups. This tier also used virtual team exercises and included advanced technologies like application sharing, live virtual classrooms and interactive presentation: on the web. In this tier, the members of the group had to solve problems as a team by forming virtual groups, using these products. Hence, this tier focused more on developing the collaborative skills of the learners.

The tremendous success of the Basic Blue initiative encouraged IBM to extend training through e-Learning to its-sales personnel and experienced managers as well. The e-Learning program for the sales personnel was known as ‘Sales Compass,’ and the one for the experienced managers, as ‘Managing@ IBM.’ Prior to the implementation of the Sales Compass e-Learning program, the sales personnel underwent live training at the company’s headquarters and training campuses. They also attended field training program, national sales conferences and other traditional methods of training. However, in most of the cases these methods proved too expensive, ineffective and time-consuming. Apart from this, coordination problems also cropped up, as the sales team was spread across the world. Moreover, in a highly competitive market, IBM could not afford to keep its sales team away from work for weeks together.

Though Sales Compass was originally started in 1997 on a trial basis to help the sales team in selling business intelligence solutions to the retail and manufacturing industries, it-was not implemented on a large scale. But with the success of Basic Blue, Sales Compass was developed further. The content of the new Sales Compass was divided into five categories including Solutions (13 courses), industries (23 courses), personal skills (2 courses), selling skills (11 courses), and tools and job aid (4 aids).

It also enabled the sales people to sell certain IBM products designed for Customer Relationship Management (CRM) , Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) , Business Intelligence (BI) , and so on. Sales Compass also trained the sales personnel on skills like negotiating and selling services. Like the Basic Blue program, Sales Compass also had simulations for selling products to a specific industry like banking, about how to close a deal, and so on. It also allowed its users to ask questions and had links to information on other IBM sites and related websites.

Sales Compass was offered to 20,000 sales representatives, client relationship representatives, territory representatives, sales specialists, and service professionals at IBM. Brenda Toan (Toan), global skills and learning leader for IBM offices across the world, said, “Sales Compass is a just-in-time, just-enough sales support information site. Most of our users are mobile. So they are, most of the times, unable to get into a branch office and obtain information on a specific industry or solution. IBM Sales Compass provides industry-specific knowledge, advice on how to sell specific solutions, and selling tools that support our signature selling methodology, which is convenient for these users.”

By implementing the above programs, IBM was able to reduce its training budget as well as improve employee productivity significantly. In 2000, Basic Blue saved $16 million while Sales Compass saved $21 million. In 2001, IBM saved $200 million and its cost of training per-employee reduced significantly – from $400 to $135. E-learning also resulted in a deeper understanding of the learning content by the managers. It also enabled the managers to complete their classroom training modules in lesser time, as compared to the traditional training methods used earlier. The simulation modules and collaboration techniques created a richer learning environment. The e-learning projects also enabled the company to leverage corporate internal knowledge as most of the content they carried came from the internal content experts.

IBM’s cost savings through E-Learning

IBM continued its efforts to improve the visual information in all its e-Learning programs to make them more effective. The company also encouraged its other employees to attend these e-learning programs. Apart from this, IBM planned to update these programs on a continuous basis, using feedback from its new and experienced managers, its sales force and other employees.

IBM used e-Learning not only to train its employees, but also in other HR activities. In November 2001, IBM employees received the benefits enrollment material online. The employees could learn about the merits of various benefits and the criteria for availing these benefits, such as cost, coverage, customer service or performance ­using an Intranet tool called ‘Path Finder.’ This tool also enabled the employees to know about the various health plans offered by IBM. Besides, Pathfinder took information from the employees and returned a preferred plan with ranks and graphs. This application enabled employees to see and manage their benefits, deductions in their salaries, career changes and more. This obviously, increased employee satisfaction. The company also automated its hiring process. The new tool on the company’s intranet was capable of carrying out most of the employee hiring processes. Initially, IBM used to take ten days to find a temporary engineer or consultant. Now, the company was able to find such an employee in three days.

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HR Employee Training and Development: A Comprehensive Study

In the dynamic landscape of human resources management, the concepts of employee training and development have become indispensable tools for organizations intent on fostering a competitive edge in the market. Central to the strategic framework of HR, these practices not only enhance individual employee skills and capabilities but also contribute significantly to the overall operational efficiency of the organization. This academic treatise delves into the comprehensive study of HR employee training and development, expounding upon its myriad significances while offering examples and insights into its effective application in various professional environments. As companies vie to remain relevant amidst rapid technological and socioeconomic changes, a thorough understanding of these practices becomes even more paramount.

Introduction to HR Employee Training and Development

Employee training and development, within the domain of HR, involves a systematic approach to enhance an organization's workforce capabilities. Effective training is meant to align the skills and competencies of employees with the strategic needs of the company, thereby educationally enriching staff and bolstering organizational prowess. It is a proactive strategy to ensure that the workforce can meet current and future demands with dexterity and poise.

The importance of employee training and development in HR management can hardly be overstated. A well-crafted training program empowers employees with necessary skills to perform their responsibilities effectively while development programs prepare them for future roles and challenges within the company. This symbiotic growth not only benefits the individual but also fortifies the company's market position by nurturing a skilled and adaptable workforce.

This blog offers a comprehensive exploration of the facets of HR employee training and development, analyzing their indispensable roles in shaping a robust and skilled workforce. The content delineates various types and methods of training and development, underscores their significance, and probes the strategic processes involved in crafting effective training programs.

Importance of HR Employee Training and Development

Employee training and development are critical in elevating the collective productivity of an organization's workforce. Training equips employees with the practical skills necessary to perform their daily tasks efficiently, thereby directly impacting productivity metrics. Development programs engage more with the growth potential of employees, preparing them for higher responsibilities and more complex tasks, indirectly fostering a more productive work environment.

This investment in employees pays dividends in enhancing retention rates. By showing a commitment to their career progression and personal growth, organizations can improve job satisfaction and loyalty, which are pivotal in retaining talented staff. An environment that promotes growth and opportunity encourages employees to envision a long-term future within the company.

The continuous evolution of technology necessitates that employee training is an ongoing endeavor. It's important for companies to keep pace with the latest advancements, and regular training sessions ensure that employees are not left behind. This is particularly important in industries that are heavily dependent on technology, where the pace of change is notably swift.

Training vs Development: Understanding the Difference

The concepts of employee training often intersect with those of employee development, though they serve distinct purposes. Employee training typically refers to programs designed to improve an individual's performance in their current job role. It focuses on teaching new skills or enhancing existing skills to boost on-the-job efficiency and effectiveness.

Alternatively, employee development is a broader and more future-oriented strategy. It aims at the overall growth of the employee, preparing them for potential future roles and career advancement within the organization. This long-term approach often encompasses leadership skills, decision-making capabilities, and personal development.

Differentiating the two is critical for HR managers as it allows for a more targeted and effective approach to workforce management. Both employee training and development are essential elements of a comprehensive HR strategy, each addressing different needs within the employee life cycle.

Types of HR Employee Training and Development

The realm of HR employee training encompasses a diverse range of methods, each tailored to specific outcomes. On-the-job training, for instance, immerses employees in their work environment, promoting learning through direct experience. Off-the-job training, by contrast, removes employees from their day-to-day work tasks to focus on learning in a different setting, often using workshops or seminars.

Induction training is pivotal as it introduces new hires to the company culture, expectations, and their specific roles. It's essential for onboarding employees effectively and setting them up for success. Meanwhile, refresher training serves to update and re-energize existing employees' skill sets, ensuring that their knowledge remains current and applicable.

Employee development transcends mere skill acquisition, embarking on enriching the individual's career path through professional development (like earning an online certification course in their field), personal development (such as leadership and interpersonal skills), and career development (planning and pursuing a career trajectory within or outside the current organization). This holistic approach to enhancing an employee's professional journey is paramount for sustaining their engagement and motivation.

Considering Different Learning Styles in Training and Development

Learning styles are a significant factor in the efficacy of training and development programs. Understanding that each employee might have a preference for a particular mode of learning – whether auditory, visual, kinesthetic, or a combination thereof – is crucial for HR to tailor their methods accordingly.

Accommodating these varied learning styles can be challenging, but it's a vital consideration to ensure that training and development efforts resonate with every employee. Diverse training methodologies, involving a mix of lectures, interactive workshops, and hands-on activities, can cater to the full spectrum of learning preferences.

Steps in Designing Effective HR Employee Training and Development Programs

The conception of training programs starts with the identification of training needs, pinpointing specific skill gaps or performance issues within the workforce. This phase is crucial because it ensures that the program addresses real, tangible needs within the company.

Once needs are established, planning and designing the program involve setting objectives, choosing content, and delivery modes that are most likely to resonate with the targeted audience. It is at this stage that the incorporation of appropriate learning styles takes place, fleshing out a blueprint for an impactful training initiative.

The implementation phase is the crucible where theory meets practice. It's where trainers engage with employees, facilitating learning and ensuring that the program's objectives are met. This is a dynamic process that might require real-time adjustments based on participant feedback and engagement.

The Role of Technology in HR Employee Training and Development

The integration of digital tools into training methods opens a wealth of possibilities for HR practices. E-learning platforms allow for flexibility and accessibility, providing employees with the opportunity to learn at their own pace and on their own schedule. Digital simulations and virtual reality tools can also offer practical, immersive experiences without the associated risks or costs of real-world training.

However, the move towards digital learning platforms isn't without its challenges. There are considerations about digital literacy, access to technology, and the potential loss of the human interaction element that would typically be present in in-person training sessions. Yet, the opportunities provided by these advancements—such as the ability to attend an hr online course —offer significant benefits for both the organization and its employees.

Conclusion: The Future of HR Employee Training and Development

Employee training and development programs will continue to be a cornerstone of successful organizations. As the business landscape evolves, so too must the strategies employed to keep the workforce skilled and knowledgeable. The future likely holds more personalized, technology-driven training methods with an emphasis on continuous learning and adaptability.

With strategic foresight, HR practitioners should find themselves revisiting and optimizing their training and development programs regularly. By staying attuned to industry transformations and technological innovations, they can ensure that their workforce remains a step ahead, well-equipped to navigate the complexities of the modern business environment.

What are the key considerations that significantly impact the effectiveness of HR employee training and development programs?

Key considerations for hr training success, alignment with organizational goals.

Alignment drives program relevance. Organizational goals give training direction. Training must mirror company strategy . This ensures skill development supports business objectives.

Identification of Competency Gaps

Competency assessment is crucial . It pinpoints employee skill shortages. Training bridges these gaps . Organizations must understand employee weaknesses. This focuses development efforts.

Tailored Learning Paths

Individual needs vary . Customize training to meet them. Personalization enhances engagement . It respects diverse learning styles. Learners feel valued .

Leadership Involvement

Leaders must champion training . Their involvement motivates employees. Visible support reinforces training importance. Leaders guide and inspire learners.

Effective Content Delivery

Content delivery matters . Choose methods wisely. Diverse formats cater to various preferences. Include e-learning, workshops, mentorship. Mix methods for impact.

Continuous Learning Environment

Cultivate a learning culture . Encourage knowledge sharing. Continuous learning is key. It drives innovation, adaptability.

Evaluation and Feedback

Measure training effectiveness. Use qualitative and quantitative metrics. Feedback refines training . It adjusts for improvements. Evaluation ensures accountability.

Technological Integration

Embrace relevant technologies . It promotes interactive learning. Use Learning Management Systems (LMS) . They track progress, provide resources.

Budget Consideration

Balance cost with quality. Don't skimp on essential resources. Budget planning is strategic . It allocates funds appropriately.

Scalability and Flexibility

Plan for organizational change. Ensure training programs can scale. Flexibility allows for adaptation. Training must grow with the company.

Regulatory Compliance and Ethics

Stay abreast of legal requirements. Ensure programs meet regulatory standards. Ethical considerations are paramount . Training content should reflect them.

Each consideration intertwines with others. They collectively shape program effectiveness. Businesses should weigh each carefully. Implementing these ensures a robust training framework. It fosters employee growth. It also aligns with strategic business goals.

How does the integration of technology and digital platforms enhance HR employee training and development outcomes?

The role of technology in training and development, enhanced learning experience.

Technology reshapes how employees engage with training. Digital platforms offer interactive content. This content often includes videos, quizzes, and simulations. Such interactivity leads to heightened engagement. Engaged learners are more likely to retain information. They can also apply new skills effectively. Digital platforms make learning adaptive. They tailor content to individual needs. This personalization ensures relevant skill development.

Cost-Effective and Time-Efficient

Traditional training methods often demand significant resources. Rooms, materials, and instructors contribute to costs. Tech-driven training cuts many of these expenses. It allows for asynchronous learning. Employees train at their convenience. This flexibility saves time. It also means no loss of productivity due to scheduling conflicts.

Consistent Training Quality

In-person training varies in quality. Instructors differ in capabilities. Digital platforms provide consistent content. They ensure every employee receives the same training quality. Uniformity in training promotes fair opportunities for development. Everyone progresses with the same information and standards.

Scalability and Accessibility

Businesses must scale training due to growth or turnover. Technology facilitates this scalability. More employees can access digital resources simultaneously. Moreover, remote workers can access these resources from anywhere. Geographic barriers disappear with online training. Thus, firms with diverse and dispersed teams benefit greatly.

Real-Time Feedback and Analytics

Digital platforms allow for real-time feedback. Learners receive immediate responses to queries and assessments. This feedback helps to correct mistakes quickly. It also motivates learners by showing progress. On the administrative side, analytics track employee performance. HR can evaluate training effectiveness. They can also identify areas for improvement. This data-driven approach enhances training strategies.

Lifelong Learning and Continuous Improvement

The digital age calls for continual skill updates. Technology supports lifelong learning through continuous access to resources. Employees can revisit materials whenever necessary. They can keep pace with the evolving industry demands. This accessibility fosters a culture of ongoing professional development.

In conclusion, technology revolutionizes HR training and development. It creates engaging, cost-effective, consistent, and scalable learning environments. It also provides valuable feedback and supports lifelong learning. Businesses that embrace digital training platforms reap these benefits. They ensure their workforce remains skilled and competitive.

How can metrics and evaluation strategies be employed to assess the real-time value of HR employee training and development endeavors?

Metrics and evaluation strategies.

Assessment of Human Resources (HR) training and development programs is critical. It ensures investments translate into real-time value for organizations. HR professionals rely on specific metrics and evaluation strategies. These measure effectiveness and show how training impacts performance.

Setting Goals and Expectations

Begin with clear goals for training programs. Goals should align with organizational objectives. Training relevance becomes clearer. Both trainers and learners understand expectations.

Utilizing Real-time Feedback

Real-time feedback is essential. It captures immediate responses to training. It helps gauge understanding and engagement levels. Use standard surveys or digital platforms. Solicit feedback during and after training sessions.

Implementing Learning Metrics

Learning metrics can be valuable indicators. Key metrics include:

- Completion rates of courses

- Test scores or assessments

- Practical application of skills

Track these rigorously. Look for trends and improvement over time.

Leveraging Performance Metrics

Performance metrics relate training to job performance. Consider:

- Quality of work

- Productivity levels

- Sales figures

- Customer service ratings

Correlate these with training data. Infer the direct impact of learning efforts.

Identifying Behavioral Changes

Behavioral changes post-training are telling. Observe changes in:

- Employees' efficiency

- Adoption of new methods or tools

- Interaction with colleagues and managers

Quantify these changes where possible. Use them in evaluating training outcomes.

Analyzing Business Impact

The ultimate aim is to assess business impacts. Quantify the effects of training on:

- Cost savings

- Operational efficiency

These tie HR endeavours to tangible business outcomes.

Financial Analysis Techniques

Return on Investment (ROI) is a classic measure. Calculate training costs versus financial gains. Pay attention to:

- Direct savings

- Increased earnings attributable to training

This helps justify the investment in training programs.

Integrating 360-degree Feedback

Comprehensive feedback paints a fuller picture. Include input from:

- Supervisors

- Subordinates

- Customers, when relevant

Each offers different insights into an employee's performance. Together, they provide a rounded view of training effectiveness.

Using Technology to Track Metrics

Employ technology for data collection and analysis. Options include Learning Management Systems (LMS) and HR analytics tools. They streamline metric tracking. They offer insights into engagement and learning outcomes.

Continual Improvement Process

Training effectiveness is not static. Evaluate regularly. Adjust training strategies as needed. Respond to feedback and results. This demonstrates commitment to continual improvement.

In conclusion, careful use of metrics and evaluation strategies is vital. They provide evidence of HR's contribution to organizational success. They guide decision-making for future training. They show real-time training value beyond merely checking a box. Employ these strategies. Ensure HR training and development endeavors align with and advance company goals .

Pia Prebensen is a personal growth expert who helps people identify and overcome their limiting beliefs. She has been featured in various online and print publications, including Elite Daily and The Huffington Post.

Born and raised in Denmark, Pia has always been fascinated by human behavior and the inner workings of the mind.

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• Open access
• Published: 08 August 2024

Drug repositioning based on residual attention network and free multiscale adversarial training

• Guanghui Li 1 ,
• Shuwen Li 1 ,
• Cheng Liang 2 ,
• Qiu Xiao 3 &
• Jiawei Luo 4  

BMC Bioinformatics volume  25 , Article number:  261 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

79 Accesses

Metrics details

Conducting traditional wet experiments to guide drug development is an expensive, time-consuming and risky process. Analyzing drug function and repositioning plays a key role in identifying new therapeutic potential of approved drugs and discovering therapeutic approaches for untreated diseases. Exploring drug-disease associations has far-reaching implications for identifying disease pathogenesis and treatment. However, reliable detection of drug-disease relationships via traditional methods is costly and slow. Therefore, investigations into computational methods for predicting drug-disease associations are currently needed.

This paper presents a novel drug-disease association prediction method, RAFGAE. First, RAFGAE integrates known associations between diseases and drugs into a bipartite network. Second, RAFGAE designs the Re_GAT framework, which includes multilayer graph attention networks (GATs) and two residual networks. The multilayer GATs are utilized for learning the node embeddings, which is achieved by aggregating information from multihop neighbors. The two residual networks are used to alleviate the deep network oversmoothing problem, and an attention mechanism is introduced to combine the node embeddings from different attention layers. Third, two graph autoencoders (GAEs) with collaborative training are constructed to simulate label propagation to predict potential associations. On this basis, free multiscale adversarial training (FMAT) is introduced. FMAT enhances node feature quality through small gradient adversarial perturbation iterations, improving the prediction performance. Finally, tenfold cross-validations on two benchmark datasets show that RAFGAE outperforms current methods. In addition, case studies have confirmed that RAFGAE can detect novel drug-disease associations.

Conclusions

The comprehensive experimental results validate the utility and accuracy of RAFGAE. We believe that this method may serve as an excellent predictor for identifying unobserved disease-drug associations.

Peer Review reports

Drugs play important roles in treating diseases and promoting the health of organisms [ 1 ]. However, traditional drug development is an extremely lengthy and expensive process [ 2 ]. Recent studies have estimated that the average development cost to approve a new drug is $2.6 billion and the average development time is 10 years [ 3 ]. Drug repositioning, which involves discovering new therapeutic outcomes for previously approved drugs, is considered an important alternative to traditional drug development [ 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 ]. This approach shortens drug development and research cycles to 7 years, reduces costs to $295 million, and is more reliable than novel drug development [ 9 ]. Therefore, using known drugs for new disease treatments is gaining popularity [ 10 , 11 ]. Traditional methods of discovering abnormal clinical manifestations through manual screening of clinical drug databases requires extensive experimentation. With the continuous accumulation of a wide variety of biological data, numerous computational methods based on data mining techniques have gained traction [ 12 ].

Matrix factorization aims to approximate the initial matrix by decomposing it into the product of two low-rank matrices, which are represented by hidden factor vectors in the k -dimension. The inner product of the drug and disease vectors represents the association between them. Previous studies have shown that matrix decomposition methods are effective computational methods for drug-disease association prediction [ 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 ]. For example, the similarity constrained matrix factorization method for the drug-disease association prediction (SCMFDD) method, proposed by Zhang et al., maps the associations between diseases and drugs into two low-ranking spaces and reveals the basic features. Then, drug similarity and disease similarity are introduced as increasing constraints [ 18 ]. Furthermore, Yang et al. proposed the multisimilarities bilinear matrix factorization (MSBMF) approach, which connects multiple disease and drug similarity matrices and extracts the effective latent features in the similarity matrix to infer associations between diseases and drugs [ 19 ]. In addition, Zhang et al. proposed a new drug repositioning method by using Bayesian inductive matrix completion (DRIMC), which uses the complement of Bayesian inductive matrices. This method integrates multiple similarities into a fused similarity matrix, where similarity information is described by similarity values between a drug or disease and its k -nearest neighbors. Finally, the disease-drug association is predicted via induction matrix completion [ 20 ].

Networks can represent the complex relationships among entities, and the methods used to construct biological networks can effectively utilize information from multiple biological entities to represent the degree of association between them [ 21 ]. The network-based method has produced good results in drug repositioning [ 22 , 23 , 24 ]. For instance, Zhao et al. first constructed a heterogeneous information network by combining drug-disease, protein-disease and drug-protein bioinformatics networks with disease and drug biology information. Then, the combined features of the nodes were learned from a biological and topological perspective via different representations. Moreover, random forest classifiers can be used to predict unknown associations [ 25 ]. Zhang et al. proposed a multiscale neighborhood topology learning method for drug repositioning (MTRD) to learn and integrate multiscale neighborhood topologies. This method involves the construction of different drug-disease heterogeneous networks to discover new drug-disease associations [ 26 ]. In addition, Luo et al. proposed a method named MBiRW that uses similarity matrices and known associations to construct heterogeneous networks and predicts unknown associations via the double random walk algorithm [ 27 ].

Although matrix factorization methods achieve good performance, they are weak in the interpretability of associations between diseases and drugs, whereas network methods are biased in representing higher-order networks. To solve these problems, several pioneering studies have focused on developing deep learning-based drug repositioning models [ 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 ]. For example, Zeng et al. first integrated multiple disease-drug biological networks and designed a multimodal deep autoencoder named deep learning-based drug repositioning (deepDR) for learning higher order neighborhood information of drug-disease associations [ 34 ]. Subsequently, Yu et al. constructed a graph convolutional network (GCN) architecture with attention mechanisms, i.e., the label-aware GCN (LAGCN). First, this method uses known drug-disease associations, disease-disease similarities and drug-drug similarities to construct heterogeneous networks and applies GCNs to the network. Next, the embeddings from multiple GCN layers are integrated via layer attention mechanisms. Finally, drug-disease pairs are scored on the basis of the integrated embeddings [ 35 ]. Feng et al. proposed Protein And Drug Molecule interaction prEdiction (PADME), a novel method to combine molecular GCNs for compound featurization with protein descriptors for drug-target interaction prediction [ 36 ]. Moreover, Meng et al. proposed a drug repositioning approach based on weighted bilinear neural collaborative filtering (DRWBNCF) on the basis of neighborhood interaction and collaborative filtering. Instead of using all neighbors, this method uses only the nearest neighbors, thus filtering out noise and yielding more precise results [ 37 ]. Recently, Gu et al. proposed a method named relations-enhanced drug-disease association (REDDA) for learning node features of heterogeneous networks and topological subnetworks. This method employs heterogeneous networks as the backbone and combines the backbone with three attention mechanisms [ 38 ]. Deep learning-based methods mainly construct heterogeneous networks by using supplementary information about diseases and drugs and learn the features of diseases and drugs by applying deep learning algorithms to these networks.

However, these deep learning-based approaches tend to have oversmoothing problems caused by the homogenization of node embeddings and are highly dependent on the input quality. In this paper, we present a novel method of drug repositioning named RAFGAE. This method combines residual networks, graph attention networks (GATs), graph autoencoders (GAEs) and adversarial training to predict unknown associations between diseases and drugs. First, we use disease semantic similarity, drug structural similarity and disease-drug associations to construct the initial input features. GATs are used to facilitate the learning of disease and drug embeddings in each layer and combine the embedding of different layers via attention mechanisms. Moreover, the initial residual and adaptive residual connections are adopted to alleviate the oversmoothing problem. Then, two GAEs are constructed on the basis of the disease space and drug space, and the information in these spaces can be integrated through synergistic training. Finally, the scores of the two GAEs are linearly combined by a balancing parameter to calculate the final prediction scores. On this basis, adversarial training is introduced to reduce invalid information and data noise, improving the input quality. The main contributions of RAFGAE can be summarized as follows:

RAFGAE is a complete deep learning approach that can effectively predict the associations between diseases and drugs.

RAFGAE designs the Re_GAT framework, which includes multilayer GATs and two residual networks. Multilayer GATs are utilized to learn the node embeddings by aggregating information from multihop neighbors, and two residual networks are used to alleviate the deep network oversmoothing problem. Then, an attention mechanism is introduced to combine the node embeddings of different attention layers.

RAFGAE performs adversarial training that may eliminate abnormal values, missing values and noise, increasing the input quality and prediction accuracy when extracting associations between diseases and drugs.

Our comprehensive experimental results demonstrate that the proposed RAFGAE method significantly outperforms five state-of-the-art methods on the benchmark dataset.

Results and discussion

Algorithm performance comparison.

To verify the performance of RAFGAE, we compare it with five recently proposed methods.

DRWBNCF [ 37 ], a method for drug repositioning on the basis of neighborhood interaction and collaborative filtering, uses only the nearest neighbors, rather than all neighbors, to filter out noisy information. A new weighted bilinear GCN encoder is then proposed.

LAGCN [ 35 ], a layer attention GCN method for drug repositioning, encodes a heterogeneous network combining known drug-disease associations, disease similarity and drug similarity information. To integrate all useful information, a layer attention mechanism is introduced into multiple GCN layers.

In bounded nuclear norm regularization (BNNR) [ 39 ], a heterogeneous network is constructed. This network combines known drug-disease associations, disease similarity and drug similarity information. The method tolerates noise by adding a regularization term to balance the rank properties and approximation error.

The neural inductive matrix completion with GCN (NIMCGCN) method [ 40 ], a method for the prediction of miRNA-disease associations) first employs GCN to learn the features of diseases and miRNAs from the disease and miRNA similarity networks. Then, neural induction matrix completion is applied for association matrix completion.

SCMFDD [ 18 ] (a similarity constraint matrix completion method for the prediction of drug-disease associations) projects known drug-disease association information into two low-rank spaces, revealing potential disease and drug embeddings, and then introduces drug featured-based and disease semantic similarities as constraints for drugs and diseases in the low-rank spaces.

The above methods also involve similarity-based graph neural network models. The parameters in these methods are set to either the optimal values via a grid search (for DRWBNCF, λ is selected from {0.1, 0.2, ..., 0.9}; for BNNR, α and β are chosen from {0.01, 0.1, 1, 10}; and for SCMFDD, k is selected from{5%, 10%, ..., 50%}) or the values recommended by the authors (for LAGCN, α = 4000, β =0.6, and γ = 0.4; and for NIMCGCN, α = 0.4, l = 3, and t = 2). Furthermore, to ensure a meaningful and relevant comparison, each of the comparison methods is initially evaluated via the same 10-fold cross-validation approach and on the same benchmarking sets as those for our proposed method, RAFGAE. This approach allows us to conduct a comprehensive and rigorous assessment of the performance of all the methods.

The area under the curve (AUC) values in Fig. 1 and Table 1 show a comparison of the model performance. On the F-dataset, RAFGAE achieves the highest AUC score of 0.9343, which is 7.28%, 4.50%, 3.13%, 4.31%, and 4.01% higher than those of SCMFDD, LAGCN, BNNR, NIMGCN, and DRWBNCF, respectively. Similarly, on the C-dataset, RAFGAE achieves the highest AUC score of 0.9346. By comparing the model proposed in this paper with other models, it is evident that introducing residual connections and adversarial training can enhance the predictive performance of our model. Overall, the above experiments show that RAFGAE is an excellent predictor of disease-drug relationships.

ROC curves and PR curves of RAFGAE and other models on the F-dataset

Ablation study

To quantitatively evaluate the importance of the two modules (the Re_GAT framework and the FMAT module) to RAFGAE, ablation experiments are conducted. The details of these variants of RAFGAE are listed below:

RAFGAE: The comprehensive RAFGAE framework consists of three main components: the Re_GAT framework, the FMAT module, and the GAE module.

GAE: The RAFGAE variant that includes only the GAE module.

FGAE: The RAFGAE variant that includes the FMAT and GAE modules but excludes the Re_GAT framework.

RAGAE: The RAFGAE variant that includes Re_GAT framework and the GAE module but excludes the FMAT module.

According to Fig.  2 and Table  2 , it is clear that RAFGAE achieved the highest AUC and area under the precision–recall (AUPR) curve values on both the F-dataset and the C-dataset. The RAGAE and FGAE results show the impacts of global neighborhood node information aggregation and adversarial feature enhancement on the RAFGAE performance, respectively. In addition, the GAE results demonstrate that combining the Re_GAT framework and the FMAT module can improve the predictive performance of the RAFGAE model. In comparing FGAE and RAGAE to GAE, the performance results imply that both the Re_GAT framework and the FMAT module can improve the model performance. The poor performance of GAE suggests that the use of multilayer attention networks to aggregate global information and the incorporation of residual architectures to address the potential oversmoothing problem can enhance the accuracy of drug-disease association prediction. Furthermore, the results indicate that the inclusion of the adversarial training module improves the input quality, thereby satisfying the requirements of deep neural networks for high-quality input features. These results demonstrate that the RAFGAE structure is reasonable.

Results of RAFGAE and its variants in the ablation study on the F-dataset

Performance evaluation

To assess the effectiveness of RAFGAE in predicting known associations, tenfold cross validation (CV) is applied. In tenfold CV, the dataset is divided into ten folds. Nine folds are used as the training set, and the remaining fold is used to validate the performance of RAFGAE. This process is repeated 10 times, with each fold used as the testing fold once. Several important indicators are used to evaluate the performance of RAFGAE. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, which is based on the false-positive rate (FPR) and the true positive rate (TPR), is utilized. As the benchmark datasets used in this experiment are imbalanced, we also use the PR curve and calculate the area under the PR curve (AUPR) as two additional indicators. To further evaluate the overall performance of the prediction model from multiple perspectives, the F1 score and the Mathews correlation coefficient (MCC) are calculated.

The ROC and PR curves for the F-dataset are shown in Fig.  3 . RAFGAE achieves mean AUC and AUPR values of 0.9343 and 0.5270, respectively. The detailed results, including the F1-score and MCC, are presented in Table  3 . The results based on the C-dataset are shown in Table  4 . As shown in Tables 1 and 2 , the newly proposed RAFGAE model obtains good performance on the above two datasets, proving the effectiveness and robustness of this model.

RAFGAE ROC and PR curves via tenfold CV on the F-dataset

Parameter adjustment

Since the hyperparameter settings can influence the performance of RAFGAE, we used tenfold CV on the F-dataset to analyze the impact of different parameter settings. In the Re_GAT framework, the weight α of the initial residual connection and the weight β of the adaptive residual connection can directly affect the result of feature fusion. To fully integrate adjacent node information and mitigate the oversmoothing problem, we adjust the α and β values within the following range: α ϵ {0.1 ~ 0.9} and β ϵ {0.1 ~ 0.9}. As shown in Fig.  4 , when α  = 0.3 and β  = 0.7, the AUC reaches its maximum value.

Effect of the α and β parameters on the AUC of RAFGAE

In addition, the features of diseases and drugs are extracted via GATs. The Re_GAT framework computes and aggregates different multilayer features via the GAT. We discuss the impact of GATs with different numbers of layers on association prediction. Figure  5 presents the results of the ROC curve analysis on the basis of tenfold CV.

Effect of the number of GAT layers on the AUC of RAFGAE

To optimize the initial parameters, we use the Adam optimizer [ 41 ]. As in previous studies [ 42 , 43 ], we set the dropout and weight decay parameters to 0.5 and 10 –5 , respectively. We also evaluate the model performance by changing the dimensions of the GAE hidden layers. With the other parameters unchanged, the AUC value of RAFGAE generally increases as the embedding dimension of the GAE hidden layer increase and tends to stabilize when the dimension reaches 256. Finally, we set the embedding dimension of the hidden layer to 256. These results are shown in Fig.  6 .

Effect of the hidden vector dimension on the AUC of RAFGAE

Case studies

To evaluate the practical ability of RAFGAE to predict unknown indications of approved drugs as well as new therapies for existing diseases, we train the RAFGAE model using all known associations as training data, and predict potential associations for known diseases or drugs. The predicted ranking of unknown indications of approved drugs and unknown therapies for existing diseases is validated on the public database, namely, the Comparative Toxicogenomics Database (CTD) [ 44 ].

To assess the ability of RAFGAE to discover new indications, we select two representative medicinal products. Table 5 shows the confirmation information for the top 10 candidate diseases and the known drug-disease associations. Among them, doxorubicin is a cytotoxic anthracycline antibiotic that is widely used to treat various cancers, including Kaposi sarcoma and metastatic cancer related to AIDS. Of the top 10 positive predictions, there were 7 tumor-related diseases that have been verified via reliable databases. Levodopa is a precursor of dopamine and is commonly used in the treatment of Parkinson's syndrome and Parkinson's syndrome-related disorders because of its ability to cross the blood–brain barrier. As shown in Table  5 , reliable sources have identified 7 of the top 10 associated diseases. This evidence suggests that RAFGAE can be trained on and can learn from existing biological information and can identify association markers that are not captured in the training set.

To validate the practical ability of RAFGAE to discover novel therapies, we select breast neoplasms and small-cell lung cancer as experimental cases. On the basis of the RAFGAE prediction results, the 10 drugs with the highest prediction scores are validated via the CTD. Table 6 shows similar results for the top 10 positive predictions. Breast neoplasms are among the most common malignancies in women and the leading cause of cancer-related disease in women. As shown in Table  6 , 9 of the top 10 drugs were verified via reliable sources. The high incidence rate and high mortality of small cell lung cancer worldwide make this complex tumor a difficult medical problem. In summary, 6 drugs have been confirmed by evidence from authoritative sources among the top 10 predicted drugs ranked by prediction score. In summary, case studies have shown that RAFGAE can identify the associations between diseases and drugs that are unknown in training datasets but that have been validated in real-world studies. Moreover, RAFGAE can make reliable predictions regarding unconfirmed potential associations between diseases and drugs. Therefore, RAFGAE has a noteworthy ability to uncover novel therapies/indications for existing diseases/drugs.

In this paper, a deep-learning methodology named RAFGAE is developed for elucidating drug-disease associations. The key innovation of RAFGAE is that it combines the Re_GAT framework and the FMAT algorithm, facilitating the learning of neighbor node information and enhancing the initial node features in the disease-drug bipartite network. Then, two GAEs with collaborative training are applied to integrate the disease and drug spaces for association prediction. Notably, unlike some previous predictors that consider only low-order neighbor information, the Re_GAT framework can account for both high-order and low-order neighbor information by using multilayer GATs. Moreover, residual networks are introduced to mitigate model data oversmoothing, enabling the full employment of graph structure information hidden in the bipartite network. To enhance the initial features of nodes and make the model more robust, the FMAT algorithm is employed. This algorithm adds gradient-based adversarial perturbation to the input characteristics. In addition, we construct two GAEs with collaborative training for label propagation, enabling the full integration of the drug and disease space information for association prediction and improving the robustness of the RAFGAE model.

With tenfold CV, the RAFGAE model achieves an AUC score of 0.9343, which is better than the AUC scores of five state-of-the-art predictors. Furthermore, the case study results show that RAFGAE can reposition several representative drugs for human diseases and can be applied as a reasonable and effective tool for predicting the relationships between diseases and drugs.

We propose a computational drug repurposing method. This method can effectively identify candidate drugs with potential for treating different diseases and has the potential to uncover new indications for approved drugs that were previously unexplored. RAFGAE can guide wet laboratory experiments, accelerating drug development, reducing costs, and expanding treatment options. The method combines multilayer neural networks with residual connections to capture global information and alleviate oversmoothing problems. We also employ adversarial perturbations to improve the input quality. This novel combination of techniques provides a new perspective for future research and can also serve as a valuable reference for similar studies, such as predicting the associations between ncRNAs and diseases, microbiome-disease associations, and screening ncRNA drug targets.

However, RAFGAE has certain limitations. In this study, the negative and positive samples of the benchmark dataset are unbalanced, and we use all the negative samples as negative samples for training the proposed model. However, these unknown samples considered negative samples may be potential correlations, which greatly impacts the prediction accuracy of the model. In the future, we will select negative samples to further improve the model accuracy. In terms of biological data, we simply apply the interaction network between drugs and diseases without establishing a more informative biological regulatory network, which may further improve performance. In future research, we will introduce other biological entities, such as proteins, pathways, and genes. In scenarios where drugs share the same or similar indications but lack structural similarity, the transmission of structural similarity information through a multilayer neural network can give rise to an "information leakage" problem, leading to a distorted view of the algorithm's performance in realistic drug repurposing settings. In our future research, we plan to address the problem of information leakage further by incorporating multiple drug similarities, such as target protein domain similarity, GO target protein annotation similarity, side effect similarity, and GIP similarity. This broader range of drug similarities can provide a more comprehensive features for drug repurposing. Similarly, incorporating disease similarities, such as disease ontology similarity, can help improve the accuracy and reliability of repositioning predictions by leveraging additional disease-related information.

Data preparation

We employ two benchmark datasets established by investigators. The first dataset is the F-dataset, which corresponds to Gottlieb's gold standard dataset [ 45 ]. The F-dataset contains 1933 known associations between diseases and drugs, including 313 diseases collected from the OMIM database [ 46 ] and 593 drugs obtained from the DrugBank database [ 47 ]. The second dataset is the C-dataset [ 24 ], which includes 2532 known associations between 409 diseases collected from the OMIM database and 663 drugs obtained from the DrugBank database. Table 7 summarizes the benchmark datasets in our proposal.

In this study, we calculated the drug structure similarity matrix X dr via the simplified molecular input line entry system (SMILES) chemical structure [ 48 ], which is represented as the Tanimoto index of chemical fingerprints of the drug pair via the Chemical Development Kit [ 49 ]. The disease semantic similarity matrix X di is computed from the semantic similarity of the disease phenotypes via information from the medical descriptions of the disease pairs [ 50 ].

After collecting the required data from different sources, we propose a prediction model with three individual modules to predict potential candidate diseases for drugs of interest. We first design the Re_GAT framework, which captures global structural information from a bipartite network. For the second module, we employ GAEs that use known associations between diseases and drugs to simulate label propagation to guide and predict unknown associations. On the basis of the above, we utilize the FMAT module for adversarial training to improve the input quality and increase the prediction accuracy. Figure  7 shows the overall workflow of RAFGAE.

Flow chart of the RAFGAE calculation method

Re_GAT framework

Graph attention networks use a self-attention hidden layer to assign different attention scores to different neighbors, thus extracting the features of neighboring nodes more effectively.

The initial input to the Re_GAT framework can be described as follows:

where N represents the node count, F represents the dimension of the feature and h i ϵ R F represents the initial feature matrix of all the nodes. GATs calculate attention scores on the basis of the importance of neighbors and then aggregate neighbor features on the basis of the attention score.

The attention score is calculated as follows:

To adjust for the influence of different nodes, we use the softmax function for attention score normalization score:

By combining Formulas ( 3 ) and ( 4 ), the calculation formula for the attention score can be expressed as:

where a ij is the attention score, W is a learnable linear transformation matrix, a vector denotes the weight vector, σ () represents the LeakyReLU activation function, and ║ denotes the connection operation. After normalization, the following formula can be used to calculate the final output feature:

In this study, the drug-disease association matrix is given by matrix A , where the columns represent diseases and the rows represent drugs. The matrix A ( j , k ) = 1 if drug j is associated with disease k and 0 otherwise. Matrix A and its transposition matrix A T define the bipartite network G :

We create the initial input embedding H (0) as follows:

When combined with the bipartite network adjacency matrix G above, the graph attention network is defined as:

where H ( l ) represents the node embedding of the l -th layer, where l  = 1, …, L , and GATs () represents a single attention layer, whereas the entire Re_GAT framework consists of multiple attention layers.

This study proposes a Re_GAT framework through two main strategies for forward propagation: (I) initial residual connection and adaptive residual connection; and (II) attention mechanism layer aggregation.

To facilitate the learning of feature information from higher-order neighbors, multiple attention layers are typically used, easily homogenizing the data and thus leading to oversmoothing problems. To alleviate the oversmoothing problem of deep CNNs, residual connections, also known as skip connections was first proposed for ResNet. Inspired by ResNet [ 51 ], recent studies have attempted to apply various residual connections to GATs to alleviate the oversmoothing problem. Several studies have shown that residual connections are necessary for deep GATs [ 52 ], not only to alleviate the oversmoothing problem, but also to give GATs a more stable gradient.

We sum the H ( l ) weights with H (0) and H ( l− 1) according to the scale coefficients α and β , respectively. We use the initial skip connection and the adaptive skip connection to mitigate the oversmoothing problem and accelerate the convergence of the GATs. The GAT formula of our model can be rewritten as:

where α and β are hyperparameters.

Inspired by LAGCN [ 35 ], the embedding of each layer captures structural information from different orders of the heterogeneous network. For instance, the initial layer obtains direct connection information, whereas the higher-order layers collect information about multihop neighbors through iterative update embedding. To fuse all useful information from multiple GAT layers, we use the attention mechanism. Since the Re_GAT framework calculates the embedding of different layers and the embeddings contain different information, we define the resulting GAT layer embedding as:

where Hdr l ϵ R Ndr × kl is the embedding of the drug in layer l and Hdi l ϵ R Ndi × kl is the embedding of the disease in layer l . We use attention mechanism layer aggregation to integrate multiple embedding matrices, and the final fused embedding matrix is as follows:

where, Hdr i and Hdi i are the l -layer embeddings of drugs and diseases, respectively, a i and b i are the attention factors that can be calculated via Formulas ( 2 ), ( 3 ) and ( 4 ), and L is the number of layers.

Constructing the feature similarity graph

A previous study showed that a similarity graph constructed using drug and disease features can be used to propagate labels [ 53 ]. We use the features C dr and C di to construct feature similarity graphs for diseases and drugs, respectively. These features are used for label propagation in the disease and drug spaces. The feature similarity graphs are constructed as follows. First, the Euclidean distance between nodes is calculated and ranked. Second, for each node i , its 10 nearest neighbors are selected. Finally, the adjacency matrix is defined as M , and the set of neighbors of node i is defined as N ( i ). The matrix M satisfies M ij  = 1 when j belongs to N ( i ); otherwise, M ij  = 0.

The self-loop adjacency matrix for the similarity graph S is constructed as follows:

where ⊙ is the Hadamard product. This method can be used to obtain both the drug similarity graph S dr and the disease similarity graph S di .

• Graph autoencoder

Previous studies have shown that the graph autoencoder may simulate label propagation by iteratively propagating label information on the graph [ 54 , 55 , 56 ]. The association matrix A can be considered initial label information. The initial label information and the similarity graph S calculated via the above method are input to the GAE. The encoder layer produces a hidden layer Z , whereas the decoder outputs the score F . The encoder of the GAE can be defined as:

where Φ denotes the weight matrix. Here, we use two GAEs to propagate label information on the drug and disease graphs. We can obtain the drug hidden layer Z dr and the disease hidden layer Z di , which are expressed as follows:

where S dr and S di denote the drug similarity graph and the disease similarity graph, respectively, and A denotes the association matrix.

The decoder of the GAE is applied to decode the hidden layer representation, which is defined as follows:

Therefore, the score matrices F dr and F di can be obtained by decoding Z dr and Z di , respectively.

Since F dr and F di are both low rank matrices [ 57 ], they need to satisfy the rank-sum inequality:

By performing a linear combination of F dr and F di , the final integrated score is obtained as follows:

where α ϵ (0,1) represents the balanced weight between the drug space and the disease space.

The GAE reconstruction error is the loss of cross-entropy between the final prediction and the true value:

As the information from the disease space and the drug space influences the predicted outcome, we use a cotraining approach to train the above two GAEs. The cotraining training loss L co is defined as:

The combined loss function can be rewritten as:

where L rdr and L rdi denote the reconstruction errors of the two GAEs in the drug space and the disease space, respectively.

Free multiscale adversarial training

In this section, we investigate how to effectively improve the input quality through data augmentation [ 58 ]. When neural networks are trained, the quality of the data is far more important than the quantity. By searching for and stamping out small perturbations that cause the classifier to fail, one may hope that adversarial training could benefit standard accuracy. Adversarial training is a well-studied method that increases the robustness and interpretability of neural networks. When the data distribution is sparse and discrete, the beneficial effect of adversarial perturbations on generalizability is prominent [ 59 ]. Inspired by this, we introduce free multiscale adversarial training (FMAT) to augment the node features [ 60 ].

Adversarial training first generates adversarial perturbations, which are then integrated into the training node features. Given a learning model f θ with parameters θ , we denote the perturbed feature as H adv  =  H  +  δ . Adversarial learning follows the min–max formulation:

where A represents the real value, D represents the data distribution, L represents the objective loss function, ε represents the perturbation budget, and ║║ p represents an l p -norm distance measure.

The saddle-point optimization problem can be solved via projected gradient descent (PGD), which implements inner maximization, and stochastic gradient descent (SGD), which implements outer minimization. The parameter δ is updated after each step:

where ∏ ║δ║≤ε is projected onto the ε -sphere under the l ∞ -norm . The initial layer of the Re_GAT framework can be rewritten as:

To effectively exploit the generalizability of adversarial perturbations and improve their diversity and quality, Chen et al. emphasized the importance of adapting to different types of data enhancements [ 61 ]. To achieve this, we introduce a 'free' training approach [ 62 ].

The calculation of δ is inefficient because the N -step update requires N forward and backward channels. This update runs N times completely forward and backward to obtain the worst perturbation δ N . However, the model weight θ is updated once to use only δ N . Model training is N times slower because of this process. In contrast, the 'free' training outputs the model weights θ on the same backward channel while calculating the δ gradient, allowing model weight updates to be calculated in parallel with perturbation updates.

'Free' training has the same robustness and accuracy as standard adversarial training does. However, the training costs are the same as those of clean training. The 'free' strategy accumulates a gradient of \(\nabla_{\theta } L\) in each iteration and updates the model weight θ through this gradient. During training process, the model runs the inner circle T times, each time calculating the gradient of θ t -1 and δ t by taking a step along the average gradient at H ( l )  +  δ 0 , …, H ( l )  +  δ T- 1 . Formally, the optimization step is

Availability of data and materials

We acquired the C-dataset of disease-drug associations, from the Comparative Toxicogenomics Database [ 44 ] ( http://ctdbase.org/ ). We screened the F-dataset of disease-drug interactions from the OMIM database [ 46 ] ( https://www.omim.org/ ) and DrugBank database [ 47 ] ( https://www.drugbank.ca/ ). These two datasets and the source code are available at: https://github.com/ghli16/RAFGAE .

Abbreviations

• Graph attention network

True positive rate

False-positive rate

Receiver operating characteristic

Area under ROC curve

Cross validation

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This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 62362034, 61862025, 62372279, and 62002116), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangxi Province (Grant Nos. 20232ACB202010, 20212BAB202009, 20181BAB211016), and the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (Grant No. ZR2023MF119).

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Li, G., Li, S., Liang, C. et al. Drug repositioning based on residual attention network and free multiscale adversarial training. BMC Bioinformatics 25 , 261 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12859-024-05893-5

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Protect your organization across a multicloud environment, while simplifying security operations, improving scalability, and driving data-informed outcomes, powered by Cisco Talos.

Unlock better user experiences

Create a seamless experience that frustrates attackers, not users, by granting access from any device, anywhere, and adding more proactive security controls.

Deliver cost-effective defenses

Improve ROI by consolidating vendors, reducing complexity and integrating your security.

Strengthen security resilience

Unified, end-to-end protection maximizes value, minimizes risk, and closes security gaps everywhere to defend against evolving threats. Protect access, apps, and innovation across your network to secure your future.

Cisco Secure Firewall

Better visibility and actionable insights across networks, clouds, endpoints, and email allows users to respond confidently to the most sophisticated threats at machine scale.

Featured security products

Cisco hypershield.

A new groundbreaking security architecture that makes hyperscaler technology accessible to enterprises of all sizes and delivers AI-native security for modern data centers and cloud.

Cisco Secure Access (SSE)

A converged cybersecurity solution, grounded in zero trust, that radically reduces risk and delights both end users and IT staff by safely connecting anything to anywhere.

Detect the most sophisticated threats sooner across all vectors and prioritize by impact for faster responses.

Cisco Multicloud Defense

Gain multidirectional protection across clouds to stop inbound attacks, data exfiltration, and lateral movement.

Secure applications and enable frictionless access with strong MFA and more. Establish user and device trust, gain visibility into devices, and enable secure access to all apps.

Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)

Simplify highly secure network access control with software-defined access and automation.

Security Suites delivered by Cisco Security Cloud

Cisco User Protection Suite

Get secure access to any application, on any device, from anywhere. Defend against threats targeting users and deliver seamless access for hybrid work.

Cisco Cloud Protection Suite

Secure your apps and data with a powerful, flexible framework for a hybrid and multicloud world.

Cisco Breach Protection Suite

Secure your business by investigating, prioritizing, and resolving incidents through unified defense and contextual insights from data-backed, AI-powered security.

Customer stories and insights

Global partnerships fight to end child exploitation together.

"Marriott has long championed human rights and human trafficking awareness. Combating CSAM is an important extension of that work. The IWF provided the level of rigor we needed in a URL list, and Cisco's security technology provided the means to easily apply it."

Abbe Horswill, Director, Human Rights and Social Impact

Company: Marriott International

The NFL relies on Cisco

"From securing stadiums, broadcasts, and fans to protecting the largest live sporting event in America, the right tools and the right team are key in making sure things run smoothly, avoiding disruptions to the game, and safeguarding the data and devices that make mission-critical gameday operations possible."

Add value to security solutions

Cisco Security Enterprise Agreement

Instant savings

Experience security software buying flexibility with one easy-to-manage agreement.

Services for security

Let the experts secure your business

Get more from your investments and enable constant vigilance to protect your organization.

Sharpen your security insights

Cisco Cybersecurity Viewpoints

Set your vision to a more secure future with Cisco Cybersecurity Viewpoints. With specialized content from podcasts to industry news, you'll walk away with a deeper understanding of the trends, research, and topics in our rapidly changing world.