Caterpillar

Need:

A Fortune 100 company, Caterpillar Inc. is the world’s leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, and industrial gas turbines.

In the 1990s, Caterpillar implemented a comprehensive performance management process (PMP) for its 80,000 employees around the world. In 2000, the company made significant revisions to the process. In addition to setting goals and meeting regularly with their supervisors to discuss their performance, employees would now receive performance ratings on a five-point scale.

The changes were met with uncertainty by employees and leaders alike. Employees were unsure about the implications of the ratings and unclear about how the process tied to Caterpillar’s business goals. Meanwhile many leaders, who had not previously rated employees or engaged in formal, recurring performance discussions, did not have the skills needed to manage their people’s performance.

Solution:

To address these issues across all of Caterpillar’s semi-autonomous business units, the newly established Caterpillar University (Cat U) chartered a global team to design, develop, deploy, and measure a global learning initiative for the PMP. Cat U turned to DDI, a long-time Caterpillar partner. Cat U worked closely with DDI consultants to pinpoint specific skill needs, develop solutions to meet those needs, and ensure that the training developed the required skills. To that end, Cat U and DDI designed a curriculum of courses, which Caterpillar’s employees and frontline and mid-level leaders would complete over of a period of several months. Incorporating a mix of training modalities (pre- and post- skill check, classroom, web-based, video models, skill practice), the courses were designed to be as efficient as possible to minimize participants’ time away from their jobs.

Result:

To date, more than 16,000 leaders and employees have been reached through the global rollout of the PMP training initiative, including those in locations in Asia, Germany, and France, as well as the U.S., U.K., and Latin America, and the training has been adapted to adhere to the cultural norms of the various locations. As part of Cat U’s mission to drive bottom-line results, the PMP training was expected to deliver direct monetary (“hard”) as well as intangible (“soft”) benefits to the organization. To measure these benefits, 80 participants took part in nine focus groups. , Several significant ROI results were identified:

  • 97 percent applied the PMP training.
  • 88 percent cited examples of business impact.
  • 67 percent generated monetary value totaling more than $515,000; the average benefit per participant was $6,458.