ATD Award Programs

AdventHealth
Executive Leadership Program
Category: Leadership/Management Development
Partner: C Factor Consulting
To build a pipeline of future executives, the cohort-based program delivers custom curriculum journeys, coaching, and assessments during six multiday intensives that address the company's mission, spiritual integration, and executive acumen. The program has resulted in a decrease in recruitment costs, an increase in talent mobility, and a dynamic learning community.

AIA Group Limited
SPARK Leadership Development Program
Category: Leadership/Management Development
Using blended learning, the program equips senior leaders with the essential mindset, skills, and behaviors to drive sustainable business growth. The practice cultivates strategic agility, enterprise-wide collaboration, and an innovation-driven culture to navigate the rapidly changing industry landscape.

American Residential Services
HVAC Maintenance Technician Program
Category: Career Development
The 10-week, multimodality training initiative equips new hires with the necessary skills and knowledge to become proficient maintenance technicians. More than 60 technicians have gone through the program and completed more than 14,000 service calls, generating a significant increase in revenue.

China Telecom
Cultivation Practice for Talents Dispatched Overseas
Category: L&D
The training initiative serves the employees located in the organization's international markets. More than 6,000 people have participated in the program, which enhances professional competencies, overseas culture, foreign language skills, business communications, and security and risk prevention.

Sales Performance Improvement
Category: L&D
Online learning and practical coaching with artificial intelligence—both via a video and live-streaming platform—help enterprises within the organization solve traffic operation and monetization problems without increasing in-store costs or personnel. An enterprise-level matrix creates full-touchpoint interactive marketing and empowers stores to increase sales performance.

CIMC Container (Group) Company Limited
Innovation Talent Program
Category: Leadership/Management Development
Cultivating a group of young staff with excellent leadership and management competencies, this practice helps participants significantly improve business-development, team-building, innovation, and change management capabilities.

Cognizant
ADM Role Maturity RoadMap
Category: L&D
A streamlined road map ensures that participants develop skills through group clusters. The initiative helps individuals align with the demands of their current roles while preparing them for future roles. The learning solutions and key milestones enable associates to navigate their career growth.

Automotive Skill Development Program
Category: Performance Consulting/Performance Improvement
Self-learning modules, trainer-led sessions, hands-on practices, assessments, and certifications are components of this blended, end-to-end technical training program. It uses external original equipment manufacturers for their expertise, efficiency, and certification, along with internal trainers and subject matter experts.

Director + Leader Onboarding Program
Category: Onboarding
The program propels newly promoted or hired leaders toward success. By acclimating, assimilating, and accelerating their leadership journey, participants focus on leading themselves, leading others, and leading the business. The journey equips leaders to build key relationships, thrive, and deliver results.

Early Career Talent Bootcamp
Category: L&D
Associates early in their careers take this five-day program to learn the foundational knowledge and professional and leadership development skills that center around five key capabilities addressing 16 topics. The interactive and dynamic learning experience concludes with a final project presentation and has led to a 92 percent retention rate six months postprogram.

External Certification Enablement and Engagement for Data+
Category: L&D
The EXCEED program is a strategic L&D initiative that provides associates with a comprehensive pathway to prepare, practice, and achieve proficiency in more than 60 technical certifications. It's a one-stop learning solution offering everything from prerequisites and preparation materials to practice labs and mock tests, culminating in certification with record completion.

GLIDE on a Learning Cruise
Category: L&D
The integrated talent management program brings together multiple organizational functions to upskill associates and prepare them for diverse roles while increasing bench strength and meeting client commitments. GLIDE addresses skills gaps and uses self-paced study, mentorship, practical labs, and case studies to create an innovative and personalized program.

Compass Group (North America)
Upward: Women in Culinary Leadership Program
Category: Diversity and Inclusion
The 12-week blended learning journey targets women culinarians who are managers or aspire to management. The program includes a personalized assessment; a customized learning plan with application activities, resources, and training; online instructor-led training that culinary leaders and industry experts facilitate; mentorship; self-directed learning; and opportunities to connect with peers and managers to accelerate learning.

DataArt
Tech Skills Mentoring Program
Category: Coaching and Mentoring
This practice-based initiative meets mentees' needs through regular one-on-one guidance with an experienced mentor over a three-month period. With a flexible, participant-oriented approach, the program enhances engineering excellence, upskilling, engagement, and satisfaction.

Datavant
Leadership, Growth and Development
Category: Leadership/Management Development
Integrating personalized learning and performance management to enhance leadership effectiveness and engagement, the program increases participant satisfaction and promotion rates. The comprehensive initiative addresses critical leadership gaps and fosters a culture of excellence and innovation, equipping leaders to navigate business complexities and drive sustainable success.

Discovery
Business Boost: Flash Sales
Category: L&D
Through short, sharp, and targeted learning content, the program systematically builds learning into daily functions without any major time commitments. The practice drives engagement and creates an environment of growth, thus solving a major business need and having a positive impact on the sales force, clients, and the organization.

Engro Polymer and Chemicals Limited
Integrated Capability Development Framework
Category: Managing the Learning Function
The program develops safe and efficient plant operations and processes through an end-to-end framework for technical talent development. It increases productivity, reduce losses, enhances safety, and promotes a learning culture.

Equinix
Sales Onboarding for Accelerated Ramp
Category: Onboarding
SOAR is a five-month onboarding initiative that infuses culture, productivity, networking, and sales enablement. The program starts on all new hires' first day and includes a role-specific 30 Day Start Kit, virtual and in-person workshops, weekly reinforcement lessons, practice and coaching opportunities supported by peer-to-peer learning, artificial-intelligence tools, and customized content.

EY
Diversified Staffing Group In-Residence Program
Category: L&D
Through a combination of work experience and structured learning, the initiative grows today's tax professionals to be tomorrow's leaders. The program's three main pillars (experience, learning, and coaching) offer a comprehensive and innovative best-in-class tax L&D model.

GF Securities
Building a Leading Wealth Management Business
Category: Performance Consulting/Performance Improvement
The training and performance improvement counseling program targets employee performance gaps and capability enhancement through overseas training, practical training, and establishing professional standards.

Corporate Culture Training and Promotion Project
Category: Diversity and Inclusion
The cultural study and promotion project has established and implemented operational norms along with company culture and values. The three-tier corporate culture curriculum system benchmarks individuals practicing company core values.

KPMG
Taxila: The Partner Development Initiative
Category: Leadership/Management Development
The leadership development initiative combines immersive learning, one-on-one mentoring, and coaching to senior leaders. The ecosystem inspires learning that leads to organizational success.

LifeNet Health
LevelUp Leadership Development Program
Category: Leadership/Management Development
The virtual program prepares high-performing individual contributors for leadership positions. Participants discuss articles, complete e-learning courses, and consume podcasts or videos in geographically diverse, cross-departmental teams. The initiative continues to successfully increase retention, promotion, and lateral rates.

Mediatek
New Manager Development Program
Category: Leadership/Management Development
NMDP reflects a corporate goal to transition the organization from a market follower to a technology leader by tackling two challenges: lack of managerial leadership to meet new business demands and managing cultural integration postacquisition. The three-phased initiative includes components such as pre-reading, workshops, postworkshops, and a practicum.

Moxa
Sales Management Excellence
Category: Sales Enablement
The practice enhances global sales representatives' expertise in key selling strategies, equipping them with essential skills and tools for effective customer collaboration and long-term success. The training program includes a five-stage selling process, consultative selling, a sales call simulation, presentation of account and opportunity plans, objection handling, and strategies for engaging with diverse customer styles.

North American Bancard
LevelUp Leadership Certification
Category: Leadership/Management Development
Partner: Aha! Leadership
The comprehensive program gives newly hired and first-time, midlevel managers fundamental leadership concepts that align with the company's core values and competencies. The experience entails self-instructed lessons that focus on tactical management training, instructor-led workshops on leadership and competency development, and practical application.

Novartis
Talent Scouting
Category: Integrated Talent Management
The initiative proactively attracts, engages, and prepares diverse leaders for critical roles, augmenting traditional recruitment methods. Through strategic planning, data-driven decision making, and active candidate engagement across multiple channels, the program reduces time to hire, improves quality of hires, enhances employer branding, and increases diversity.

PETRONAS
Innovation Engine
Category: Integrated Talent Management
The holistic practice builds a sustainable culture of innovation to drive business outcomes. The program emphasizes that individuals build capability outside the classroom and brings intentional focus to activating innovators in their current context.

Reliance Retail Limited
Building Leaders for Tomorrow
Category: Leadership/Management Development
The Leadership Academy equips leaders across all levels to be role models of the company's cultural ethos and work practices. L&D grounded the initiative in the organization's leadership archetypes that reflect ideal leader behaviors. The development journey includes programs tailored to different organizational bands. Results include people-first mindsets, an innovation culture, and enhancement in hypercollaboration.

Nurturing a Coaching Culture
Category: Coaching and Mentoring
To enable managers and leaders to engage in a developmental relationship with their team members, the program uses a coaching-on-demand technology platform to connect employees and certified coaches. The goal is to create behavioral changes such as higher empathy, structured thinking, active listening, self-reflection, and increased psychological safety.

Salesforce
Global Leadership Coaching Center of Excellence
Category: Coaching and Mentoring
Partners: BetterUp, Center for Creative Leadership
The program accelerates performance, personal growth, and stronger employee engagement through one-on-one coaching, skill-building training, and learning practice. The initiative provided personal leadership and executive coaching to more than 14,600 leaders, built coaching skills for more than 5,300 managers, and trained more than 270 internal coaches.

Samaritan Health Services
Career-Con
Category: Career Development
The month-long event highlights career development programs and resources in efforts to promote employee retention and satisfaction. The event is accessible to all staff regardless of job type and includes in-person events, virtual engagement activities, drop-in learning sessions, scavenger hunts, and coaching.

Siemens, China
Foster a Culture of Skill-Based Learning
Category: L&D
The practice equips employees with critical skills through diverse learning events, platforms, and community support, ensuring staff remain relevant and resilient in a rapidly changing environment. The holistic approach has significantly boosted engagement, skills acquisition, and overall organizational performance.

Sinopec Management Institute
Strategic Talent Development Program
Category: L&D
The three-year training initiative helps the organization develop a reserve of talent by establishing criteria and conducting a skills inventory, accurately identifying key staff for development. The long-term, capability-oriented, learning-and-practice-centeric program drives advancement and learning transfer in employees.

SolarEdge
Company Certification Program
Category: Customer Service Training
The initiative guides more than 370,000 installers across the world on their journey from onboarding to certification, while preventing common installation mistakes. It has a digital format and focuses on cultivating experts through real-life examples and challenges.

SprintRay
The Leadership Sprint
Category: Onboarding
The intensive, six-month onboarding program integrates newly hired and promoted directors and above into the company culture, builds essential relationships, and aligns with strategic goals. The essential techniques include regular feedback, coaching, and structured assessments.

Sungrow
Comprehensive Executive Advancement Program
Category: Leadership/Management Development
The program targets high-potential executives and senior managers from diverse global operations. The nine-month experience enhances leadership capabilities through a blend of personalized learning paths, practical application, and continuous feedback.

Thai Oil Public Company Limited
5 Happiness: Holistic and Fully Online Well-Being Program
Category: Diversity and Inclusion
The initiative focuses on five dimensions: physical, mental, financial, social, and cultural well-being. It creates a positive, thriving, and satisfying work environment where employees feel supported and work-life balance improves.

T-Mobile
Career Ride-Along
Category: Career Development
The internal mobility program provides frontline employees with a hands-on, multiday experience at the company's headquarters. It encompasses job shadowing, engagements with leadership, and tailored developmental sessions as approaches to growing careers, fostering discovery, and building confidence.

Tsingtao Brewery Company Limited
Beer Brewer Class
Category: Career Development
The project provides a platform for high-performing and highly capable technical employees to enhance their skills through learning and exchange, while outlining comprehensive career development paths. It offers knowledge and skills training via blended learning, comprehensive process tracking, and coaching.

Universal Beijing Resort
Universal Way
Category: Customer Service Training
Partner: UMU
The practice transforms correct understanding into concrete service behaviors through the 70-20-10 learning theory, social learning, and an evaluation. It enables participants to correctly understand the service models and standards of the theme park industry, exhibit service behaviors that align with the standards, and unify team service behaviors across different service scenarios.

US Customs and Border Protection
Basic Import Specialist Training Course
Category: Integrated Talent Management
BIST uses instruction from subject matter experts, case study examination, and performance-based learning to shift the organization to a more agile posture with less processing time and greater flexibility. The initiative requires learners to demonstrate competencies and empowers specialty upskilling in onboarding and performance management modules.

Crawl, Walk, Run Initiative
Category: Change Management
The training model aims to shift the organization's philosophy to align with leadership policies on workforce care, resiliency, and training. The goal is twofold: Decrease the loss of potential workforce personnel due to high testing failure rates and ensure the best possible outcome for those trainees when they successfully pass their required training.

Fentanyl Detection Canine Course
Category: L&D
The initiative upskilled frontline canine teams in detecting, safely seizing, and executing emergency responses to fentanyl contamination, overdoses, and illegal trading. The practice also upskilled instructors in safely handling training aids and providing emergency responses during training exercises, resulting in no injuries and a yearly increase of fentanyl seizures at US ports of entry.

Versant Health
Customer Service New Hire Training
Category: Onboarding
The six-week hybrid program comprises instructional activities, call simulations, and a nesting experience. Customer service representatives develop skills around organizational goals and objectives, processes and procedures, medical terminology, technical systems, and exceptional service.

ZoomInfo
Go-to-Market Onboarding
Category: Onboarding
The 90-day program combines a one-week boot camp with role-specific paths using diverse training methods that align to a skills framework. The regimen uses clear milestones and mixed modalities to continually build muscle memory and transform new hires into peak performers.

ZTE Corporation
Improving Effectiveness of Compliance Training for All Employees
Category: L&D
The initiative adopts a dynamic person-course-scenario matching mode to deliver tailored compliance training to a global workforce. It significantly improved business efficiency, enhanced the company's brand image, and ensured business security and continuity.

ABN AMRO Bank
Net Promoter Score Complaints Program
Category: Change Management
Partners: EarlyBridge; Faculty of Skills
The competency-based program delivers a customer experience that focuses on engaging customers around their emotions before resolving their complaints. The initiative leverages skill coaches and artificial intelligence.

Albertsons Companies
Assistant Store Director Training Program
Category: L&D
The initiative develops leaders through an immersive 10-week, on-the-job program at a training store and blended learning training sessions. Participants work closely with a cohort of peers. More than 950 associates have gone through the program.

Bell Partners
Certified Bell Maintenance Technician
Category: Learning Technologies
This e-learning, technology-based practice certifies maintenance staff and helps reduce knowledge gaps. It leverages virtual reality to assess, train, and upskill talent.

Charles Schwab
New Employee Recruitment and Development Program
Category: Onboarding
A two-week onboarding cohort helps new-to-career employees acclimate to software environments, processes, and tools during their first nine months. The program uses coaching, mentoring, and on-the-job training, which helps provide participants with a support network and sets them up for success.

China Telecom
Performance Improvement Practice for Sales Specialist in Business Hall
Category: L&D
China Telecom used a blend of learning and training modalities to enhance sales skills and performance improvement among sales specialists.

Cognizant
Developing the Leaders of Tomorrow
Category: Leadership/Management Development
Partner: Vyond
This 10- to 12-week, multipronged approach builds enterprise-wide leadership development to provide frontline leaders with new-age leadership skills and a growth mindset. The practice has resulted in increased retention, and 55 percent of frontline leaders received promotions.

IGNITE Hackathon
Category: L&D
The blended learning hackathon spans 21 weeks, covering four phases: nomination, qualifier, ideation, and build. It helped associates work collaboratively in a community model and develop minimum viable products through an immersive and curiosity-driven learning experience in soft skills and technology trends.

Project & Program Management Community
Category: L&D
The initiative is an immersive, interactive, and comprehensive certification that goes beyond conventional project management programs. It empowers and upskills associates with the right set of project and program management competencies and tools.

Systemic Sales Transformation
Category: Sales Enablement
Partner: Productivity Dynamics
The multiyear initiative improves the skills of the global sales force to expand the business of selling to companies looking for digital transformation solutions.

D&H Distributing
Sales Foundations Learning Series
Category: Sales Enablement
The 13-module, interactive program elevates the sales force and positions account representatives as proactive business advisors.

EPAM Systems
Engineering Excellence
Category: L&D
Engineering Excellence is an innovative educational system catering to employees with different backgrounds, providing tailored learning paths that strategically align with various roles and project scopes. The practice uses a skills self-assessment, learning framework, and mentoring process to address inconsistent skill sets across the company.

Infosys BPM Limited
Techno Domain Specialization
Category: Career Development
To enable career development and drive internal talent growth, the Techno Domain practice has multiple cloud-enabled assessments, learning plans, and incentivized badges for each domain learners complete, leading to better employee retention.

Kia
Onboarding - Step 2 (Understanding Value Chain)
Category: Onboarding
The program is the second part of an overall five-step onboarding practice that uses a unique, value chain board game covering the various roles and functions of divisions across the organization.

Leidos
CareerPrint
Category: Learning Technologies
This cybersecurity career development tool helps employees self-assess their capabilities against a target baseline of cybersecurity skills tailored to the organization's standardized work roles as well as the National Initiative Cybersecurity Education Cyber Workforce Framework. The initiative addresses skills gaps and develops employee skills.

LocumTenens.com
Internship Program
Category: Managing the Learning Function
The cohort-based program provides students with professional and personal development opportunities while building a talent pipeline across the organization. The initiative enabled more internship consistency and cross-department collaboration, expanding the impact on diversity, equity, and inclusion and strengthening workforce development with local colleges and universities.

LPW Training Services
Focus Up: The PM Advantage Pathway
Category: Career Development
The 18-month initiative aims to help interested employees and external contractors accelerate their project management skills. The training journey includes multiple modalities of training, certification testing, and simulated project management as well as exposure, mentorship, and career planning.

Mars China
China Impactful Leadership Camp
Category: Leadership/Management Development
The seven-week learning journey leverages practice in the flow of work, timely feedback, coaching, and social learning. Nearly 100 leaders have gone through the program in three years, which has resulted in them accelerating their capabilities while driving business growth.

Ministry of Home Affairs, Singapore
Training Institute Model of Excellence (TIME)
Category: Managing the Learning Function
TIME is a two-step approach comprising a self-assessment and an external validation component that evaluates eight specific areas to enhance the learning function and build future readiness.

NetEase Games
Reserve Supervisor Training Program
Category: Leadership/Management Development
This initiative provides customized learning courses to equip newly promoted frontline managers with the required skills and qualities in management positions and create a sustainable talent training and development model.

Sands China Limited
The Knowledge
Category: L&D
The training initiative focuses on rebranding initiatives the company implemented to create passionate brand ambassadors, equipping them to deliver bespoke guest experiences while keeping team members engaged and motivated. Structured with three stages, the program presents participants with unique challenges and offers exclusive rewards and recognitions. Upon completing each stage, participants earn an exclusive pin.

SAP
Year One Success for All in Customer Success
Category: Onboarding
During this comprehensive, yearlong program, participants learn the fundamentals for success in their new role, including in-depth knowledge of the portfolio and services, tools, functional and professional skills, and behaviors for helping customers make a smooth transition from on-premise software to the cloud.

Siemens
MyGrowth
Category: L&D
MyGrowth takes a user-centered approach, aligning with business needs and combining self-reflection tools with highly personalized learning pathways; career progression tools; and continuous, frequent conversations about development, well-being, and performance. The program has had a 505 percent increase in digital learning hours since 2019.

Sinopec Management Institute
International Sales Professionals Development Program
Category: L&D
The practice develops qualified international sales professionals to meet urgent business needs. Based on an efficient select-train-assess-transfer model, this initiative has successfully developed an internal talent pipeline for international sales.

TELUS
Gamified Learning for Efficient Performance Improvement
Category: Performance Consulting/Performance Improvement
Partner: The Training Arcade
The gamification framework has direct impact on client key performance indicators, removes the traditional challenges of content creation, and empowers subject matter experts to build meaningful and engaging content for the front line. That led to a 34 - 76 percent performance improvement range.

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
MyMentoring Program
Category: Coaching and Mentoring
Partner: Chronus
The practice is organized around four pillars: connections, DEI focus, cohort-based, and recognition and education. The framework enables employees to engage in one-on-one career mentoring, inclusive onboarding, engagement circles, and leadership development courses. MyMentoring entails ongoing measurement and evaluation, a Mentoring Council, Mentoring Day, and Mentoring Awards.

Unisys
U-Lead Journeys
Category: Leadership/Management Development
The program spans eight weeks (two hours per week), encompassing five online modules, three virtual instructor-led sessions, a variety of one-on-ones, 360-degree feedback, goal setting, and 120-day postprogram content for learning retention. That has led to higher engagement and reduced learning time.

University of South Florida
Online Instructor Certification Program
Category: L&D
The initiative has quickly upskilled hundreds of faculty. The four-week, redesigned certification provides faculty with best practices in digital learning and online pedagogy. Cohort participation increased while maintaining high feedback, serving as a key initiative in ensuring academic continuity.

Ziraat Bank
Banking School Program
Category: L&D
The comprehensive learning and talent development initiative offers a structured curriculum, real-world internships, and a university partnership for academic excellence. Over several months, participants gain in-depth knowledge and skills in banking operations, risk management, customer service, and digital banking, leading to increased employability and enhanced performance.

ZTE Corporation
Supply Chain Lean Empowering Project
Category: L&D
Through a series of operations knowledge management and efficiency improvement measures carried out in three years, ZTE established an efficient lean talent empowerment system to facilitate solutions to business problems, such as long production lead time, while exploring the talent value activation and evaluation model to effectively guide behavior change of lean talents.

Ace Hardware
Retail Support Center New-Hire Onboarding Training
Partner: The CARA Group
Category: Onboarding
The company developed an internal training culture to establish a leadership pipeline and create career paths for retail support center workers. A newly hired full-time employee to lead the program bolstered the initiative.

Action
People Management Program Stores (PMPS)
Partner: Relevance Learning
Category: Leadership/Management Development
The purpose of the PMPS is to set a common standard for people management. The blended, eight-week program consists of online learning modules in combination with face-to-face training sessions, offered in the native language in all countries in which the company operates.

Adani Group
Northstar
Category: Leadership/Management Development
The program equips emerging leaders to develop themselves as owner-managers of the business for tomorrow through a competency framework. Each cohort experiences various modules, development plans, blended learning, and group projects.

Adidas
Director Development Experience (DDE)
Partner: ArtGym
Category: Leadership/Management Development
A strategic, intensive learning experience linked to both people and performance, DDE is a blended, self-driven, peer-to-peer learning program. An 18-minute showcase talk—the penultimate task—is the highlight for many participants.

Arizona Department of Transportation
Leading Others
Category: Leadership/Management Development
Leading Others includes weekly self-guided development, weekly social learning in small "advocate groups," monthly one-on-one meetings with managers who serve as leadership coaches, and occasional large-group meetings for webinars on leadership topics.

Black Knight
Onboarding Journey and Experience
Category: Onboarding
The program includes an onboarding buddy, custom-made videos, just-in-time learning modules, and interactive quizzes to engage and promote fun among new hires as soon as they accept the job offer. For the 12-week new-hire journey, all content in the learning management system is in bite-size chunks, organized by week based on what is most important for new hires.

China Telecommunications
Performance Improvement Practice for Precision Marketing Team
Category: L&D
The practice enhances the capabilities of big data technicians, marketing executives, and sales personnel in the areas of big data modeling, strategic planning, and marketing. The practice entails certification standards and online training, resulting in improved performance, organization development, and talent cultivation.

Cognizant
Digital Transformation of ADM Delivery Leaders
Category: Leadership/Management Development
The practice consists of three programs: DigiToasters 1.0—Acquire digital technology from a leadership perspective; DigiToasters 2.0—Acquire end-to-end product development experience on digital technologies; and Technovative Leadership—Acquire effective technical articulation skills for improved client engagements.

HUDDLE (Hire, Upskill, Develop, Deploy, Learn, and Engage)
Category: Integrated Talent Management
HUDDLE—an integrated process during which three teams (talent supply chain, talent acquisition group, and L&D) solve a pressing business problem—comprises blended, self-paced learning components and hands-on exercises to help associates apply their learning to live projects.

Internet of Things (IoT) Learning and Development
Category: L&D
This initiative focuses on enhancing multilayer IoT skills development, provides participants exposure to real-time scenarios, and nurtures innovation in a competitive and challenging environment. Learning and skills development takes place via hackathons and collaborative learning as participants work in multiskilled teams to develop a final application.

LEAD
Partner: Harvard Business Publishing
Category: Leadership/Management Development
LEAD is a virtual 4.5-month leadership development program for high-performing middle to senior managers. Participants learn and practice capabilities through LEAD's three leadership pillars: Lead boldly, partner powerfully, and inspire followership.

Learning Data Management Skills Bootcamp
Category: Onboarding
This five-day blended domain onboarding training program provides clinical data managers a comprehensive set of knowledge and skills required to become efficient. The program has consistently helped the organization build domain capability, create a culture of compliance, adhere to the service-level agreements with clients, and build credibility for the organization.

Cox Communications
Commercial Sales Onboarding Program
Category: Onboarding
The L&D team overhauled a 17-day onboarding program into smaller learning activities so employees can apply what they learn on the job. The company repeats the process across a six-month period, incrementally building new hires' knowledge and skills, supported by consistent reviews, guidance, and peer-to-peer mentoring.

CPC Corporation, Taiwan
Competency Enhancement Program for Successors to High-Level Manager
Partners: Recruitment and Employment Consulting, Dialogue in the Dark Taipei
Category: Leadership/Management Development
The program goal is to enhance participants' proficiency across seven management competencies: leadership, execution, collaboration, inspiring others, fact finding, objective management, and reaction. The company has subsequently been able to fill a shortage of positions left by retiring managers as well as cultivate a new succession plan.

DTCC
Emerging Women Leaders
Category: Leadership/Management Development
The program is a seven-month, action-oriented learning journey where high-potential women at the senior associate level sharpen such leader­ship skills as executive presence, conflict management, and decision making. The program emphasizes on-the-job experience through stretch assignments.

Flipkart Internet Private Limited
EMINENCE
Category: Leadership/Management Development
This 10-month journey is for leaders with 12–15 years of experience in the supply-chain business unit to prepare them for current and future roles. The program starts and ends with 360-degree assessments and includes a combination of mandatory instructor-led and optional self-paced e-learning programs as well as action learning business projects, coaching and mentoring, and an industry expert speaker series.

GoHealth
Captive GoLearn New-Hire Training
Category: Onboarding
GoLearn is a nine-week, immersive, hands-on, workflow-based learning experience inspired by a learn-by-doing mindset. This immersive experience upskills participants by creating application-based learning experiences that emulate the workflows new employees will perform daily.

Graybar
Accelerated Sales Development
Category: Sales Enablement
The program helps participants gain traction in their role, leverage organizational resources, and build momentum in their career. ASD provides an intensive and practical experience that helps newly hired sales talent ramp up quickly and effectively.

HDR
Project Manager Training and Development Program
Category: L&D
This project management training program combines synchronous, asynchronous, and cohort learning with a robust learning support structure. Project managers worked closely with their managers and others to ensure understanding, learning retention, and practical application of skills. Throughout the process, HDR evaluated and adjusted the content to help project managers gain competency as quickly as possible.

Huatai Securities Co. Ltd.
Digitization Transformation
Partners: McKinsey, BCG, Google, Bloomberg, AWS Category: L&D
This practice uses multilevel and long-term L&D methods to cultivate the company's digital culture, deepen the digital talent pool, and produce—thus far—10 innovative achievements with a direct business income of $2.5 million. It also improved the company's capabilities in process automation and data analytics.

Integral Ad Science
People Manager Certification Program
Category: Leadership/Management Development
The first component is a 39-lesson e-learning curriculum that empowers new managers to navigate common and uncommon management-related processes and challenges, providing guidance on how to set up their teams for long-term success. The second component consists of live group check-in sessions every two weeks wherein participants discuss and ideate together.

ITC Limited
Technical University: TU for You
Category: Managing the Learning Function
A task force set out to transition from decentralized training to a centralized, state-of-the-art training center with updated training processes and governance as well as a commitment to building future-ready capabilities. TU for You serves seven divisions in the technical, behavioral, and managerial domains.

Virtual Supervisor
Category: L&D
In this practice, technicians wear a mixed-reality headset to carry out a maintenance activity via modules that provide step-by-step, on-screen instructions. The headset enables technicians to connect with a subject matter expert remotely, and the SME can see from their computer what a technician is seeing on the shop floor and offer proper guidance.

KPN
License to Lead
Partner: EarlyBridge
Category: Change Management
KPN designed this practice to activate leaders to realize strategic goals and business results through engagement, ownership, and self-organization. Ten blended online and live training modules focus on leadership knowledge and skills, whereas business coaching supports and challenges leaders to put their learning into practice.

Lenovo Group
Executive Accelerator Program
Category: Leadership/Management Development
The 12-month program develops, advances, and aligns top executives on key business and leadership topics. The goals are to build a stronger pipeline for the senior leadership team; equip leaders with knowledge and skills to lead through transformation and change; provide a platform for leaders to reflect, brainstorm, and network; and ultimately drive the business forward.

LocumTenens.com
Foundations Training
Category: L&D
The two-week onboarding program enables new operations associates to perform critical job functions and responsibilities within eight business days of hire. Foundations Training also ensures participants gain 80 percent of job-critical knowledge within 10 business days.

Melco Resorts & Entertainment
Foundation Accelerated Program
Category: Career Development
The 18-month career development initiative offers short- and long-term, cross-functional placements that aim to help employees accelerate their skills through job rotations, exposure, management skills, mentorship, and career planning.

Mercado Libre
IT Bootcamp
Category: Onboarding
This intensive training program accelerates the skills learning curve of new junior employees joining technology teams, which promotes a climate of trust, collaboration, and networking as well as a sense of belonging. At the end of the program, participants can set the knowledge and technical skills expected for their roles; become familiar with the company's tools, values, and ways of working; and network with colleagues from all over Latin America.

Migros
You Are My Mentor: New Store Managers Mentoring Practice
Category: Coaching and Mentoring
This practice supports newly appointed store managers during a six-month period. The company trains and equips mentors with L&D tools they can use in their meetings. It also shares a structured mentoring plan with the mentor and mentee. Mentors and mentees hold nine formal meetings; mentees can communicate with their mentors whenever they need a quick response.

Nelnet
Associate Resource Groups (ARGs)
Category: Diversity and Inclusion
The expansion of ARGs creates a strategic focus that contributes significantly to achieving the organizational goals of attracting, engaging, and retaining top talent. Since expanding ARGs, the company has seen measurable increases in employee retention and engagement as well as a sense of belonging.

Leadership Pipeline
Category: Leadership/Management Development
The program provides frontline and midlevel leaders with a structured learning path that comprises four courses across three key leadership career milestones: preparing to take on a leadership role, taking on their first leadership role, and transitioning into a second-level leadership role.

Nu Skin
Sales and Service Skills Improvement Learning and Development Project
Category: L&D
To enable salespeople, especially newly recruited staff, to quickly master sales and service skills, as well as to promote the growth of market customers and sales performance, the company created a "Sales & Service Pocket Book," which has nearly 30,000 downloads. Nearly 5,500 trainees have participated in 17 online sales and service microcourse series.

Oxford Global Resources
New-Hire Onboarding
Category: Onboarding
The 11-week practice annually serves 250–350 new hires who have no industry experience and limited professional experience. Comprised of eight cohorts in 33 offices across seven countries, the practice's purpose is threefold: establish a standardized learning program; provide new hires with the knowledge and skills they need to consistently reach established goals and performance indicators; and build and sustain strong partnerships with hiring managers.

SAP
Digital Elite
Category: Sales Enablement
Digital Elite helps top performers in sales- and non sales-related areas lead customers as they transform to become digital businesses. It likewise helps sales executives change their approach from selling software to collaborating with customers to innovate. The program comprises customer engagement best practices; peer-to-peer discussions; training in developing pitches and proposals; and neuroscience, mindfulness, and well-being practices.

Performance Improvement for Sales and Leadership Success
Category: Performance Consulting/Performance Improvement
SAP takes a continuous cycle approach to sales executives' and managers' performance improvement. The process centers on the ongoing review and discovery of relevant skills gaps; measuring the impact of skill proficiency; and using data to understand enablement needs. The program entails personal learning plans, managerial development discussions, and progress tracking.

Sinopec Management Institute
Lead Talents Development Program
Category: L&D
Using the guiding principle of learn, reflect, practice, and grasp, this practice enhances the core competencies of senior equipment management talent. Participants who have completed the program have helped their companies tackle technical difficulties, establish workflow management, and improve business performance.

Overseas Project Managers Development Program
Category: L&D
The practice develops managers' capabilities such as global and strategic view, overseas market development and project management, international compliance and risk management, as well as cross-cultural leadership. To ensure effective learning transfer, the practice includes a development path of learn-act-reflect.

SoftServe
Transformation of Learning Function
Category: Managing the Learning Function
To meet the needs of six precisely segmented units, SoftServe transformed its learning function based on the principles of continuous improvement and lifelong learning. New roles include learning solutions architects (the learning designers), learning project managers for the management of complex cross-units projects, and learning partners.

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Onboarding Coaching
Category: Coaching and Mentoring
Every new leader completes an onboarding coaching engagement lasting between six months and two years with an external coach of their choosing. Coaches use interactive, relationship-based processes; foster empowerment and accountability; and leverage validated assessments, debriefs, and feedback to create personalized development plans based on individual strengths.

US Customs and Border Protection
Trade Intelligence and Enforcement Course
Category: Change Management
This practice empowered trade specialists by upskilling them with advanced techniques in identifying, investigating, and analyzing trade violations as well as enforcing trade laws, allowing for greater flexibility and speed to mitigate risks and emerging threats. The practice has contributed to preventing millions of counterfeit and unsafe products from entering the US.

Veeam
High-Velocity Onboarding
Category: Onboarding
This two-week sales onboarding program addresses the specific competencies and behaviors required to effectively support Veeam's customer environments and business goals. The objectives are to enable new employees with the company mission, vision, and value proposition while reducing time to productivity as well as promoting a globally consistent approach.

ZTE Corporation
Reshaping Organizational Learning
Category: Managing the Learning Function
The practice transformed the learning model from position driven to business driven. The team redefined the learning function's mission, vision, culture, and value, in addition to establishing a new L&D strategy. The team also created a new learning business model; rebuilt the learning function's structure, policy, and process; and developed a model for change management guidelines and evaluation.

Accenture
Chicago, Illinois
Cyber Fest On-Demand Community Security Learning Program

Arcesium India Pvt. Limited
Hyderabad, India
FinOp Skill Empowerment Program

Bank of China
Shanghai, China
Private Bankers Performance Enhancement Program

Chailease Finance Co. Limited
Taipei, Taiwan
High Potential Development Program

China Post Group
Beijing, China
Performance Improvement Practice Project

China Post Group Zhejiang Branch
Beijing, China
Branch Performance Improvement Training and Mentoring

China Telecommunications Corporation
Beijing, China
Learning Powers Smart Home Engineers' Sales Transformation
Sales Channel Master Show

CIBC
Toronto, Canada
Workplace Mindfulness Program

Cognizant
Teaneck, New Jersey
Big Data Capability Program
Developing the Leaders of Tomorrow
IoT Talent Development Initiative
Medical Device Complaint Management Bootcamp

Cruise
San Francisco, California
Ignition & Liftoff

Garanti BBVA
Istanbul, Turkey
We Are Developing With KILAVUZ (GUIDE) Program

Guotai Junan Securities
Shanghai, China
Management Talent Empowerment for Securities Business Departments

HCL Technologies Limited
Noida, India
Inclusion Lab

Hyland
Westlake, Ohio
Manager Onboarding

Infosys BPM Limited
Bengalore, India
Constellation Program

Larsen & Toubro Limited
Mumbai, India
Leadership Development of
High Potential Mid-Level Managers

LocumTenens.com
Alpharetta, Georgia
Sales Training

Melco Resorts & Entertainment
Macao, China
Morpheus Moments

New H3C Group
Beijing, China
Galloping Steeds Program

New York Life Insurance Company
New York, New York
Field Leadership Institute

Piramal Enterprises Limited
Mumbai, India
HR Academy

SAP
Newtown Square, Pennsylvania
Learning2Go
Year One Success

Sinopec Management Institute
Beijing, China
The Elite Development Program

Texas A&M University
College Station, Texas
Leading Others

Thai Oil Public Company Limited
Bangkok, Thailand
Dynamic Career Management Program

Towngas
Hong Kong, China
"G=ixi" Cultural Transformation

Trianz
Santa Clara, California
Learning University

Turkiye Finans Participation Bank
Istanbul, Turkey
Credit Officers Certificate Program

US Customs and Border Protection
Washington, DC
Instructor Professional Development and Qualification Program
Leadership Development Program
Processing Coordinator Program

Volunteers of America
Alexandria, Virginia
KeyMakers

ZTE Corporation
Shenzhen, China
Capability Enhancement Program

Akamai Technologies
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Global Services Onboarding Program

Bank of America
Charlotte, North Carolina
Academy Manager Model
ACES (Academy Client Engagement Simulators)

BrightStar Credit Union
Sunrise, Florida
Onboarding Program

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
Baltimore, Maryland
Peterson Experienced Leadership Program (PELP)

China Telecommunications Corporation
Shanghai, China
4 Keys to Translate Strategy Into Action

Cisco Systems
San Jose, California
Amplify: Accelerated Marketing Program

CITIC Telecom International CPC
Hong Kong, China
Successors in ICT (Integrated Competencies Training)

Cognizant
Teaneck, New Jersey
Campus to Corporate Learning Program
Contact Center Training Program
Performance Improvement Projects Practice
Revenue Cycle Management Capability Development Program

Comerica Bank
Dallas, Texas
Emerging Leaders Program

Genesis Medical Center–Davenport
Davenport, Iowa
Pathway for Positive Change

Grant Thornton
Chicago, Illinois
Senior Manager Academy (SMA)

HCL Technologies
Noida, India
SIXER – Technology Learning With Gamification

ITC Limited
Kolkata, India
Surgically Precise Operators' Training (SPOT ON)

Lee Kum Kee
Hong Kong, China
Sustainable Sales Capability Building Program

National Science Foundation
Alexandria, Virginia
New Employee Welcome (NEW) Program

NetEase Games
Guangzhou, China
Gamification Training Program for Social Recruits

Postal Savings Bank of China
Beijing, China
Integrated T&C Development Program

Progress
Bedford, Massachusetts
LEAD | Global Management Development

Quality HealthCare Medical Services
Hong Kong, China
Enlightening Paraprofessional in Delivering Professional Care

Sai Life Sciences
Hyderabad, India
Gurukul Digital Learning Platform
Paradigm Shift for Effective Learning (PSEL)

SoftServe
Lviv, Ukraine
SoftServe Corporate University as Learning Eco-system

St. Elizabeth Healthcare
Edgewood, Kentucky
First Two Minutes of a Code Blue Simulation

Tata Consultancy Services
Mumbai, India
Force Multiplier Coaching Program
Global Sales Enablement Program
Reimagined Integrated Talent Development Platform
Talent Acquisition and Development Program

Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield
Los Angeles, California
Delivering Service With STYLE

US Customs and Border Protection
Washington, DC
Pretest Implementation Program
Use-of-Force Reduction Program

ZTE Corporation
Shenzhen, China
Tech-Elite Program

Accenture
Dublin, Ireland
Information Security Advocate Program

Aditya Birla Group
Mumbai, India
Talent Management Process

Akamai Technologies
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Excellence in Learning Success & Measurement - The Leadership Academies


Ameriprise Financial
Minneapolis, Minnesota
4Cs of Service Culture

AstraZeneca
Gaithersburg, Maryland
Oncology Training & Development - OTD Depot

Aviation Institute of Maintenance
Virginia Beach, Virginia
FAA Certification Exam Preparation

Chailease Finance
Taipei, Taiwan
Management Associate Program

China Life Insurance Company Limited
Beijing, China
Empowering Sales – The Construction and Promotion of the Mobile Learning Platform

China Mobile Communications
Beijing, China
Competence Training and Certification Practice for Technicians

China Telecommunications Corporation
Shanghai, China
Triangle Teams' Action Learning for Sales Increase

Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company
Zug, Switzerland
Fast Forward Programs to Accelerate Development for TURN to Next Leadership Level

Cognizant
Teaneck, New Jersey
Aspiring Architect Program | Skill Transformation Framework for an Effective Learning Organization | New Hire Orientation for U.S. Healthcare Claims Process in an Outsourcing Company; Headstart GenC Program

Combined Insurance
Chicago, Illinois
Latino Sales Training Program

Davenport University
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Leadership Academy for University Faculty and Staff

DTCC
Jersey City, New Jersey
Leadership Development for All Employees - A Cultural Transformation

Emerson Electric
St. Louis, Missouri
Making Leadership Best Practice Our Common Practice

Farm Bureau Financial Services
West Des Moines, Iowa
Sales Coaching

FedEx Office
Plano, Texas
Team Member Onboarding Experience

GF Securities
Guangzhou, China
Reserve Management Talent Training Program (V2.0)

GQR
New York, New York
Learning & Development Foundation Program

HCL Technologies
Noida, India
LeadX: Lead by Experience | Scalable, Sustainable and Business-Relevant Training to Improve Deployment

Houston Methodist
Houston, Texas
Pathway to Unparalleled

Infosys Limited
Bangalore, India
Compass - Digital Career Platform

International Association of Drilling Contractors
Houston, Texas
Well Control Training and Gap Identification in the O&G Industry

ITC Limited
Kolkata, India
Enhancing Learning Effectiveness by Leveraging Technology

Johns Hopkins Medicine
Baltimore, Maryland
Patient Access Call Center

KT Corporation
Seoul, South Korea
No.1 Workshop - A Platform for Communication and Cooperation

MTR Corporation
Kowloon Bay, Hong Kong
Driving Service Excellence for Customer Service Ambassadors

Navy Federal Credit Union
Vienna, Virginia
IT Talent Optimization Pipeline Program

NetEase Games
Guangzhou, China
New Employee Training Program: Game Development Process Action Learning | Spiderman Program - Management Talent Development for New Team Leaders

Panda Restaurant Group
Rosemead, California
Great Operations Curriculum

PepsiCo
Purchase, New York
LeAD

Porter Davis Homes
Docklands, Australia
Continuous Improvement Accreditation Framework

Press Ganey Associates
South Bend, Indiana
Engagement Advisor Onboarding Program

RiverSource Insurance, Division of Ameriprise Financial
Minneapolis, Minnesota
University Insurance Training Program

Samsung
Suwon, Korea
Leveraging Education as a Catalyst for Inclusion

SAP
Newtown Square, Pennsylvania
Social Collaborative Learning | Learning2GO - Sales Enablement in the Digital Age

Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
New York, New York
Coordinate Web-Based Training Tool

South Carolina Federal Credit Union
North Charleston, South Carolina
Career Coaching

State Grid Corporation of China
Jinan, China
UHV Live Transmission Line Training

State Grid Jiangsu Electric Power Company
Nanjing, China
Employee Career Development System

UCLA
Los Angeles, California
Leadership 2027

ZTE Corporation
Shenzhen, China
Improving the Efficiency of Knowledge Operation and Management in Capability Center

Congratulations to the 2025 BEST Award Winners!

Best of the BEST

Organizations that have won the BEST Awards 10 or more times
20-Year Winner: TELUS
19-Year Winner: Wipro Limited
16-Year Winner: Tata Consultancy Services
15-Year Winner: University Health
13-Year Winner: ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company
12-Year Winner: Infosys Limited
11-Year Winner: Florida Blue - Guidewell

BEST Winners

1. Panda Restaurant Group

2. Apple Federal Credit Union

3. Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company

4. Chailease Holding Company Limited

5. Kuveyt Türk Katılım Bankası A.Ş.

6. Indian Oil Corporation Limited

7. Suzlon Energy Limited

8. Busey

9. Fisher Investments

10. Amazon India Operations

11. EPAM Systems

12. The PPD Clinical Research Business of Thermo Fisher Scientific

13. The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

14. Pegasus Airlines

15. DataArt

16. Limbach

17. Peach State Truck Centers

18. GCL (Group) Holdings Company Limited

19. Axis Bank Limited

20. Prometheus Real Estate Group

21. CIMC Container (Group) Company Limited

22. Huntington National Bank

23. Kaplan

24. Korea Electric Power Corporation

25. American Cancer Society

26. Tech Mahindra Limited

27. Constant Contact

28. Paylocity

29. Ness Digital Engineering

30. Allianz Commercial

31. BMO

32. LocumTenens.com

33. Power Grid Corporation of India Limited

34. Korea National Oil Corporation

35. Cleveland Clinic

36. Gilbane Building Company

37. QinetiQ US

38. WNS Global Services

39. Cultivate

40. Plante Moran

41. Engro Polymer and Chemicals Limited

42. Deutsch Family Wine & Spirits

43. Hotai Finance Corporation

44. Herc Rentals

45. GlobalLogic

46. Zijin Mining Group Company Limited

47. M&T Bank

48. G.E.H.A.

49. Choice Hotels International

50. NTPC Limited

Congratulations to the 2024 BEST Award Winners!

Best of the BEST

Organizations that have won the BEST Awards 10 or more times
19-Year Winner: TELUS
18-Year Winner: Wipro Limited
15-Year Winner: Tata Consultancy Services
14-Year Winner: University Health
12-Year Winner: ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company
11-Year Winner: Infosys Limited
11-Year Winner: Valvoline Instant Oil Change
10-Year Winner: Florida Blue - Guidewell

BEST Winners

1. AMH
2. Saudi Aramco - Technical Services Professional Academy
3. NTPC Limited
4. Larsen & Toubro Limited
5. Plante Moran
6. Capital One
7. AKBANK
8. Alamo Colleges District
9. Brisa Bridgestone Sabanci
10. Paylocity
11. Cathay Life Insurance Company
12. Florida Blue – GuideWell
13. Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO)
14. Tech Mahindra Limited
15. Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company
16. HCL Technologies
17. European Wax Center
18. Allianz Commercial
19. EXL
20. The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
21. Power Grid Corporation of India Limited
22. Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group
23. ZS Associates
24. Busey
25. Procede Software
26. Allianz Turkey
27. M&T Bank
28. Cisco Systems
29. Choice Hotels International
30. MGM China
31. Medical Solutions
32. Limbach
33. Nu Skin China
34. Melco Resorts & Entertainment
35. AECOM
36. DataArt
37. QinetiQ US
38. LifeNet Health
39. WNS
40. Enerjisa Enerji
41. Huntington National Bank
42. US Customs and Border Protection
43. Qisda Corporation
44. SunTec Business Solutions
45. Fisher Investments
46. Gilbane Building Company
47. Panda Restaurant Group
48. Infosys BPM Limited
49. Apple Federal Credit Union
50. NewRocket
51. EPAM Systems
52. Tusas Engine Industries (TEI)
53. Thomas Automotive
54. Western & Southern Financial Group
55. North Highland Consulting
56. Centene Corporation
57. ServiceNow
58. Hilti
59. Deutsch Family Wine & Spirits
60. Chegg
61. Accelalpha
62. Altria
63. Zoetis China
64. Herc Rentals
65. Innova Solutions
66. USAble Life
67. PPL Electric Utilities
68. Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation (KAHRAMAA)
69. Lupin Limited
70. Erie Insurance
71. BankWest
72. Navy Federal Credit Union

Congratulations to the 2023 BEST Award Winners!

Best of the BEST

Organizations that have won the BEST Awards 10 or more times

IBM,** Armonk, New York
ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company, Mumbai, India
Infosys Limited, Bangalore, India
Tata Consultancy Services, Noida, India
TELUS, Vancouver, Canada
University Health, San Antonio, Texas
Wipro Limited, Bangalore, India

BEST Winners

1. BMO Financial Group - Toronto, Canada
2. The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center - Houston, Texas
3. Paylocity - Schaumburg, Illinois
4. Florida Blue – GuideWell - Jacksonville, Florida5
5. Navy Federal Credit Union - Vienna, Virginia
6. Reliance Retail Limited - Mumbai, India
7. Union Pacific Railroad - Omaha, Nebraska
8. EPAM Systems - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
9. Peach State Truck Centers - Norcross, Georgia
10. Novartis - Basel, Switzerland
11. Intermountain Health - Salt Lake City, Utah
12. Western & Southern Financial Group, Cincinnati, Ohio
13. NTPC Limited - New Delhi, India
14. PPL Electric Utilities - Allentown, Pennsylvania
15. Sisecam - Istanbul, Turkey
16. Rosendin - San Jose, California
17. Power Grid Corporation of India Limited - Gurugram, India
18. Apple Federal Credit Union - Fairfax, Virginia
19. PepsiCo Global Business Services - Hyderabad, India
20. Deutsch Family Wine & Spirits - Stamford, Connecticut
21. Indian Oil Corporation Limited - New Delhi, India
22. American Cancer Society - Atlanta, Georgia
23. Gilbane Building Company - Providence, Rhode Island
24. Choice Hotels International - Rockville, Maryland
25. GF Securities - Guangzhou, China
26. Sony Electronics - San Diego, California
27. Black Knight - Fleming Island, Florida
28. Reliance Industries Limited - Mumbai, India
29. Alamo Colleges District - San Antonio, Texas
30. Thermo Fisher Scientific - Waltham, Massachusetts
31. Ness Digital Engineering - Teaneck, New Jersey
32. New York City Department of Social Services - Office of Training and Workforce Development - New York, New York
33. Huntington Bank - Columbus, Ohio
34. Dar Al Riyadh - Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
35. QinetiQ (formerly Avantus Federal) - McLean, Virginia
36. Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty - Munich, Germany
37. Petrobras - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
38. Busey - Champaign, Illinois
39. QNB Finansbank - Istanbul, Turkey
40. Infosys BPM Limited - Bangalore, India
41. Edwards, Burgess Hill - United Kingdom
42. Panda Restaurant Group - Rosemead, California
43. Anta Sports Products Limited - Xiamen, China
44. Jacobs - Dallas, Texas
45. Tencent Games - Shenzhen, China
46. Kaplan - Fort Lauderdale, Florida
47. Sundt Construction - Tempe, Arizona
48. SWBC - San Antonio, Texas
49. DeFacto Perakende A.Ş. - Istanbul, Turkey
50. Medical Solutions - Omaha, Nebraska
51. Mountain America Credit Union - Salt Lake City, Utah
52. Guild - Denver, Colorado
53. Wynn Macau Limited - Macau, China
54. M&T Bank - Buffalo, New York
55. Rally Credit Union - Corpus Christi, Texas
56. Plante Moran - Southfield, Michigan
57. City of El Paso Texas - El Paso, Texas
58. WNS - Mumbai, India
59. UST - Aliso Viejo, California
60. Thompson Thrift - Indianapolis, Indiana
61. United Arab Emirates Ministry of Interior - Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
62. Deltek - Herndon, Virginia
63. EXL Service - New York, New York
64. AppsFlyer - Herzliya, Israel
65. Hitachi Vantara - Santa Clara, California

Congratulations to the 2022 BEST Award Winners!

Best of the BEST

Organizations that have won the BEST Awards 10 or more times

IBM,** Armonk, New York
ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company, Mumbai, India
Infosys Limited, Bangalore, India
Tata Consultancy Services, Noida, India
TELUS, Vancouver, Canada
University Health, San Antonio, Texas
Wipro Limited, Bangalore, India

BEST Winners

1. Visa - Foster City, California
2. Allianz Turkey - Istanbul, Turkey
3. Novartis - Basel, Switzerland
4. Reliance Retail Limited - Mumbai, India
5. LoyaltyOne - Toronto, Canada
6. Florida Blue - Jacksonville, Florida
7. Lupin Limited - Mumbai, India
8. Navy Federal Credit Union - Vienna, Virginia
9. Dar Al Riyadh - Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
10. Hitachi Vantara - Santa Clara, California
11. Busey - Champaign, Illinois
12. Mindtree Limited - Bangalore, India
13. BMO Financial Group - Toronto, Canada
14. Paylocity - Schaumburg, Illinois
15. Plante Moran - Southfield, Michigan
16. Larsen & Toubro Limited - Mumbai, India
17. Altria - Richmond, Virginia
18. Apple Federal Credit Union - Fairfax, Virginia
19. Medical Solutions - Omaha, Nebraska
20. Choice Hotels International - Rockville, Maryland

College & University

• Alamo Colleges District - San Antonio, Texas

• York Technical College - Rock Hill, South Carolina

See all Colleges & University Winners

Construction

• Gilbane Building Company - Providence, Rhode Island

• Rosendin - San Jose, California

See all Construction Winners

Consulting

• Accenture Solutions Private Limited - Bangalore, India

• Avantus Federal - McLean, Virginia

• Protiviti - Menlo Park, California

See all Consulting Services Winners

Energy

• Consumers Energy - Jackson, Michigan

• Indian Oil Corporation Limited - New Delhi, India

• NTPC Limited - New Delhi, India

See all Energy Winners

Finance

• Black Knight, Jacksonville, Florida

• Fisher Investments, Camas, Washington

• Huntington Bank, Columbus, Ohio

• Navy Army Community Credit Union, Corpus Christi, Texas

• Nelnet, Lincoln, Nebraska

• Western & Southern Financial Group, Cincinnati, Ohio

See all Finance Winners

Government

• City of El Paso - El Paso, Texas

• Korea Customs Service - Cheonan, South Korea

• US Customs and Border Protection - Washington, DC

• Virginia Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services - Richmond, Virginia

See all Government Winners

Healthcare

• American Cancer Society - Atlanta, Georgia

• Independence Blue Cross - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

• The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center - Houston, Texas

See all Healthcare Winners

IT and Technology Services

• Cisco Systems - San Jose, California

• Cognizant - Teaneck, New Jersey

• Deltek - Herndon, Virginia

• Jacobs - Dallas, Texas

• NetEase Games - Guangzhou, China

• Procede Software - Solana Beach, California

• Procore Technologies - Carpinteria, California

• SAP SE - Walldorf, Germany

See all IT and Technology Services Winners

Retail

• Ahold Delhaize - Zaandam, The Netherlands

• Mattress Firm - Houston, Texas

• Walmart - Bentonville, Arkansas

See all Retail Winners

Transportation

• Union Pacific Railroad - Omaha, Nebraska

• Yellow Corporation - Overland Park, Kansas

See all Transportation Winners

Other

• AAA Northeast - Providence, Rhode Island

• Cathay Life Insurance Company Limited - Taipei City, Taiwan

• Children’s Bureau of Southern California - Los Angeles, California

• Cortland - Atlanta, Georgia

• Hilti - Plano, Texas

• Panda Restaurant Group - Rosemead, California

• Sony Electronics - San Diego, California

• Thermo Fisher Scientific’s PPD Clinical Research Services - Wilmington, North Carolina

See all Other Winners

Congratulations to the 2021 BEST Award Winners!

BEST Winners

1. Larsen & Toubro Technology Services Limited - Mumbai, India
2. PPD - Wilmington, North Carolina
3. Novartis - Basel, Switzerland
4. Bell - Fort Worth, Texas
5. Florida Blue - Jacksonville, Florida
6. Sundt Construction - Tempe, Arizona
7. Valvoline Instant Oil Change - Lexington, Kentucky
8. Power Grid Corporation of India - Gurugram, India
9. Visa - Foster City, California
10. Rosendin - San Jose, California
11. Hitachi Vantara - Santa Clara, California
12. Paylocity - Schaumburg, Illinois
13. Busey - Champaign, Illinois
14. Pax8 - Greenwood Village, Colorado
15. Plante Moran - Southfield, Michigan
16. Panda Restaurant Group - Rosemead, California
17. WNS Global Services - Mumbai, India
18. BMO Financial Group - Toronto, Canada
19. Western & Southern Financial Group - Cincinnati, Ohio
20. University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center - Houston, Texas
21. A1 Hrvatska - Zagreb, Croatia
22. Accenture Solutions Private Limited - Bangalore, India
23. Addition Financial Credit Union - Lake Mary, Florida
24. Aksigorta - Istanbul, Turkey
25. American Cancer Society - Atlanta, Georgia
26. Apple Federal Credit Union - Fairfax, Virginia
27. Asurion - Nashville, Tennessee
28. Black Knight - Jacksonville, Florida
29. Bluescape Software - San Carlos, California
30. Booz Allen Hamilton - McLean, Virginia
31. Children's Bureau of Southern California - Los Angeles, California
32. Choice Hotels International - Rockville, Maryland
33. Cognizant - Teaneck, New Jersey
34. Columbia Sportswear Company - Portland, Oregon
35. Comscore - Reston, Virginia
36. Consumers Energy - Jackson, Michigan
37. Dar Al Riyadh - Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
38. Dish Network - Englewood, Colorado
39. DTCC - New York, New York
40. Erie Insurance - Erie, Pennsylvania
41. Fairwinds Credit Union - Orlando, Florida
42. Fisher Investments - Camas, Washington
43. Gilbane Building Company - Providence, Rhode Island
44. Heavy Civil Infrastructure, L&T Construction - Chennai, India
45. Huntington Bank - Columbus, Ohio
46. IBM - Armonk, New York
47. ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company - Mumbai, India
48. Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality - Istanbul, Turkey
49. Keeley Companies - St. Louis, Missouri
50. Lee Kum Kee - Hong Kong, China
51. Medical Solutions (C&A Industries) - Omaha, Nebraska
52. Mindtree Limited - Bangalore, India
53. Navy Federal Credit Union - Vienna, Virginia
54. Nelnet - Lincoln, Nebraska
55. Nemours Children's Healthcare System - Jacksonville, Florida
56. North Highland - Atlanta, Georgia
57. Papa Murphy's International - Vancouver, Washington
58. Protiviti - Menlo Park, California
59. Prudential Financial - Newark, New Jersey
60. Ryan LLC - Dallas, Texas
61. Sony Electronics - San Diego, California
62. Sysmex America - Lincolnshire, Illinois
63. Tata Consultancy Services - Mumbai, India
64. TELUS - Vancouver, Canada
65. Total Quality Logistics - Cincinnati, Ohio
66. Trianz - Santa Clara, California
67. Union Pacific Railroad - Omaha, Nebraska
68. University Health - San Antonio, Texas
69. US Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of Information and Technology, Talent Management Office - Washington, DC
70. Wipro Limited - Bangalore, India
71. Yellow (formerly YRC Worldwide) - Overland Park, Kansas

Congratulations to the 2020 BEST Award Winners!

BEST Winners

1. Valvoline Instant Oil Change - Lexington, Kentucky
2. KCB Group - Nairobi, Kenya
3. iCIMS - Holmdel, New Jersey
4. Cathay Life Insurance - Taipei City, Taiwan
5. Krystal - Atlanta, Georgia
6. Total Quality Logistics - Cincinnati, Ohio
7. Procore Technologies - Carpinteria, California
8. NTT Limited - London, England
9. C&A Industries - Omaha, Nebraska
10. Tech Mahindra - Pune, India
11. Paycor - Cincinnati, Ohio
12. Western & Southern Financial Group - Cincinnati, Ohio
13. Apple Federal Credit Union - Fairfax, Virginia
14. Providence St. Joseph Health -Renton, Washington
15. University Health System - San Antonio, Texas
16. Walmart - Bentonville, Arkansas
17. Roscoe Property Management - Austin, Texas
18. Genpact - Gurugram, India
19. Hitachi Vantara - Santa Clara, California
20. Accenture Solutions Private Limited - Bangalore, India
21. Aimco - Denver, Colorado
22. Alamo Colleges District - San Antonio, Texas
23. Black Knight - Jacksonville, Florida
24. BMO Financial Group - Toronto, Canada
25. Busey - Champaign, Illinois
26. Choice Hotels International - Rockville, Maryland
27. CLA (CliftonLarsonAllen) - United States
28. Cognizant - Teaneck, New Jersey
29. Consumers Energy - Jackson, Michigan
30. Davenport University - Grand Rapids, Michigan
31. DISH Network - Englewood, Colorado
32. DPR Construction - Redwood City, California
33. Emaar Hospitality Group - Dubai, United Arab Emirates
34. Erie Insurance - Erie, Pennsylvania
35. Fisher Investments - Camas, Washington
36. Florida Blue - Jacksonville, Florida
37. Gilbane Building Company - Providence, Rhode Island
38. Hilti - Plano, Texas
39. Huntington National Bank - Columbus, Ohio
40. IBM - Armonk, New York
41. ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company - Mumbai, India
42. Infosys Limited - Bangalore, India
43. Isbank - Istanbul, Turkey
44. Lupin Limited - Mumbai, India
45. Mattress Firm - Houston, Texas
46. Memorial Health System - Springfield, Illinois
47. MGM China - Macao, SAR
48. Navy Federal Credit Union - Vienna, Virginia
49. Nemours Children's Health System - Jacksonville, Florida
50. North Highland - Atlanta, Georgia
51. Novartis - Basel, Switzerland
52. NTPC Limited, Delhi - India
53. Omantel - Muscat, Oman
54. Panda Restaurant Group - Rosemead, California
55. Persistent Systems - Pune, India
56. Plante Moran - Southfield, Michigan
57. Saudi Aramco - Dhahran, Saudi Arabia
58. Sutter Health - Sacramento, California
59. Tata Consultancy Services - Mumbai, India
60. TELUS - Vancouver, Canada
61. UL - Northbrook, Illinois
62. Verizon - New York, New York
63. Wipro Limited - Bangalore, India
64. WNS Global Services - Mumbai, India
65. YRC Worldwide - Overland Park, Kansas

During its 2025 International Conference & Exposition in Washington, DC, the Association for Talent Development (ATD) recognized organizations and individuals for their excellence and contributions across the talent development field.

“ATD award winners reflect a deep commitment to the value of developing people in the workplace. Winning organizations demonstrate how aligning talent development (TD) to business needs can increase the performance and success of organizations worldwide,” said ATD President and Chief Executive Officer Tony Bingham. “These winners’ accomplishments advance knowledge in the talent development profession and contribute to increasing workforce capability and organizational competitiveness.”

Individual honorees in the Advancing Talent Development category included:

One to Watch Award: Stephen Scheib, Merck & Co.
Dissertation Award: Amber Barger, Columbia University
Talent Development Outstanding Professional Award: Tim Wu, Chailease Financial Holding and Myra Roldan, UnDesto AI
Talent Development Champion Award: Adam Grant
Talent Development Thought Leader Award: Whitney Johnson

Sprintray was honored with the Talent Development for Good Award, which recognizes organizations that leveraged talent development to make significant contributions to improve the lives of others, change an industry or community for the better, or powerfully serve society.

Saudi Aramco received the ATD Certification Institute Champion Award.

The Champion Award is presented to an individual outside or on the periphery of the talent development profession whose commitment, advocacy, and actions in support of talent development have influenced audiences, organizations, or society. This year’s recipient is Adam Grant.

The Thought Leader Award recognizes individuals’ exceptional contributions to talent development. Winners of this award have contributed significant thought leadership to the profession, which has had a sustained impact over several years. ATD presented this year’s award to Whitney Johnson.

During its 2024 International Conference & Exposition in New Orleans, Louisiana, the Association for Talent Development (ATD) recognized organizations and individuals for their excellence and contributions across the talent development field.

“ATD award winners reflect a deep commitment to the value of developing people in the workplace. Winning organizations demonstrate how aligning talent development (TD) to business needs can increase the performance and success of organizations worldwide,” said ATD President and Chief Executive Officer Tony Bingham. “These winners’ accomplishments advance knowledge in the talent development profession and contribute to increasing workforce capability and organizational competitiveness.”

Individual honorees in the Advancing Talent Development category included:

One to Watch Award: Joselito Ereño, Ayala Foundation
Dissertation Award: Yu-Ling Chang, Pennsylvania State University
Talent Development Outstanding Professional Award: Keith Lillico, Merck & Co.
Talent Development Champion Award: Marshall Goldsmith
Talent Development Thought Leader Award: Britt Andreatta

ATD recognized ITRI College of Industrial Technology Research Institute with its Innovation Award. This award recognizes innovation that has had a measurable impact on an organization or audience, is moving the talent development industry forward, is sustainable, and is replicable within or outside the talent development field.

EPAM Systems was honored with the Talent Development for Good Award, which recognizes organizations that leveraged talent development to make significant contributions to improve the lives of others, change an industry or community for the better, or powerfully serve society.

Alliant Insurance Services received the ATD Certification Institute Champion Award.

The Champion Award is presented to an individual outside or on the periphery of the talent development profession whose commitment, advocacy, and actions in support of talent development have influenced audiences, organizations, or society. This year’s recipient is Marshall Goldsmith.

The Thought Leader Award recognizes individuals’ exceptional contributions to talent development. Winners of this award have contributed significant thought leadership to the profession, which has had a sustained impact over several years. ATD presented this year’s award to Britt Andreatta.

Ready, Set, Automate

A program that is easy to apply, delivers quick victories for the company and its employees, and isn't expensive—that's a basic way to describe RPA Marathon, an initiative that earned Turkcell the 2023 Talent Development Innovation Award. The idea behind the initiative is for employees to suggest ways for the company to automate business processes, enabling staff to upskill on digitalization while becoming more productive in tandem with reducing costs.

Turkcell, a Turkish telecommunication and technology services provider, views robotic process automation (RPA) as one of the most important levers of the digital transformation journey. RPA mimics employee behavior to complete routine, repetitive, and predictable tasks. The company designed the RPA Marathon after discovering that many aspects of employees' workloads were repetitive, leading to boredom and unproductivity among workers. The initiative entails a full year of activity that includes ideathons, seminars, and hackathons.

"We, as Turkcell Academy, believe that all of our employees have potential and talents that are just waiting to be revealed and developed," says Tuana Begüm Akdemir, program manager of Turkcell Academy. "Our goal is to help our employees become aware of this potential and use it both to improve themselves and the company. In this context, we support our employees in realizing their potential with the systems and approaches we have developed to take their talent ... to the highest level."

The RPA Marathon launched in March 2022 with an ideathon, during which employees applied for the program with their concepts and built their teams. Turkcell Academy facilitated the teams with a design-thinking approach to enhance their ideas. The first ideathon garnered 65 ideas, and internal judges rated the submissions and announced winners.

After that, the training part of the marathon began, wherein employees learned how to further develop the winning ideas. The training program has several levels, including a four-hour online module on scenario writing in RPA Ghost, a Turkcell-developed software available internally and externally for RPA implementation and coding.

The second level of training is a two-day, in-class session where employees complete several RPA scenarios, after which internal technical experts mentor the participants regarding their automation projects. More than 700 employees participated in the in-class training during the program's first year.

The company then invited individuals who completed the program to participate in a 72-hour hackathon during which participants actualize the winning ideas. Last year, the company hosted two hackathons.

In total, 2,372 people have participated in at least one RPA Marathon event, thus taking part in upskilling and reskilling initiatives while exhibiting creativity and improving productivity. As a result of implementing the automation initiatives derived from the ideathon, Turkcell gained 11.1 million minutes (approximately 185,000 hours) in employee time from the RPA Marathon. As the company continues hosting marathons, it expects not only more automated processes, but the entire workforce to be equipped with the knowledge to use RPA technology as well.

"All our development programs are based on our leadership model, Turkcell Ecosystem Leadership, which embraces not only our leaders but also all of our employees," says Akdemir, because the company believes that each employee is a leader in their own right.

What Makes a Good Culture?

"Together We Create a World That Works Better." That is the Association for Talent Development's vision. One of the operative words is together. According to Merriam-Webster, to collaborate means "to work jointly with others or together especially in an intellectual endeavor," and culture is "the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution or organization" (italics added). For work today, TD professionals must be adept at honing collaboration and culture.

Two awardees have extensive insights in that area. Kevin Oakes, author of Culture Renovation: 18 Leadership Actions to Build an Unshakeable Company and CEO of the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp), is this year's winner of ATD's Thought Leader Award. Keynote speaker Erica Dhawan, a leading authority on collaboration and innovation as well as author of Digital Body Language: How to Build Trust and Connection, No Matter the Distance, is the recipient of the Talent Development Champion Award. ATD presents the latter to an individual outside the profession who advocates for TD.

High-performing organizations are six times more likely to have a healthy culture than low-performing organizations; the former accounted for 20 percent productivity gains since the start of the pandemic, Oakes shares, citing i4cp research. "The fittest cultures typically have more flexible work arrangements, boards that care about culture, and leaders who lead by example and regularly communicate values," he explains. "These cultures also typically are inclusive and collaborative while holding leaders accountable for employee development and movement."

To leverage connection to build culture, Dhawan suggests asking: "Are you providing a safe environment where employees can communicate their concerns and share their challenges? Are you building rapid connectivity with new hires? Do you welcome a diversity of perspectives? Do you encourage vulnerability as a strength?"

TD professionals can train leaders and teams to be successful in this new era, says Dhawan. The first way is to help teams align and communicate their needs. With changed schedules and commitments, it's important to "understand what those norms are and plan your teamwork around these commitments for both in-person and virtual work," she states.

"A team functions better when everyone supports each other. As leaders, owning the moment—whether it means acknowledging good work, saying thank you, being flexible for others, working together around inconveniences, and covering for others when they need it—will go a long way in building trust in your team," Dhawan adds.

In addition, TD professionals can help extend leadership traits to people leaders, says Oakes. "Help them lead in a new work environment that often isn't bound by time or place of work and instead is focused on workforce effectiveness."

Oakes also notes that, rather than trying to retain their culture in times of change, organizations can renovate. "That's what's key: not focusing on how to 'retain' your culture no matter what, but—like renovating an old house—how to keep what's unique and \[what\] is hard to replace while at the same time improving and changing as the times change in order to increase value."

Finding Value in Service and Thought Leadership

The talent development profession is filled with individuals who want to make a difference. "The key for me was to choose organizations with which I could have long-term relationships," explains Hadiya Nuriddin, recipient of this year's Talent Development Outstanding Professional Award. The award recognizes individuals who demonstrate exceptional TD expertise, leadership, and service.

Nuriddin says that to cultivate relationships with organizations, "I had to be consistent in when and how I showed up. ... It takes some self-awareness and trial and error to figure out what works for you." She found that volunteering for events with start and end dates worked for her because she could choose to participate annually depending on her schedule.

In addition to being CEO and chief learning strategist at Duets Learning, Nuriddin is the author of StoryTraining: Selecting and Shaping Stories That Connect, two TD at Work guides, and many articles. She often marries her yen for giving back with professional and personal development, saying she learns a great deal through her writing and teaching.

"Many people are hesitant to write because they believe they need the expertise first so that the content will just flow out of their heads onto the paper, but that's not necessarily the case," Nuriddin shares. You need a level of understanding to ask the right questions, but you also learn during the process, she notes.

The award, introduced in 2022, also acknowledges leadership. You don't make yourself a leader, Nuriddin says. "People make you one by following you." You can then work to make your contribution more valuable. "Note that I didn't say by 'giving more'—I don't think it's about just giving people information. It's about releasing the type of content that encourages people to reflect on their own experiences and make sense of their own journey."

Leadership Isn't About a Title

Christian Furler O'Brien joined Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS), a global biopharmaceutical company, in 2020 as senior manager of US oncology training and talent development. His hire quickly proved beneficial for BMS; he led the sales training strategy for two key launches. Furler O'Brien, recipient of ATD's 2023 One to Watch Award, also leads recruitment efforts for the US oncology team and leads the company's LGBTQ+ Pride Month programming and celebrations.

"There are a few things that have helped me succeed in my career: taking initiative, empowering others, and leading with compassion," he says. "I love collaborating with others on new projects and sparking rich conversations to improve outcomes."

Furler O'Brien has since been promoted to associate director of training and talent development, leading a team of training managers responsible for developing and executing learning strategies.

Leading isn't anything new for Furler O'Brien, however. He's passionate about creating a culture of inclusion, which has led to him volunteering and advocating for nationwide LGBTQ+ organizations. "Additionally, a major source of strength for me has been owning my identity as an out and proud gay man and harnessing it to be a change agent in the workforce," he shares. "I have been involved in LGBTQ+ causes throughout my entire professional career."

Furler O'Brien says one of his proudest professional achievements is establishing an employee resource group for LGBTQ+ employees and their allies because it emphasizes what leadership is all about to him.

"I want people to understand that leadership does not happen because you have a title or specific role," Furler O'Brien explains. "We can all be leaders if we understand our purpose, recognize when more needs to be done, and work in earnest to improve the lives of everyone around us. Leadership skills are life skills; the ability to connect people within your care to a bigger purpose is powerful and inspires positive change."

Taking a Deep Dive Into Team Dynamics

Is it possible to have too many experts on a team? Sangok Yoo, assistant professor of management at Northwest Missouri State University, contends that expertise-domain diversity and expertise-level diversity are two often-overlooked areas that greatly contribute to a project team's success and satisfaction. Through his dissertation, "The Effects of Expertise Diversity and Task Interdependence on Project Team Effectiveness: The Moderating Role of Individual Autonomy"—which he wrote while completing his PhD at the University of Minnesota and which earned him ATD's Dissertation Award—Yoo adds new insight into effective team building and development.

What inspired your research?

Observing common problems with interprofessional communication among healthcare workers initially inspired me to explore team dynamics. For my dissertation, I wanted to deeply explore expertise diversity by considering both team members' disciplines (expertise-domain diversity) and their organizational positions (expertise-level diversity). I also wanted to investigate team members' perception of experienced growth as an important dimension of team effectiveness.

Based on your research, what role does hierarchy play in a project team's success?

Having hierarchy clarifies the processes and information flow in a project team, and it can shorten the decision-making process. In my research, expertise-level diversity is operationalized as the difference in organizational positions among team members, which reflects the hierarchy in each project team.

My findings imply that hierarchy especially increases efficiency in a project team. However, my findings also show that hierarchy does not bring about positive effects in terms of project creativity and growth.

What implications do your findings have for the training and talent development industry?

They provide insights on how individuals with different expertise can work together effectively in teams. Both different disciplines and organizational positions play important roles in determining how a team and an individual can benefit from a project. Also, the findings suggest that individual members learn from other members in performing tasks as a team.

Bob Pike

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

ATD's Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes an individual who has advanced knowledge and practice across the talent development field. The individual's thought leadership and contributions to the profession have had a sustained impact on individuals and organizations over many years. It's completely appropriate, then, to bestow the award on the individual who is known as "the trainer's trainer." That individual is Bob Pike, CPTD. He is the second CPLP (now CPTD) Fellow, chairman and founder of the Training and Performance Forum, past national director and treasurer of ATD (then the American Society for Training and Development), and past director of the National Speakers Association.

Pike notes that he became a full-time trainer in 1969, and for the next three years, he felt he was the only trainer out there. It wasn't until 1972, when he walked into ASTD's Rocky Mountain Chapter in Colorado, that Pike says he felt he was among his people where "everyone gets you."

"Bob has been known as a legend, titan, and the trainer's trainer. He is a leader of learning content and technique, a support to those new in the field, and an advocate for the profession," says Elaine Biech, recipient of ATD's 2020 Distinguished Contribution to Talent Development Award. "I look to him, knowing that he has his finger on the pulse of the profession and has the right answer, no matter what my question. He is truly an inspiration."

Ken Blanchard, co-founder and chief spiritual officer of the Ken Blanchard Companies, shares that Pike is one of the innovative thinkers in the field. "If anything needs to be changed, he's on top of it, trying to see if he can help change it."

Pike has spoken at every ATD International Conference & EXPO since 1977; this year will be his 44th time presenting. His sessions usually garner between 800 and 1,000 attendees. Pike often speaks about the need to have a business mindset and to consider the return on investment. Indeed, Biech explains, "I first heard the phrase ‘seat at the table' from Bob, who was an advocate for this role long before it became popular with the rest of us." Blanchard expresses similar sentiments: "Bob felt we should be part of the party rather than just visitors."

Pike has trained and consulted in at least 25 countries, but he opines that the US is still the hallmark of training assets and the leader in L&D. He has been working in Japan for 15 years and is co-authoring his sixth book designed solely for the Japanese market.

Thinking about the talent development industry's changes through the years, Pike states, "How adults learn really doesn't change that much, but the methods we use may change."

Joe Folkman

DISTINGUISHED CONTRIBUTION TO TALENT DEVELOPMENT AWARD

Joe Folkman, co-founder and president of Zenger Folkman, has been helping organizations develop leaders for more than 30 years. He believes that to grow extraordinary leaders, companies must not only have fertile soil; they must plant a seed and water that seed from time to time. For leaders, that means having a developmental action plan.

Never has the need for extraordinary leaders been greater than it is today as we recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, address racial inequality, and work to manage divisiveness. So, it is entirely fitting that Folkman is the recipient of this year's Distinguished Contribution to Talent Development Award, which recognizes an individual who has made an exceptional contribution to the talent development field that has had sustained impact.

Folkman, a respected psychometrician, helps organizations bridge the gap between leadership research and practical leadership development. Through his research, he discovered five qualities the best leaders have exhibited since the onset of the pandemic:

• Creating a balance where 60 percent of a leader's focus is on people and 40 percent is on results—a shift that is evident in the attention mental health is getting

• Collaborating, which is challenging when employees no longer are able to duck into a colleague's office to ask for IT help or check on the status of a project

• Using more pull than push—that is, demonstrating and eliciting inspiration and enthusiasm. It was all about sending the message of "things are tough, but we're going to make it."

• Transferring vision to the virtual workplace

• Moving quickly to innovate as many employees moved to remote work

Zenger Folkman clients have included Wells Fargo, General Mills, Gilead Sciences, and Yale University. The company's research has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Harvard Business Review, CBS News, and more. Folkman is author or co-author of more than a dozen books on leadership. He is also one of the founders of the leadership development firm Novations Group.

Along with exceptional leadership, we're in an age where resiliency and agility are critical. To that end, Folkman cites four necessary skills: the ability to learn and listen well, a willingness to embrace stretch assignments and to do difficult things, exhibiting optimism, and being honest with oneself. Organizations may have to change, however, to help their employees develop those and other skills because, as Folkman notes, too many companies expect learners to learn on their own time. And all too often, the results of 360-degree assessments are simply handed to the person being assessed.

Talent development is about investing. It's about having time to process feedback, practice interpersonal skills, and learn together. It means planting the seed in fertile soil and watering it.

Amy C. Edmondson

CHAMPION OF TALENT DEVELOPMENT AWARD

In her now seminal study, "Psychological Safety and Learning Behavior in Work Teams," which published in Administrative Science Quarterly in 1999, Amy C. Edmondson coined the term team psychological safety to describe "a team climate characterized by interpersonal trust and mutual respect in which people are comfortable being themselves."

At the time of her research, she never fathomed that more than 20 years later, her findings would be the foundation of so many other academic and organizational studies. "I never expected my work to be recognized by more than a few academics," she admits. But according to Google Scholar, her various studies have been cited nearly 55,000 times, making Edmonson among the top-cited researchers in the world. Notably, Project Aristotle, a Google study that sought to uncover what makes a perfect team, confirmed psychological safety as the preeminent factor in high-performing teams.

The indelible impact of Edmondson's research extends far beyond academic circles and into the L&D and organization development space. Her now viral TED Talk, "How to Turn a Group of Strangers Into a Team," has garnered more than 2.5 million views and counting. "I am truly gratified, and surprised, by how popular psychological safety has become, as well as by the renewed attention to the importance of teaming in today's organizations," she says.

As psychological safety became increasingly mainstream, it became important for Edmondson to mitigate mischaracterizations of the concept. That's part of the reason she penned her latest book, The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace, which she highlights as a valuable read for talent development professionals. In it, Edmondson clarifies what psychological safety is—and what it is not—and presents additional research from her and other scholars on the concept. In all, she has authored and co-authored seven books, with her latest, Right Kind of Wrong: The Science of Failing Well, scheduled for release next year.

In addition to being a scholar and author, Edmondson is the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at Harvard Business School—a chair established to support the study of human interactions that lead to the creation of successful enterprises that contribute to the betterment of society. For Edmondson, her focus has been and continues to be on doing and communicating research that makes a difference.

Of receiving ATD's Champion of Talent Development Award, Edmonson says she is grateful and overwhelmed by the honor it represents. "I have always been a champion of talent development," she explains. "I believe wholeheartedly that each of us can learn and grow, constantly becoming more self-aware, more other-oriented, and thereby more valuable to our organizations, our families, and our communities."