Congratulations to Western & Southern Life, One of Training Magazine’s Top 125

In my last post, I mentioned that two of the client companies that Barnes & Conti is proud to serve—Cisco and Western & Southern Life—were listed on this past year’s top 125. We wanted to give Western & Southern Life some well-deserved space to brag about their achievement:

“This recognition is another affirmation of the value we place on preparing our sales force to deliver outstanding service to our customers,” explained Bryan C. Dunn, president of Western & Southern Life’s Agency Group. “The combination of Western & Southern Financial Group’s world-class financial strength and our quality field training helped us achieve a 31 percent increase in the number of life policies sold in 2009 as compared to 2008.”

For the award, training departments are judged on the following:

• Training tied to business objectives
• Employee turnover and retention;
• Leadership development;
• Evaluation procedures;
• Training budget as percentage of payroll; and

Here’s what Western & Southern Life says about their training program:

Western & Southern Life’s field training and development program is responsible for the professional development of the company’s 2,220-member field sales force across the United States. New Agent Introduction (NAI) is one of the features from the company’s program that contributed to the top 125 ranking. This multi-faceted training program is based on adult learning principles and includes:

• Online modules with do-it-yourself activities;
• Instructor-led workshops featuring managers serving as coaches for sales representatives; and
• Call sessions at the Cincinnati home office’s Client Relationship Center with their coaches.

Again our congratulations to Western & Southern Life. And for any other companies reading this blog, we’d love to help you with your training & development program, too!