Profile International Car Rental (ICR) operates in 27 countries with 27,000 employees. The US division has 13,000 employees and operates in most major cities in the United States. The auto rental business is very competitive and several major firms have been forced into bankruptcy in the last few years. The industry is very price sensitive and customer service is critical. Operating costs must be managed carefully to remain profitable. Senior executives are exploring a variety of ways to improve ICR and they perceive that developing leadership competencies for first level managers would be an excellent way to achieve profitable growth and efficiency. The Need A recent needs assessment for all functional areas conducted by the learning and development staff determined that several leadership competencies were needed for first level managers. The needs included typical competencies such as problem solving, counseling, motivation, communication, goal setting, and feedback. In addition to developing these competencies, the L&D staff attempted to link the competencies to job performance needs and business needs. However, the senior management team did not want the L&D staff to visit all locations to discuss business needs and job performance issues. The senior executives were convinced that leadership skills were needed and that these skills would drive a variety of business measures when applied in the work units. The L&D team was challenged to identify the measures influenced by this particular program. Additionally, top executives were interested in knowing the impact and maybe even ROI for a group of USA participants in this program. This challenge created a dilemma. The L&D staff members realized that for a positive ROI study to be generated, the program should be linked to the business needs. However, in reality they did not have the time, resources, or the encouragement to conduct a more comprehensive analysis linking the need for the leadership development to business needs. The team was faced with the challenge of connecting this program to business impact. They thought that perhaps the participants themselves could help with this task. Attempting to address the needs, the L&D staff developed a new program, the Leadership Challenge, designed for team leaders, supervisors, and managers who are responsible for those who actually do the work (i.e., the first level of management). Program participants may be located in rental offices, service centers, call centers, regional offices, and headquarters. Most functional areas are represented such as operations, customer service, service and support, sales, administration, finance and accounting, and IT. Essentially, this is a cross-functional program for this important job in the organization. The Leadership Challenge involves four days of off-the-job learning with input from the immediate manager who serves as a coach for some of the learning processes. Before attending the program, participants must on-line prework instrument and read a short book. Because few senior executives at ICR have challenged the L&D staff to show the business impact of this program, two groups were evaluated with 36 participants (i.e., 18 in one group and 18 in the other). Business Alignment In an attempt to link the program to business needs and job performance needs, prior to attending the program, each manager was asked to identify at least two business measures in the work unit that represent an opportunity for improvement. The measure should come from operating reports, cost statements, or scorecards. The selected measures had to meet an additional two-part test.

1. Each measure had to be under the control of the team when improvements were to be considered, and

2. Each measure had to have the potential to be influenced by team members with the manager using the competencies in the program. A description of the program was provided in advance including a list of objectives and skill sets. While there was some concern about the thoroughness of the needs assessment, it appeared appropriate for the situation. The initial needs assessment on competencies uncovered a variety of deficiencies across all the functional units and provided the information necessary for job descriptions, assignments, and key responsibility areas. Although very basic, the additional steps taken to connect the program to business impact were appropriate for a business needs analysis and a job performance needs analysis. Identifying two measures needing improvement is a simple business needs analysis for the work unit. Restricting the selected measures to only those that can be influenced by the team with the leader using the skills from the program essentially defines a job performance need.