Case Study:

Supporting AT&Ts Strategy for a Digital Future AT&Ts strategy is to drive the company toward a new digital future (from cables to the cloud, to paraphrase a top manager). But what do you do with the employees hired years ago to do very different jobs? AT&T embarked on a massive retraining program, called Workforce 2020. It had three main pillars: Skill needs identification, training and development, and evaluation. First, AT&Ts managers identified the skills its employees would need for its new digital future, along with the current skills gaps, and what it called future role profiles. These individual profiles itemized the skills the company and therefore each of its employees would need. Second, AT&T helped employees identify and obtain the required training and development. For example, it created an online employee career platform. This contains tools such as for assessing ones aptitudes against the jobs AT&T would need. It also contains online courses, ultra-short nanodegree training programs (on coding, for instance), and access to special online graduate and undergraduate degree programs. Third, AT&T evaluates the effectiveness of its Workforce 2020 program in terms of activity, hydraulics, business outcomes, and sentiment. Activity means measuring things such as skills gaps. Hydraulics means people moving into new roles throughout AT&T. Business outcomes means tangible organizational improvements, for instance in efficiency. And sentiment refers to measuring attitudes such as employees inclination to recommend AT&T as a place to work. AT&Ts Workforce 2020 program enabled its current employees to develop the skills AT&Ts digital convergence strategy required. Over 140,000 employees were recently pursuing the learning they need to fill AT&Ts new jobs and roles.

b)Suggest and discuss two techniques AT&T can use to evaluate employees performance after the implementation of the new system. (6marks)