When Advantage Sales and Marketing LLC (ASM), a consumer goods marketing and sales company, implemented a social learning platform, it shifted its whole approach to learning and measured outcomes.

Rather than attempt to launch social learning for the entire enterprise, which includes roughly 20,000 employees, ASM launched a narrowly focused pilot project within its business development team and carefully aligned it with the organization’s learning and talent management needs.

The company wanted to add a social learning component to its pre-existing Accelerated Career Excellence in Sales (ACES) program. The ACES program selects qualified individuals with little or no sales experience and places them in a five-month accelerated learning program to become business development managers. Participants come together for an initial two-day classroom session and then return to their home markets. They spend the next five months working in the field with designated mentors and completing e-learning modules.

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Here’s an excerpt from the post:

“One company that’s taking this slow build approach with enterprise social networking is Advantage Sales & Marketing (ASM), a premier sales and marketing agency based in Irvine, Calif.  ASM’s Talent Development team has been piloting our social networking platform, Cornerstone Connect, to foster informal learning as part of its new ACES (Accelerated Career Excellence in Sales) sales and leadership development program.

ASM uses Cornerstone’s comprehensive software suite — including platforms for learning management, employee performance management, succession planning and compensation — to develop and manage its 20,000 employees.  The Talent Development team decided to pilot Connect for the ACES program when they realized that limitations with SharePoint wouldn’t allow them to be as strategic in fostering informal learning.”

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