AT&T: Not just talk

AT&T and its legacy companies have been leading the way in telecommunications for over a century – indeed, it would be no exaggeration to say that their innovations have dramatically changed the world. It all started with Alexander Graham Bell’s historic first phone call, and over the years included the first long-distance and transoceanic phone calls, terrestrial broadcast of video signals which led to TV transmissions, wireless transmission of voice which led to the mobile phone, and video transmission on wires which led to video conferencing.

With one new patent added daily, AT&T is clearly big on continual innovation. And it’s not just products and new technology that have benefited from this drive: one key area of focus is internal training and development.

The engine room behind the company’s training and development strategies is AT&T Learning, which was ranked as the ‘No.1 Learning Elite Organisation’ by Chief Learning Officer Magazine for delivering exceptional learning and development programs. AT&T Learning was also identified as the ‘Editor’s Choice in Business Performance Results’ by Chief Learning Officer Magazine for best aligning learning and development with business objectives.

And considering the logistics behind implementing strategies for such a large number of employees – AT&T has over a quarter of a million staff across the globe – receiving such accolades is no mean feat. “With a workforce of over 265,000 people spread across the world and working in a complex business, our efforts in this area have to be a truly collaborative effort on the part of HR and business leaders,” explains Syed Ali Abbas, Executive Director (HR) – Asia Pacific, AT&T.

Moulding leaders

Led by a core HR team of subject-matter experts and practitioners, the design of the learning and development strategy is carried out in consultation with the company’s top leadership. The training is then delivered through a combination of instructor-led sessions, live webcasts, conference calls, online portals and printed materials.

T University, AT&T’s award-winning corporate university, plays a key role in driving the business and supporting innovative technologies via training. The university runs the ongoing flagship leadership development programme, ‘Leading with Distinction’ (LwD). Now in its fourth step, the programme was launched in 2008 – at the peak of the worldwide economic recession – which clearly shows the company’s commitment to training and development of staff, even in troubled times.

The LwD programme is almost a mini-MBA programme, training current and future leaders of the company in areas as diverse as the AT&T leadership model, Financial Management, Employee Engagement, Customer Service, Innovation, Change Management, Building Employee Loyalty and Business Simulations.

“The programme even includes a ‘Corporate Athlete’ module which teaches leaders how to manage their demanding work commitments without harming their physical and mental health, and personal relationships,” says Abbas.

Once again, the numbers and the logistics involved are impressive: in 2011 so far, approximately 140 senior VPs, 650 VPs, 7,500 directors and associate directors and more than 107,000 managers and employees from across the company have attended LwD programmes.

In addition to the LwD programme, many diverse leadership resources are available to employees. For instance, the ’Virtual Management Summits‘ provide an opportunity for staff to attend live webcasts where AT&T’s top leaders share their experiences and strategies.

“We also have major initiatives running in related areas like mentoring. There are a significant number of self-paced leadership programs available and a broad selection of business books, including translated versions in major Asian languages,” says Abbas. “There is also access to the catalogue of leadership content from the Harvard Business School as well as free access to the Harvard Business Review.”

Up-skilling techies

Not every employee wants to be a leader, nor is every employee made of ‘the right stuff’ to be in a leadership position. Along with leadership training, AT&T also places much importance on general skills development for staff. More than 10,000 courses on business areas such as sales, customer service, engineering and telecom networks are available to employees. These programs are further supplemented by additional content from various internal centres of excellence – like the AT&T Labs R&D organisation – and from external vendors whose products and services the company uses to support their customers.

Monthly live webcasts from global experts are organised and are open for all employees to attend. Examples of speakers in the past year include Malcolm Gladwell on innovation, and Lynda Gratton.

AT&T also supports external training, certification and degrees for employees when appropriate, and employees are meant to track progress with their managers using an ‘Individual Development Plan’ which they must maintain for themselves.

Reaching out

Communication is is also a priority at AT&T, fitting for a company dealing primarily with telecommunication services. Naturally, a good flow of communication is expected within the organisation.

HR is closely aligned with the business – having close interaction with and support of business leaders across the board – allowing it to be seen by employees as a trusted source of informal information across functional and geographic boundaries.

“We serve as a sort of ’organisational glue’ in terms of helping employees understand the vision and direction and key priorities of the business,” says Abbas. “Hence, a lot of information on the business cascades through HR to keep employees updated.”

Apart from face-to-face conversations, the organisation boasts a wide range of infrastructure allowing staff to communicate remotely – conference calls, web-based meetings, webcasts, Telepresence, blogs, chat and even an internal social network called T-Space.

“These are all extremely important in helping people communicate and build relationships with each other across the company, regardless of location, job or level,” says Abbas. “However, the infrastructure to communicate is just an enabler. The real heart of communication within any company is an open culture and the commitment of top management to listen to feedback from their employees, something we have plenty of in AT&T.”

Effective communication is also enhanced by a relaxed and informal office atmosphere where employees can easily approach leaders – no matter how senior – if they want to talk or ask questions.

Always connected

This free and easy communication is also evident in day-to-day work at AT&T. The company places great emphasis on enabling employees to work remotely and flexibly.

The regional or global nature of the business, customers and services feed the need for employees to be able to work out-of-office. Also, AT&T is headquartered in the US and has significant teaming across all continents, so working across time-zones is a fact of life. “This means that most of our workforce cannot do their roles in traditional nine-to-five working hours, even though they may be working a normal number of hours per day,” says Abbas. “So they need to be able to access their office and tools ‘everywhere they live and work’, just as we promise our customers.”

Due to demands on employees’ time outside normal working hours, as a company, AT&T provides them with the tools and flexibility to manage their schedules so they can still maintain a good work-life balance.

Having a workforce that is enabled to work remotely also has a huge benefit during times of crisis. If there is a situation in a particular city or country where employees are at immediate risk, the company can quickly reach out to them to establish that they are safe and to get further instructions to them.

“If a crisis continues and employees could be exposed to any danger at home or by commuting to work, being able to connect remotely enables them to continue working while relocating to a safer place or avoiding any travel risk,” says Abbas.

Proof that AT&T’s flexible working options are a success came when an 8.9-magnitude quake hit Japan in March this year. The company moved a majority of its staff in affected offices to a remote working arrangement, using its virtual private network (VPN). Also, during the Thai political protests last year, all 24 staff at AT&T’s Bangkok offices worked remotely for a week with some working off-site for a longer period of time – testament to AT&T’s flexible and adaptable philosophy.