Cigna learning officer: Companies should align training with strategy

By Linda Myers

Anyone who has called his or her health insurer to ask about a medical claim knows the frustrations of dealing with poorly trained staff. But how can a company, any company, ensure that all its staff will be responsive?

Align your training with company strategy, so that "the right person within your organization gets the right education at the right time, in a way that's helpful to the community," said Bill Wiggenhorn.

Bill Wiggenhorn, who expanded Motorola University, gives ILR graduate students an overview on training and development Jan. 27 in Ives Hall. Linda Myers/Cornell News Service

One of the most respected professionals in the field of human resources training and development, Wiggenhorn was a guest speaker in a graduate course on that subject at the School of Industrial and Labor Relations Jan. 27 in 215 Ives Hall. Wiggenhorn is actively involved in the ILR School's Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies (CAHRS).

"He has helped to revolutionize the field of training and development," said Assistant Professor Bradford Bell, who invited Wiggenhorn to give his HR students an overview of the field as well as what's involved in aligning training with business strategy.

Currently Wiggenhorn is chief learning officer for Cigna Corp., one of the largest providers of health, life, accident and disability insurance coverage in the world. But he is most well known in HR circles for his work as chief learning officer at Motorola, where he greatly expanded internationally the company's training arm, Motorola University. He also was CLO at Xerox and most recently was executive vice president of human resources at Providian Financial Services.

Cigna has a large presence in Asia and reimburses claims for treatment with doctors who practice traditional Asian medicine as well as the Western variety, he told the class. Teaching call center staff, many with limited education, how to communicate clearly and effectively with such a wide range of clients and services is essential to the company; but how is it done?

An important approach is to put training materials "in the language of the receiver rather than the sender" and make them engaging enough to keep the learner interested, Wiggenhorn said. The company's policy requires that at least 12 percent of each employee's time is devoted to training and that no employee is assigned a task unless he or she is first trained for it.

Stressing that training is more a cost than an investment from a company's perspective, he spoke of the trend in HR toward more self-managed training and education programs accessed via the Internet. He predicted there would be more communities of learners working together online, which, when done right, "is almost as good as being there." And he talked about the long-term aim of providing a range of training opportunities and access to education that would allow people to stay employable until they reach the age of 87.

Many of the MILR students will be facing a tough job market when they graduate in May, but Wiggenhorn told them not to be disheartened, saying, "We've been through this down cycle before." He suggested that they expand their job search to include fiscally sound nonprofits and consortiums as well as for-profit companies and advised that nonpaying internships can sometimes develop into paying jobs. "Once people know you understand their business, it's a lot harder to let you go."

"I was interested in his view of how learning relates to business strategy and the other way around," said Jakub Sovina, a master's degree student from the Czech Republic.

And Bell said: "He brought up a lot of issues I can expand on later in the course, such as how to utilize e-learning effectively and making sure employees use their training right away. If they don't use it, they'll lose it."