Case Study: Career Development Program

CMR Institute has supported a successful career development program for the client for over 6 years. The challenge for 2020 was to update the structure, content, measurements, and support tools. The client continued to have a need for a structured and robust, yet flexible, career path program. They wanted to develop top talent in the sales field, retain that top talent, and provide continuous growth and career advancement for sales representatives.

For 2020, we updated the entire program with their training, sales, and HR departments. We developed a sequential yet flexible curriculum that correlated to the 3 levels identified by the client. Level 1 was created to be the foundational piece of the program and designed to be completed in cohorts over the course of one year.

We then structured the more advanced levels 2 and 3 with small chunks of grouped eLearning called microcredentials. The overall program was designed to include certificates to award milestones and motivate participants throughout the program. The program was also designed to coordinate with the client’s internal criteria to provide in-position career advancement.

• Level 1:
  • Collaborated with training, sales, and HR to identify foundational content the client expected participants to master at the beginning of the program.
  • Created a year-long curriculum calendar that included monthly tasks including self-driven eLearning, application exercises, and participation on a cohort call to reinforce concepts and development.
  • Provided participants with a detailed workbook to track notes from the online modules as well as pull through and application questions.
  • Facilitation guides were also created for the cohort leaders to reinforce skills and help lead productive discussions each month.

  Level 2 & 3:

  • Topic-based microcredentials were created on a variety of topics and grouped into Level 2, intermediate content, or Level 3, advanced content.
  • Participants could work with their manager to select the right microcredentials based on identified competency gaps or professional interests.

• Of participants enrolled in Level 1, 100% have participated and completed the monthly tasks assigned.
• Based on the quality of the content as well as the efficient program design of Level 1, the client has designed additional programs with the same structure for different roles in their organization (i.e. field trainers and district managers).
• Working with the client to measure direct ROI based on sales rankings and retention rates.

Level 1:

• The Drug Development Process
• Elements of Good Communication
• Developing a Business Plan

Level 2:

• Business Acumen Microcredential
• Formulary Basics Microcredential

Level 3:

• Market Access Microcredential
• Leadership Skills Microcredential

• The previous program structure provided these results and in 2021 we will repeat and improve the study to capture additional data:
  • 20% increase in average sales ranking.
  • 10% reduction in turnover.
• 2018/2019 participant studies:
  • 90% report that our resources helped them establish credible relationships with customer.
  • 86% reported that our resources helped them change their customer’s decisions.