Hearst Magazines: Training Feedback

Improving technical training with valuable feedback

Hearst Magazines, a unit of Hearst

Corporation, is one of the world’s

largest publishers of monthly magazines

including Cosmopolitan, Harper’s

Bazaar, and The Oprah Magazine.

The internal technical training team at

Hearst Magazines provides training for

11,000 employees around the world

on proprietary and licensed software.

Every year, trainers hold up to 250 on-site

classes for up to 4,000 employees.

At a Glance

Situation

• Declining engagement rates andinformation retention

• Too much time and resourcesspent on follow-up

Survey Insights

• Course evaluation surveysevaluate all aspects of the course

• Immediate feedback lets theteam make quick improvementsand get fast results

Better Results

• Breaking up a long trainingsession into two shorter sessionsincreased engagement

• Relocating classes to an upperfloor increased participation

• Employee satisfaction with the training jumped to 90%

• Confidence in the trainer’sknowledge rose to 97%

Visit surveymonkey.com/enterprise today

Training Feedback Case Study

“With SurveyMonkey

we constantly

improve our internal

training program

by incorporating

feedback from our trainees. It saves

us time and money, and makes the

training the best it can be.”

– Debra Robinson, SVP/CTO,Hearst Magazines

What feedback did you learn about in your surveys?

Little things make a big difference

in the effectiveness of our training.

Locating classrooms on an upper

floor —versus the lower-level—is

important. And, if it’s a morning

class, there must be coffee! These

two seemingly small details

improve trainee engagement and

performance. Retention goes up

and support costs go down.

– Debra Robinson, SVP/CTO, Hearst Magazines

Consistently delivering high-quality,

effective training is key to success for the

technical training team. Robinson and her

team use surveys to evaluate all aspects

of the classes including course content,

format, location, and instructors. By

gathering feedback from trainees, the team

can increase engagement and create an

optimal learning environment.

The trainers rely on SurveyMonkey to make

gathering training feedback easy. After

each class, the team deploys a course

evaluation survey. The answers given offer

valuable ideas to improve training, which

ultimately extends the team’s impact.

For example, the team thought employees

wanted to minimize time away from their

desks, and as a result, offered an intensive

two-hour training on its proprietary

software system. A post-training survey

revealed that trainees actually prefer

to have the content divided into two

one-hour sessions to make the information

more digestible.

Seemingly minor aspects also had a

significant impact on training effectiveness.

In the survey, trainees expressed dislike

of the class location. Robinson’s team

decided to relocate classes to an

upper, executive floor. The new location

emphasized the importance of the

trainings and increased participation.

“People even dress a little bit nicer when

they know they are going up to a separate

floor,” she added.

Robinson and her team use SurveyMonkey

daily to ensure the success of their

training. And with a SurveyMonkey

Enterprise account, admins can view all

accounts on one screen, and centralized

billing makes it easy to deploy and

manage SurveyMonkey across multiple

teams. Teams across Hearst now have

access to the same powerful survey

platform to get the answers they need

to help them succeed.

Learn more about how SurveyMonkey

Enterprise can help your entire team make

smarter decisions.

Visit surveymonkey.com/enterprise today.

Visit surveymonkey.com/enterprise today

Training Feedback Case Study