Since its inception in 1935, Columbus, Ohio based Ohio Public Employees Retirement System has dedicated itself to the practice of providing superior retirement benefits for Ohio’s state employees. OPERS offers retirement, disability, and survivor benefit programs for public employees throughout Ohio, serving over 709,000 members and providing over 151,000 retirees and surviving beneficiaries with monthly benefits. OPERS currently has over 650 employees, working alongside 3,700 employers, managing an asset base of $77 billion.

Challenge
Before partnering with Business Training Library, OPERS lacked a personalized training program, hiring local trainers to conduct programs both at the OPERS headquarters and offsite. The latter program caused management to be offsite for long periods of time, and was far too rigid for OPERS’ needs. David J. Tyhosky, Manager of OPERS Recruiting and Organizational Development Department, began to look for a more efficient training option, and “felt the 24/7 option Business Training Library offered gave everyone more flexibility.”

Implementation
According to Tyhosky, Business Training Library’s “flexibility, program quality, and cost effectiveness” seemed like a perfect fit for OPERS’ needs, and the program was implemented in 10 divisions across the organization, making it accessible to 100 management personnel within OPERS. Tyhosky appreciated Business Training Library’s wide variety of courses, commenting, “over a thousand business skills courses were a perfect fit to our needs.” Each quarter, OPERS’ management staff takes a mandatory class together and utilizes blending learning so that a facilitator can assist the employees in determining how to implement new concepts within the organization. In addition, department managers have the option of assigning courses targeted toward the personal development plans of individual employees. OPERS combines Business Training Library’s offerings with several additional programs (Service Essentials, Managerial Assessment of Proficiency, 360 Feedback, DiSC profile) and an onsite Professional Development Officer for an expansive management training curriculum. OPERS has also been utilizing Business Training Library’s lunch ‘n learn technique; offering an onsite foodservice which provides continental breakfast and lunch for employees. In doing this, OPERS can train in-house during mealtime, maximizing the time of all OPERS employees.

Future Plans
In late 2007, OPERS will implement a new performance process for their organization. A new management competency will be added so management can be rated on professional development.

Something else new was the recent exercise with management asking them to list what they thought their employees loved or hated about working for OPERS. The 3 consecutive month exercise, start with documenting what everyone listed, then management was broke into groups to discuss their surprises and were there any themes to the responses. The last session of the 3 was devoted to breaking out into levels of management. Each group was as come up with 3 things they could do in their sphere of influence that would be Simple, Involved and Noticeable (SIN). The groups then met independently to decide a strategy that then reported at the monthly management meeting their commitment. At the end of the year, Tyhosky and his fellow management officials will present to the organization where initiatives progressed, succeeded, and/or failed. Employing Business Training Library’s Learning Management System’s competency module, OPERS created an assessment to determine where departmental and individual skill gaps exist, and to establish curriculums to address these areas going forward.

Conclusion
OPERS attributes its newfound training flexibility, program quality, and cost-effectiveness to its partnership with Business Training Library. Their management team now has the option of providing training onsite and during lunch, with 24/7 access to the large selection of courses available through Business Training Library’s e-learning solution. In addition, managers have an arena in which to voice their comments, ideas, questions, and concerns. OPERS can implement these principles into their day-to-day work, tracking the progress and development of each employee.