Employees of Schwab Institutional support a network of 5,000 independent advisors who have over 1.4 million client accounts with assets of $406 billion (USD). This represents approximately 33% of Schwab's total client assets and one of the fastest growing segments in the financial services industry.
As the Senior Training Specialist for the Schwab Institutional Training Solutions group, Brian Oderkirk is responsible for the development, deployment and delivery of web-based training to support the 1200 employees of Schwab Institutional. As part of his mandate, he delivers e-learning courses to the Service and Operational Support representatives, as well as Sales and Marketing staff.
Given both the size of their client’s asset base, and the growth potential of this industry segment, ensuring effective training across the organisation is critical for their continued success.
In late 2004 Oderkirk and his team discovered Mohive . After a lengthy review process, Mohive was selected and has since become a key element in Schwab Institutional’s e-learning infrastructure.
“I think that Mohive eLPS is extremely robust. It enables effective and efficient reviewing for my business partners, facilitates simple reuse of all parts of a course, and easily integrates custom flash animations,” said Oderkirk. “We have created approximately 20-25 courses, which cover procedural, regulatory, and technical training.”
Time is Money
Mohive’s workflow approach means that the e-learning team at Schwab Institutional can collaboratively plan, author, review, and publish e-learning courses over the Internet. They are able to work with Subject Matter Experts to create and review a variety of courses that educate Service and Operational Support representatives, helping to ensure that they can provide top-level support to their network of investment advisors.
“2-3 people on my team will author a course with Mohive eLPS, however, between 150-300 users will typically take a given course,” explained Oderkirk.
Compliance is King
Regulatory compliance is a critical issue for companies like Schwab Institutional. There are numerous laws and rules associated with the training of employees and the advice and services they can provide. Mohive’s streamlined review and approval support ensures that compliance teams can efficiently review and request changes to e-learning courses. Only once a course is approved can it be published.
“We use the reviewing functionality to allow multiple subject matter experts and editors to review courses simultaneously and have all the comments in one location. It is really an effective system.”
Brian Oderkirk is the Senior Training Specialist for the Schwab Institutional Training Solutions Group, which provides training to 1200 employees.
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