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If the idea of a "University" within your workplace seems farfetched, you're not alone. Some folks at Amper, Politziner & Mattia were a bit skeptical when the idea of creating Amper University was first presented.  Is it a gimmick or differentiator?  Two years into the program, the answer has become clear: for the current and future employees, and for our current and future clients, Amper's commitment to the training and education of its staff has put us at the head of the class.

In this article, I outline the steps we took to build Amper U and the lessons we've learned in the process. Depending on the size and culture of your business, your process may differ. However, I hope that our experience over the past 2 ½ years should provide some guidelines for you.

Amper U was established in September of 2005 with the philosophy that this virtual organization would support learning and development for all levels and functions within the firm and that it would be a key strategic initiative that would reap benefits in our culture as well as in the marketplace.  At first this meant:

• Hiring a learning and development professional to lead and manage it.
• Buying new systems to support it.
• Including curriculum offerings that would support not only our accountants but also our administrative professionals and our specialty practices.
• Providing leadership support for employees to attend the classes and prepare them to teach.

The formation and implementation of an in-house University can be divided into three general phases, as I have described below:

Phase I – Building the Foundation

The first phase of creating an in-house University is making sure you have a strong foundation. The building block of the foundation is the curriculum. For this, you'll want input from your senior level professionals who have influence and experience in their respective functions. At Amper, I recruited one "Dean" from each specialty area (accounting, tax, audit, litigation support, and so forth). They are close to the work and the people so they are able to identify the key development and technical needs.  This group meets quarterly to develop and review the curriculum and is the advisory board to the Director on the overall satisfaction with Amper U. 

Phase II – Communication

The second phase was communicating the curriculum and making it as easy as possible for our employees to have access to learning.  Though most of the learning was in classroom format, e-learning options were added, as well as coaching.  Our firm uses a system called REQwired (designed for professional services firms), which facilitates individuals going on-line to register for classes and tracks the number of continuing education credits they have for the year.  In addition to the curriculum being listed in REQwired, we also publish a "Course Catalogue" which is reminiscent of college catalogs where you can browse through to see what is being offered, who's teaching, etc.  This proved to be not only a great way to draw attention to Amper U for our current employees, but also it has proved helpful in recruiting new employees and clients.  In a recent sale to a large international business, one of the differentiators for them in selecting Amper was Amper U and our demonstrated commitment to developing our people.  How about that ROI!

Phase III – Continuous Improvement

We're in the third phase now at Amper and are looking at ways of enhancing the curriculum with additional coursework and new instructors and how we can further enhance the instructional skills of our own people.  We currently have a leadership development process and will be bolstering this into a program that would include coursework on skills such as negotiation, delegation, project management, critical thinking and mentoring as well as 360-degree feedback surveys and the option of one-on-one coaching to address areas for development and to leverage the strengths that have been identified. 

Creating a successful "University" is something that takes commitment from senior leadership in the form of people, time and money for many years.  You need to have strategic vision on how this "cost" can eventually turn into profit for individuals as well as the organization.  At Amper we see that the cost is paying off and are excited about the future in front of us.

Case Study:

Coaching  - A Development and Retention Tool

When we were creating Amper U, we wanted it to encompass all the different ways that adults learn and grow.  Coaching has proven to be a valuable development tool that we offer on a case-by-case basis here at Amper.  At Amper we have a coach who is an employee of the firm and we also utilize external coaches.  We have found no significant difference in outcomes of the coaching between internal and external – though we have seen the more senior professionals feel more comfortable with the internal coach.  We utilize coaching for successful employees who have the potential to be even more successful and may for various reasons feel "stuck" or the need to accelerate their growth. The Amper folks who have experienced the one-on-one coaching all report that they got tremendous value from the coaching and that it not only supported them in their career objectives but in the "lives" outside of work as well.  Leveraging off the success of coaching at Amper, we will take coaching to the next level and teach our management group how to lead by coaching/mentoring. 

Kristen M. Ward is Director of Professional Development & Coaching at Amper, Politziner & Mattia, LLP. You may reach her at 732.287.1000.