Encore's ongoing innovation in workforce development reduces turnover, boosts service scores and creates new ways to build team and client success.
SCHILLER PARK, Illinois — Encore requires all team members to complete five hours of compliance-based training annually. In 2023 and 2024, staff members seeking new skills for new roles blew past that minimum yearly requirement, logging 40 hours or above per US team member and nearly 30 hours per employee when averaged over the company’s 12,000 workers worldwide.
This best-in-class metric showcases the high-engagement appeal of the Encore ground-up talent development transformation. Adding a pillar to support President & CEO Ben Erwin’s vision of a “For All™” culture [implemented as part of a blueprint for the future of work initiative by Encore and 10 other Great Place To Work®-certified companies], Derek Blake, vice president global learning & development, and his 33-member team, shaped a flexible, customizable, data-driven training platform to enhance the core functionality of Encore University.
This adaptable program structure ensured that workforce development could evolve to meet the changing needs and goals of team members and clients alike. It gave Encore staff members a menu of resources to reach personal and professional aims. But, in keeping with the intent of the “for all” culture, Blake made participation a personal choice. “Training police have no role in a ‘for all’ environment,” he said.
He and his team did not have to wait long for validation of their pioneering ideas. Within 30 months of the debut of this new-model development framework, staff turnover was down from a Covid-era high of 33% to less than 15% in 2024, service scores rose 7% (700 basis points) and 80% of staff successfully acquired additional skill sets and moved up into new jobs.
In this exclusive interview, Blake breaks down the strategies that pull through the upside of this cutting-edge program to its team members, global events customers and venue partners.
Fast-track learning to earning
One of the first priorities was to make the rewards of additional training immediate.
“We understand it can be challenging for team members to wait until their annual review to see the benefits of upskilling,” he said. “There’s no reason they should have to.”
Encore’s team members automatically get promoted and receive the new title and the financial benefits that come with that as soon as they successfully complete their training and fulfill the required hours of work experience.
“There’s no waiting for a manager’s signoff or for the next accounting cycle,” said Blake. “Our team members see an immediate payback for their training commitment. That not only drives staff satisfaction, it increases retention. Encore team members decide how and how fast they move up in the organization.”
With “more skin in the game,” team members become more engaged in applying their newly improved skill set to client-facing collaboration, in Blake’s view “They see that achieving their personal and professional aims plays a positive role in creating future opportunities for themselves,” said Blake. “But they also begin to understand that as their skill set expands, they can identify opportunities to help clients perform better — which increases our customers’ and venue partners’ ROI, as well as building satisfaction with and loyalty to our teams and our company.”
Make AI a team player
“I like AI,” said Blake. “It’s not going to replace our team members. It enables them to do more sophisticated work and do it better.” AI has already opened up options for simulation learning, making it a good fit for the Encore self-directed development tracks.
“These simulations make learning fun. They allow team members to customize their experience,” said Blake. “Maybe the team member is in sales and wants to practice a pitch. They can create their own avatar — or not. They can type their comments or use their voice. Most importantly, they can keep the conversation going until they find the right premise to meet the customer’s needs.”
The speed, translation capabilities and cost-effectiveness of AI-driven technology give Blake and his team easy-to-implement options to add modules that address real-time challenges from power outages to last-minute event planners’ special requests.
“It used to take us 100 hours of work to create one hour of training content,” said Blake. “With the speed of AI, we can stay ahead of the learning curve.”
Upskill specialists to deliver a bespoke client experience
Technology is also taking on a new importance in optimizing service delivery to clients. Encore leverages their first-party data through their quarterly survey process to match venue partners with Encore team members who have the strongest skill sets to support that client in reaching their event performance and fiscal goals.
Encore has created collaborative relationships with many of the world’s major hotel brands. Blake identifies experienced staff members who can take a consultative role with these worldwide chains. Hotel companies train Encore’s team in their brand standards and customer expectations. Working within those parameters, Encore team members familiarize the hotels’ technical teams with the latest event service innovations and technology without sacrificing brand identity.
“This opens up a new kind of opportunity for client service,” said Blake. “Hotel brands have their standards, and we have ours. But, for the guest, we have to make sure we look and work as much like the hotel client as possible. Event planners expect a seamless experience across each hotel brand around the world. It’s been an interesting journey to develop a white-glove service approach that can make that happen.”
.png?tr=w-780%2Cfo-auto "Self-directed learning programs deliver robust, continuous upskilling across departments and titles.")
Self-directed learning programs deliver robust, continuous upskilling across departments and titles.
Tap into the value-add of coaching
A new one-on-one coaching program gives team members a higher touch way to advance their skills and direct their career path. Not to be confused with mentoring, this resource is designed to polish a particular skill.
Blake drew on his own experience to explain what team members can expect. “I wanted to improve my golf game. My dad is an excellent golfer so I asked him for help to figure out why I couldn’t reach the green 200 yards away with my 3-wood,” said Blake. “He just laughed and said, ‘Just take this club, hit it down the middle and you’ll be in better shape.’ He gave me mentoring. What I needed was a swing coach.”
The Encore coaching program dives into specific skill development across all seven academies in the university: Operations, technology, leadership, professional skills, sales, service, and production.
Team members start the process by discussing their aims with their manager and ensuring they’re aligned. Encore then matches the team member to the right coach. The program is operated through Encore University, which means Encore pays for the labor.
“If somebody wants to learn a very specific skill, they can get with the coach and spend time together achieving that,” said Blake. “That’s really, really exciting.”
Leverage team member expertise as a competitive edge
Blake acknowledged that Encore “invests a lot of money” in talent development to drive success across all stakeholders in the events industry.
“The goal for us is to be the best at what we do,” said Blake. “Our commitment to being a premier service provider protects our clients’ investment. We can help them find cost effective solutions to open incremental revenue streams like digital branding. We focus on building our in-house team rather than relying on outside contractors whose pricing swings can erode clients’ P&Ls. The more we upskill our team, the more we can drive down labor costs. We pass millions of dollars in savings along to our customers.”
In his view, that’s what gives Encore its competitive advantage for the long-term.
“At the end of the day, we just want happy, skilled team members that enjoy their job and come here every day for a purpose. Our mission and our values set people up to service the customer well,” said Blake.
He added, “If we're taking care of our team members and our engagement scores are up for how they feel about training and development in their future, the team members will take that perspective to our customers. As our president & CEO says, ‘That’s how tomorrow’s successful companies will compete.’”
Mary Scoviak is custom and design content director for Hotel Investment Today by Northstar.
The views and opinions expressed in this content do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Hotel Investment Today by Northstar or Northstar Travel Group and its affiliated companies.