Starwood Hotels & Resorts Rolls Out a Global LMS

The international hotel & leisure giant talks about replacing its “tremendously unsuccessful” on-premise LMS, including its thorough software vendor search and internal change management process

Having a comfortable bed in a hotel room may seem like a no-brainer idea, but when Westin Hotels and Resorts introduced its signature Heavenly Bed in 1999, it was a game changer for the hotel industry.  It is this type of marketing-leading innovation on which Westin’s parent company, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, prides itself. 
 

One of the world’s largest hotel and leisure companies, Starwood owns, manages and franchises more than 1,000 hotel properties around the world under nine unique brands, including: W, Westin, Le Meridien, Sheraton St. Regis, Four Points, The Luxury Collection, aloft and element.  At the core of Starwood’s success is its commitment to creating a company that is a great place to work and provides wonderful guest experiences. 

So how does a large global company not only ensure consistency in the guest experience, but also in the employee experience, for 155,000 employees across nine brands, six divisions and six business categories?  Starwood’s Talent Management team found its answer in Cornerstone OnDemand’s learning management system (LMS).  Starwood’s Talent Management team discussed the rollout of its global LMS at our Convergence 2009 conference, sharing background into their vendor selection process, development of internal business processes in conjunction with the LMS rollout, and key lessons learned along the way. 

Choosing the Right Vendor

Before choosing Cornerstone’s Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)-based solution, Starwood was using a known behind-the-firewall LMS that the team describes as “buggy” and “tremendously unsuccessful,” and that also required a lot of overhead to keep running.  Another issue?  Starwood’s IT department had chosen the solution, not the Talent Management team.

The decision to switch to a new LMS kicked off a two-year process that began in 2006.  There were three categories of challenges that Starwood’s team would need to address with a new system.  Software functionality and support were key.  But the team also saw the switch as an opportunity to update related Starwood business processes the team felt were inadequate.  They wanted the right vendor partner to help them to establish processes and configure the LMS software accordingly.

Based on these challenges, Starwood’s team developed these vendor selection criteria:

• Vendor Fundamentals, including cost, delivery model and product road map

• User Experience, including user interface, functionality, reporting and proof of concept (POC) participant feedback

• Vendor Competency, including partnership, integration, conversion and support

After an extensive search, which included dozens of use cases, Starwood found its right vendor partner in Cornerstone OnDemand.  Starwood had never used a SaaS solution internally, but the flexibility and scalability of an on-demand solution appealed to the team.  They saw Cornerstone’s SaaS delivery as a faster and more efficient way to deploy, manage and maintain a global LMS without the need for upgrades, maintenance or IT resources. 

According to Allison Barber, Vice President of Talent Management for Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, “As an international organization, employee learning initiatives are essential to helping Starwood maintain consistency in service and guest experience at all of our properties.  By using Cornerstone, we are able be more strategic in configuring our learning management system to support our overall business goals and create efficiencies within the organization.  The blend of different course styles, as well as the on-demand access, also allows us to target learners more specifically versus taking a one-size-fits-all approach.”

Beyond proof of concept, Starwood felt the relationship with Cornerstone was a true partnership.  For example, when Starwood discussed their internal needs and processes with their previous on-premise software vendor, the team often got the response of, “This is not how our system works.”  With Cornerstone, the team appreciated getting a more productive response of, “Why would you want to do it that way?”  Cornerstone’s effort to better understand what Starwood was trying to achieve helped to foster a more open and honest dialogue between the two teams.

Why Change Management is Critical

Before the LMS could go live, Starwood needed to update and build new business processes.  And having the right change management process in place was critical to the success of the process development and LMS implementation.  Without full support of key stakeholders within the company such as the four global divisions (EMEA, APAC, North America and South America), IT, HRIS, and content owners and instructors, no one would use the new system.

Working closely with Cornerstone, Starwood’s Talent Management team created a four-tiered project organization structure consisting of four levels:

• An Executive Sponsor, in order to ensure C-level support

• A Steering Committee to oversee the implementation process

• Project Leaders, including members of both the Cornerstone and Starwood Talent Management teams

• Sub-teams of contributors for the LMS implementation and new process roll-out

Steering Committee participants included representatives from the company’s global divisions, such as HR leads, operations leads, training leads, functional leads and finance leads.  With an emphasis on open and consistent communication, the Steering Committee evaluated Starwood’s current businesses processes and determined whether they needed to be updated in order to take advantage of Cornerstone’s LMS functionality.  Participants were encouraged to keep an open mind regarding multiple, viable alternatives for all of the processes being determined.  In instances where requirements from different business areas created conflicting priorities or processes, the team worked to reconcile them by keeping in mind the best interests of Starwood as a whole. 

As Project Leaders, the Starwood Talent Management team collaborated with Cornerstone to manage project milestones and issues, share status updates with the Steering Committee and stakeholders, and provide input and recommendations to assist in key decision making.  Working directly with both the Steering Committee and the Sub-teams gave Starwood Talent Management a more holistic perspective on the priorities and points of all of the groups involved.  This centralized approach also helped to keep participants active in the process and build trust among the groups.  And the involvement of the Sub-teams allowed them to learn the Cornerstone LMS application firsthand and become subject matter experts before training even started.

Key Learnings

So what were Starwood’s key learnings throughout the entire process of revamping its internal LMS process and technology solution?

• Watch the releases.  Keep an open line of communication with your software vendor to find out which functionality is coming up that might help to improve existing processes or support new ones.

• Make an “Implementation to Production” support transition plan.  Having a specific plan in place helped to keep everyone on track, plan ahead for necessary resources and manage expectations.

• The Sub-team work was worth it.  It helped to ensure a smoother, more comprehensive rollout of the new LMS.

• There is no such thing as over-communicating with Stakeholders.  It will help you if they question project team decisions.

Charles Coy is the Product Marketing Director for Cornerstone OnDemand