Sublime Media - Case studies - T-Mobile compliance training
Lights, camera, compliance
Tuning in to T-Mobile’s transformative compliance training
Best Advance in Compliance Training
T-Mobile New Employee Onboarding and Integrity 365
Originally streamed as an ATD webcast in September, 2020.
Pilot season
Shining the spotlight on corporate policy
When Joe Pulichino became their Sr. Manager for Professional Standards Training in 2018, T-Mobile had the same issues most companies have with their programs—out-of-date training and a mix of off-the-shelf and in-house solutions that didn’t represent their “Do It the Right Way, Always” culture.
Low completion and satisfaction scores showed T-Mobile’s Code of Business Conduct just wasn’t meeting employees where they were.
Joe shares, “Ethical dilemmas and decisions, the situations at the heart of what we’re training for, do not take place in a vacuum, but rather in the highly nuanced reality of the everyday workplace.” Joe used this fresh insight about his learners to shape a new direction for the program. With Sublime’s support, Joe created Integrity 365, a TV show-like approach to Code of Business Conduct training with real T-Mobile employees as actors facing true-to-life problems, interactive scenarios that learners help navigate, and high-end motion graphics wrapping up key points.
The vision
T-Mobile’s Code of Business Conduct is top of mind, meets regulation requirements, and allows employees to be responsive to changes within the organization.
Goals and strategy:
- Create consistent training around compliance.
- Produce small batches throughout the year rather than one large multi-hour compliance course once a year.
- Provides a scenario-based structure focused on actual issues and solutions.
Spoiler alert! Four seasons later, Integrity 365 is still going strong. What goes into creating a hit compliance TV show? Start with a good story.
The Sublime approach
Behind every policy is a compelling story
Our goal was to craft an immersive, episodic experience that would facilitate employee engagement.
One of the biggest issues with compliance training is how inherently boring the content can be, so we had to work against that from day one. Enter storytelling! In addition, we also had to ensure that this immersive experience remained trackable for data reporting, that it allowed content to be responsive to learner feedback, and of course, that it was accessible to all employees.
Enter Integrity 365
Each episode of i365 features a series of real-world situations brought to life by actual T-Mobile employees. It’s essentially a TV show about compliance, with a solid cast of characters that learn and grow as learners help them face and solve compliance-related challenges.
But that in and of itself is not necessarily engaging. There are plenty of dull TV shows out there as is evidenced by the amount of series cancellations every year. So, the ingredients are there, but what about the magic, that special something, that keeps learners engaged?
Sure, a compliance issue that directly affects a given employee’s job should be of interest. But this training goes out to the entire company and every issue will not directly impact every role.
To address this, we approached i365 as you would any scripted TV show—with a dose of relatability, a dash of comedy, and a healthy serving of inside jokes. We’ve leaned into movie tropes and created story arcs and characters to root for. We poke fun at ourselves, and we don’t shy away from breaking the fourth wall.
Demystifying compliance
A prime example of how all this comes together is Season 3, Episode 4, with our scenario titled “Magenta Mysteries.” The goal was to showcase how managers can use i365 episodes to talk to their teams and reinforce T-Mobile’s “Do It the Right Way, Always” culture.
But why just run a series of manager interviews, when you can wrap the whole thing in a parody of Unsolved Mysteries?
Complete with a Robert Stack-esque narrator in a long tan overcoat and managers' faces blurred out to protect their identities, this scenario remains one of the most talked about at T-Mobile.
And the story itself is only the beginning.
After watching the short scene (usually under two minutes), a character presents learners with a question about what they should do in a given conflict. Once the learner has answered, the character gives them live-action feedback tailored to their response. The lesson finishes with a short motion graphic video, often stylized with a theme (8-bit video game and spy vs. spy are fan favorites) that explains the broader context presented in the scenario.
Sublime solutions
Scenarios
Interactive video
The scenarios show compliance in action. They are consumer quality videos, with footage provided by T-Mobile and edited by the Sublime Media team. Each scenario features a knowledge check and reflection section. These are seamless in-video.
The Backstory
Motion graphic video
The back story elaborates on the policy itself, connecting the scenario to the compliance policies at play. Using delightful themes and custom animations, each deep dive seamlessly guides the learner to key takeaways.
PSAs
Microlearning strategies
PSAs give T-Mobile leadership the opportunity to speak directly to employees. Shot like news segments, PSAs are short, personal, and informative.
The results
From workforce to fandom
The reviews are in, and employees are raving! Their incredible feedback has led T-Mobile to renew i365 Season 4 in 2023.
Success looks like:
- Reduced annual training time
- Met completion rate targets
- Rated highly by T-Mobile employees
Rules and regulations are essential to compliance courses, but what’s core to effective learning is understanding how those rules apply to you and your work environment. By making compliance personal to T-Mobile, and each employee, Integrity 365 became more than effective compliance training—it became an extension of Magenta culture.
“...This was amazing, very engaging and I learned something. I want more of these trainings.”
“[B]est ethics training I have ever taken. It was presented so well, and it is easier to understand. Well done!”
“Wow - about time we had UnCarrier Code of Conduct training that actually made the importance of following the code clear and relatable.”
As noted in T-Mobile’s Corporate Responsibility Report, this training “is especially effective because it allows employees to participate in making the right decisions.” And with the targeted completion rate now consistently being met or exceeded, it’s no wonder i365 is a format other departments at T-Mobile want to emulate. This TV show may be about compliance, but the training has garnered serious praise in the company. Too bad they don’t give out Emmy awards for compliance training TV shows, because we’d certainly have a contender on our hands with i365.