Valero Energy Corporation, recognised as one of Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work for in America, is a Fortune 500 company based in San Antonio, Texas. Valero, with approximately 20,000 employees, revenues of nearly $30 billion and an extensive refining system with a throughput capacity of almost 2 million barrels per day, is one of the top U.S. refining companies. The company’s geographically diverse refining network stretches from Canada to the U.S. Gulf Coast and West Coast. In combination with its interest in Valero L.P., Valero has 4,800 miles of refined product and crude oil pipelines as well as refined product terminals, which complement its refining and marketing assets in the U.S. Southwest and Mid-continent regions.
A marketing leader, Valero has approximately 4,100 retail sites in the United States and Canada, branded as Valero, Diamond Shamrock, Ultramar, Beacon and Total. The company markets on a wholesale basis through a bulk and rack-marketing network in 40 U.S. states, Canada and Latin America. Valero has long been recognised throughout the industry as a leader in the production of premium, environmentally clean products, such as reformulated gasoline, California Air Resources Board (CARB) Phase II gasoline, low-sulfur diesel and oxygenates. For more information see www.valero.com.
Business Challenge
Valero has over 1,100 company-operated retail sites that spread west from Texas through California. Managing and distributing updated policy and procedure manuals to these stores has always been a challenge. For example, the 800+ page Retail Operations Manual and the Employee Handbook are continuously evolving as the business changes and grows. In the past, these books and any necessary updates were printed at a central location and then shipped to regional offices for distribution. It was difficult to ensure the consistency of the manuals, because replacing the outdated information with the updates was the responsibility of each user. In addition, printing and shipping costs were high.
The retail stores themselves are busy locations where every employee’s time is at a premium and information must be quickly at hand. An often-high turnover of entry-level staff created additional business challenges. The constant influx of new staff and the need to simultaneously maintain the knowledge and skill level of existing employees meant that having accurate and easily accessible support documentation was very important. Historically, training was done almost exclusively through instructor-led classes in central locations, but the time and distance issues associated with instructor-led training made it impractical to continue to present all training in a classroom format.
The final business driver for the solution was the increase in regulatory oversight. Valero retail outlets sell fuel, tobacco, alcohol and payment products such as money orders. Each of these is highly regulated, sometimes at a national level, as well as at state and local levels. Training requirements on tobacco and alcohol sales differed significantly from state to state, as did the reporting required by the regulatory bodies. Each retail location has a back office computer that is linked to a Wide Area Network.
The retail store employees use their back office computers on a daily basis to send sales reports and other business information to the home office; therefore, users are familiar with computer basics. Through the back office computers, all employees have access to the Retail Portal. It is very easy to direct information to the specific users who need that information, because the Retail Portal is role-based and users log in with their own ID’s and passwords.
Moving to e-Learning was an obvious choice, but the solution had to meet the document management challenges as well as the ongoing employee development challenges. The selected solution had to enable Valero to reduce the production costs of the Retail Operations Manual and other policy and procedure documents, allow the conversion of legacy documentation, provide an easy way to inform staff about new procedures or changes to existing procedures, and also provide a robust, audit-ready training system that could produce the regulatory reports required by the various government agencies. In addition, it had to be easy to integrate the new
solution with existing systems. In order to effectively address these challenges, Valero decided to invest in an online Learning and Content Management Solution.
The Solution
After a very extensive vendor selection process, including a full review of available LCMS options and traditional content and document management systems, multiple product demonstrations, review of post-sales service history, and implementation of a fully functional proof-of-concept test instance of the software, Valero selected TopClass. Two of the key factors in the selection of TopClass were its flexibility and user friendliness. The ability to reuse legacy content and transition policy and procedure documents directly to online versions was another key element of the selection process. TopClass provided Valero the capability to have non-technical subject matter experts and training developers repurpose Word and PowerPoint documents quickly and in a standard format through the use of TopClass Publisher.
TopClass’s easy to use search functionality met another key requirement – a detailed search capability that would allow any employee to enter a key word or phrase and quickly access the desired information. For example, each employee must receive benefits plan documentation. Presenting this information as learning objects with an online search facility means that people can easily access and read the documentation that is relevant to them. Managers can reference polices on an as needed basis; employees can find quick answers if they are unsure of a policy or procedure.
In addition, it has been easy to link TopClass to other applications and programs. For example, new procedures and procedural changes are usually announced via a store notification system. The role-based Retail Portal allows these announcements to be targeted to the appropriate user groups. Employees see a message the next time they log on and a link within the message takes them directly to the new material in TopClass.
Results
The solution has been a great success among employees.
- The search function has proved very popular; staff can get relevant results immediately and avoid spending time looking through a table of contents to find the information themselves.
- Changes to procedures are now made quickly on the central document and notifications are sent to all affected staff. The notification system tracks who has received and read the message and Top Class can track who has reviewed the new content.
- Production and shipping costs for retail support documents have been significantly reduced.
- Training up to 20,000 new employees on an annual basis is becoming simpler, faster and cheaper.
- A consistent message is delivered directly and accurately to everyone through a common source, avoiding potential differences that can occur with Instructor-Led Training delivery.
The Future
The initial deployment of the online policy and procedures manuals was so successful that Valero is now using TopClass to implement online training on Anti-Money Laundering, Alcoholic Beverage Seller Certification, Tobacco Seller Certification and New Employee Orientation. Notification of training due goes directly and automatically to each employee and that employee’s manager. In addition to compressing the training cycle, the solution will also provide Valero with a robust, defensible, audit ready compliance system with on-demand reporting on compliance training and test scores throughout the 1,100 retail outlets. As an added bonus, plans include linking retail support departments into the system so that, where appropriate, training can be 360 within the retail organisation.
Quote
“Following an extensive due diligence process we chose TopClass because it provided a rapidly deployable, robust content management and e-Learning solution that was compatible with our existing software and allowed us to use multiple training development tools in addition to those that were integrated in the product. TopClass Publisher’s user friendly, intuitive interface enabled us to repurpose a large volume of legacy content very quickly. In addition, WBT Systems provided and continues to provide outstanding customer service, which is imperative for a system this important to the company,” said Judy Grover- Allen, Senior Manager Retail Support Projects, Valero Energy Corporation. “Finally, with the reduced printing and shipping costs alone, we realised a 100 percent return on our first year investment”
Valero Energy Corporation
1-877-WBT-7700
