Derek Blake

Divisional Vice President, Global Learning & Development, Encore

At Encore, transforming ordinary spaces into extraordinary experiences is more than a job – it’s an art. As the largest provider in the hospitality industry’s audiovisual production, Encore's mastery lies in creating immersive experiences through lights, sound and projection. Their secret? Understanding and connecting with diverse audiences makes each event an emotionally engaging journey. 

Encore is made up of a diverse range of event production professionals – from technicians and creatives to administrative and support staff, all working together to meet customers’ needs. Encore employs approximately 13,000 people across US, Canada, Mexico, APAC and EMEA. In 2023, Encore generated revenues of more than $3 billion.

Supernova Award Category: 
Future of Work: Human Capital Management
The Problem: 

In 2020, following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Encore declined from a $3 billion annualized revenue company to $100 million seemingly overnight, and experienced an 80% workforce reduction within a 30-day timeframe. As a result, Encore was faced with the monumental challenge of adapting to industry changes and developing and implementing a robust training infrastructure to reskill their workforce rapidly and effectively.

The nature of the event production industry, being highly dynamic and technologically driven, made it pivotal to have access to a training program that was not only extensive in covering the necessary technical skills but also flexible enough to evolve with emerging trends and technologies. This need was amplified by the diverse range of roles within Encore, from technicians and creatives to administrative and support staff, each requiring specialized skill sets.

In short, Encore needed to ensure that this new training program would be adaptable and comprehensive, covering the diverse needs of their global team and essentially building their entire business and their people back up.

The Solution: 

Encore turned to Cornerstone’s Learning Management System (LMS) to redefine its approach to learning and development, ensuring a high success rate in role transitions and skill enhancements. In choosing the right partner and technology, Encore established clear objectives to unify learning, content and data to stay on top of new and emerging needs across their workforce and create the necessary employee development opportunities on a regular basis, including:  

  • Increased Visibility: Gaining advanced insight into what the employee learning trends are and what's changing across their workforce, so they can continue to have maximum functionality in their system.  
  • Customized Learning Portals: Allowing Encore to create more personalized training experiences and easily track training and certifications. 
  • Data Insights: Helping to visual and measure training programs so Encore can uncover learning trends and create engaging content.
The Results: 

By implementing a unified, global learning ecosystem, Encore quickly and adequately re-trained and reskilled its global workforce, decreasing outside labor by $23 million. Thanks to the seamless experience for employees using Cornerstone’s LMS, Encore went from a 33% turnover rate to just 8%. With its heightened focus on upskilling and retraining employees, Encore also saw an 80% success rate in transitioning employees to new roles and enhancing workforce skillsets. 

Encore experienced incredible spikes in training consumption across their organization as well. Achieving more than 564,000 learning hours globally, Encore reached more than 150% of their annual goal. Encore witnessed nearly 43 average learning hours per person in the U.S. and almost 30 global average learning hours per person. Additionally, the company saw a 91% completion of new hire onboarding training.

The rise in self-directed employee certifications also skyrocketed, with Encore’s certification programs acting as an incredible asset for internal employee development and mobility. In 2023, Encore reached 104% of their US Technical Lead Certification goal, with 1,825 certifications completed. Their US Sales Certified Venue Sellers certification also surpassed its annual goal, reaching 116% (700 total completions). Finally, Encore’s US Venue Service Certification achieved 81% of their annual goal with more than 5,000 total completions.

Metrics: 
  • Unified, global learning ecosystem: Eliminating the need for external dependencies and consolidating to a single system for governing, assigning, automating, and tracking learning and training. This has boosted productivity with version management and seamless inline content workflows.
  • Personalized, scalable learning: Delivering the right content across live, virtual and digital formats and languages, powered by Cornerstone's Skills AI, Content AI and curated libraries.
  • Self-driven growth: Encore can now show its people the "why" and "how" with career exploration alongside automated learning pathing and insights on career growth.
  • Real-time insights: Today, Encore Leverages stronger insights and models to identify workforce skills and gaps, allowing for at-a-glance access to key decision-making criteria for training investment, roles and projects.
  • Learning with purpose: Providing employees with impactful content from top providers aligned to pressing workplace themes through Cornerstone’s curated subscriptions, allowing individuals to develop skills independently for their unique needs.
  • A culture of continuous learning: Encore has effectively upskilled employees, enabled new skilling opportunities and created unique career pathing and development programs.
The Technology: 

Cornerstone LMS is an all-in-one learning system that combines learning, growth, skills, and capabilities into a personalized, curated experience. The AI-powered platform allows Encore to manage and deliver training efficiently, identify skills gaps and development opportunities, retain and engage top talent, and 
provide multilingual content and multi-modal learning experiences to meet the diverse
needs of its modern workforce.

Disruptive Factor: 

2024 research shows 94% of business leaders recognize that their learning technologies substantially influence organizational agility. However, just 63% of executives still view their workforce as underprepared for change, placing a greater emphasis on the challenge that organizations, like Encore, have faced when finding innovative solutions for creating continuous L&D opportunities and an agile, adaptable workforce.   

With Cornerstone LMS, Encore is uniquely positioned to unleash employee potential and sustain a high-performing, future-ready workforce and organization. Key differentiators include:  

  • One unified platform: Cornerstone LMS is a single system for governing, assigning, automating, and tracking employee training, allowing Encore to boost productivity with version management and seamless inline content workflows.  
  • Planning for growth: Providing Encore employees with the relevant, personalized virtual or in-person training they need to grow alongside the business. 
  • Personalization for learners: Building flexible learning spaces that drive engagement with content expertly curated by interest, role or modality. 
  • Fostering self-driven growth: Empowering Encore employees to learn with AI-recommended content and insights on how to grow their careers and help drive continuous learning. AI uses skill profiles, indicated interests, previous history and role to drive the right content to users. 
Shining Moment: 

Encore’s story is one of resilience and forward-thinking. From the incredible challenge of navigating an 80% workforce reduction to the need for a comprehensive LMS to the enhancement of skills and adaptability, Encore’s story isn't just about overcoming a significant industry challenge — it’s about innovating and thriving in the face of adversity, making Encore a shining example of what can happen when a business truly priorities the learning needs of its people.

About Encore

Encore creates memorable experiences that engage and transform organizations. As the global leader for in-person, hybrid and virtual events, Encore delivers real results through event strategy, design, technology, production and digital solutions. Encore operates in more than 20 countries across and is the trusted partner of choice for more than 2,100 premiere hotels and venues worldwide.