Heart of a Champion

Frequently Asked Questions

 

What is the company’s history and ownership structure?
Heart of a Champion began in 1997 to provide character education to America’s youth. The objective is to serve as an education support organization that promotes positive virtues and character qualities using vehicles such as sports, history, the arts and other areas of life to stimulate young people to integrate and demonstrate these qualities in their schools, homes, lives and communities. In light of the corporate scandals that emerged in 2003, the decision was made to extend and adapt this program to the needs of corporations. Heart of a Champion Corporate Learning is a partnership of Heart of Champion Foundation, SER Media and DeLaPorte & Associates and was launched in 2008.

Where are we located and how do I get in contact with you?
Our offices are in the Dallas, TX, area. We can be contacted by phone, fax and email.

What have others said about the Heart of a Champion Corporate Learning Program?
“Using a blended learning approach consisting of pre- and post-assessments, a newsletter, e-training modules, a seminar and a recognition component, Caremark and HOC were able to achieve a number of measurable outcomes at both the employee and organizational level. These outcomes speak for themselves, and are certain to warrant the attention of any organizational leader interested in considering similar adult-learning/training solutions.”- Blake Leath, Ph.D.,CEO, Allagi Learning

Why would a company choose to do this program?
We live in an age that has seen corporate scandals consistently make headlines, with CEO’s of major corporations indicted and imprisoned. Yet, this is merely symptomatic of the character crisis that has spread across our nation. Today, along with these corporate scandals, research among America’s students reveals this trend has trickled-down – to the average laborer, and to the next generation of employees. This declining character level has affected not only people on a personal level but has had a real impact on the productivity of many organizations as well. Too many companies talk about core values and yet find a lot of behavior (from the executives to the front-line) that is not in alignment. This leads to distrust among working relationships, a level of disengagement in the work leading to problems with absenteeism or turnover, cynicism and lack of commitment to the corporate mission, and real losses in productivity. Character building programs make a real and long-term impact on the performance of a business, consider what others are saying after implementing the Heart of a Champion corporate program:

“I have heard the word integrity more over the last 3 months than I have heard in my entire life. People are consistently talking about it here.” (Supervisor)

“Everyone understands the importance of doing what is right, and applying what they have learned about integrity on a daily basis. They are now seeking out integrity in others.” (Employee)

“There is a change in how time is spent on the floor. People are not doing things on the clock that they are not supposed to be doing. It is a personal change within them because they used to not care if other people saw them doing it.” (Employee)

How would I assess and validate the need for this program inside my organization?

• When your leaders want to see their team’s behavior more closely align and support the organization’s core values.
  
• When there are increasing needs for compliance (SOX,HIPPA,SEC, NASD)
  
• When the leaders in the organization want to increase employee engagement while reducing turnover
  
• When leaders are seeking to develop the next generation of leaders for succession planning purposes
  
• When you have recently merged and/or reorganized and there is a need to bring people together quickly into a more productive, trusting team.

My organization requires measurable ROI for any training expenditure. How can you measure the impact of character and ethics training?
HOC Corporate Learning believes that there are immediate and tangible results from the implementation of this program in addition to the enduring effects of developing employees with stronger character. Through careful planning, assessment, communication, engaging content and delivery, and careful attention to reinforcement, we have seen measurable improvements in performance.

We conduct Post training-Assessments and collect Evidence relating to the four aspects of the Kirkpatrick Metrics Methodology. In once notable case we revealed the following impact:

1. Reaction: Employees are now aware of the definition and importance of integrity. They have been challenged to do the right thing and uphold integrity, and now have an emotional attachment to living lives of integrity both on and off the job. Integrity is also now a consistent topic of discussion among employees.

2. Learning: Employees learned that integrity is everyone’s responsibility and is contagious.
“Everyone understands the importance of doing what is right, and applying what they have learned about integrity on a daily basis. They are now seeking out integrity in others.” (Employee)

3. Behavior: Employees are now less likely to use company time to accomplish personal things. In addition, they see fewer employees on the floor doing those personal things when “on the clock.” They feel that something internal has taken over to guide these employees to uphold personal integrity. They have seen evidence of employees: 1) considering their actions more, 2) treating their peers with greater respect in general, and 3) challenging others to walk in integrity.

“There is a change in how time is spent on the floor. People are not doing things on the clock that they are not supposed to be doing. It is a personal change within them because they used to not care if other people saw them doing it.” (Employee)

4. Results: The program was worthwhile - worth the financial investment and the investment of time. Line employees addressed their supervisors with thankfulness for the program.

Utilizing the formula this facility employs to determine production efficiencies, one sees that productivity increased 20% during program deployment compared to the same time period prior to program deployment and reached the highest mark in the facility’s history. In addition, the quality control indices (number of errors) were the lowest in the history of the facility. Based on this facility’s averages, the financial impact during the one-quarter period (ROI on this project) was in excess of 15 times the amount of the company’s investment based on the cost of the Heart of a Champion program.

Can I customize the program to the unique needs of my organization and if so, how is that done?
We do not offer customized programs at this time; however, we do work with each client to make sure the content fits with the core values and needs of the organization.

How much time will be required of my employees to learn the program?
Our experience is that learning is an ongoing process and not an event. To see measurable and sustainable results typically takes between 30 and 120 days of learning, reinforcement, and recognition. Therefore, each module is ideally deployed over a 90 day period and consists of 6 hours of training.

Is the program available in other languages besides English?
Yes, translation and cultural adaptation services are available.