American Society for Training & Development: Cognizant Wins the Top Honor in the 2013 ASTD BEST Awards Competition

Cognizant won the first place in the 2013 American Society for Training & Development (ASTD) BEST Awards competition. ASTD honored 28 organizations from Canada, India, Taiwan, Turkey, and the United States at a ceremony held in Washington, D.C. ASTD is the world’s largest professional association dedicated to the training and development field.

“These 28 companies excel in creating innovative, vibrant learning cultures that clearly align with strategic business goals,” said Tony Bingham, ASTD President and CEO. “They get it. The leadership of these organizations values the impact learning and development achieves, and knows that having a knowledgeable and skilled workforce drives success.”

The ASTD BEST Awards is the training industry’s most rigorous and coveted recognition. The program recognizes organizations that demonstrate enterprise-wide success through employee learning and development. Through an online application, ASTD received entries from 70 organizations in nine countries. These organizations submitted quantitative and qualitative information to ASTD about their learning and development practices and programs. Their applications were assessed in a rigorous blind review by members of the BEST Awards advisory committee, a group of experts in the learning and development field.

“The word ‘horizons’ has a new meaning at Cognizant,” writes T+D magazine, ASTD’s flagship publication. “‘Horizons’ refer to the company’s growth opportunities and where it is focusing investments. To help Cognizant reach its strategic objectives, the learning function is building organizational capability around three horizons that the company believes illustrate the complexion of market demand…Cognizant Academy, the in-house learning and development center of Cognizant, ensures the organization's workforce possesses the capabilities required to execute successfully across all three horizons simultaneously.”

The magazine notes that the company’s rapid growth presents both an opportunity and a challenge. “Planned career development and role enablement, aligned with the company’s corporate vision and objectives, is a strategic imperative. These demands are addressed by the expanded role of the Cognizant Academy, which has grown well beyond its original function of providing training to new hires.”

“The greatest strength of a company such as Cognizant is its people and their expertise and ability to consistently deliver outstanding work. As the company grows, needs increase across all dimensions,” says Hariraj Vijayakumar, Global Head of Cognizant Academy. “The key is to improve customer satisfaction by right-skilling employees and optimizing operational metrics through the right role pyramid.”

Learning has enormous value in the company culture. “We achieve business outcomes via our learning culture,” says Vijayakumar. “A strong development framework for its rapidly growing workforce has been the key to helping Cognizant maintain its status as one of the fastest growing Fortune 500 companies in the world.”