This book includes a plain text version that is designed for high accessibility. To use this version please follow this link.
oneonone William Pelster


The managing principal for talent development at Deloitte Services explains how and why the professional-services giant built its own brick-and- mortar learning center — and what conferences can apply from its approach to employee education.


By Susan Sarfati, CAE S


everal years ago, Deloitte LLP engaged its 55,000 U.S. employees and 2,800 partners in a discussion about how best to offer staff training — online or in-person.


This was no small matter. As the second-largest profes- sional-services network in the world by revenue — providing audit, tax, consulting, enterprise-risk, and financial- advisory services — Deloitte conducts four million hours of training annually. “We wanted to do something special and different,” said


William Pelster, managing principal for talent development at Deloitte Services. “We are actually in two markets — to serve clients and to attract talent. We had a great debate: Do


PCMA.ORG


we want to develop our talent in a physical or virtual environ- ment?” The “bricks vs. clicks” debate, Pelster said, went on for two years. Deloitte conducted focus groups, surveys, and segment analysis among all its U.S. employees. “No matter how we sliced it,” he said, “people wanted a physical facility” for training and meetings. The majority of partners, who would personally foot the bill, voted to build such a facility, and it fell to Pelster — who serves as the company’s consult- ing global learning and talent development leader — to design it as a learning center. The end result is Deloitte University (DU), a $300-mil- lion, 712,000-square-foot, five-story building, which


JULY 2012 PCMA CONVENE 65


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116