Wasting No Time

During Stephen Scheib's first month with his current employer,a US-based pharmaceutical company, he organized a weeklong employee engagement initiative for the learning creation team. The December 2023 activity aimed to keep the team engaged and collaborative during the typically low-productivity holiday season. Less than four weeks after starting his new position as senior specialist learning experience designer, Scheib had hit the ground running, creating an inclusive and collaborative work environment. He has also led other significant initiatives. Such contributions have earned Scheib ATD's 2025 One to Watch Award, which recognizes individuals with five years or less experience in the talent development industry.

What is the Growing Proficiency workstream, and how did you become the initiative's co-leader?

The Growing Proficiency workstream's plan is to review, refine, and address proficiency levels in skills and capabilities across the entire enterprise. Because I have a background in education, Keith Lillico, the associate director of global L&D, recruited me to bring a diverse perspective that challenged the existing corporate structure through a more research-based approach to which I am accustomed. Keith wanted to capitalize on my unique skill set of critically looking at evaluation and assessment, along with our combined background in gamification through motivation, to improve the quality of our recommendations to the business.

What strategies have you used to navigate difficult stakeholder discussions when evaluating the company's existing proficiency models?

Interviewing and taking the time to hear from various leaders regarding what has worked, and usually not worked, in the past has been by far the most valuable piece of evaluating the limited models the business currently employs. We are a company that embraces change, so seeing an area in need of improvement has enabled us to have open discussions and begin processes to implement real solutions. Using data and research to support our suggestions has also enabled us to have those difficult conversations when a change is necessary.

What best practices did you and your team identify from those conversations, and how did they apply to creating a new proficiency model?

Research, research, research. Support what you think with what is proven effective. Be ready for pushback because of "that's how it has been done in the past" and people's feelings. We often hear, "Well, I feel like …" We express how we appreciate that, but we are looking for simplified experiences for our learners and implementing a solution that works based on research for our needs.

What is your approach when you begin working on a new project that focuses on employee learning solutions? What are the first few items you identify and begin to work on?

There are a lot of pieces to the puzzle that fit together before making it to me. I always review the intakes for any information I need to develop a high-level design, such as objectives, evaluation metrics, and specific focus areas for content. I also collaborate closely with my manager and other partners to establish subject matter experts and their particular areas so I can identify who to go to when I have specific questions.