Thomas Atkinson
ABOUT ME

Tom Atkinson has a strong track record of enhancing business and individual performance through learning. In addition to being a thought-leader and conducting best-practices research in leadership, sales, and customer service, he has led teams to achieve award-winning results for Fortune 500 companies. His strengths include assessing training needs, designing and facilitating learning solutions, and measuring results.

Professional Experience:

Atkinson Analytics helps clients achieve better results throughout the learning process, from defining needs to measuring the learning experience, on-job-the application, and business results. Whether it is a high-profile learning program or an entire curriculum, Tom enables you to demonstrate value to executives, sustain and enhance performance gains, and target opportunities for increasing return on your learning investment.

Example 1: A major manufacturer of packaging materials aimed to build a robust process for preparing leaders to be effective in a fast-paced, global environment. Their learning and development team created a pilot program for 18 managers and focused on key leadership capabilities. The yearlong “learning journey consisted of classroom training, coaching, management planning and check-ins, 360-degree feedback, and action learning projects. Tom measured the program’s results systematically, including return on investment, and recommended ways for the company to sustain and enhance the program’s value.

Example 2: Tom founded and leads a special interest group (SIG) on learning measurement for the Greater Boston chapter of the Association for Talent Development (ATD). From its founding in September 2019 through the present, Tom facilitates bimonthly sessions (currently virtual) to enable learning professionals to enhance their skills in measuring and improving results. The Greater Boston chapter was recently recognized by ATD National for its innovative work, highlighting the measurement SIG.

Fresenius Medical Care is a premier healthcare company serving people with renal and other chronic conditions. Tom was director of learning projects and measures, leading a team of professionals in delivering an ambitious curriculum of programs and projects, including more than 1,000 sessions of the company’s keystone leadership development initiative.

Example: A key element of the leadership development initiative was training and coaching facilitators. Tom led workshops to enable facilitators to engage with program participants, and he provided feedback on their skills. His analysis found a substantial return on investment of the leadership program due to improved retention rates among leaders who had been trained.

Deloitte Consulting is among the world’s largest consulting companies. Tom worked there as a specialist master, which included designing award-winning training and measurement systems for some of Deloitte’s largest clients.

Example: A major retail organization needed to improve the effectiveness of human resource professionals who served the store management in its stores located across North America. Tom coached the client in designing a session that teaches HR professionals how to be a business consultant to the store managers. This included developing the business knowledge and consultation skills that enabled them to establish trusting relationships with managers and develop effective solutions to HR challenges. The program earned an award from Deloitte based on positive client feedback on its results.

The Forum Corporation (now AchieveForum) is a pioneering training company where Tom led projects for more than 50 Fortune 500 client companies as a Forum consultant in designing, building, implementing, and measuring learning solutions that yielded significant business results. Industries included healthcare, pharmaceuticals, government, financial services, information technology, transportation, and energy.

Example 1: Delivering a process improvement to managers with the United States Postal Service, in its Washington, DC, region. The program included best practices in total quality management, as well as the influence skills managers needed to implement the program. The program led to improved mail flow in the facilities that participated.

Example 2: Designing and teaching the impact workshop, a program that helps learning and development professionals link learning programs to business outcomes. Tom led the training sessions and coached clients in developing their measurement systems and using the findings with their executives and other stakeholders.

Volunteer Activity:

Tom is an advisory board member for RDIConnect, an organization that helps parents with children on the autism spectrum to build meaningful relationships and a foundation for successful growth and development (see www.rdiconnect.com). Tom has served more than a dozen families through direct coaching and feedback on their relationships. He has also recently delivered a workshop to a global panel of hundreds of RDI parents and consultants about how to manage stress during challenging times.

Education:

PhD, Boston College (Psychology); MA, Fairleigh Dickinson University (Psychology); BA, University of Connecticut (Psychology)

Certified ROI Professional (The ROI Institute™)