Kaplan North America CEO Gregory Marino on How Shifting to a Remote Workforce Increases Performance

Care about each other and we care about the customer. And by the way, it's not up here.

It's here.

It's in the heart.

It's great to have Gregory Marino here with us today, CEO of Kaplan North America. Greg, welcome.

Good to be here. Thanks for having me, Louis.

Well, it's wonderful. Congratulations first on becoming a Most Loved Workplace.

Well, it's great to be recognized with the award, especially during the times we're in. So glad to be with you and also to be recognized as one of the most loved workplaces.

There's so many reasons why Kaplan is a most loved workplace, right? Because you really revolutionized the entire education management industry, the whole education industry, especially online, right? And this kind of feeling throughout Kaplan that that's a part of your mission and vision. Tell me in your words what it is that makes Kaplan a most loved workplace.

Sure. Well, you know, first, just a little bit about Kaplan. Kaplan is one of the world's largest and most diverse education providers. We've been around for over 80 years. And, you know, core to what we do, it's very much about expanding educational access and leading academic innovation. A lot of people know Kaplan for our preparation for standardized tests. So we help high school students get into the, you know, the college of their dreams so that they go on to become a, you know, a teacher or engineer or whatever it is that they dream. The vast majority of doctors have prepared with us, as have nurses and lawyers and financial advisors as they've studied with us for their, their, you know, their licensing exam. And of course, we've got a global presence as well, as students come to the, come to the States through one of our Kaplan programs or one of our experiences, you know, such as language learning. So we've got this, you know, long history and deep experience in providing educational services to not only students but corporations and universities as well. And I think the, the what we do is a core part of what makes Kaplan a place that, that, you know, that people love. I've been with the organization for close to 30 years. I've worked in many of the different parts of the organization, and I personally know the functions and moved up. Through the, through the ranks. But it is what we do, I think, that and how we do it that drives this, this attraction to the, you know, to the workplace. We love our students, we love our partners, and there's a true partnership and investment in ensuring that our students and partners are successful. So when you go home at night, I think that really, you know, really that impactful work resonates because you know that you made a difference in somebody's life and possibly for generations to come.

It's really a great thing to hear that connection to your company's mission. Kaplan was founded 83 years ago in 1938 when access to higher education, especially for women, was limited, and to have that inner core purpose is just incredible. The breadth really too, 1.1 million students and professionals around the world. Wow.

There's a lot of students that have came through the Kaplan doors and lives that have been changed as a result. We partner with universities to help them go online. K-12 institutions to help prepare their students. It's not that all that, you know, uncommon to be at a social gathering and run into a Kaplan alum, or, you know, if you're in a doctor's office, to hear that the person that's treating you or getting ready for you to see the doctor has come through the Kaplan doors as well.

One of the things that really struck me as well was what you've done to really foster this collaborative and caring environment during what has really saddled all of us during the COVID era, which is going back to work. And you have made this swift shift of the entire company to a remote work environment while really maintaining the customer focus and increasing productivity and engagement all the while. Tell us how you did it.

Yeah, I mean, kudos to the, you know, to the team for helping with the, you know, with the transition. And, you know, I think a big part of the fact that a large part of the organization and our student-facing functions were already in a digital format allowed us to help facilitate the transition for our back-office functions to an online environment. I mean, for starters, it was co-authored by by the team. So there's some fundamentals that need to be in place. You need access to the systems and not underestimating the importance and the amount of work that went into that and being able to receive phone calls or chats from our customers. But there are some other elements that needed to be accommodated in a successful transition to the online remote environment and getting that feedback from our employees on what would make a highly engaged remote environment successful allowed us to be able to incorporate that feedback and make the necessary changes that were important to keep engagement high. You know, if you think about the amount of face-to-face time that we had, and the fun elements that were incorporated as well in a face-to-face environment, we had to figure out how to bring that online. So the, you know, just coming off of Halloween last month, that costume contest that we had in a face-to-face environment, we replicated as best as possible in an online environment. We— our Trivia Pursuit tournament that we had in the past continued. Our talent shows that were in place previously have moved to a virtual environment. So those softer elements were also key parts of our remote transition, in addition to ensuring that we were there for our customers.

And the really important question is, what did you dress up for? At the costume house.

Yeah, me, uh, uh, when I, when I dressed up, we, we tend to have, uh, uh, costumes. So, uh, this year we went with, uh, the Top Gun, uh, theme. So we were all in our flight suits as we were dressing up. Uh, some, some really fun ones, uh, in, uh, in years past, uh, I think just not too long ago, uh, we all took on a character from, uh, from Grease. It's a lot of fun, but quite honestly, our team, our employees had some really, really creative costumes. And one fun thing this year was the whole family was able to participate. So from infants dressed up in costumes to teenagers that were still in a remote classroom environment participated in our Halloween costume contest. Job test this year.

That speaks volumes about having the family involved. I can kind of imagine at that moment exactly what you meant by authoring, right? You co-authored this new environment and people became part of it. No wonder why engagement and productivity went up.

You know, if, if the significant other and the kids or the mother and father are fans of, you know, of Kaplan, we also know that our team, our employees will be highly engaged and long-tenured employees. So family is, is certainly, uh, core to, to, to our, uh, our value system.

So tell me more about this. You consolidated Kaplan's 3 major business units into one integrated Kaplan North America organization. That's another wow. You have these really huge things that you've accomplished as someone who really manages and transforms and changes the company.

You know, what's, uh, what made it, uh, interesting and probably a little more difficult than, uh, than your, your normally normal restructure is that also happened in the backdrop of, uh, you know, COVID. Uh, we, uh, we were previously, uh, organized in these three separate, uh, uh, business units: our Kaplan Test Preparation division, our Professional division, and our Higher Education division. Which was very much an internal construct. But when our customers thought about Kaplan and Reachin, they weren't thinking about those, you know, those units in a distinct way. But there was a lot of overlap in terms of products that universities and businesses were very much interested in that went across those, you know, those lines. And I think we weren't able to completely solve the complete solution for our customer because of our internal organizing. So we, you know, we consolidated into one unit under an internal holding unit of Kaplan North America, still part of the larger Kaplan portfolio. But, you know, we're now, you know, we now go to market as one organization. We operate as one organization. And most importantly, our customers have access to a wide range of products. You know, we have products that go pretty much from cradle to grave. You could prepare with us for, for an SAT to get into college, and then if you're thinking about going to medical school, prepare with us for your MCAT to get into medical school. But then when you have to sit for your boards, you can prepare with us for USMLE, for United States Medical Licensing Exam, and then continuing education. That's that's required. Or if you wanted to go for a different degree or add another credential, those typically happen in different business units, but it's not necessarily the way the student educational journey transpired. So we made that a little bit different so that you could take advantage of all the products and offerings that we have throughout the portfolio.

Does a lot too with the concept of inclusion and innovation, transparency. You can do it all in one rather rather than all these separate units, and it is consistent with the lens of your company and your values, really.

Yeah, definitely very much the case. The student experience, the customer experience is, you know, is important. We want to try to figure out, you know, how best to remove as many administrative tasks as possible so our students can stay focused on their, their, you know, their student outcomes. So most of the, most of the enhancements, the optimization, comes from the voice of the customer. And this was— the reorganizing was one of the pieces of insights and feedback that we heard from our customer.

Brilliant. You don't often hear how the connection of people operations, HR, and business makes sense. That just made sense very strongly, and has— the people focus is enormous. How did Most Loved Workplace come at a good time for you?

You know, if you think about it, a lot of change happening throughout corporate America. You hear and read a lot about the great resignation that's taking place currently. We want to be on the other side of that. We want to be a beneficiary of what's going on in the marketplace. And being recognized as a most loved workplace, you know, as you see this movement within the industry, couldn't come at a better time. There's engagement surveys that we do regularly to collect feedback. There are various forums that we have. We don't participate much in the external recognition items. Maybe, you know, maybe we should do a little bit more of that. And this was one of those early entrées in that. But, you know, as you start to calibrate and baseline against other organizations, it was just a good support point, proof point to help show that all the work that we put in and more importantly, all the work that our employees put in to making this a great place, a loved workplace, was certainly appreciated and something that we celebrate.

Greg, you're great. You're a great CEO. We really appreciate having you on the show today and you being a most loved workplace. Thanks so much for being on Most Loved Leaders Show today.

Appreciate the time. Thank you.