TELUS is a Canadian telecommunications company that has been around for a
century, and it wants to ensure that every Canadian is connected to the rest of the
world, whether that connection is through wireless devices, the Internet, television,
or traditional telephone lines. The company has 12.7 million customer accounts.
Providing superior service is an important corporate goal. Management believes that good
teamwork and employee learning are vital for achieving this goal. Until recently, most employee
learning at TELUStook place in formal c1assroom settings outside the company. Much of what
employees learned depended on knowledge presented by instructors, and this learning method
was expensive. Employees would be better off learning from each other's expertise, management
conc1uded. Moreover, 40 percent of the TELUS workforce was expected to retire within
the next 10 years, making it essential for the company to find multiple ways of sharing and
preserving employee experience and knowledge.