Provide Superior Employee Development

Learning Programs

In the 2010 FORTUNE "100 Best Companies to Work For" survey, 77 percent of employees reported that National Instruments offers training or development that furthers their careers. NI offers more than 3,500 training courses worldwide, with more than 2,700 in the United States alone. These courses cover a wide range of topics, from technical sales training to project management.

NI employees take an active role in their own professional development. NI provides an intranet site for employees to register for courses and to decide which courses they want to take based on recommendations for their positions. In addition, NI corporate headquarters employees can join a group called the NI Graduate Acclimation and Development Program (NI GRAD). This group aims to help recent graduates working at NI develop professionally and become involved at NI and in the community.

Continuing Education
NI highly values education and supports many forms of continuing education for employees. The following list includes examples of the skills management and lifelong learning programs NI provides:

• New employee orientation programs at the company and department levels
• Recommended reading, book groups, and a lending library
• NI product training and certification
• Mentor roles such as experienced technical leads in engineering who mentor newer engineers
• Skills training and development opportunities in the following areas:
  • People – interpersonal skills
  • Business – NI vision and mission
  • Technical – as applicable to department or employee needs
  • Project/process – project management and team effectiveness
• Tuition assistance for US employees while they pursue a job-related degree or course external to NI
• Toastmasters for employees who want to polish their public speaking skills
• Community board membership for employees who support community organizations through this role

Tuition Assistance From NI

eLearning
Over the last few years, NI tackled the challenge of creating a comprehensive electronic learning curriculum for employees to combat the expense of traditional, in-person training courses. NI offers elearning courses on a variety of topics ranging from product analysis and customer demonstrations to IT processes. In 2010, NI employees completed more than 25,000 e-learning courses.

Book Groups
Book groups help employees understand NI business strategy, evaluate it, and discuss why the company does things the way it does. NI book groups meet regularly to discuss specific business or personal development topics and consist of employees from different roles with varying perspectives that enhance the discussion.

The reading list recommended by NI includes books such as the following:

• Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jim Collins and Jerry I. Porras
• Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey A. Moore
• First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman
• The Innovator's Dilemma: The Revolutionary Book That Will Change the Way You Do Business by Clayton M. Christensen
• Leading From the Front: No-Excuse Leadership Tactics for Women by Courtney Lynch and Angie Morgan

CASE STUDY

Getting Things Done @ NI

Renee Dragoset

Renee Dragoset founded the Getting Things Done @ NI group in March 2010 after she gave a presentation on the book Getting Things Done by David Allen at an internal NI conference. Renee was inspired by the positive response from the audience and received requests for more information and support. Getting Things Done (GTD) is an organizational system that gets information out of your head and into a seamless work flow so you can think clearly, feel relaxed, and take control of your work. The mission of the Getting Things Done @ NI group is to help those at NI who are using the GTD system to increase their productivity.

The group has an online space for sharing resources and discussion, as well as monthly lunchtime meetings that include presentations, demos, and group discussion of specific GTD-related topics. Presentation topics include how to pick a task-tracking tool, how to manage projects, and how to review and update your system. Tool demos highlight software such as Tudumo, FreeMind, and Todoist. During group discussions, members ask questions, brainstorm solutions, and share tips to help each other implement and maintain their own versions of David Allen's revolutionary productivity system.

Number of Instructor-Led Training Course Offerings¹

This section covers only instructor-led training courses offered by NI to its employees. NI does not offer paid educational leave. Refer to the Tuition Assistance From NI section of this page for information about external training and education provided by NI for its employees.

¹All numbers in this table are rounded to the nearest hundred.

Hours of All Instructor-Led Training Completed

The number of instructor-led training hours decreased from 2009 to 2010 due to the increased focus on creating and promoting e-learning courses.

¹NI tracks training hours using an internal database. Some NI branch offices do not use that database, so worldwide totals are not comprehensive.
²All averages in this table are rounded to the nearest five.
³In the Worldwide section, totals in the Exempt row include professional employees outside the United States, and totals in the Nonexempt row include administrative employees outside the United States.
⁺Averages by employee type are not available for 2007 or 2008.