Who We Are. What We Do.

  • Industrial/organizational psychologists William C. Byham, Ph.D., and Douglas W. Bray, Ph.D., founded DDI in 1970.
  • More than 1,600 organizations in 60 countries have utilized our programs and services to build a highly skilled and committed workforce.
  • More than 1,000 people work at DDI—at our corporate headquarters in Pittsburgh and at offices in more than 75 locations worldwide.
  • Our programs have been translated into 21 languages, including French, Japanese, Spanish, German, Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese, and Bahasa Indonesia.
  • Our work with multinational clients constitutes more than one third of our business.
  • DDI has trained and developed more than 16 million leaders and executives worldwide. Each day more than 1,500 leaders benefit from one or more of our leadership training or assessment systems.
  • Organizations have hired nearly 24 million people using DDI’s selection systems. More than 9,200 people are hired each day using DDI technologies.
  • DDI has staffed and trained high performance workforces for 200+ plant startups and expansions.
  • More than 20,000 facilitators/instructors have been trained to deliver DDI systems.
  • More than 16 million people have been trained using DDI programs and materials. Their newly acquired skills have influenced the work lives of more than 210 million employees.
  • DDI has worked with organizations in every industry, including manufacturing, health care, government agencies, financial/insurance, aerospace, pharmaceuticals, technology, consumer goods/services, and telecommunications.
  • 96 percent of our clients would work with us again...and do.

INNOVATION
Staying ahead of change in our industry and markets, DDI invests twice the industry average in research and development. Significant innovations include:

  • Pioneered the use of assessment centers to help companies make more accurate hiring and promotion decisions. Introduced Acceleration Centers® (modern assessment centers) offering executive leadership assessment programs to help companies identify and accelerate the growth of senior leadership talent. Today, we maintain a network of 15 Acceleration Centers® across four continents.
  • Introduced the world’s first commercially available leader training program based on behavior modeling—Interaction Management®. In 2003, DDI launched Interaction Management®: Exceptional Leaders . . . Extraordinary Results® (IM: EXSM), a radical redesign of the original. It’s a systematic approach to improving leadership performance.
  • Developed the first behavior-based selection system and interviewer training program, Targeted Selection®, allowing organizations to be more successful in hiring the right people. Recently released was Targeted Selection®: Access®, a powerful candidate selection automation tool that helps managers hiring hundreds or thousands of workers make better decisions faster.
  • Introduced the first, and still the most comprehensive, broad-based online performance support system—OPAL® (Online Performance and Learning).
  • Established a new type of 360° multirater system that collects input via e-mail—Leadership Mirror®.
  • Created E3SM, an automated survey tool to benchmark employee engagement, satisfaction, and retention.
  • Unveiled Assessing Talent: People Leader®, a web-delivered behavioral assessment program used to evaluate the potential and readiness of leaders.
  • Created Maximizing Performance®: MAXworksSM, a web-based performance management solution for organizations to align and elevate employee performance.
  • Introduced Targeted FeedbackSM/Patent Pending, a new approach to 360° assessment that focuses on an individual’s top three strengths and top three growth areas.
  • Launched the national Health Care Leadership Academy, focusing on three levels of leadership development, in partnership with University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
  • Introduced AcqHireSM, a system that builds best practices into your hiring and promotion processes to help make the right talent decisions.

CLIENT SUCCESSES

  • HCA improved employee retention by more than 42 percent and realized a 26.7 percent improvement in cost savings at its nine-facility TriStar Health system.
  • Mattel improved frontline leaders’ “soft skills” knowledge by more than 40 percent, and realized a human capital return on investment of 350 percent.
  • New York Life Taiwan provided customer service training that realized an estimated 518 percent return on investment.
  • Quest Diagnostics identified and selected leaders who contributed to outstanding financial results, including a 300+ percent increase in market value in one year’s time.
  • The Schwan Food Company followed a Grow Your Own Leaders® approach in building executive-level bench strength—saving an estimated $3 million in recruiting and on-boarding costs alone.
  • Sanofi-Synthelabo sourced, screened, and hired more than 1,000 top-notch sales professionals in 120 days, while reducing hiring costs by more than 20 percent.
  • University of Pittsburgh Medical Center created special projects for its high-potential leaders, realizing $500,000 in immediate savings—and the potential for savings/opportunities in excess of $38 million.
  • VP Buildings realized $3 million in process savings by fostering teamwork, making team leaders more effective, and promoting accountability for action.

MAJOR RESEARCH
Since its founding, DDI has been committed to research to advance thinking and uncover trends and issues in areas such as selection, performance management, and leadership. To conduct original research that benefits clients, DDI created CABER, the Center for Applied Behavioral Research. Significant research studies include:

  • The Leadership Forecast: A Benchmarking Study (1999, 2001, 2003)
  • Retaining Talent: A Benchmarking Study (2001)
  • Performance Management: A Study of Current and Future Practices in Malaysia—Looking Ahead (2001)
  • Recruitment and Selection (a study of 573 participating organizations of the Electronic Recruiting Exchange) (2002)
  • Developing Business Leaders for 2010 (conducted by DDI in partnership with The Conference Board) (2002)
  • Managing Performance: Building Accountability for Organizational Success (2003)
  • State of e-Learning: Developing Soft Skills (2003)
  • HR on the Edge: Future Trends You Need To Know Today (conducted in partnership with The Human Resources Forum and Human Resource Executive Magazine) (2004)
  • ASTD Competency Study: Mapping the Future: New Workplace Learning and Performance Competencies (conducted in partnership with the American Society for Training & Development) (2004)