Introduction

A large state government agency with over 5,000 employees was in need of training, but was required to follow specific parameters. There is a political process for the appointment of judges, and as a state agency, mandates to ensure the workforce is diverse. As a unionized workforce, there are contracts that regulate what work people can do and cannot do which includes the topics of training unionized workers can take. Consumers of the training include judges, probation/court officers, and court staff.

The agency formed an evaluation team of ten senior leaders, training, union, and HR stakeholders to compare training providers. They issued an RFP primarily focused on the need for training on Microsoft Office. HSI’s reseller was brought in late in the RFP process so they chose to make the final presentation in person. They were the only vendor to make this effort and it paid off.

Training Down to a Science

Once in the room with the decision-making committee of ten, our reseller team was able to elevate the presentation into a strategic conversation about training and not just a tactical focus on training courses. The discussion evolved away from a list of topics and price to solving problems and learner engagement.

The group explored HSI’s "Training Down to a Science" approach. Our reseller covered the science of microlearning, cognitive load theory, and saccadic bilateral eye-movement. "I could see the people in the room ‘lean in’ as I explained the research-based approach," said our lead reseller salesperson.

Why HSI?

It was important to the evaluation team to make sure the courses are appropriate for the government, suitable under the union contract, and reflect their shared values and values of the agency. In addition, HSI stood out for the following reasons:

Microlearning: The nature of the microlearning makes the training easy to review and short lessons allow the training to focus on a single topic or solve a specific problem without keeping employees away from work for too long.

Soft Skills: The dialog uncovered additional soft skills training needs the RFP was not originally written to address. The HSI library was positioned to be able to solve the current pain points of today with the potential of solving future needs at a later date.

Video Style: The selection team preferred the HSI video style over the competition. The live presenter and vibrant graphics felt more engaging than the traditional elearning cartoon animations or the simple "talking head" presenter with a single camera angle.

The Result

The agency signed a three-year deal with the HSI reseller. Every month they deploy new course titles to maintain momentum and excitement around training. As of the writing of this article, the program results are exceeding expectations.

Summary of Success

Engaged Learners

Informal feedback from the users is very positive. "Users love the training as it is convenient and can be immediately applied to job work. It’s contributing to a more positive work environment", said the client. Learners are happy to be able to access training from public workstations, home, or office.

One of the reasons why our reseller promotes HSI content is that it’s much easier to use. "I deal with a lot of content vendors. HSI has very few moving parts. It just works. People get into the system, they don’t want to deal with a screen freeze or get to the end of a course and not get credit for it."

Zero Support Issues

With traditional elearning "point and click" courses, each "Next" button is a potential point of failure and the cause of a support call. The HSI videos eliminate "death by next" according to our reseller.

Higher Utilization

Since our reseller curates training content from multiple vendors, they have engagement and utilization metrics for comparison. Non-required training is typically accessed by 17% of learners across all content vendors. With HSI, 80% of learners engage in self-directed learning and access courses that are not required.