Making annual training work for employees and HR
A healthcare organization needed to deliver its annual employee training, but the free learning platform it had relied on was no longer workable. A new HR system with a learning module was planned, though it wouldn't be ready until after that year's training period. The organization asked me to help it decide how to deliver training in the meantime.
Practice for workplace decisions
My first plan was to convert the organization's PowerPoint presentations into online courses and deliver them through a hosted learning platform. Reviewing the material showed that employees needed to practice the decisions they might face at work, so I built the courses around what to notice, how to decide what to do next, and when to check a resource or ask for help.
The four original courses were HIPAA, Bloodborne Pathogens, OSHA, and Workplace Violence annual training. Each includes decision-based practice. Completion requirements include assessments or required scenarios, depending on the course.
In one Workplace Violence scenario, a visitor stays outside a restricted area while asking for an exception, then crosses the boundary and follows the employee. Later, the visitor steps back and accepts assistance. Learners have to reconsider what to do next as the situation changes, and the feedback explains which facts matter and why a response makes sense.
I checked the content against government websites and publications as well as the presentations, which helped separate regulatory requirements from official guidance and the organization's own procedures. Reviews covered the scenarios, answer choices, feedback, and instruction, alongside accessibility checks and technical testing.
Custom images for the course scenes showed the settings and circumstances learners were being asked to consider.
A separate reception scenario follows how the employee's space to move changes. Anonymized adaptation of course artwork.
A system HR could use
Walkthroughs with HR showed that the hosted platform I'd planned to use had a steep learning curve for the person who would assign courses and keep records. So I built a custom learning system around that work, with the organization's branding and its own web address.
In a usability test, assigning 68 learners to four courses required 272 individual Assign clicks. I added bulk assignment, which let HR complete the same task in as few as 12. HR can also download completion records for audit evidence and reporting. Employees see all their assigned courses in one place, with due dates, progress, and their training history.
Training underway
The organization is now using the system to assign and track this year's training while it prepares for the new HR system. The courses are packaged in a standard format. The organization plans to reuse them in the new system's learning module next year.
The custom courses also inspired the organization's VP of IT to build his own Cybersecurity Awareness course and deliver it through the same system.
When the course's caption default needed changing, I edited the package he had already supplied, saving him from fixing, rebuilding, and resending the course.