The training covers key pieces of information off of the mandatory paperwork required for our district, and compiles it in a way that the message is easily received. With the amount of people getting trained / hired, it has eased the supervisors of a portion of training. This overall has helped our district be more efficient and able to hone in on the department specific trainings…I can personally say that it has decreased my 1.5 hour training orientations to 30 minutes!

Challenge

The Lockport Park District hires a large percentage of their employees as seasonal help. For every new employee hired, a division supervisor trained them face-to-face, armed with a printed listing of topics to cover. Individual supervisors ran down their topic sheets like a checklist, each one putting their own spin on the material. Some blitzed through the training in 15 minutes, others took close to 2 hours. In particular, they struggled in two key areas: the time their supervisors spent delivering training, and ensuring a consistent message. New hires were also given a CD containing company policies for them to “read at home” after completing their training with the supervisor.

Solution

We created an eLearning course that presented core training in six key areas. The training covered everything from personnel and workplace policies, to equipment, workplace, and personal safety. The course combined activities and educational imagery, with images from the Lockport facilities, to provide a familiar and tailored feel. We also embedded segments of the Park District’s actual policies into the course, and partnered them with scenario-based activities. This gave learners an opportunity to practice finding policy information on their own, and ensured the Park District that new employees had, in fact, reviewed the policies. Documenting this information was an important compliance requirement for the Park District.

Impact

By using eLearning, we significantly reduced the impact onboarding had on the day-to-day responsibilities of supervisors. We were able to reduce the time supervisors spent delivering training by two-thirds. The interactive eLearning course ensured every new employee received a consistent message. It also helped new employees to get off on the right foot, making them more productive. By combining scenarios with excerpts from actual policy documents, learners were required to find and apply the aspects of the policies to their jobs. This taught them how the policies impacted their responsibilities, not just what the policies said. Additionally, including the policies in the course allowed the Park District to document individual user completion in a way that satisfied their compliance requirements.