Small-but-Mighty Team at ECI Delivers Outsized Learning Program
Small teams are often short on time, with team members wearing many hats. They juggle dozens of projects — and, sometimes, they question their abilities. But the learning and development team at ECI Software Solutions has proven that small teams can make a great impact.
Their small-but-mighty team of three serves a growing international software company of more than 2,000. ECI builds cloud-based solutions for its 24,000 clients around the world, serving a range of industries from manufacturing to residential construction. The portfolio boasts end-to-end software services to help small and medium-sized business flourish. And ECI has been recognized as a Great Place to Work in several countries for its investments in employees, culture and community.
But as the company has swelled through growth and acquisitions, gaps were exposed. Up until 2020, the organization didn’t have a formal learning and development department. That changed, however, when Lisa Armstrong took up the helm and began building her formidable team that would face a big task ahead.
The Challenge
Armstrong, who’s the senior director of global learning and development, established a formal department at a time of numerous acquisitions. While exciting, it meant bringing many new people aboard, unifying cultures, and educating all on the company’s values and mission.
With Armstrong as the lead, two others joined, including Cathy Perez, the company’s LMS administrator who manages the day-to-day backend of ECI’s learning platform (which is now Skillsoft’s Percipio). Perez and Armstrong partner closely to serve the entirety of the organization — which is no small feat.
In short order, having a sound learning program in place grew in importance. The team responded by searching the market for vendors or tools to deliver learning experiences that met their needs.
Some worked at the time but failed to scale with the business. In others, they found gaps in the technical content library — a breaking point for an organization focused on software development.
What they needed was a holistic solution. They needed a platform that could scale and meet the needs of their stakeholders, like the heads of software engineering and IT. Searching the market, they found a solution that checked the boxes.
What I love about Skillsoft is it’s very easy to blend Skillsoft content with our own custom content into a journey or channel,” Armstrong said. “And it’s all seamless to the user, which I love.
LISA ARMSTRONG
SENIOR DIRECTOR ECI GLOBAL LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT
The Solution
As ECI grew and brought on more staff, the employees needed to rally around the company’s core values. For that to happen, the team needed to offer training in several forms to reach more people and reinforce the material.
What they wanted from a learning partner:
- An accessible, user-friendly system
- A comprehensive technical portfolio
- A way to gauge skill proficiency
- A customizable platform
When they arrived at Skillsoft, Armstrong didn’t choose Skillsoft's Percipio in a vacuum. She engaged others across ECI to vet the platform, review the course library, and question its abilities.
Perez supported this endeavor and brought with her a breadth of experience having worked with a variety of learning manage systems in the past. “From an administrative standpoint, I can tell you that compared to others, this is a breeze,” Perez said. “Skillsoft’s platform is really user friendly.”
When stakeholders gave the green light, the team onboarded Skillsoft with the help of their customer success manager Lisa Weber, whom Armstrong says exemplifies what a partner should be: responsive and supportive.
“We’ve worked with some vendors in the past, where trying to get a hold of the account rep was really difficult,” Armstrong said. “Lisa [Weber] is always responsive and addresses our needs.”
Now settled on a new learning platform, ECI began the tough part: Delivering a world-class training program as a team of just three.
Here’s how they did it:
The Outcome
After bringing on Skillsoft, the team went to work delivering an ambitious training program. They experimented with outreach efforts, the amount of training and events, and dialed in their system. In time, they found the right balance.
Throughout the process, positive feedback rolled in. “People feel that what they’re taking is actually benefitting them in their role,” Armstrong said. “That’s huge.”
Seeing engagement from employees and an appetite for more, the team delivers a multitude of learning experiences like these:
Quarterly Days of Learning
As a collective, the company recognized a need for proficiency in skills that are core to their business — skills like trust, leadership, and accountability. Armstrong hosts a company-wide, hourlong session each quarter that focuses on topics like building trust quickly, situational leadership and taking accountability.
These live training events see high attendance and active engagement. They’re promoted through outreach campaigns, using Skillsoft to advertise the event along with internal communication channels.
Short-form, Monthly Challenges
To promote frequent learning while staying mindful of full schedules, Perez launches monthly challenges. Learners watch a training video or complete an assignment to understand a concept and earn a shareable badge. They do this every day for two weeks to complete the month’s challenge. The daily challenge is short, taking 5 to 10 minutes.
These are a hit, contributing to a high return rate among learners; it tends to ebb between 85-90%. They make learning a habit by enticing learners’ competitive side and creating a fun experience.
Skill Benchmarks
Skillsoft’s Skill Benchmarks were a draw for the team, who wanted to gauge their workforce’s proficiency in certain skill areas.
Like the challenges, Skill Benchmarks lured employees to test their proficiency. As one would expect, employees take an assessment and see their score at the end. But where these assessments become valuable is in two areas:
- They support the learning team by helping employees determine where in a journey they should start (Think: beginner, intermediate, expert).
- Upon completion, the assessments recommend training to dispel any uncertainty about what should come next.
Of those who’ve completed Skill Benchmarks, 70% have increased their scores over time — meaning, they take the benchmark once and then revisit to earn a higher score. The team is prioritizing getting more people to retest their skills.
Custom Content and Journeys
Like many organizations, ECI creates its own training content. Much of its sales and leadership content is created in-house or done in partnership with third parties. And yet, all of this material can be supported by or hosted within Skillsoft. This is a feature that checked the box for Armstrong, who wanted a flexible platform that conformed to ECI’s needs.
“What I love about Skillsoft is it’s very easy to blend Skillsoft content with our own custom content into a journey or channel,” Armstrong said. “And it’s all seamless to the user, which I love.”
The ability to set up custom journeys easily has helped the learning team branch out. More departments are asking for custom journeys to meet their use cases, including onboarding new employees or teaching about specific products.
Stakeholders partner with Perez to set up journeys in Skillsoft, which often takes less than 15 minutes. In this way, the team saves time on administration and focuses on enabling other departments, help employees get up to speed faster, and create cohesion around product literacy.
And still, it doesn’t end there. The learning program encompasses certification training, in-person workshops, on-demand courses and assignments, and more. Despite the team’s size, they’ve managed to produce a full-scale learning experience for a rapidly growing organization that’s hungry to learn, denoted by the hundreds of employees who have actively reported positive experiences.
Talking to Armstrong, you’ll come to find their team’s size hasn’t been a deterrent but a motivator. And for those out there who also work on small teams, Armstrong lends her support:
“You can still make an impact. What we do makes a difference. It’s a fun place to be when you know you’re impacting people positively.”
HOW DID THE PROGRAM PERFORM?
91%+
Application Rate
83%+
of Learners Report Positive Feedback
85%+
of Learners Revisit Skillsoft
Learn More About ECI
ECI Software Solutions provides cloud-based business software for running small and mid-sized businesses end to end. Built by experts in manufacturing, residential construction, field service, building supply, office technology, and wholesale/retail distribution industries, ECI’s industry-specific software connects businesses and customers, improving visibility, operational efficiency, and profitability. With ECI, businesses seamlessly integrate sales and marketing, business intelligence, CRM, data and analytics, ecommerce, mobile apps, and payment processing. With more than 30 years of industry leadership, ECI is trusted by 24,000 customers in more than 80 countries globally. Headquartered in Westlake, Texas, it has offices in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Australia. For more information, visit www.ECIsolutions.com.