Case Study: Redesigning Annual Training for Accreditation Requirements
When I started my role in L&D with Groups, I experienced Annual Training as an administrator, assigning the courses and providing reports. Going through this process, I became familiar with the shortcomings in the existing training and asked to take the reigns to redesign and improve the entire process. Because efficiency would be needed to guarantee a timely deployment of the re-designed courses, I employed the Successive Approximation Model to guide the process.
Identify Areas of Improvement
The first step in re-designing the training was to clearly delineate areas of improvement:
Reporting for completion was overwhelming for leaders. The overwhelm was linked to the timing of the assignment (end of year when many other yearly requirements are fit in)
A lack of clear expectations regarding who was responsible for holding teams accountable
No measurable KPI's
Minimal communication surrounding expectations, the why, and scheduling that resulted in confusion and an increased negative employee experience
Previous SME had left organization
Establish Feedback Loop
To incorporate feedback into the process I reached out to representatives of each area of the business (i.e.: Clinical, Operational, Corporate, etc.) and asked that they take the approximated course and critique what worked, what didn't make sense, and what could be added. To incentivize feedback, the test committee was granted credit for having completed the test courses.
Assess Accreditation Requirements
Annual Training for this organization was intended to encapsulate the recurring requirements of the accreditation board, CARF. Prior to taking over this responsibility, the organization's SME on CARF requirements had moved on and left some notes for those that follow, but there was a lack of an SME on this subject. With the leftover notes, I read the CARF manual and created a course outline for each requirement.
Course requirements within CARF are also delineated by an individual's work responsibilities. For example, corporate staff are not required to complete the same training that client-facing staff would be required to complete. This enabled a more targeted approach where certain staff training could be abbreviated or removed, based off their work responsibilities.
Execute Communication Plan
Company-wide email
All-hands call presentation
Announcement email on day of assignment
Monthly reporting cadence
Results
95% compliance with all training, enabling the company to maintain accreditation
Multiple messages from leaders giving thanks for the transparency, ease of accessing the courses, and improved processes
Increased accountability by communicating to teams prior to course assignments
Previously, a top-down accountability structure was in place. Following the re-design, each team received direct communication a) confirm their direct reports and b) explaining the expectations for the course