How Element* is equipping their managers one text at a time

“I mean, people really loved it — it was great for us to see since this topic, dense operational training, usually isn’t the most popular.” Talent Development Lead, Element

Highlights

➡️Text-based learning has become a preffered learning modality with a learner rating of 8.1/10
➡️Learners rate their ability to apply tactical content in this format 8.4/10
➡️33% lift in confidence in ability to lead reported

The challenge

Element is a publicly-traded global cloud service company with thousands of managers overseeing hundreds of thousands of employees. With a large range of product lines, markets, and team types, they’ve had difficulties establishing a baseline understanding of core managerial concepts and techniques in accordance with company identify.

While efficacy of training and ability to track outcomes were important improvements, managers at Element had also rapidly moved to remote in response to the pandemic. With annual manager training occurring a month out, Element’s talent development team needed the utmost agility in course creation.

In subsequent role outs Element has been back in-person, but has needed to deliver to an equally distributed and busy team: global leadership. As with their earlier launches where in-person training was unfeasible due to the pandemic, these individuals were typically too busy to attend centralized in-person training.

How Element used Arist to build leadership globally

Element had a matter of weeks to begin shipping their learning to a global team of managers. They initially partnered with Arist’s curriculum team, who were able to adapt presentations Element’s talent development team would have used in-person to formats suitable for messaging app delivery.

‍"The Arist team actually made the first version from our PowerPoint deck in a few days. After we started sending it out, we’d often make adjustments as managers went through the course. Maybe we learned a link didn’t work or something was too verbose and we’d take it right out."

‍The talent development team opted to begin sending right away and iterate quickly. The range of learner data points in real-time allowed the Element team to iterate quickly based on what information points, styles or presentation, and prompts were working best.

‍"This was so interesting to us because we know everyone is more responsive on their phones, so you can see right away how engagement would be higher."

‍In future roll outs, the talent development team was able to lean into techniques and prompts they had data to back up from their initial courses. By reducing friction with small form factor lessons injected directly within messaging apps, Element has continued to be able to prompt learners for significantly more feedback than was available before utilizing Arist.

Impact of Arist for Element’s global leadership

In both Element’s initial manager training and ongoing leadership development they have observed significantly higher engagement and satisfaction compared to prior learning delivery methods. Additionally, they’ve been able to more routinely reach a wider group of their constituency in a lower lift way that does not require learner travel.

Through data-driven iteration of their micro courses, they’ve build a reputation across Element as one of the preferred learning methods. In particular,  learners have rated their satisfaction with this learning method 8.1 out of 10.

Impact wise, injecting tactical guidance and prompts directly within the workday has led to an increase in the ability to practice new managerial and leadership skills. This is evidenced by a 33% lift in leadership confidence in the ability to coach others. Simultaneously learners rate the usefulness of tactical content and delivery method an average of 8.4 out of 10.

Among Element’s managerial ranks, many have become fans of courses on emotional intelligence, coaching, soft skills, and managerial tactical guidance delivered via Arist:

“Great material that I can absorb and look back on. This is a great learning tool Good job to whoever had this idea!!”
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"Just having that reminder everyday makes me more aware and mindful of my coaching approach and use of skills”

“My biggest issue is remembering to apply my coaching skills. The daily nudges helped with that”

“It refreshed concepts I have already been studying and put a different spin on them which can aid in me remembering. I also like the brief daily engagement which triggered me a few times to do further independent learning”

*name anonymized for privacy reasons.