Goodwill of Colorado Builds a Safe and Respectful Culture

The Big Scary Thing… Leadership Buy-In  

There are several factors that go into getting a training and development program adopted in an organization. One of them is having the right people in positions to drive the importance of creating a culture of continuous learning. Another is carefully designing programs that tackle a problem the organization is facing.

But, before these can take place, leadership buy-in is crucial to get the necessary program support. From a BizLibrary survey sent to training and development professionals, 24% of respondents said that gaining leadership buy-in was hard for them or nearly impossible, so we know that it’s no easy task!

Our client, Goodwill of Colorado, experienced a slow adoption of their training program, but once they had it there was never a question of what value it brings.  

So They’re Pros at Buy-In? That DOES Impress Us Much!   

When Goodwill of Colorado first became a client they partnered with BizLibrary to provide them with content to support a few of their training initiatives. After a few discussions, Georgia, Director of Learning and Development, realized there was so much more potential for taking what they were already doing to the next level if they upgraded to BizLMS.

While budgets were tight, BizLibrary worked with them to create a contract that was feasible for them.

Georgia notes that “What they were able to get for what they could spend compared to what else is out there was an incredible deal.”

While it took some time to convince the CEO that the purchase was justifiable, the positive changes that having an LMS brought were undeniable. She now uses it herself to go in and check certifications, program completions, and more. Because Georgia provided the benefits of BizLibrary and stood behind the product, every year when it comes to getting budget approval, the answer is always YES (we love a good proposal story)!  

But Wait! Did Someone Say Successful Programs? 

Glad you’re still reading, because we did! Goodwill of Colorado has done an excellent job at taking their existing programs and elevating them with the help of BizLMS, BizLibrary content, and additional support materials. 

You’ve heard before that compliance should always be beyond “check-the-box,” and they’re doing just that. Ensuring that their employees are safe and respected is of the utmost importance to them.

After solely leveraging BizLibrary’s content and LMS for their annual compliance program they realized they had an opportunity to incorporate DEIB training after reviewing BizLibrary’s playbook. These playbooks outline everything you need from start to finish to create and run a robust training and development program. No matter which topic you select from our library, each is complete with:  

• A use case overview  
• Statistics to help show the importance of leadership  
• Steps on how to use the Kirkpatrick Model to prove ROI  
• Recommended time frames for program delivery  
• Activities unique to each topic  
• Discussion questions to be used in a blended learning setting  
• Marketing email templates  
• BizLibrary content mapped to each subtopic  

Taking some of the statistics from the buy-in section of the playbook allowed the team to gain buy-in easily. Now they are seeing:  

1. A reduction in accidents  
2. Significant cost savings  
3. Remaining OSHA-compliant 

And because they use BizLMS to administer the training, it makes a serious difference when tracking who has completed the training and staying on top of employees to get it done.  

Furthermore, Goodwill of Colorado began a management development training program. Using a blended learning approach, this program brings together learners to discuss the topic of the month, wins, and they use this opportunity to talk through challenges with their peers.  The managers participating in the program are assigned courses to watch and articles to read within BizLMS to prepare them for their cohort discussions.

Often Genevieve will hear feedback at the end of the meetup that goes something like “We really love coming to these so we can chat about our concerns and issues with others who may be experiencing something similar.”

On a regular basis, they also ask the participants if there are any topics they would like to see focused on to help them do their job better, which allows for the program to stay relevant and builds learner buy-in.  

Finally, the training and development team is underway with implementing a new Employee Lifecycle program. An additional topic BizLibrary’s collection of playbooks cover is Onboarding. When Genevieve and Georgia walked through the playbook with BizLibrary, they drew inspiration to set up the new program.

To get buy-in for completely transforming how their organization does onboarding, they started with a current state assessment. Leaning on the milestones from the playbook, they analyzed what they were hitting well and strong, but then on the flip side spent time identifying the areas of improvement. One of them is the opportunity to tie in safety.

They took their proposal to leadership positioning it as more than just a training course when employees are hired on, but rather an influential program to gain better retention. Leadership was immediately bought in, and the program became a strategic goal for the entire organization.  

It Wouldn’t Be a Success Story Without Hearing About Their Results 

Results are important to evaluate when determining whether the training programs are yielding the desired outcomes. Goodwill of Colorado does this in two ways – quantitatively and qualitatively.

When looking at quantifiable metrics the team first looks at employees who complete the assigned training. They are then able to alert managers of who has or hasn’t, which makes it easy to hold everyone accountable.

Additionally, they can pull employees’ quiz and test scores from the programs that require them to be certified in various job operations. This ensures that the people they have performing these operations are up-to-date on their certification and don’t pose a safety threat. From a qualitative perspective, the managers are constantly looking at behavior changes from the employees who take the training.

Because they know what the performance should look like after the training, they are able to monitor employees to ensure the desired outcome is met, and if not, provide feedback on how to display the correct behavior within a particular setting.  

Gaining that initial leadership buy-in for BizLMS has been an integral part of Goodwill of Colorado’s successful programs. We can’t wait to see what else they accomplish as they expand their training programs to other areas of business.