A Fortune 500 Restaurant Group Translated 138 Courses in 5 Weeks with Articulate Localization

The Challenge

The restaurant group needed a tool to quickly and easily localize 200+ courses into 3 languages

From in-person training to hybrid and asynchronous online modules, the restaurant group offers employees a variety of learning opportunities. For front- and back-of-house employees, the group’s online learning portal has allowed the fast-growing company to provide standardized courses across all locations for compliance, new product releases, and personal and professional development.

To date, the restaurant group has created over 200 online courses via Rise and Storyline for restaurant employees. Originally, these courses were available exclusively in English. Translation happened only on a case-by-case basis upon request due to the number of courses assigned for each job title, the time intensive-nature of the translation process, the cost per language, and the bandwidth of the team, which was composed of three in-house instructional designers. Typically, it took about 3 weeks just to translate a single pre-built course into one other language—not including the additional time needed to review and validate translations.

“Being a global company, our teams are so diverse—not everyone at every restaurant location speaks English, even in just U.S. locations alone,” says the group’s instructional media design specialist. “We’re always getting emails asking for courses available in other languages to support the diversity of our associates.”

The instructional media design specialist’s team was exploring outside vendors and platforms for translation services and localization when they discovered Articulate’s new Localization product. “All of our in-house courses are already developed in Rise and Storyline, so we loved the idea of keeping everything within the Articulate suite rather than managing different translation programs,” she says. “Plus, for some of the outside vendors we were considering, the price tag was far beyond our budget.”

They decided to move forward with Articulate Localization. Up first? Translating into Spanish—one of the most commonly-requested languages from employees—with plans to tackle Japanese and Korean translations shortly thereafter.

The Answer

With Articulate Localization, the restaurant group developed, translated, and launched a course for nearly 20,000 learners in just 2 weeks

“The onboarding experience with Articulate’s new Localization feature was really easy,” says the instructional media design specialist. “There’s a button you click to translate, then check off all the languages you need, and the initial translations happen in seconds. Figuring out the new functionality was quick and convenient since the whole workflow stays contained in one platform.”

During their trial of Articulate Localization, the instructional media design specialist’s team was able to successfully compile a collection of initial Spanish, Korean, and Japanese translations for 138 courses in just 5 weeks—a dramatic improvement on their previous pace.

For their first post-trial foray into the tool, the team tackled a time-sensitive update for a new cooking procedure that needed to be launched company-wide. The task was no small feat—they needed to not only develop the module, but translate it into Spanish, then review, test, and launch it. Their timeline? Just two weeks.

“We got it done,” says the instructional media design specialist. “It was a time-saver being able to toggle between languages within a single Storyline project and make adjustments. I was pleasantly surprised to find any update made in the English version automatically adjusted in the Spanish version, saving me so much time.”

The instructional media design specialist also received positive feedback from her reviewers, who appreciated the ease and quality of the translation process. “Our validators found it really easy to provide feedback and only needed to change a few words here and there,” she says. “The ability to create a glossary of translated terms came in handy to ensure our company-specific words and phrases were consistently translated, and the review process will get even quicker as we add to it.”

Unlocking Human Potential

Through Articulate Localization, the restaurant group ensures that all learners can get the training they need—regardless of the language they speak

For the restaurant group the ability to create content for a global audience is crucial. “If our training is limited to English, we are not reaching every learner, and we are not respecting the diverse needs of our employees,” says the instructional media design specialist. “We want to make sure that everyone is fully equipped to handle all the responsibilities of their role regardless of what language they speak, and Articulate Localization is helping us achieve that.”

The team also finds that Articulate Localization helps its trainers more effectively support their trainees in their learning journey, even if they don’t speak the same language. 

“An efficient workflow is vital to developing accessible training materials, and is especially needed for an organization as large as ours. Articulate Localization makes it so quick and easy to create content for a global audience—and all in one platform,” says the instructional media design specialist. 

With Articulate, a global Fortune 500 restaurant group quickly and easily trains employees around the world to deliver exceptional guest experiences.