Granite Telecommunications Achieved 95% Learner Completion 4 Quarters in a Row With Articulate 360

The Challenge

Granite needed to improve the efficiency of its account manager training while preserving interactivity

Training has always been a key facet of Granite’s strategy for delivering exceptional customer experiences. But until recently, its learning and development team, called Granite University, relied mainly on live, in-person instruction rather than e-learning. 

One of the most time-intensive areas of its in-person training was its process for getting new account managers up to speed. After hiring, team members would go through a three-week-long instructor-led training that combined onboarding, product, and technical training, as well as some soft skills training, to ensure they had everything they needed to meet client expectations.

In her previous role at the organization, Curriculum Manager Kendra Maxwell facilitated these live trainings. Just as one cohort of account managers wrapped up training, another would begin, repeating the process monthly. To complicate matters further, team members for the entry-level position frequently changed roles within Granite shortly after completing their training. This made the process especially taxing and time-consuming to facilitate, and left Maxwell with little time to create other types of training.

Maxwell also uncovered another issue with the approach. At Granite, account managers work with products and services on different timelines. But the in-person training strategy didn’t allow team members to go back and review training easily. This meant that there was often a significant delay between when team members would learn about product processes and when they’d have to apply that knowledge. 

To tackle this, Maxwell began creating videos and reference documents, posting them to the organization’s public share location so account managers could review the training collateral any time after completing the live training. It was a significant improvement—but Maxwell knew there was still a ways to go before these resources could function independently and serve as engaging, effective, measurable learning experiences.

The Answer

With Storyline, Granite converted a 3-week in-person account manager training program to e-learning

While Granite had never used e-learning software in the past, Maxwell saw the potential for its training impact, and began exploring e-learning solutions. She initially explored Easy Generator and Adobe Captivate, appreciating how these tools made it easy to create interactive elements—like clickable hotspots that reveal additional information. However, she knew a greater level of customization would be necessary to create the type of virtual learning environment where Granite’s teams could practice their new skills effectively. 

Maxwell found Articulate, and did a test run of Storyline to ensure the interactivity features were robust enough. “When I tried Articulate 360, I immediately thought, ‘I’m done looking—this is exactly what we need,’” says Maxwell.

She began converting the 3-week in-person live training into virtual courses with Storyline. In addition to hotspots, she also frequently included screen recordings in courses to demonstrate key processes. 

Now, account managers can complete training when it works best for their unique client relationships. “If a customer call comes up during our training program, the rep doesn’t need to reschedule or worry about missing the class,” says Maxwell. “It’s at their own pace, so they can pause the content or read the document as many times as they need.” 

The shift to e-learning has also been valuable for creating timely training updates. Granite frequently refines its  processes to increase automation and efficiency—and as those processes change, it needs to have training prepared. “With Articulate, we’re able to train our team on process updates nearly instantly,” says Maxwell. 

In January of 2024, Granite’s CEO, Robert Hale, announced a new initiative for company-wide quarterly training on key topics. This goal: for 95% or more of the entire company—over 2,000 of Granite’s 2,200 employees—to complete training. 

The team set to work creating Articulate courses for each of the topics, which included walkthroughs of key software solutions the organization uses, as well as product-specific training for certain product lines. In one certificate, they created a branching scenario to mimic real-life interactions team members might face on the job. 

Not only did the training surpass goals, achieving over 95% company-wide completion, but it also reshaped how  training is approached across the organization. “Now, teams throughout the company ask for Articulate training for their initiatives,” says Maxwell. “They’ve seen first-hand how it can produce real results.”

Unlocking Human Potential

Through its e-learning first approach to process training, Granite has increased the efficiency of training while reducing burnout

Maxwell’s work with Articulate ultimately earned her a promotion to Curriculum Manager—reflecting changes to her role and the organization’s new approach to training.

“Since getting started with Articulate, I rarely do live training anymore,” says Maxwell, whose role has shifted to focus primarily on e-learning. While live training is still an important strategy for certain parts of the business, e-learning modules are now released as follow-ups to new processes for those who can’t attend live, or for new hires down the road.

As a result, Granite has seen significant time savings and greater efficiency and scalability in its approach to training. Many of the company’s e-learning courses can be completed in roughly half of the time that the live versions would take to complete. Those hours add up—Maxwell estimates that Granite has been able to reallocate over 800 in-person training hours to other tasks.

All the while, Maxwell’s focus on building interactive e-learning has allowed employees to continue practicing their skills and acting out different types of customer interactions—all in a low-risk environment. 

The shift to an e-learning first approach has had a positive cultural impact on the organization, as well. For example, Granite values being able to internally promote people to management positions, but this creates a training cadence that makes live training difficult. E-learning has provided a useful solution, allowing Maxwell to create online courses for key managerial processes like approving PTO and tuition reimbursement. Now, even if only one or two employees require the training every month, they can still get the instruction they need in real-time without requiring a live facilitator. 

On the training side, Maxwell has found that the shift to e-learning has made her position much more productive and sustainable. It also gives the organization the opportunity to offer even stronger and more comprehensive training for more groups across the organization. “I love my new role,” says Maxwell. “We’re able to reach more people with e-learning, and offer them something even better than before.”

With Storyline, Granite Telecommunications has successfully scaled its training program, achieving 95% completion for organization-wide training while saving countless instructor hours and preserving its high-quality and interactive approach.