Artegan
CHALLENGES
- De-centralized training and tracking cost time, money
- Struggled with training compliance
Client
Artegan (formerly Spring Hill Senior Living) operates nine senior living communities in Washington, Oregon, and California, offering independent living, assistant living, memory care, and nursing services to its residents. Artegan employs about 300 caregivers across its locations.
Prior to using online learning, Artegan conducted live inservices for their mandatory training. Tracking was done via paper files, but there was no centralized tracking system among the various locations.
Challenges
Lack of Centralized Training/Tracking Cost Time, Money
Janie Deubel, Artegan’s Regional Director of Operations for six communities in Washington, remembers that “as a corporation it was challenging to get a big picture view of what training was being done and when.” With a paper-based tracking system, Artegan’s staff was spending too much time trying to keep accurate records. “When you figure an average of 10 minutes per employee to track training, multiplied by hundreds of employees, tracking time becomes overwhelming,” Janie says. Tracking involved retrieving an employee file, recording the information, and taking time to re-file each employee record. Artegan also had to pay overtime wages to employees who attended inservices off-shift, the costs of which were beginning to add up.
Struggles with Employee Attendance at Training
With a lack of accurate tracking, Artegan also faced the challenge of tracking training attendance and following up with employees to make sure they were trained. “Some communities did not have high levels of attendance for the first inservice, and it was difficult to go back and schedule make-up inservices, “Janie says.
Results
Centralized Tracking Greatly Improves Training Process
For Artegan, bringing in an online training and tracking system has greatly improved the training process while saving time and money. “The savings on staff time alone is phenomenal,” Janie says. Artegan has also incorporated the training courses into each employee’s shift work, which has reduced overtime costs related to training.
Average Time Spent Tracking – All WA Communities Before Silverchair With Silverchair About 30 hrs/week Less than 6 hr/week
All Artegan communities now use the Silverchair system for their training and tracking; Janie has loaded the new employee orientation into the system, and Artegan uses offline tracking for specialty training, such as required Alzheimer’s training for care providers in Washington. “We’ve also used offline tracking to keep tabs on criminal background checks and CPR and first aid training,” she says.
Janie also appreciates that reports are “quick and easy to use, you can see where everyone is in terms of training and we can use the information to address any concerns in a timely manner.”
Improved Training Compliance and Enthusiasm
With consistent centralized tracking in place, Artegan was able to increase their training compliance. “We set our goal for compliance at 95%, and five out of our seven [Washington] communities have between 95-99% compliance,” says Janie. She also likes that each community is involved in tracking their compliance. “The administrative assistants run reports each week and deliver them to the Executive Directors to determine what training needs to be done for the week. The communities are accountable and have ownership of their training.”
Average Compliance
|
Before Silverchair |
With Silverchair |
|
Difficult to track |
86% |
Artegan’s employees also like the new training program. “For our younger employees, it’s a ‘dream come true’ for them to be on the computer during work hours!,” Janie laughs. “And for our older employees, they appreciate the new skills they’re learning. One of our Maintenance Directors said he was excited to be able to learn so much.” Overall, the online learning system has allowed employees to take on new skills and improve their learning experience: “Silverchair really enhances their ability to learn. It’s been a positive thing for them.”
Conclusion
As a growing organization, Artegan knew that they needed to centralize and enhance their training program. Implementing an online learning system allowed Artegan to deliver consistent training content, accurately track both online and offline training, and increase their compliance rate.
“Silverchair allows me to really help our communities develop good training program and boost compliance, in a positive manner,” Janie says. “My job is now more about helping than simply calling and asking about compliance.”
