Here at Thinqi, our learning experts are committed to seeing our clients get the very best out of technology and proven learning science. Whether it’s paving the way for an award-winning talent management strategy like HEIW Leadership, driving effective learning transfer like Police Pass or building a culture of social learning like Bantani Education, we love seeing the results when they happen.
In our latest success story, we caught up with Sarah Mills-Woods, Chief People Officer at Caraffi to find out how she is using Thinqi to drive engagement with learning in the organisation.
The Talent[ed] product: elevating talent acquisition leaders
Caraffi’s vision is to be the world’s best talent advisory, creating brilliant people strategies that are inclusive, purpose-led, digital, data-driven and global. Their newest product, Talent[ed], is a program designed to elevate talent acquisition leaders.
Talent[ed] marked the start of Caraffi’s journey with Thinqi.
“Before using Thinqi, we would be delivering some learning and development internally, but we came to you as we were about to launch the Talent[ed] product,” says Sarah. “As part of that program, we had some e-learning content and wanted to build a network to be able to track people’s activity, so we knew that we needed a learning system”.”
To deliver Talent[ed], Caraffi needed the core elements of a learning management system, but with more options for social interaction and networking. They also needed participants of Talent[ed] to have access post-completion to an ongoing network.
“We looked at quite a few organisations but I think there were a few reasons for selecting Thinqi,” says Sarah. “I think the system provided what we needed, with the additional capabilities for networking and bringing different people into it. But also it was the way you worked with us. We dealt with a few people throughout this process and we just felt that you worked in a very similar way to us. We were clear from the start that we don’t have a massive IT team behind us – it would be me running the LMS and putting people onto it – and you were able to provide us with a level of support that meant we could do it comfortably.”
One day’s work = one hour with Thinqi
Being the sole person in charge of L&D, one highlight for Sarah has been the amount of time saved through using the Thinqi learning system.
“Previously when I’d loaded modules onto an LMS, I would put quite a big gap in my diary to give me time to create a badge, put together the wording, add the content then go back and test everything,” she says. “Just a couple of days ago, I added our final module to Thinqi and it was literally a fifteen-minute job, then I went back and did a bit of testing to make sure everything was 100% correct. I think something I would have anticipated as being a day or a couple of days’ work was probably, in all, an hour’s work. That for me was the moment I realised I can get everything I need in there, it looks beautiful when it goes out to my delegates, yet it’s only taken a short space of time to get it onto the system.”
The Announcements feature in Thinqi has also meant that Sarah can easily send ‘nudge’ communications to learners right when they’re needed.
“We use Announcements all the time,” says Sarah. “The reason I love this feature is that it’s instantaneous and I can message out to whichever network I choose. For example, I can send a message thanking people for coming to a meeting along with a link to the recording in the Library. Or, I could send a reminder for a meeting along with the Teams link so they can go straight into it. It makes people’s lives easier – I can push these announcements to the top of people’s pages and email them out, too.”
With branding options available for every announcement, this ensures a consistent experience for Caraffi’s learners.
“People are just finding it very smooth and easy to use.”
By determining what learning content people are engaging with, Caraffi are able to optimise their offering for maximum engagement. Sarah says: “The ability to look at reports and see what people are interacting with is helping us with the assessment and review process.”
The blended learning element has been beneficial in terms of engagement too. Sarah continues, “Thinqi is an absolutely vital part of the blended learning offering and brings it all together. We do lots of interactive, virtual events and navigate people towards the system, along with sending nudge content via the Announcements tool to our networks.”
Learner feedback is one of the simplest ways of determining initial reactions to the learning (particularly important if you use a learning evaluation model such as Kirkpatrick or Kirkpatrick-Phillips, where it forms Level 1 of the evaluation). For Caraffi, learner feedback has been overwhelmingly positive so far.
“We’ve been getting some really positive feedback,” says Sarah. “What I find really nice is that we’re having to ask for the feedback – usually if things go wrong, you tend to hear about it very quickly. People are just finding it very smooth and easy to use.”
However, Sarah knows that a good L&D department can’t simply rely on learner feedback as the sole measure of engagement, so along with this, she is using internal reporting in the system along with touchpoints from coaches. All external engagement is done by Caraffi’s marketing team.
“If people are engaged, then they’re going to take that knowledge away with them,” says Sarah. “Our Talent[ed] program is quite practical and engagement matters because you need to stay on top of the content and then put that learning into practice. I think engaged learners are happy learners, and we’re happy too, because it means they’re taking away from the program what they should be. We use the Badges tool in Thinqi – within the badge pathway, you have e-learning content along with virtual sessions and drop-in sessions. We will help people towards the network, link them to events and include articles. The tool is very useful in that it allows you to really show the learner the journey they need to take to achieve that module or badge.”
“It’s that combination of a system that does exactly what it needs to, along with the support.”
We were thrilled to hear that after such a positive experience with the Thinqi learning system, Sarah wouldn’t hesitate in recommending it to others. She says: “I’d definitely recommend Thinqi, and the reason is that the system does exactly what it says on the tin. You have the freedom to choose how much or how little of it you use, and hopefully we’re using quite a lot of it. If you’re a smaller organisation, you’re able to manage it, deliver it and do everything yourself which is really beneficial.”
However, the key difference for Sarah has been the level of support combined with the technology to form a true partnership approach. “I think it’s the way you work – you’re really collaborative. I think the help desk is absolutely brilliant. Whenever I think of a help desk, I expect to get something back about two weeks later, but you’re massively responsive. You come back quickly with a really practical response. I think it’s that combination of a system that does exactly what it needs to and the support in getting it up and running, along with that post-use support, that’s made a difference.”
