Safety Concerns Come First.
Learning Continues.

Challenge

As Rodan + Fields entered a phase of rapid company growth, its IT team faced ongoing challenges.

They lacked the infrastructure and approach to effectively support the rapid scaling. Regularly facing revenue-impacting website issues, the IT team was beginning to burn out from the daily “firefighting” and the IT leadership knew they needed a better approach.

To meet increasing business demands and to improve as a group, they needed a proactive and process-oriented methodology for managing and delivering IT services. They sought a proven framework of service management best-practices, but they knew they couldn’t succeed alone.

Solutions

R+F needed an established partner with a record of success—someone they trusted to understand their unique needs, craft the right plan and collaborate with them to bring the plan to fruition.

Enter Learnit.

Together we designed and implemented a customized ITIL® training program tailored to R+F’s unique needs.

By delivering the ITIL® suite of classes in private sessions to the entire team over the past 2 years, Learnit’s experienced real-world ITIL® instructors were able to understand the company’s unique challenges and goals and address them in the curriculum design. Because the training content was relevant and discussed first-hand, the team could implement the ITIL® approach more quickly and with greater results.

Results

IT services quality is now regularly meeting and exceeding customer expectations. The IT leadership team believes their focus on regular and consistent ITIL® training has significantly impacted their department operations and culture—from more service-focused team communication to greater transparency and more ownership of end-to-end service quality. Other outcomes include:

• More effective and efficient incident and change management processes
• An improved proactive team approach to problem identification and resolution
• More consistent and measurable customer-focused service delivery

With the support of Learnit, the R+F IT leadership team transformed their technology organization from what was a perceived liability into an impactful source of sustained competitive advantage.

Challenge

In a market like San Francisco, with so many established high-tech companies and innovative start-ups offering numerous perks and benefits, competition for talent is tough. If you’re a gov’t agency like the Department of Public Health, how do you compete? You can’t “outbid” for talent and you can’t match the amenities.

On top of that, hiring for civil service can be a tedious, 6 month long process, at best. To succeed, DPH realized that they needed to redesign that process.

Enter Learnit.

Solutions

Working closely with the DPH, Learnit developed a new talent development strategy and multi-faceted customized training plan dubbed the 1010 IS Trainee Program.

The approach was simple, yet revolutionary: Seek and hire different kinds of candidates—those who are inexperienced and under skilled for the job. Then train them.

With the strategy locked, Learnit set to work designing a custom program—a hybrid of in-class training and certifications and customized hands-on experiences with seasoned mentors within the Department of Public Health.

We made sure classes were scaled—first to onboard employees to the program, then to equip them with performance enhancing basics before advancing to more specific systems.

Those that demonstrated professional competence and successfully completed the structured training program became eligible to compete for entry-level positions in the IS Engineer Assistant (1041) and Business Analyst Assistant (1051) classifications.

The Program: The Hard and Soft Stuff

Our training program targeted the fundamental technical skills of Networking, Database, Server, Hardware and Security. “Classroom” training was complemented with the invaluable practical experience of rotations with different IT groups and mentors. In order to remain in-program, all candidates had to attain Professional IT certifications which helped put them on the path to success at DPH and throughout their career.

But for candidates to really thrive as part of the DPH team, they would need to acquire a range of soft skills as well. So we trained candidates in Project Management, Process Improvement, Service Management, Communication, Collaboration as well as Critical Thinking Skills.

The combination of hard and soft skills served to create a dynamic well-rounded talent pool primed and ready to help support the organization and drive DPH forward.

Our Theory

We believed that we could upskill candidates in all the right ways and that once they're onboard, gratitude would set in.

As time goes on, both competence and loyalty will grow, employees will like the meaningful job and work environment, and they’ll stay.

Results

We found folks who appeared committed and aligned to DPH culture, and gave them a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to come into IT with none of the typical pre-requisite background necessary for college or IT work experience. Trainees still needed to earn it themselves by showing up, doing the work and getting certified.

Risky? Yes. But the program worked.

Of those trainees who started the program 80% completed successfully and were hired, and of those hired 94% are still with DPH.

In partnership with Learnit, DPH has been able to hire more efficiently and fill difficult positions more quickly.

In short, employee morale is high, turnover is low and the San Francisco Department of Public Health is, well…healthy.

Challenge

Triage Consulting Group works with healthcare providers on their Revenue Cycle Functions, specifically geared toward ensuring its clients are receiving proper reimbursement from payers. To succeed, they need quality data and the ability to interact effectively with that data.

With very specific requirements for technical knowledge and competency, Triage sought a deeply experienced partner they felt would truly take the time to understand the nuances of their business—one capable of creating a highly customized and specific learning program, and who would be dedicated to working with them at all stages to ensure success.

Triage turned to Learnit.

Solutions

The assignment called for more than providing standard technical training. To succeed would mean fully integrating with Triage, understanding their organizational challenges and specific data details that drive the business. It meant “becoming one of them.”

So that’s what we did. Beginning with a deep dive into discovery, we embedded in their process until we not only understood how they store, use, and access data, but could also successfully channel company culture and values.

Beyond Discovery

With discovery complete, we set to work designing and developing a unique three-part learning curriculum spanning the spectrum from the basics to advanced practices:

• SQL Foundation - Triage Best Practices
• SQL, SSMS and Excel - Working Together
• SQL Techniques - Faster Queries

To maximize engagement and learning impact, all classes integrated Triage case studies into the curriculum. To establish confidence in our instructor and a baseline for all participants, the program started with excel pivot tables before moving on to complex SQL queries.  Some advanced more quickly than others but we kept everyone attaining SQL knowledge by adjusting the progression and pace through the curriculum.

Results

Learnit’s customized program has been a success with a wide range of benefits including:

• New consultants ramp up quicker.
• Less reliance on the ‘local expert’.
• A common language surrounding Triage data, and best practices for querying data.
• More efficient queries.

Learnit and our lead instructor hit a home run with staff who are now confidently skilled and fully in command of the core functions and high-level capabilities of SQL.

Leadership is equally pleased: