A 90% year-to-year retention rate for PIC Group with their certification-friendly LMS

PIC specialises in the unique needs of the power generation facilities worldwide. Their mission is to provide our customers with the highest quality solutions possible.

Services include technical consulting, staff augmentation, documentation and training, operation and maintenance support, and start-up and commissioning.

The Challenge

PIC Group Inc delivers training and operations & maintenance support to a global audience. In the past, training was mainly delivered in person or through on the job training, with training records being kept using spreadsheets and paper. Additionally, PIC needed to have a single LMS that could host training for multiple organisations, all needed specific position tailored learning plans that could be completed on an annual basis, with past records archived.

With advancements in web-based training and record-keeping, and the need for an LMS which would better suit their look and feel and customisation requirements, PIC contacted Tech Transfer to help move their qualification program into a more customisable learning platform.

The Solution

PIC Group decided to work with Totara Partner Tech Transfer, who agreed to deliver an LMS which better suited their needs.

Totara Learn was chosen as a flexible, highly customisable LMS, making it more appropriate for PIC Group than their previous solution. The LMS launched in April 2013 and rollout began in 2014.

One of the key features PIC Group needed was the ability to certify learners for a limited period to ensure compliance over time, as well as administer customized learning for each sub-organization and their positions. This includes annual, bi-annual and tri-annual certifications, all of which needed to be recorded and managed through the LMS.

Totara Learn’s certification functionality made this process very simple and reduced administration time for PIC Group.

At the end of the certification period, the LMS resets the relevant course and reminds the user to get recertified. It has been easy to build and enroll people in this process, and helps PIC Group manage a complex set of new and expiring certifications online.

It was also important that their new LMS would support the face-to-face element of their blended programme. It is important that learners can demonstrate their understanding in person; for example safety training or showing how to run a power plant control room.

Tech Transfer were able to set up the face-to-face booking system in Totara Learn to make face-to-face session administration more efficient, making the process much easier for PIC Group and its learners.

In a high-risk environment, ensuring compliance is crucial, making powerful reporting an important requirement of PIC Group’s new LMS. With the help of Tech Transfer, they were able to set up custom reports to show the learners’ progress through the programmes on offer and who had achieved certifications. Reporting was structured around hierarchies, ensuring the correct user records where shown to the assigned managers and managing staff.

Last but not least, the system had to be intuitive, easy to navigate and user friendly. Totara Learn has significantly more features and functionality than their previous LMS, meaning Tech Transfer were able to get the look-and-feel right.

The Results

There are currently around 400 users registered on the LMS, and PIC Group have reported excellent feedback so far.

They are also enjoying an impressive 90% retention rate for people staying with the system from year to year, showing that people like the LMS and find it a valuable part of their training programme.

Each sub-organisation has tailored programs and certificates for each position at their facility streamlining learning and making it position specific.

With the use of customised records and organisation/position hierarchies, PIC Group can pull records from current and archived training, as well as printing out reports when necessary.

Customised homepage navigation ensured little ramp up time in learning how to navigate and interact with the site, meaning learners were able to start training as soon as they were enrolled.