Hillyard revolutionises its training approach with a successful blended learning programme

Hillyard is a leading manufacturer and distributor of cleaning and hygiene solutions in the US. They provide their products to educational institutions, healthcare organisations, building service contractors and industrial settings.

The Challenge

Hillyard pride themselves not just on their quality cleaning products, but also on their ability to train partners and employees how to use them safely to achieve better results from their cleaning to improve their expertise and productivity. This means that they need a robust, reliable and efficient training solution to ensure this information reaches the right audiences at the right time.Having previously only used face-to-face training, Hillyard had experimented with other LMSs in recent years. However, these proved unreliable and could not be customised to the extent that Hillyard needed, making them unfit for purpose. At the end of their last LMS contract, Hillyard decided to look for a new, low-cost, flexible LMS.

The Solutio

As providers of online and offline training, it was important for Hillyard to find a solution which supported their blended learning programme. It was during their six-month search for a suitable LMS that they came across Totara Platinum Partners Synegen,before deciding to opt for Totara Learn.Synegen worked hard to ensure that Hillyard’s LMS would be suitable for their needs. Their multi-tenancy Totara Learn has been fully branded and customised to fit their look and feel, and can also be customised to suit the brand of partner organisations if required. It enables Hillyard to share training with its clients more easily, and gives managers more control over the way they distribute and monitor content.  As well as this, their platform has been designed with engagement in mind. The LMS notifies users to remind them about their training progress, helping to boost engagement and completion rates.Furthermore, Totara Learn has made the learning administration process significantly easier. Hillyard are now able to import data themselves in-house, rather than relying on a third party to do it for them, and they are able to produce custom reports to give them the data they need to monitor progress.

The Results

Hillyard currently has 2,200 active users, and adds around 170 more each month. Previously, they used to send salespeople to provide face-to-face training to clients, but Totara Learn means that new people can join every day without having to wait a full year for the next training opportunity. This has significantly cut the cost of training for Hillyard, and has made the learning process more efficient.

Totara has provided us with the flexibility to build an LMS that suits not only our needs, but the needs of our clients as well.  Even with all its features and capabilities, we were able to make enhancements and changes that make it much more our own.In Synegen, it was important for us to partner with a company that showed they would embrace our needs and expectations for creating a unique and engaging experience. From our past experiences we knew up front an off the shelf LMS would not meet our needs and Synegen made it clear from the start they had every intention of partnering with us to ensure Totara would deliver the experience we desired. – Jay Redmond, Director of Training and Development, Hillyard

Totara Learn also means that training is more standardised across the board, which is vital when it comes to important safety training for their cleaning products. This platform has given Hillyard a way to distribute content to end users directly, helping them improve the value they add to their clients’ experience.Hillyard have also been delighted with the transparent and helpful service they have received from Synegen. 

What’s Next

A key aim for 2016 is to work with Synegen to enhance the appraisal system, allowing Hillyard to build ongoing performance appraisal into their people management system. Hillyard is keen for the LMS to become part of everyone’s daily activities, and for people to go to the LMS for extra knowledge and skill building rather than just completing training because they have to. Their ultimate goal is to become the number one source of training for all their clients, and Totara Learn is the ideal platform to support this ambition.