Enabling organization-wide learning agility

A nonprofit health system headquartered in Midland, MidMichigan Health covers a 23-county region with medical centers in Midland, Alpena, Alma, Clare, Gladwin, Mt. Pleasant and West Branch. The organization also offers home healthcare and physician services and has a strong commitment to medical education.

MidMichigan’s Educational Services and Development department is responsible for the development of more than 7,000 employees, volunteers and physicians. Yet the department’s 15-year-old learning management system (LMS) made it increasingly difficult to deliver, track and manage training.

“Everything required a workaround,” said Tracy Hall, education specialist at MidMichigan. “The search system was so primitive, users had to scroll through seven pages to find the right course. We couldn’t run reports without creating a data file and then transferring the data into another system. Courses that had pre-requisites had to be tracked manually in spreadsheets.”

In addition, the LMS didn’t allow for the bundling of courses, which made it difficult to assign training by job role. “It was a very outdated system,” said Craig Nelson, education system specialist at MidMichigan. “The technology was archaic and couldn’t keep up with our changing development needs.”

In the search for a solution, MidMichigan established several “non-negotiables”— any new platform needed to be user-friendly, focused on the learner experience and scalable. Just as critical, the new LMS had to be easy to learn. Employees were going through EPIC training and had little time to learn any additional software. The platform also had to be accessible to all employees, from physicians to housekeeping, food service to IT. “We wanted an LMS that would meet the needs of everyone in our organization, not just those that are technology savvy,” said Hall.

After an extensive RFP process, MidMichigan selected Cornerstone OnDemand’s unified talent management solution. “We chose Cornerstone because it was innovative, intuitive and easy to use,” said Hall. “From a time-management perspective, Cornerstone allowed our educators to focus on educating and content development instead of managing spreadsheets.”

Cornerstone has also enabled MidMichigan to expand its talent management capabilities over time. “Cornerstone is continually updating the platform, giving us more functionality as our needs change,”
said Cassidy Reif, education system specialist. “It’s able to grow with us.”

Ensured scalability to accommodate rapid M&A growth. With Cornerstone, MidMichigan can easily deliver learning to hundreds — even thousands — of new employees. “This scalability is especially crucial, as much of the organization’s growth is through mergers and acquisitions,” said Tara Clifford, senior education system specialist. “It’s much simpler and less time-consuming than our old system.”

Saved time by bundling courses. For MidMichigan, the ability to build curricula has been a tremendous time saver. “With Cornerstone, we can finally package courses together. For example, if we have a new nurse on the medical surgery unit, they can access compliance, new hire and EMR training immediately and all in one place,” said Hall. Added Nelson, “We’re now able to offer EPIC training across our entire system, to employees, contractors and providers. Employees have a clear sense of deadlines and the tasks they need to accomplish around EPIC training.”

Created an engaging, professional learning experience. Because MidMichigan’s previous LMS was clunky and difficult to use, it didn’t engage learners — or create a good first impression. “The old LMS didn’t look professional, which reflected negatively on HR and the organization,” said Hall. “Cornerstone enables a positive, engaging learning experience for employees. The interface is easy to use and looks modern.”

Enabled organization-wide learning agility. Upcoming changes in healthcare will require constant learning. “Agility is so crucial today, and healthcare organizations need to be able to push out learning as it’s needed,” said Clifford. “With Cornerstone, we can send out information very quickly as policies or procedures change.”

Targeted training by role. Prior to Cornerstone, the department relied on enormous spreadsheets to track role-specific training requirements. “Each one of our more than 7,000 employees and physicians have different learning styles, assigned regulatory education, time frames for completion — the list goes on,” said Hall. “Cornerstone enables us to automatically deliver targeted training to the right person in less time.”