The Challenge
ivari is a different kind of insurance company, one that has a close understanding of the health issues that most affect Canadians. They began 80 years ago; in 2015, the company was acquired by Wilton Re.
ivari’s goal is to become the most recommended life insurance provider in the industry for middle market consumers. “We want to be the life insurance provider that delivers the most authentic and personable experience to Canadians,” said MJ Macdonald, Director of Learning & Development at ivari.
Getting employees and partners ready to deliver this expanded level of service required providing flexible, targeted training. Yet ivari’s existing LMS was not user friendly and its limited functionality required time-consuming, manual workarounds. Worse, employees were not excited about using the system. “It took too much time to find what they needed,” said Macdonald. “Eventually, employees would give up.”
The system also created a tremendous burden on the HR and learning staff. “There was so much manual work, which increased labour costs. We also spent hours customizing our advisor site for content. And because planning and execution of new content took more time, we had to say ‘no’ more often.”
Why Cornerstone
Ready to find a better solution, ivari researched seven LMS vendors. Cornerstone Learning stood out from the others. “Cornerstone offered a solid product on both the front and the back end, the pricing was fair and the company has a good reputation in the market,” said George Kralidis, VP of Human Resources & Learning.
Cornerstone’s features and functionality also fit with ivari’s immediate and future development. Easy navigation meant employees would be more likely to adopt the system, which is crucial to training employees to support corporate initiatives. “Cornerstone offered all the core features we needed: course catalogue, emails, reports, custom page builder, calendar, evaluations and curriculum, just to name a few,” said MJ Macdonald, Director of Learning & Development at ivari.
During the decision-making, ivari noticed a significant difference in Cornerstone’s commitment to customer service. “With Cornerstone, there was an opportunity to build a strong relationship with the sales and business development team. They were very responsive. And Cornerstone shared our same values,” said Macdonald.
Implementation was well-structured, planned and completed on schedule. To drive user adoption, the ivari team created an internal campaign to generate excitement about the new “Learn Centre,” their new name for the Cornerstone platform.
The Results
Increased enrollments. With ivari’s previous LMS, employees often gave up before identifying courses they needed. With Cornerstone Learning, employees can find what they need within minutes. “Our employees love Cornerstone’s search functionality,” said Macdonald. “They think the look and feel of Cornerstone is intuitive compared to our previous system.”
Enrollments are up because courses are easy to locate, especially around compliance training. “We now have 100% participation in compliance-related training.”
ivari anticipates Cornerstone’s accessibility will play a key role in connecting with younger employees. “Cornerstone’s appealing design and the fact that learners can learn when they want to will help us engage millennials.”
Savings on maintenance and IT services. ivari is no longer responsible for costly maintenance or upgrades. “We’re already seeing savings related to Cornerstone versus our previous onsite LMS,” said Macdonald. “There’s less work for HR Learning and IT, not only because we now have a cloud-based service, but also because Cornerstone’s people are capable and the resources are immense.”
Reduced administrative work. The team now has more time to spend on strategic HR work, instead of tracking and managing courses and enrollments. “Cornerstone makes it easy to set up courseware, modify and track courses and create reports.”
Identified skills gaps. With Cornerstone Learning’s real-time dashboards and reporting capabilities, ivari’s L&D team can immediately identify and address skills gaps. “We can see where an employee needs more training,” said Macdonald. “Cornerstone is helping us close those skills gaps affecting current and future roles. For example, we have a curriculum called GreatStart. It helps prepare new employees to be successful in their first 45 days on the job.”
