About Our Client
Our client is a contract research organization (CRO – offering clinical trial services for pharmaceutical companies) with over 12,000 employees in 60 countries and ranks among the top 5 CROs across the globe. It is one of the world’s most renowned comprehensive drug development companies – their clinical trials have helped bring 49 of the top 50 best-selling drugs to market. The company’s mission is to be involved in groundbreaking research to develop new and innovative medicines and make them available to patients quickly.
About Our Client
Our client is a contract research organization (CRO – offering clinical trial services for pharmaceutical companies) with over 12,000 employees in 60 countries and ranks among the top 5 CROs across the globe. It is one of the world’s most renowned comprehensive drug development companies – their clinical trials have helped bring 49 of the top 50 best-selling drugs to market.
The company’s mission is to be involved in groundbreaking research to develop new and innovative medicines and make them available to patients quickly.
Requirements and Challenges
Our client made a couple of major acquisitions in the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry, which necessitated the development of a comprehensive and effective onboarding program.
Their training department structured the onboarding training such that the Instructor-led Training (ILT) program introduced the new hires to different functional departments in the organization (HR, Finance, and IT, etc.), and then trained them on how to access and navigate the company’s Learning Management System (LMS).
This was to be followed by training specific to Clinical Laboratory Services and Clinical Development Services. In addition to this, online training had to be provided to Clinical Data Management professionals on writing effective queries and using software tools for status tracking and discrepancy management.
Requirements
Through the new training approach, our client wanted to:
- Cut down the time spent by new hires in instructor-led training
- Incorporate company-specific branding in training content
- Deliver interesting and effective classroom training for new hires
- Facilitate the provision of instructor and participant guides in the ILT program
- Deliver role-specific training through eLearning that the learners can complete at their own pace
Challenges
One of the main challenges in delivering the training was meeting the aggressive timelines. Because our client had a training schedule ready for the onboarding program for their Asia center, the ILT material of 14+ hours had to be ready for rollout in a span of 6 to 7 weeks.
As the company had gone through multiple mergers and acquisitions, there was a lot of disconnected and legacy training content that needed to be segregated into the essential and non-essential.
Our Solution
CommLab India suggested a blended learning program to leverage the best of classroom training presentations and online resources for onboarding. The project included the development of ILT training material, eLearning in Articulate Storyline, as well as facilitator and participant guides.
Instructional Approach
The blended learning strategy made use of classroom training, eLearning, videos, job-aids, and worksheets.
Each ILT session included an icebreaker that ensured new hires got to interact with their peers. Short group activities made use of flipcharts and handouts to involve all participants.
E-learning delivered role-specific training on tools required to be used by Clinical Data Management professionals. These courses used ‘watch-try-do’ simulations taking learners through the steps of using the tool and giving them a chance to practice working on the tool in a risk-free environment within the course.
The instructor manuals included:
- Course agendas with suggested timelines for completion and explanation of topics covered
- PowerPoint slide decks or SharePoint site links to material
- Instructor notes on how to teach, and the materials necessary to deliver the session
- End-of-chapter exercises
The participant manual included:
- Student notes for the PowerPoint decks
- End-of-chapter exercises – scenario-based and/or task-based standard questions
- Reflection journal
- Activity handouts
Deliverables
0
ILT Session Presentations
0
eLearning Courses
0
Activity Handouts
Graphical Representation of the Case
Onboarding and skill development training with a blended approach for a global contract research organization and drug development services company
Execution Time: 6 Months
Deliverables
7 eLearning courses
51 ILT session material
5 handouts
6.5 hours eLearning
14.5 hours of ILT
21 learning hours
Development Time: 1175 hours
Team
1 Visual Designer
1 Project Manager
12 Instructional Designers
3 Courseware Developers 25 Stakeholders
Success Mantra: Standardization (wireframes, templates and components),
close communication with SME and process adherence by both parties.
close communication with SME and process adherence by both parties.
Result
The blended learning strategy helped our client by:
- Drastically cutting down the time new hires spent in classroom training
- Giving learners the best of both worlds – classroom and online – to address diverse learning styles
- Leveraging technology for rapid upskilling of new hires, resulting in a positive learning experience