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About Our Client
Our client is a reputed healthcare company that specializes in nutrition, diagnostics, medical devices, and branded generic pharmaceuticals. They focus on continuous innovation to help disease management, improve heart health and elevate the level of diagnostics. The company also manufactures products that equip healthcare professionals with diagnostic information at the point of care.
Today the company is spread over 150 countries and employs around 100,000 people.
About Our Client
Our client is a reputed healthcare company that specializes in nutrition, diagnostics, medical devices, and branded generic pharmaceuticals. They focus on continuous innovation to help disease management, improve heart health and elevate the level of diagnostics. The company also manufactures products that equip healthcare professionals with diagnostic information at the point of care.
Today the company is spread over 150 countries and employs around 100,000 people.
Requirements and Challenges
Our client used to conduct 6-week instructor-led training (ILT) for new sales representatives covering their huge portfolio of drugs. This training program, though well designed and in-depth, was not producing the desired result of quickly increasing sales reps’ proficiency, thereby delaying time to market. Expansion of their product portfolio also necessitated the induction of more sales reps, leading to increased training requirements that called for engaging a trainer on a regular basis and organizing the logistics of trainees.
Requirements
Our client was looking to transform their product and sales training to help them:
- Reduce the duration of their ILT training sessions
- Provide accurate and accessible information to sales reps to help them better market their brands to medical practitioners
- Utilize clinical application scenarios to help sales personnel better handle queries and objections from doctors
Challenges
The main challenge in developing the training was to condense the huge bank of information on each drug into comprehensive and accessible online learning for sales reps, most of whom were not necessarily from a pharmaceutical background.
Another challenge was to provide the training in a format that would take into account the limited time the sales reps had available for training.
Our Solution
CommLab India, in consultation with the client, decided on a microlearning approach to meet their requirements. This included the development of modules for each product on:
- Building awareness on the disease the drug targeted, and its effects on the human anatomy
- Indications, contraindications, dosage and restrictions of the drug
- Performance of the drug vis-à-vis its competition
- Clinical application scenarios and research findings of the drug
The major challenge in developing these microlearning modules was to ensure information from subject matter experts (SMEs) was captured accurately. Since the SMEs were new to eLearning, they did not understand that the complete ILT material need not necessarily be included in the eLearning.
We collaborated with the client and conducted onsite training for the SMEs on eLearning, basic instructional design and the process for generating the right kind of content. We also invited SMEs to visit our premises and work with our instructional designers and developers, so that they understood our course development process. These steps were instrumental in helping the SMEs gain insights into the nitty-gritty of eLearning.
Due to the technical nature of the course content, we ensured that we had a medical practitioner as the learning consultant for the project. Our project manager ensured constant communication with the client to condense the content into meaningful eLearning modules.
Instructional Approach
We created an eLearning curriculum of microlearning modules on various drugs. Every product was covered in 5 to 6 modules, with each 10-15 minute module accessible on a range of devices. The courses were developed in Articulate Storyline as it was the best tool for multi-device compatible content at the time.
Our approach for scaling up eLearning development for the entire brand portfolio was based on standardization, reusability, and repeatability.
The consistent look and feel to the design cut down on development time and effort.
Deliverables
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400 Microlearning Modules
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100 Learning Hours
Graphical Representation of the Case
Converted ILT material to microlearning for sales reps, to be used for onboarding and also as performance support
Success Mantra: Training of client stakeholders, standardization, and constant communication.
Result
The training was well received by the learners and resulted in 98% completion rates, which was previously unheard of in the company. The microlearning training strategy helped our client:
- Reduce the duration of the ILT session from 6 weeks to 2 weeks
- Make the courses available on laptops and iPads,
- Ensure learning was accessible anytime, anywhere (at the time of need, as a job-aid or performance support)
- Use clinical application scenarios to help sales reps have informed discussions with clients
