Unboxed Training & Technology Wins Gold and Silver Brandon Hall Group Awards

by | Sep 11, 2019 | 3 min read, Featured, News

We’re proud to announce that Unboxed Training & Technology has won two esteemed Brandon Hall Group Excellence Awards for our work with Hilton Worldwide to develop the Hilton Core Sales Skills program.

Unboxed received a Gold award in Excellence in Learning for Best Advance in Competencies and Skill Development, and a Silver award in Excellence in Sales Performance for Best Sales Onboarding Program.

“Brandon Hall Group has long been viewed as the industry experts when it comes to recognizing learning excellence,” said Unboxed CEO Brian Leach. “We are thrilled to receive these two prestigious awards with our partners at Hilton. We’re delighted to see the positive impact that the Hilton Core Sales Skills HCCS program is having around the globe!”

The Hilton Core Sales Skills program is a comprehensive sales training curriculum developed by Unboxed and Hilton to unify their Hilton Global Sales Team around proven sales skills and behaviors. The Core Sales Skills program standardized the sales training process across Hilton’s 17 unique brands and many operating regions.

Hilton Team Members participated in an eight-week blended learning program that used microlearning techniques and in-depth learning sessions to maximize engagement and retention. Learners completed a mix of live-action videos, reflection activities, simulations, and virtual instructor-led training sessions to practice and hone their skills. Hilton’s internal assessment of core sales competencies found that the first wave of participants in the program saw a 37% increase in their scores on critical metrics.

“The HCM Excellence Awards recognize programs that measurably benefit organizations,” said Mike Cooke, Brandon Hall Group CEO. “Many human capital management departments are unable to confirm that their initiatives help the business’s bottom line. Because we focus on measurable benefits, our awards program is universally recognized and highly prestigious.”

Award entries were evaluated by a panel of independent industry experts, Brandon Hall Group analysts, and executives. Each entry was evaluated based upon the following criteria:

·     Fit the need: How well did the competency/skill model effectively align with business needs and situation?

·     Design of the program: Was the program designed to address competency/skill gaps?

·     Delivery: Was the learning program delivered effectively, in a manner easy to access and apply?

·     Measurable Benefits: Did the program produce measurable benefits and outcomes?

·     Overall: Did the program demonstrate a positive impact for the learners and the organization?

“The Brandon Hall Group Excellence Awards Program has recognized leading organizations for the past twenty-plus years for the latest trends in Human Capital Management,” said Rachel Cooke, Brandon Hall Group COO and leader of the HCM Excellence Awards Program. “The initiatives that were honored are not only innovative but fit the unique needs of the business and create truly remarkable success stories.”

Share This Article

Featured Resource

Download the B2C Sales
Training Checklist

More Articles Like This One

ATD 2019 – Are You Ready to Take Action?

by | May 13, 2019 | 3 min read, Most Recent, News

Where can you meet Oprah AND Unboxed in person? Only at the world’s largest talent development conference, of course! The ATD 2019 Conference is fast approaching, and we’re excited to join L&D professionals from across the country. Come say hello to us at Booth #1425!

Starting with the End in Mind

Once the conference is over, the question becomes, how do you take your new learnings and opportunities and really make an impact back at the office?

Consider this: without reinforcement, 50% of information is forgotten within one hour and 90% is forgotten within a week. It seems disappointing that you might walk away with only 10% of the inspiring content you hear at ATD.

If you keep that thought going, of that 10% of information that you remember from ATD, how much of that are you going to use to implement change for your learners? How much of what you implement will learners retain? And the million-dollar question, how much of what learners get trained on will impact their performance and ultimately your company’s bottom line?

Well, enough of that glass is half empty stuff! There is hope and you’ll be amazed at how easy it can be to implement the change your company needs.

The answer is simple and yet overlooked: Action-oriented learning. It’s the transfer of knowledge and ideas into real, on-the-job, actions that translate into better performing employees. Learning should never be a one-time, static event. Following the intake of new information, a learner should immediately have an action or a way to put into practice what was just learned in order to reinforce and retain that information. While this is not a brand-new idea or concept, it is difficult to put into practice for a variety of reasons including lack of buy-in, funding, or time.

Our goal for the ATD 2019 conference and training in general, for that matter, is for you and your learners to take meaningful action that will positively impact behaviors and your company’s goals.

 

Hear from Leaders at LinkedIn and Hilton

Any learning philosophy is only as good as its results. We’ll be featuring our work with L&D leaders from LinkedIn and Hilton, and the success they’ve had with action-oriented experiences to engage and challenge modern learners while driving large-scale change.

Join unboxed’s panel discussion on principles of the modern learner on sunday, may 19th from 1:30 – 2:30 p.m. ET

Email hello@unboxedtechnology.com if you’d like us to save you a seat!

 

Experience a One-of-a-Kind AR Demo

We also can’t forget to mention our Booth #1425. Stop by during the expo hours to experience some of the ways we’re using AR in training today. You can also meet some friendly Unboxed team members and pick up some “action-oriented” swag.

ATD 2019 brian leach

Don’t Miss Out on All the Action

Lastly, if you haven’t yet registered, you can do that here.

Already registered? Add us to your conference agenda and be sure to come say hi to us at Booth #1425.

Whether you’re attending or not, join the conversation on Twitter by following @unboxedtech and make sure to tag us using the official conference hashtag #atd2019.

 

See you in D.C.!

Share This Article

More Articles Like This One

Announcing the Spoke Assessment Builder

by | Mar 20, 2019 | 7 min read, LMS, Most Recent, News

Great news! You can now build, configure, and assign a quiz or poll within Spoke LMS. Spoke assessment builder will help you save time creating assessments and lets you track your team’s progress, all in one place.

Let’s have a look.

 

Building an Assessment

Creating assessments in Spoke is a breeze. You don’t have to bother with an external authoring tool or worry about uploading a SCORM file—you can do it all right within the app. First, you’ll enter assessment details like title, description, and duration. You can attach the assessment to an existing course pack or course, and toggle key settings on and off, like learner reviews, coin value, and notifications.

 

 

 

Then, create your questions. You can choose from multiple choice, multiple select, and true/false format depending on your needs. If you’ve already written the questions, you can copy and paste content from another document, or draft questions right in the app. Once your questions are in good shape, choose whether to assign a deadline or track compliance, and you’re good to go.

 

Accounting for Learner Experience

Assessments are easy for learners to access, appearing right alongside courses in a typical course pack. You may instruct learners to complete a course before taking an assessment, or you might create a baseline or pre-assessment for them to take before training. As soon as they complete an assessment, learners see immediate results and are able to identify improvement opportunities. They can also keep track of overall scores and compliance status over time by viewing a report.

 

Team Data

Inside Spoke Reports, you can keep track of your team’s results and drill down to see individual learner data. This empowers you to create coaching opportunities based on each learner’s knowledge and skill gaps.

Spoke’s Assessment Builder makes it easier than ever to create assessments, track progress, and see trends over time.

 

Ready to make assessments more impactful? Request a demo of Spoke or attend an upcoming Spoke webinar.

Share This Article

Featured Resource

Free Step-by-Step LMS Buyers Guide

More Articles Like This One

Unboxed Awarded 2019 Top Workplace

by | Mar 12, 2019 | 3 min read, Most Recent, News

Unboxed Training & Technology has been awarded a Top Workplaces 2019 honor by The Richmond Times-Dispatch. The list is based solely on employee feedback gathered through a third-party survey administered by research partner Energage, LLC, a leading provider of technology-based employee engagement tools. The anonymous survey measures several aspects of workplace culture, including alignment, execution, and connection, just to name a few.

“Top Workplaces is more than just recognition,” said Doug Claffey, CEO of Energage. “Our research shows organizations that earn the award attract better talent, experience lower turnover, and are better equipped to deliver bottom-line results. Their leaders prioritize and carefully craft a healthy workplace culture that supports employee engagement.”

Brian Leach, CEO and Co-Founder of Unboxed noted, “When Dave Romero and I founded Unboxed Technology in 2009, we wanted to create an extraordinary culture to allow our passions to thrive and our dreams to become reality. We did this for all the people who use (or will use) our products and for our team members. Our extraordinary team defines the personality and strength of Unboxed. We’re so honored to be on this journey together and to be awarded as a Top Workplace in Richmond!”

 

About Unboxed Training & Technology

Headquartered in Richmond, VA., Unboxed is a leading provider of training and technology solutions that help workforces from start-ups to Fortune 50 achieve results like increases in: sales, employee productivity, and speed to competency.

Learn why Unboxed’s people and solutions are not only different but make a difference.

 

Unboxed-team

 

Share This Article

Featured Resource

Free White Paper – Guided Selling
Where can guided selling fit in your sales strategy?

More Articles Like This One

Take Your Training Beyond Gamification

by | Feb 21, 2019 | 7 min read, Employee Training, Most Recent, News

As gamification has been an increasingly popular training technique to motivate modern learners over the past decade, we’re sure you’ve applied some of these practices to increase engagement and reinforce learning with your employees. But if you haven’t started using actual games in your training yet, you should look to this opportunity as a way to have an even greater impact on your learners.

The enemy of modern training is distraction, and games have been scientifically proven to heighten attention, sustain focus, and drive action. It’s time to go beyond gamification with your training.

You might be asking yourself, “Great, I’m sold on using games in training, but what are the best practices when implementing games into my training programs?” Answer: Games have the most significant effect on learner behavior when used to reinforce and sustain new learning.

This means it’s probably not the best idea to use games to introduce brand new product or compliance information. Here are some best practices questions to consider before jumping into games (pun intended):

  • What skills do you want your learners to gain?

Are you looking for your learners to be able to explain, infer, relate, solve, interpret, or recognize? The type of outcome you want will change which game you should choose.

  • What type of setting will the training take place?

Will your learners be taking a self-paced course where they’ll likely be competing against themselves or will this be used at a live training event with many people playing the game at once?

  • Do you want the game to be collaborative or competitive?

Each group of learners have different preferences. Your sales team might enjoy a competitive game more than a collaborative game, but you need to know your learners and what motivates them.

  • What type of performance objectives are you looking for?

Similar but slightly different than the skills question, when your learners finish their training, what part of their performance should improve? Strategic thinking, knowledge acquisition, or increase in comprehension?

Data has shown that through games, learner engagement increases from a few minutes to an average of 10 minutes of practice. Additionally, through repetition, we’ve seen a knowledge lift of 63% by the third encounter with the reinforcement material.

We’re Game

Before you start asking around the office for a coder, we can help! Unboxed can now create a variety of games for your team. Check out our games page for more information.

 

Game Description When to Use
Jeopardy Traditional Jeopardy format Assess and reinforce hard skills and soft skills
Jump Mobile-style arcade game Memorization of key info turned fun and competitive
Trivia Complete with points, streaks, and leaderboards Transform traditional assessments
Match Mobile-style match-3 game Memorization of key info turned fun and competitive
Scramble Reorder scrambled sentences Test terminology retention
Scenarios Realistic contextual simulations Assess cause and effect decision making
Sort-It Sort answers into correct categories Practice strategic thinking skills
Recall Recall info from a video or image Encourage visual learning and memorization

 

Need more?

Listen to a recording of our webinar, “Beyond Gamification: 3 Secrets on How To Level Up Your Training With Games.”

Share This Article

Beyond gamification Webinar

3 Secrets on How to Level Up Your Training with Games

Gamification has become an increasingly popular technique to motivate and engage modern learners over the past few years. But gamification can only motivate a learner but so far. Join us to find out what 3 secrets you can apply to experience growth on learner attention, engagement, and knowledge retention.

Listen Now

More Articles Like This One

Spoke LMS: The 9-Time Winner

by | Feb 12, 2019 | 3 min read, LMS, Most Recent, News

 

We’re proud to announce The Craig Weiss Group has named Unboxed’s Spoke LMS as the #1 LMS for Consumer Goods for 2019, #5 in their Top Nine LMSs for the United States. And the #11 LMS in 2019. The Craig Weiss Group continuously monitors the training marketplace for the best providers and services, and we are pleased to receive such an honor.

Spoke has previously been the recipient of numerous awards and recognition over the past few years for its modern, intuitive user interface, and social, blended learning capabilities. These awards include:

•  2018 Top 50 LMS, The Craig Weiss Group

•  2018 Training Industry names Spoke to its 2018 LMS Watch List

•  2017 Top 50 LMS, The Craig Weiss Group

•  2017 Training Industry names Spoke to its 2017 LMS Watch List

•  2016 Top 50 LMS, eLearning 24/7

•  #2, Gamification

•  #3, Social Learning

•  2015 Top 50 LMS, eLearning 24/7

•  #5, Social Learning

•  #8, Next-Gen LMS

 

Spoke has also been a part of the blended learning strategy that won Spoke client, Ultraceuticals a 2017 Platinum LearnX Award and helped Xfinity Mobile see results like, 5.5x increase in course completion and 2x more user engagement.

 

Word around the street about Spoke:

The Senior Vice President of Comcast said, “Spoke has led to increased performance for every team member. They connect with each other in the Community, and tell me they can’t wait for more training to earn more coins.”

Another client representative from BH Media Group said, “I have to tell you how grateful I am for Spoke’s user-friendliness. It makes my job a lot easier! Thanks for all your hard work in making this a positive experience!”

We want to thank our clients, who provide the user feedback we need to help us continually improve our Spoke platform. An additional thanks goes to our hardworking Unboxed team members; they continue to raise the bar.

About The Craig Weiss Group

Providing consulting and advising services, The Craig Weiss Group analyzes the effectiveness of various e-learning platforms for buyers and suppliers.

About Spoke LMS

Spoke is the modern social learning management system that connects training, communication, collaboration, and gamification to help you train, engage, and reward your teams. To learn more, watch our Meet Spoke video or request a demo.

Share This Article

Featured Resource

Free LMS CheckList, Assessment, and Guide

Download Now

More Articles Like This One