How Sana is changing the game for knowledge sharing and growth opportunities at AddLife and its 85 subsidiaries
by John Thornberg, Commercial Excellence Manager at AddLife
97%
completion rate on code of conduct, the highest it can be
365%
increase in views of quarterly financial reports
Challenge
The 2,300-person company made up of 85 subsidiary companies had no LMS and was running training efforts manually. A core part of the business model is focused on upskilling employees to boost performance of the companies, so not having an end-to-end global solution that could be controlled centrally was holding back their potential.
Outcome
Implementing Sana helped AddLife realize its vision of having all learning and development, networking opportunities, best-practice sharing, mandatory training, and information sharing in one place. Engagement and completion rates are up, and they predict the knowledge-sharing opportunities created by the platform will help them achieve their biggest KPIs.
“We’ve always been proud of our knowledge-sharing and networking. But we didn’t have the right tools to be as good as we could be. Now we are. Sana is helping us live by our values.”
One system that unites all learning and nurtures the culture
Learning and Development is what connects our employees, and it’s a critical function for us. With 85 subsidiary companies and 2,300 employees globally—and a small head office of just 20 people—we needed a robust learning platform that could glue us all together in a motivating and natural way. Sana was that platform for us.
We didn’t have a system for learning before implementing Sana. We ran AddLife Academy—our classroom and e-learning training—over Teams. We were proud of it, and the quality was great. But we couldn’t see which courses employees had completed or offer them a next step.
Sana allowed us to bring all of our employees into one system and go far beyond just learning and development. It’s become a vital way to nurture and deepen our culture. Sana is a place to network, get to know colleagues, share knowledge on best practices, and find company information—as well as hosting all of our training sessions.
We own and acquire companies in niche segments with offerings aimed at the healthcare sector. So one powerful way for us to add a lot of value is to upskill employees in key areas and improve overall company performance. We’ve always prided ourselves on being good at knowledge-sharing and networking. But we didn’t have the right tools to be as good as we could be. Now with Sana, we are. It’s helping us live our values.
“We see internal knowledge- and best-practice sharing as an important effort to improve our KPIs. I think this will have a big impact for us.”
Boosting engagement and completion rates of mandatory training
Before partnering with Sana, we did everything manually. We occasionally sent emails, published information on an intranet, and used Teams for training workshops. It was time-consuming and hard to track. I was traveling around the world, hosting workshops on improving sales performance. Sana has replaced all that.
I started my search with 12 potential LMS platforms and a vision for the learning experience. We wanted one platform people could use daily to take courses, ask questions, and connect to a bigger network within the company. For us, it was a crucial decision.
Most suppliers were focused on self-paced learning experiences, and were weak on the collaboration and networking features. Sana didn’t have all of the features we were looking for from day 1, but they were part of the roadmap. And I saw how quickly they were moving. Now Sana is the only system we use.
One of the first things we published in Sana was our mandatory code of conduct. Compliance is important to us—we track the completion rate to ensure people are upholding our standards. With Sana, we’ve reached the maximum completion rate of 97%. (There’s always a gap with employees leaving and starting.) It’s because we can have the training in seven different languages, but still easily follow up on the reporting. And the platform’s UI makes the experience much more engaging.
We also started sharing our financial reports and have seen a 365% increase in the number of views in Sana compared to sending it through Hubspot. The engagement rate is much higher than it was before because our employees know if it comes through Sana, it will be more accessible, interactive, and engaging.
Empowering subsidiary companies to train their sales force
One of the biggest advantages of Sana is that everyone working in sales has access to the foundational knowledge they need. The bar to create and categorize content is also much lower now, and this is a big efficiency win for us. Since we don’t have the central resources to create all the learning content for all our subsidiaries, we’ve always needed the subsidiary companies to do it, but few did before Sana.
We have the highest Sana usage in Spain, where they’re even creating courses in Sana on how to use Sana for themselves. Product managers in one of our Spanish subsidiaries create their trainings in Sana Live, Sana’s interactive virtual classroom, so the sales reps understand the complex products they’re selling. The tool empowers and enables the managers to meet this responsibility more easily and more effectively.
The learning experience for our sales reps is also more engaging and collaborative now. The reflection cards in Sana Live are a big reason. They’re an important tool for us. The participants can ask questions, see what others are writing and have a dialogue with the trainer and the other learners. All of a sudden, the sessions are more tailored, and it deepens their learning experience.
Now if you’re a product manager in Spain, you’re required to host all of your training in Sana Live. You’re not allowed to use Teams. That’s the way we're heading with the whole organization, and we’re taking it one step at a time.
New knowledge sharing possibilities that achieve KPIs
The effort we're most proud of is our best-practice sharing. We have all of these fantastic employees, but the wider organization hasn’t been able to benefit from their skills. Now, every month, one employee records a video to share a best practice on a specific topic.
A year from now, I want Sana to be the go-to place for our employees on a daily basis. Just as you open Outlook first thing in the morning, you also open Sana. We’re headed that way. Most of our employees are so happy that we offer them a system with these kinds of opportunities.