From Traditional to Transformational: How Efecty Reinvented Its Corporate University With Open LMS

Efecty, a leading financial services provider in Colombia, offers a wide range of services, including payments, top-ups, withdrawals, betting, lotteries, and insurance. With an extensive network of service points across multiple cities, Efecty has grown to become a reliable, easily accessible financial solution for millions of Colombians.

To maintain operational quality and efficiency, the company developed the Efecty Corporate University (UCE), which focuses on training and skill development for its diverse user groups. These users fall into two main categories:

• Internal employees: This group includes approximately 642 administrative and operational staff who play essential roles in the daily running of the company. A key part of their onboarding process is the "Yellow March Plan", which sets clear 30-day, 90-day, and one-year goals to ensure a smooth and culturally aligned induction for new employees.
  
• Business partners: This cohort works at stores that operate service points in partnership with Efecty, ranging from single-location operators to those managing multiple outlets. Efecty works closely with these partners, offering training for them and their employees to ensure efficient service point management.

The Challenge: Outdated Training Methods, Impacting Engagement and Operational Efficiency

Despite using Open LMS since 2016, the platform hadn’t been fully leveraged. In 2023, the arrival of fresh ideas, combined with the accumulated experience with Open LMS, marked the beginning of a much-needed change.At the time, Efecty was facing significant challenges in training its external users. Traditional training methods, primarily using lengthy PDF documents, proved inefficient and unattractive, leading to several issues:

• Low retention and canceled partnerships: The long, complex content hindered learning and reduced motivation, delaying the opening of new service points and, in some cases, leading to the withdrawal of unmotivated business partners from the partnership.
  
• Lack of effective feedback: The absence of proper mechanisms to collect and analyze feedback made it difficult to improve and adapt training programs to users' actual needs.
  
• Inefficient communication: Communicating with a diverse and geographically dispersed user base was a challenge, as effective channels hadn’t been properly established to relay information and updates promptly.
  
• Limited progress tracking: Without robust mechanisms to monitor user progress and performance, it was difficult to identify areas for improvement and ensure the training programs' effectiveness.
  

These obstacles directly impacted Efecty's operational efficiency and limited its ability to expand while maintaining high service standards across a growing network of service points.

The Solution: A Comprehensive Transformation, Including Microlearning, Gamification, and Effective Communication

Aware of the need to reinvent its training strategy, Efecty undertook a comprehensive transformation of its corporate university in partnership with Open LMS. This strategic shift included several key initiatives, grouped into two main categories:

1) Enhancing the Quality of Educational Content

• Effective microlearning: A microlearning approach was adopted, with the creation of short videos under five minutes, facilitating quick and effective information absorption. These videos were complemented by summary infographics that reinforced key points.
  
• Interactivity and gamification: Using tools like H5P, quizzes and interactive activities were embedded within videos, making learning more interactive and engaging.
  
• SCORM simulations: Simulation environments allowed users to practice operational processes in a safe setting before applying them at service points, improving their knowledge, confidence, and competence.

2) Improving Communication and Feedback

• Efficient communication channels: The quickmail functionality within Open LMS enabled immediate and direct communication with users, allowing updates, reminders, and real-time feedback.
  
• Personalized reminders: Automated reminders encouraged timely course completion, significantly improving compliance rates.
  
• Automated satisfaction surveys: Surveys at the end of each course collected feedback on content, format, duration, and language, providing valuable data for continuous improvement.
  
• Advanced monitoring and analysis: Open LMS’s analytical tools allowed detailed tracking of user progress and performance, facilitating trend identification and pinpointing areas for improvement.
  

READ MORE ON LMS TOOLS | ‘Building a Powerful Elearning Ecosystem With Open LMS at Its Core’

The Results: A Highly Effective Training Program Valued by Business Partners

The transformation achieved with Open LMS has resulted in tangible and measurable benefits for Efecty, reflected in significant improvements in its goals and KPIs:

• Reduction in attempt numbers: Prior to implementation, only 37% of users passed the evaluation on the first attempt, 28% on the second, and 35% required a third attempt. Now, 75% pass on the first attempt, 18% on the second, and only 7% need a third attempt.
  
• Improved knowledge retention: The final evaluation score improved from 8.2 to 9.2, and the percentage of users achieving this score on their first attempt also increased. Combined with fewer attempts, these metrics demonstrate a significant improvement in teaching effectiveness.
  
• Faster onboarding: Average time spent per course dropped from two hours and 30 minutes to just 35 minutes. The total program completion time decreased from one week to eight hours, allowing for more content to be included in each induction session and accelerating the opening of new service points.
  
• Increased user satisfaction: The use of various tools and learning formats raised overall user satisfaction from 3.75 to 4.24 on a 5-point scale. Participants highlighted improvements in language, content length, and format, which enhanced their engagement and motivation.
  
• Boost in training hours: Annual training hours reached a total of 60,751, compared to approximately 3,660 hours under traditional synchronous learning models, representing a substantial increase in the educational impact of the organization.
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  International reach: As an added benefit, thanks to both the LMS and their partnership with Western Union, Efecty was able to train Western Union business partners outside of Colombia to send money directly to Efecty points, expanding its reach globally.

Looking Forward: Continuous Innovation at Efecty Corporate University

Efecty has ambitious plans to continue innovating within its corporate university. One of the main objectives is to leverage Open LMS’s easy integration to implement AI tools that better respond to the specific needs of business partners. The company aims to use machine learning technology to automatically identify knowledge gaps and areas for improvement, suggesting additional content and resources for each user.

Another development in progress is personalizing communication through Open LMS’s exclusive Personalized Learning Designer (PLD) plugin. This tool will allow Efecty to send personalized communications and recommendations based on each user’s behavior and progress, avoiding unnecessary reminders and improving training efficiency.

Finally, Efecty also has exciting ambitions for the "Yellow March Plan." It aims to fully automate its staff onboarding process, eliminating the need for manual course assignments thanks to Open LMS’s Program feature. This will allow new employees to follow personalized training paths that automatically adjust to their specific roles, ensuring faster and more effective integration into the company.

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