Overview
Hone has had the pleasure of running an ongoing program for Arkatechture since July 2021 – Manager Bootcamp 101 – for a total thus far of 17 participants.
Manager Core 101 Sessions
Coaching I
Build High Trust Relationships
Give Feedback That Lands
Lead Highly-Effective 1:1s
The company
Hone provides leadership training for managers of Arkatechture, an information technology company that delivers SaaS BI solutions to integrate all data sources and provide a suite of executive dashboards and advanced analytics.
For this Case Study, we met with the project admin Lisa Gleason, People Operations Manager, to review the company’s experience with Hone.
“I would definitely recommend Hone from the feedback I received from all of our employees taking classes. It's, no doubt, a great learning tool that a company can offer their employees, for sure. People are excited to share what they’ve learned.”
The challenge
As a fast-growing technology company, Arkatechture had several first-time managers that could benefit from formal training aside from what the company offered. The practice of “learning as you go” left personnel without the tools they needed for effective leadership. They needed a program that provided support and taught influential management, employee-relationship building, and leadership skills.
The company encouraged formal instruction from outside sources but wanted to unify the management style of both new and existing managers, so Lisa and the Arkatechture team sought external management training that matched their business style and direction.
To address the company’s need for management instruction and integration, Lisa knew Arkatechture needed a training solution that could:
- Be tailored to pair with their management style and the direction the company is heading.
- Offer engaging fundamentals and principles that benefit both inexperienced and experienced managers.
- Provide an ongoing learner experience via flexible, learner-led classes that employees can acess remotely and consistently.
The solution
After diligent research, Arkatechture picked Hone’s leadership training program for three main reasons:
- It fit the above criteria,
- They knew Hone offered the support their management team needed, and
- Hone offered a post-program Membership, that included ongoing live learning classes that managers could attend on their own time for continued upskilling and growth.
As the project admin, Membership made Lisa very happy because it meant employees could access live classes via Membership even if they weren’t part of a core proviate program. “I was originally looking just for a four-class boot camp, and what I got completely exceeded our expectations.”
Hone Membership Meant a Continued Learning Experience for All
Hone and Arkatechture share the idea that employees flourish in a culture of self-driven improvement, which is why Membership resonated with their team. With Hone Membership, learners had access to 20+ live monthly classes that they could join at their convenience. These classes served to reinforce skills from their Core Program, and also upskilled them in areas of opportunity.
At Arkatechture, ongoing access to live learning also became a huge motivator for Individual Contributors eager to gain management skills. “Some managers are saying, ‘Hey, I'd really love for my employee to have a Hone access membership. They're taking on more leadership and mentoring opportunities, so it would be great for them to be able to have access to it too, even though they're not a manager.”
Putting this belief into practice, Arkatechture offered Hone access to all managers and employees who also benefited from the training.
Live, Virtual Training Saves the Day
One of Arkatechture’s goals is to remain cutting edge and competitive in the hiring landscape, so Learning and Development training was a must-have. However, Lisa knew that it would be difficult to implement in-person management training with multiple busy schedules and amid the Covid quarantine. Hone’s virtual program made it easy for managers to find time to complete classes no matter where they worked. “We just wanted to help our managers get on the same page as to how we manage, do so effectively, and build strong employee relations and connections.”
Membership for Reinforcement and Upskilling
Lisa reiterated that Hone Membership reinforced what they learned from the boot camp program, and employees enjoyed selecting other topics that interested them. “A lot of times, you go through boot camp, and then that's it. But by having the additional membership classes, employees are able to take the same classes to reinforce, or they can pick and choose something that might be effective and important in their own learning. People have different interests as far as skills they want to sharpen. [Hone] put the power in the manager's hand to say, ‘This is a class I want to take,’ or ‘This is something that I'm interested in learning more about,’ or ‘This is a challenge that I'm facing with my team,’ and take a class on it.”
Conclusion
The Arkatechture team agreed that Hone’s boot camp classes are helpful, and that Hone Membership was an added bonus. Lisa expounded, “We've been really, really happy. I can't think of any negative feedback that we've gotten from any of the classes. People are excited to share what they've learned.”
Immediate Positive Return on Investment
The staff’s implementation of the program’s instruction is the most noticeable aspect for Lisa. “They tried using some of the tips [from] their training in their conversations with their reports. I think that is probably the biggest return on investment because you immediately get to see the impact in a clear way. You are using tools exactly in the way that they were given to be able to see how it's returned by the employee that is reporting to you.”
Membership Moving Arkatechture Forward
The company plans to continue to implement the Hone program. Lisa disclosed, “We actually made it a requirement that managers should take at least one Hone class per quarter. It’s had a super positive impact.”
