Overview
Georgia’s Own Credit Union partners with Hone to provide live virtual classes that teach essential workplace skills to its more than 700 employees. Through the partnership, Georgia’s Own is able to:
- Address organization-wide skills gaps and continuously upskill employees
- Accelerate the team’s growth and development to drive better results across the business
- Engage employees on a deeper level, leading to a significant increase in retention and morale
“The vision was to find a creative, interactive solution that provided our employees with real value to learn skills, ask questions, and engage in content that was relevant and timely.”
The company
Georgia’s Own is a $4.3 billion Credit Union with more than 239,000 members. They use Hone Membership to provide live learning on critical power skills – like empathy, inclusivity, and leadership – to employees across the organization.
The challenge
Behind Georgia’s Own Credit Union, you’ll find more than 700 employees, from frontline workers who support their 13 locations to its corporate team. Investing in learning was a priority from a leadership and employee perspective, with growth and development continuously a top ask from employee surveys.
Georgia’s Own needed a way to support career growth and development for this diverse group of employees, but the HR team knew that traditional webinars or training videos wouldn’t deliver the results they were seeking. Instead, they wanted live, interactive classes taught by expert instructors where employees could ask questions in real-time and practice the skills they were learning with others.
The solution
After in-depth research, Georgia’s Own Credit Union chose Hone’s live skills development platform for a few key reasons:
Easy to upskill the entire organization at one time
A top priority for Jessie George and her HR team was to provide a consistent learning experience across the organization by giving everyone at the Credit Union access to the same classes. With Hone Membership, the team could make learning accessible to every employee in a cost-effective way and give their entire team access to unlimited live classes.
“Hone provided the live and interactive learning we were looking for. With our budget, we could reach all employees with Membership.”
– Heather Carlisle, Director of Human Resources
Wide variety of classes for every learner
With Hone, Georgia’s Own Credit Union isn’t limited to classes tailored to one specific audience of learners. Hone’s vast library of 100+ classes offers something for all of their employees, with a wide array of classes about communication, leadership, and inclusivity – just to name a few topics.
Now, learners can acquire new skills at their own pace, on a schedule that works for them. In addition to the regularly scheduled classes on essential workplace skills, learners can also join Masterclasses taught by renowned industry experts on timely issues, such as combating imposter syndrome or building psychologically safe relationships.
Effective classes designed to drive behavior change
Every Hone Membership class is a live, instructor-led experience, and typically runs for 60 minutes. Classes include group breakout sessions that allow learners to start practicing the skills in real-time. The sessions help learners “use the information immediately and start forming habits – and habits are what make development work,” says Kim Paulk, Corporate Programs Development Director.
Not only does the HR team see the benefits of the breakout sessions – learners do too. “I loved the breakout sessions and the ability to talk to others in the class about the subject,” shares a Georgia’s Own Credit Union learner.
Gamified learning that engages learners
One key strategy for learner engagement was to gamify the Hone experience. Together, Hone’s in-house team of Learning Strategists and the Credit Union’s HR team created a “choose your learning adventure” program to encourage learners to take more classes. The program has four levels for a learner to advance through:
To reach the coveted "Master Learner" status, learners must take 12 classes in one year. This program was an instant success with learners, leading them to take more classes on their own time and continue building the skills that mattered most to them.
Easy-to-use platform that learners and HR leaders love
Hone has an intuitive platform that’s easy for learners and HR leaders alike to navigate. With Hone, the Georgia’s Own HR team can get visibility into learners’ performance and track their progress.
Conclusion
Since partnering with Hone, Georgia’s Own Credit Union has experienced significant impacts across the business, including:
- High employee engagement and a multitude of positive feedback from both learners and leaders
- Improved employee morale through flexible learning opportunities for ongoing development
- Increased retention with the transparency and knowledge that the Credit Union cares about employees
- Improved culture with the ability for employees to build stronger ties with others, make new relationships, and deepen existing relationships
