eLearning for a New Generation of Employees

Jacam Catalyst

Background

Jacam Catalyst, a subsidiary of CES Energy Solutions, was formed from the recent merger of Jacam and Catalyst. The new company is the oilfield chemical industry’s leading manufacturer and service provider. Headquartered in both Kansas and Texas, with over 50 locations throughout the U.S., Jacam Catalyst’s decentralized business model is key to their providing innovative solutions to local problems.

Challenge

Jacam Catalyst’s decentralization bred challenges relating to the training needs of their roughly 800 employees. The company was reliant on instructor-led training (ILT), often conducted by its most experienced field technicians who are the company’s subject matter experts (SMEs). This training methodology had the following issues:

• With many of the SMEs nearing retirement, their “tribal knowledge” sometimes existed only in their minds; it needed to be captured into a common, permanent medium.
• Although experts in their field, the SMEs are not trained educators, so delivery of the content was not always as effective as it could have been.
• Much of the training material was outdated, redundant, or included technical inconsistencies when comparing content from Jacam with content from Catalyst.
• With employees in so many locations, in-person training was inconvenient, inefficient, and costly, taking the valuable SMEs away from their core responsibilities.

Solution

Jacam Catalyst turned to Contiem to reorganize, streamline, and transform its existing training system and resources into an asynchronous, on-demand model. Based on our assessment, their needs were a perfect fit for an eLearning solution.

Initially engaged to develop a set of seven eLearning courses, the Contiem project team began by reviewing a set of existing PowerPoint and Word files used in and beyond training, conducting industry research, and augmenting our understanding via focused interviews with the SMEs. Contiem conducted the following analyses which were used to design the curriculum and develop a comprehensive blueprint and storyboard for each course:

• Audience Analysis to learn more about Jacam Catalyst’s employees, including their roles, responsibilities, demographics, and fit within the newly-formed Jacam Catalyst organization
• Gap Analysis to assess current training materials, comparing them to their desired state
• Knowledge Assessment to learn the per-course goals for each audience and determine the best delivery and maintenance platform
• Content Analysis to evaluate and define curriculum success, dependencies among concepts, course outlines, best solutions for positive learning experiences and outcomes, and module development priorities

The storyboards detail the information to be conveyed in each course, including audio scripts and various elements to aid in comprehension and retention, such as interactivity and knowledge checks. Contiem also created a template to use for all of the courses in order to tie them together visually under the Jacam Catalyst brand, and to include functionality such as the ability for learners to upload video clips of themselves performing tasks for their supervisors’ review. Based on Jacam Catalyst’s storyboard feedback, Contiem prepared the initial set of eLearning modules.

In addition to the courses themselves, Contiem consulted with Jacam Catalyst on the selection and implementation of a learning management system (LMS) to ensure effective delivery and results tracking in order to assess the success of the curriculum.

Results

Jacam Catalyst has expanded the curriculum that Contiem is developing from the initial seven to 55 eLearning modules. As Contiem has learned more about Jacam Catalyst’s specific subject matter, the time required of the Jacam Catalyst SMEs to provide source material and review the storyboards has decreased. Jacam Catalyst management has been pleased that the stakeholders are now able to monitor employees’ completion of the courses and grasp of the subject matter. The standardized content in the eLearning also has helped the integration of the Jacam and Catalyst workforces.