During my time as an Instructional Designer and Trainer with Epic Systems Corporation, my team saw rapid growth due to increased customer demand and the launch of a revamped training program. In the span of about one year, my team more than tripled in size. Most of the new team members were brand new to Epic and needed to learn the software, training best practices, and general company processes as soon as possible to help relieve staffing shortages. I had the pleasure of mentoring several of these new employees, through which I discovered a need for more trainer-specific onboarding documentation.

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The Problem

While there was plenty of general internal documentation for new Epic employees, there were gaps in documentation specifically for trainers. Our new trainers needed to learn more information in less time. New trainers expressed frustration at having to sift through several pages of information to find the valuable points.

The Goal

Based on feedback from new and tenured trainers, create a guide for new team members to use in their first few months on the job.

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Note: The original documentation was created in Microsoft Office and contained confidential information. To showcase my skills and design process, I created an abbreviated version in Articulate 360 that is free of proprietary data.

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Step-By-Step Setup Guide in Articulate Rise 360

After collecting feedback and defining the problem, I began creating a solution by compiling essential information in a written guide. This guide includes specific steps for setting up a trainer's workspace and preparing for virtual classes, as well as background information about training to give new trainers the context that is sometimes missed in orientation or mentor meetings. I recreated pieces of this guide in Rise 360 and exported the project to a PDF document for preservation. View the written excerpts from the Trainer Onboarding Guide.

Scenario-Based eLearning in Articulate Storyline 360

My observations of new trainers aligned with a popular education theory: The trainers who were able to practice their skills in realistic situations retained written information better than those who only read through documentation. However, assigning new trainers to assist with real classes without the staffing to support them caused more overwhelm for all involved. To bridge this gap, I created an eLearning where new employees could apply what they were learning in a low-stakes environment before tackling a real class.

As with any great design project, this began with a storyboard and some sketching:

Impact

After creating and sharing these resources with new trainers and their mentors:

• New trainers were able to assist with and train classes 40% faster than previous cohorts.
• I received positive qualitative feedback from new employees, mentors, and management on my quarterly performance reviews.
• I created similar resources for the instructional design process, which in turn had a similar impact on new employees.
• I was asked to participate in process improvement committees as an expert in documenting and presenting information.

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What I Learned

This project provided me an opportunity to see firsthand the effects of 2 design and writing principles:

• In technical writing, short and sweet is, well, sweet. The users in this scenario didn't want walls of text. They wanted specific lists of actions, visual aids, and conversational language.
• The user truly is at the center of all great products. I was in the thick of creating this guide at my job when I started studying mobile app and web design on my own time. While my independent study taught me technical skills such as Figma and Color Theory, those projects were guided by the same principles as this New Employee Guide project. When designers keep the user front and center, the right techniques and software skills will naturally fall into place.