“ This is a gamified platform that appeals to people the way a normal app would— so you want to go in and take a look.”
Daniel Sadler, Regional Manager, Advisor Enablement, RBC
How RBC makes learning
irresistible in their
retail branches
‘If you build it, they will come’? Not when it comes to workplace training. Even the most well-designed training programs often fall short of their promised impact for one simple reason: people don’t do it.
Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) knew that to see real results from their frontline training programs, they needed to get associates engaged in learning. So they implemented a training solution that’s fun, fast and fits in the flow of work.
Only a few months into their roll-out to 8,000 retail employees across Canada, RBC is already seeing participation rates in the high 80% (and in some regions a whopping 97%). And people aren’t just logging in once—they’re coming back again and again.
How did they pull off this feat, in the midst of pandemic-related disruptions, when other training programs struggle to achieve 20% participation at the best of times?
It all started with a small pilot.
Reinforcing training to make learning stick
As senior manager of Learning Innovation and Technology at RBC, Jeremy Pearce is always on the lookout for emerging technology to close gaps and improve learning outcomes at one of Canada’s largest banks. When he came across Axonify, he saw the potential to use the training solution in their retail branches to reinforce knowledge on an ongoing basis—so advisors remember what they need to know to deliver great service.
“When it comes to enabling our frontline staff , the people who are engaging with customers on a day-to-day basis, it’s not just about growing knowledge. Embedding and sustaining that knowledge is paramount to the success of our business,” says Pearce. After the pilot, they were sold.
“The results were astounding. We were hearing from advisors in our retail locations that they absolutely loved the idea of learning a little bit every day. We were actually seeing that knowledge transfer happen as knowledge was being reinforced,” says Pearce. “From a leadership side, we were hearing from our regional vice presidents and our branch managers about the behavioral change they were seeing in their representatives and how that behavioral change was actually being sustained over the period of six weeks.”
Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, putting the project on the back burner. But shortly after re-opening began, the pilot’s sponsor team reached out again, and this time they had something bigger in mind: rolling out Axonify to 8,000 retail staff across Canada.
Competition drives adoption
Daniel Sadler and his team of regional enablement coaches were part of this rollout. For him, the ‘a-
ha’ moment came the day after he first logged into Axonify.
“The next day, I didn’t remember to do my learning, and I got this great push notification telling me not that my learning was due, but that I had 18 reward points to earn that day,” he says. “That to me represented a fundamental shift in how we would normally get people to go through training at RBC. This is a gamified platform that appeals to people the way a normal app would— so you want to go in and take a look.”
It didn’t take much convincing to get people onto the platform.
“For myself, for our team, for our leaders and client advisors who are doing the learning, the platform speaks for itself,” he says. “It is easy to use. It is straightforward. You understand the moment you open the
platform what learning you need to do.”
Gamification elements like the leaderboard ignited their competitive spirit.
“I had one coach who got their team up to 100% participation and started growing training frequency much faster than the other markets,” says Sadler. “Because the reporting is so good in Axonify, other teams saw what was possible and knew they needed to keep up.”
Soon, learning was causing a buzz in the branches, as advisors battled to stay on top.
“It was a daily conversation about the leaderboard and who was number one. That was a layer of conversation we would normally never have,” says Sadler. “Psychologically, it changed how we look at learning, and for my team and region, it struck a chord with us.”
Sustained knowledge growth on the frontlines
And it’s not just frontline employees who like the training.
“When we surveyed regional presidents, we got 100% approval ratings. They’re finding true value in the platform,” says Pearce. “The metrics they’re receiving are helping them make more informed business decisions going forward.”
Best of all, the impressive adoption has already resulted in a 26% knowledge growth across their advisors. Now that the word is out, other teams within RBC are eager to get in on the training.
“There is some significant FOMO from other teams in the retail branches,” says Pearce. “The day we launched, we got 74 emails from our branch advisors and financial advisors in our retail locations saying ‘Why don’t I have this amazing tool?’”