Senior executives need outside support to help their employees excel. For Paul Sahota, Learning Analyst at ivari, this is where getAbstract comes in: “Coaching is a skill our managers need to develop and work on. getAbstract is a great tool for providing easy access to resources that busy managers can use while coaching their teams.”

Considering the stress of everyday life, it’s not easy to get employees to invest time in their own development, says Sahota: “Time constraints are among the biggest obstacles preventing people from taking advantage of the training resources we offer. The big advantage of getAbstract is that it provides quick and easy access to relevant content.”  

Seamless SSO integration allows ivari employees to access curated getAbstract content through multiple access points, including the intranet and social media channels. The additional option of accessing text and audio versions of the content via mobile app further supports the company’s self-directed learning culture. Sahota has found that during certain times, over 50% of users listen to summaries via the audio app.

“The broad range of getAbstract content allows employees to find summaries that really match their interests and job-related learning needs,” Sahota explains. Sahota highlights getAbstract’s excellent content on many different aspects of leadership, which makes for great preparation and follow-up material for executive training workshops. One of the most popular summaries at ivari is “The Coaching Habit,” which gives executives concrete pointers on how to enhance their coaching skills.

At ivari, reading recommendations are shared in a variety of ways. Top executives regularly post their favorite summaries on the intranet, while frequent getAbstract users share their most valuable finds in the company’s monthly newsletter. “Employees like the recognition they receive for using the tool and enjoy offering advice to others,” Sahota explains.

To showcase the versatility of the getAbstract solution, Sahota collaborated with the getAbstract Customer Success Team to come up with something special: a crossword puzzle. Employees were asked to use clues from getAbstract summaries to complete the puzzle. In picking the summaries, Sahota sought to highlight the breadth of the getAbstract content: “Some summary topics were very work-skills focused, while others, such as Video talk summaries, covered topics of more general interest.”

The campaign had a positive influence on usage data, Sahota found: “The contest prompted employees to log into the portal. Hopefully, employees can now see the benefit of stepping away from their work from time to time and spending five to ten minutes on their personal or professional development. This may jumpstart them into seeking out other learning resources we offer.”

Today, 70% of ivari employees make regular use of getAbstract content, which Sahota attributes in part to the close cooperation between personnel development and getAbstract’s Customer Success Team: “Our collaboration with getAbstract is fantastic. We meet regularly to discuss our specific learning needs.”

“getAbstract’s main asset,” Sahota explains, “is that it is compact and easily accessible.”

Enabling people to search for the content they need anytime and from anywhere brings the company closer to its goal of achieving excellence at everything it does. Indeed, self-directed learning has become a key aspect of the company’s positive performance culture. Asked whether he would recommend getAbstract to other organizations, Sahota answers with a resounding “yes,” all the while thinking about the next inspirational learning program.