Progress Learning Celebrates Learning
Learning is a core value at Progress Learning
Progress Learning is committed to incorporating our four Core Values of Learning, Professionalism, Unity, and Diversity into every aspect of our company culture. These values are not simply there for us to “set and forget,” they are an integral part of our individual and collective goals.
This quarter, we would like to take some time to spotlight our core value of Learning and highlight some ways in which we commit to a standard of excellence in Learning for all of our employees. Our company was founded by teachers, for teachers, and the needs of classroom teachers and students continue to drive our vision and our business.
Individual Development Plans
As a company focused on providing quality instructional solutions, we also take our own learning and professional development very seriously. The Progress Learning Individual Development Plan (IDP) program encourages the growth and development of employees by helping them to identify and achieve their individual professional development goals.
The IDP program encourages employees to work with their managers to set measurable and attainable goals utilizing their yearly IDP funds. This allows team members to identify their own strengths and areas for improvement in order to enhance their personal and professional growth. This program ensures employees continue their learning and earn certifications that help them in their current roles, as well as in their overall career development.
What Our Employees Have To Say
Let’s take a look at some of the ways the IDP program has helped Progress Learning employees.
Haley Harper – Enterprise Customer Success Manager
Haley Harper is using her IDP funds toward furthering her own professional skills as an Enterprise Customer Success Manager. “My job description requires me to develop custom content in our LMS. I plan on expanding my knowledge of Instructional learning strategies in a corporate environment by taking LinkedIn courses that will equip me with the skills and knowledge I need to create an effective Learning culture in the Organization. I will understand the context for L&D’s important functions and designs, how to select tools that will help our organization and employees thrive, and how to successfully implement these tools.”
When asked what her 2023 goals are and how she hopes to achieve them, Haley answered, “My personal/career goal this year is to focus on Employee Retention. Being a part of HR and the Leadership team makes this one of my responsibilities. I would like to continue improving our New Hire onboarding experience.”
The course she is interested in taking will help her achieve these 5 objectives:
- Train the new employees to become productive and revenue-generating. Focus on teaching employees to be resourceful
- Minimize the cost of poorly trained new hires, in terms of substandard quality and customer service
- Reduce turnover
- Increase engagement
- Establish leadership credibility
In addition, Haley hopes to learn more about a specific instructional framework and apply it to her job. “I would like to learn the ADDIE method and apply those principles to creating and conducting meaningful training. ADDIE stands for Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation.”
Due to her busy schedule, Haley finds other creative ways of honing her professional skills. “With limited time to watch and participate in courses, I listen to podcasts and audiobooks frequently. I would like to listen to audiobooks relating to Life Coaching and coaching adults to work towards my goal in my job description that focuses on Professional Development.”
The titles Haley has in mind include:
- The Life Coaching Handbook: Everything You Need to Be an Effective Life Coach
- The 2 in 1 Life Coaching Value Collection
- Why Leadership Training Fails—and What to Do About It
- The Little Black Book of Human Resources Management
- The Essential HR Handbook, 10th Anniversary Edition
- Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning
- The Essential Coaching Leader: The Brain-Friendly Practices for State-of-the-Art Leadership in the 21st Century
- The Six Disciplines of Breakthrough Learning
By taking LinkedIn courses and listening to professional development podcasts and audiobooks, Haley hopes to achieve growth in 3 key areas:
“Professionalism – expanding my knowledge of measuring success to meet goals.
Unity – Gaining more understanding of HR principles will allow me to better support my team and expand those principles to the leadership team and staff.
Diversity – By gaining the skills I will learn from the resources on designing training programs/instructional design and the books on leadership, I will be able to bring those new skills to the teams and people I work with daily. I plan on using these skills to develop existing strategies to their full potential along with bringing new strategies to the company.”
Heather Floyd – Horizon Education Implementation Manager
Heather Floyd decided to work on two programs with her latest IDP funds: Success Coaching Level 1 Training and a Vinyasa Practice 200-hour yoga teacher training.
Her primary goals for these programs are to:
- Understand key concepts of the Customer Success Management role
- Learn and apply research-based strategies for account management, relationship building, and consultative approaches with customers
- Learn about Customer Success Management metrics
- Build confidence in a CSM role as well as in her personal life
- Increase her ability to communicate, build emotional intelligence, and hone leadership skills
Sharon Valeris – Customer Success Consultant
Becoming proficient in a second language is a personal goal for Sharon Valeris, our Customer Success Consultant. It’s also a goal that reflects all of our company’s core values, and we’re proud to help her achieve this goal through our IDP program.
“Last year, one of my personal goals was to focus on language learning. My long-term dream is to be a polyglot or a person that fluently speaks several different languages! I used Progress Learning’s IDP funds to purchase a subscription to Duolingo. I am very excited about the progress that I have made so far. Through Duolingo, I have been dabbling in multiple languages like Latin, Haitian Creole, and Korean but my main focus, for now, is learning Spanish. I was able to complete all 8 units of the Introduction to Spanish level satisfactorily. Now, I am currently working my way through the next level which is Spanish Foundations 1.
This goal is also particularly helpful in terms of customer success. As Sharon says, “I think having the ability to write and converse proficiently in Spanish would be helpful in our ability to provide support to teachers who are using the program with ESL populations.”
Besides honing her language skills, Sharon has other exciting professional goals. “In addition to language learning, I’d like to focus on effective communication for 2023. I want to focus on sharpening my writing and presentation skills. I want to communicate and connect with people more authentically. I also want to learn to create engaging customer content and communications surrounding the use of Progress Learning in the classroom. I plan to use my IDP funds to purchase subscriptions to Coursera and to Masterclass where I can take specialized courses in these areas to help me develop these skills and reach my goals.”
Lifelong Learning
It is our mission to continue to encourage the spirit of lifelong learning, not only for our customers but also for all of our employees. We’re proud to invest in our team members to help them achieve their professional and personal goals through our IDP program. Ultimately, we believe that by supporting our employees’ development, we can foster a company culture of innovation and excellence that benefits each and every one of our customers.
Request a demo to incorporate our supports for quality learning in your school today!
