The steady growth of the e-learning industry has been intensified due to the unexpected outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The new norms such as social distancing and lockdowns are further boosting the need to go digital. Several digital learning platforms are making the most of this opportunity by providing innovative digital content. Skill Pill is one such platform that strives to create useful digital content ‘in the flow of work’. The company provides services from performance support which sets out how people can be their best selves at work, to optimization for digital devices such as mobile, and the ability to drop content into workflow tools such as Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Trello.
The Motivation behind Skill Pill
Gerry Griffin, the Founder of Skill Pill, has been a major driving force behind the company’s success. Despite being a great believer in face-to-face learning, he noticed that content retention decay is one of the biggest flaws of the face-to-face system. He realized that maximum content was lost within six weeks. This inspired him to lay the foundation of Skill Pill in 2010. Skill pill was established with an aim to emphasize on managing content retention decay more efficiently and ultimately producing good quality and engaging content. Gerry said, “From day one, our aim was to create mobile-ready, ‘in the flow of work’ content, which would help people apply the learning they may have accrued elsewhere.” The company is continuously striving to bridge the gap between face-to-face learning and its application.
Customized and Omnipresent Content
Skill Pill optimizes the content for the end-user. It prominently focuses on soft skills which are difficult to teach but essential to thrive in the modern workplace. The company has also developed an engaging way that doubles content retention and positively impacts the behavior. Alongside its content, Skill Pill is one step ahead of its peers because of its flexibility. It serves clients better by allowing access to content on their LMS along with the company’s LMS.
Skill Pill’s responsive courses mix videos, quizzes, flashcards, comics, and further reading, are specifically suited to learners regardless of their learning style or learning device. It also creates bespoke custom animation for its clients, matching their brand and tone of voice. Apart from this, Skill Pill’s content is available in over 20 languages and has been deployed in 168 countries across the globe. Major corporations like BBC, NHS, and John Lewis use Skill Pill’s best-in-class content.
Unparalleled Customer Service
Apart from the content, Skill Pill also gives high emphasis on its customer service and hails it as one of its USPs. It has always put a high value on good customer service, due to which several organizations have been with the company from day one. Skill Pill has a very high net promoter score and has grown primarily through recommendation, which further justifies that the clients are satisfied with its services. Highlighting client satisfaction, Gerry says, “To ensure client satisfaction, I think you must be sensitive to what your partners are going through. More than ever, it is hugely important that we have good value for money and relevant digital content, rather than loads of expensive dross.” The team of Skill Pill has been highly instrumental in achieving the excellence in behavioral soft skills and business management models.
Smooth Transition to Remote Working
Remote working was not new to Skill Pill as its employees have always worked at least one day a week from home. The company has provided voice-over IP phones for the team members to boost internal communications. Consequently, when the crisis arrived the team responded to the challenges mindfully. The team members actively communicated and clarified points via Slack.
Apart from this, the team frequently checked in with each other and organized a virtual social session over the summer. Furthermore, the best way to combat the risk of isolation during remote work was to maintain as much office structure as possible. Thus, Skill Pill kept its Ops meetings every Monday and Round Robin every Friday throughout the pandemic. This helped tremendously in letting the team members know what was expected from them and keeping them motivated and on their toes.
Helping through the Crisis
Currently, the pandemic is globally disrupting the industries. However, this outbreak has turned out to be favorable for the digital learning sector. Skill Pill was one of the first content providers to deliver complimentary access to remote-working content, with material on virtual onboarding and emotional resilience. The company participated in the UK government’s ‘Skills Initiative’ for providing material to help people skill-up during the pandemic. Furthermore, as digital learning is still in a more privileged and protected space, Skill Pill is delivering content for free to a variety of organizations and helping them through these difficult times.
Amid the crises, where several companies choose to stay at home there are several companies returning to the normal work schedule. In response to this, Skill Pill introduced new materials on returning to work and flexible working. Presently, it is working on a new series titled, The Power of ‘Q’. As people are returning to work, the Power of ‘Q’ will help them be their best selves and get their edge back. This series is scheduled to be launched by autumn.
Continuing on the Merry Way
Continuing on the Merry WayThe corporates, particularly in the retail and hospitality sector are expected to be severely impacted by the next wave of the pandemic. Moreover, with some employees returning to work and some being made redundant, the customers too are going through several difficulties. Being sensitive to these challenges faced by the corporate base, Skill Pill strives to continue providing good counsel on ‘best value material’, and helping skill up employees who might still be working remotely. “We aim to provide materials as cost-effectively as we can, which have high utility and are oriented towards the emotional and technical, and ultimately easing the transition back to work,” concludes Gerry.
Read full issue: The 10 Innovative E-learning Solution Providers in 2020
