Brandon Hall Excellence Conference: “Orange” you curious what happened?

The Brandon Hall Group HCM Excellence Conference occurred last week in West Palm Beach, where HR professionals gathered together to discuss leading HCM practices to implement within their organizations. In case you missed the session entitled “Going Mobile: How Orangetheory Fitness is Streamlining their Learners’ Experience,” here’s a recap to bring you up to speed.

While you might have heard of Orangetheory, you may not know that they are one of the world’s fastest growing franchise companies. Synonymous with heart rate-based high-intensity interval training (HIIT), Orangetheory was founded in 2010 and now boasts more than 1,000 locations worldwide with another 500 franchises in the pipeline.

Brittany Gutierrez, Director of L&D at Orangetheory Fitness, spoke on stage with Former Inkling CEO, Jeff Carr, to share the challenges her L&D team faces when it comes to supporting the company’s rapid growth and working within a franchise model. Brittany also provided insights into why Orangetheory decided to adopt a mobile solution for their training needs.

Single source of information

What the franchise model highlights above all else is the need for a single source of information in order to maintain brand standards and consistent operations across locations. While Orangetheory made a plethora of materials available (PDFs, Word docs, eLearning modules), the lack of mobility was frustrating for franchise owners, coaches, and employees who had to access these learning resources, often on a daily basis.

Brittany and her team recognized that mobile, on-the-job training would be much more effective, especially in light of the Forgetting Curve. What this rapidly downward-sloping curve demonstrates is how quickly memory loss occurs when passive learning techniques are used. Only 21 percent of the information we attempt to memorize in one sitting stays with us, which frustrates learners and leads to poor performance on the job.

However, active learning (like mobile learning) enables employees to “learn in the flow of work,” a popular training method coined by Josh Bersin. Active learning is associated with a 90 percent knowledge retention rate, which is an impressive jump from 21 percent.

Investing in mobile learning

As such, Orangetheory decided to invest in mobile learning. By making their learning materials and resources digital, it’s easier for everyone to access and consume the information on tablets and mobile phones. Given the timeline for opening a new franchise location ranges from nine months to one year, the ability to keep resources current and always in hand makes the long process a lot easier.

As Brittany and her L&D team look to the year ahead, this investment in mobile learning supports their high-growth model, ensures performance enablement while on the job, and gives Orangetheory a competitive edge, which is a something they know a thing or two about.