Boot camp
If there’s any doubt in any new employee’s mind that work comes before play at Hyland, it’s quickly erased in the first several weeks.
Everybody at Hyland can tell you about its product, OnBase. This is the result of an intensive training period that includes four weeks of learning OnBase, even if the employee will never have contact with the customer or is in a nontechnical position.
This intense training weeds out those who aren’t committed and gives everyone a strong knowledge of what the company is about.
“The fact that even our marketing people know the product, have a knowledge of what we do, how it works and the applications it works in adds credibility when people talk to them,” says Hyland. “They are not going to have the highest technical knowledge of how to set it up on a server, but they know what the benefits of it are and who it is for.
“From a customer service standpoint, Hyland is a highly educated group of people. Getting the job done with a lot of product knowledge is critical to our success. The more they know, the better they will produce for the company and the better they will serve the customer.”
Four instructors staff Hyland University, which also provides ongoing training and refresher courses to veteran employees. Employees are also required to obtain the Computing Technology Industry Association’s CDIA+ certification, the first global standard of competency and professionalism in the document imaging/document management industry. The CDIA+ certificates obtained by employees fill two walls showing the company’s commitment to training and making sure employees have the tools to do their job, which includes a knowledge of the company, its software and the industry. Even one of the chefs in the diner has her certification.
“I think people need to know about the industry and our software,” says Hyland. “I think it would be terrible to send people out there to their jobs and let them flounder for months on end as they try to figure out what the story is. I feel better about them going onto the job knowing about the product.”
Hyland continually fine tunes the training based on feedback and is adding more information on the company history and its strategies to give employees a complete view of Hyland Software.
The combination of a fun and open culture plus a strong knowledge of the product gives Hyland a competitive advantage toward improving the product and the company.
“I think it helps people feel empowered to bring things up they want to see in the software or to be advocates for the customers,” says Hyland. “Almost all of our development is from customer and partner needs. So having a group of employees work with them and communicating with them really helps. They are understanding the customer and what they need.”
