Online Trainings Support Polkka's Diverse Workforce in Everyday Learning Needs

Polkka's HR planner Henna Hukkanen ja Service Manager Satu Miettinen

Polkka – Pohjois-Karjalan Tukipalvelut Oy provides catering, facility maintenance, cleaning, and logistics services across the North Karelia region. The company began operations in 2017 and employs around 850 people. Each day, the company prepares meals for 16,000 customers and manages 530,000 square meters of cleaning space. At the beginning of 2022, Polkka implemented the Vuolearning platform for onboarding purposes and for online courses tailored to different professional groups.

Polkka's service manager Satu Miettinen and HR planner Henna Hukkanen discuss Polkka's operations and the use of the Vuolearning platform in this interview. Together, they are responsible for designing the trainings of the professional groups of catering, facility maintenance, cleaning, and logistics services. Henna Hukkanen is also responsible for areas such as employee well-being, work ability and occupational health processes, and competence development, including the implementation of online courses for various professional groups.

The user-friendliness, clarity, and visual style of the Vuolearning platform convinced the company during the selection process

Polkka made decisions about the learning environment at the turn of 2021–2022 by holding meetings with different providers. Henna Hukkanen remembered the Vuolearning platform's representative from her previous job and requested a demonstration. Ultimately, Vuolearning was chosen from among three other providers due to its ease of use and clarity.

"The visual style and clear structure of the learning platform also influenced the decision," says HR planner Henna Hukkanen.

The platform allows easy input and embedding of information, as well as the creation of multiple-choice questions and open questions. Adding various content, such as videos and images, helps in creating engaging material to support learning.

Versatile and high-quality training material with the help of the Vuolearning platform

The Vuolearning platform is used for onboarding new employees, such as those in catering, facility maintenance, and cleaning services. Additionally, it enables the implementation of various online courses for different target groups, such as cleaning service professionals, catering service practitioners, and safety courses. Some of the online courses are available for a limited time, while others remain open continuously for future reference. The learning platform allows for the easy creation of versatile and high-quality training material that supports Polkka's operations and the competence development of the professionals.

"Content creation itself is relatively easy and quick, but it’s always necessary to ensure that all the produced content is factual. It takes time to verify that the content is in a clear and understandable format so that everyone can understand the presented information," says Satu Miettinen.

Polkka’s future plans include combining online learning with in-person training. "Online learning could help us form in-person training groups based on the challenges we encounter," continues Satu Miettinen. The combination of online and in-person training would be especially important for users with learning difficulties or challenges in understanding text-based content. Adding video materials and audio files to the learning environment has been beneficial for Polkka’s diverse user base.

Training a large and diverse user base is possible with the Vuolearning platform

Polkka utilizes the integration between the Populus HR management system and the Vuolearning platform, which allows them to create role-specific groups on the Vuolearning platform. The integration facilitates user management and tracking on the Vuolearning platform.

"We have large user groups. One advantage of the learning environment is that reminders can be sent if someone forgets that a time-sensitive online course is closing soon," says Satu Miettinen.

Polkka has a broad and diverse user base, with variations in both professional and age groups, as well as in digital skills. Despite this, the number of users has grown significantly. With guidance from supervisors and instructors, even the employees for whom the use of digital tools may be challenging have learned to know and use the learning environment. Polkka also has service advisors who work in the field and provide personal guidance to the users in how to use the learning platform.

Reporting capabilities allow for targeted support to those in need

Polkka monitors the success of online trainings through completions, and the reporting tools of the Vuolearning platform make it easy to track participation and completion rates. Gathering feedback also aids in the further development of the online courses. Additionally, the reporting tools allow tracking whether all users have logged into the learning environment, enabling personal support to be provided to those users who have had difficulties with the platform's adoption.

"Employees have generally given positive feedback about gaining new knowledge and having been able to review things. Especially for newcomers and the younger generation who have no training the content created on the learning platform has served as a good source of information. All the onboarding materials and other content have supported supervisors in onboarding new employees," says Miettinen.

Solution-oriented and positive customer service

"Vuolearning's customer service has a positive attitude and the ability to quickly resolve issues," says Miettinen. She recommends the Vuolearning platform for its ease of use and versatile functionalities. The customer service is also helpful and available when assistance is needed. Vuolearning values the customers' perspectives, and their development suggestions are considered in the ongoing development of the service.

"The implementation of Vuolearning was easy, and integrations and other issues were quickly resolved with the help of the support provided. It was easy to start creating content in the learning environment," concludes Hukkanen.