Revolutionizing Training and Development: SouthernCarlson’s Litmos Success Story

Founded in 1947, SouthernCarlson has been a stalwart in the distribution of construction and industrial supplies. With a mission to provide fanatical service and fast delivery, SouthernCarlson set out to create a learning program that both empowered their employees and fulfilled their mission. However, meeting the needs of a global, remote-first workforce became a training challenge for this growing company.

Before implementing Litmos as their LMS solution, SouthernCarlson relied solely on on-the-job training, which led to inconsistent messaging, a lack of accountability, fluctuating quality of training experience, and overall employee dissatisfaction. Recognizing these challenges, SouthernCarlson defined their business goals for a new training program.

Kristi Kimbril, Director of Training, states that SourthernCarlson aimed, “to provide resources across the organization to equip and empower employees to do their jobs to the best of their abilities. We want to drive engagement and decrease attrition, as well as offer development opportunities to our employees.”

With those goals in mind, here are the five ways in which SouthernCarlson implemented Litmos to transform their employee training program:

1. Streamlined training with automation

With many locations, SouthernCarlson needed a learning solution that could easily organize their employees, locations, and corporate hierarchy. Litmos’ automation capabilities allowed SouthernCarlson to set up over 400+ assignment rules, streamlining the training process and saving “an unquantifiable amount of time in the long run,” according to Kimbril.

2. Increased organizational visibility with LMS features

The Litmos Teams feature helped SouthernCarlson create a comprehensive organizational chart, providing visibility into employee roles and locations.

“Since we have so many locations/employees this line of site has been unbelievably valuable to our leaders. In addition, we had some organizational changes, and it was quite simple to move the teams around to the new reporting structures,” states Kimbril.

3. Provided sales training on the go

SouthernCarlson’s sales teams benefitted significantly once Litmos was implemented, as the new platform enabled them to access training materials anytime, anywhere. Sales employees have especially enjoyed the real-world examples used in their trainings, and that they can brush up on new skills or find answers with just-in-time resources.

“You can search for courses that you may not have a good grip on – like Excel,” says Michelle Hadju, a Sales Support Manager in Cleveland. “If you get stuck, you can go to the Academy and search for something, and it could probably help you.”

User-friendly features meant that even employees who were less comfortable with technology and computers found Litmos courses easy to navigate, and provided positive feedback.

4. Accelerated content creation with content authoring and course libraries

With new courses each month, SouthernCarlson’s small learning team needed an easy content authoring tool. Kimbril explains that “the content author is an easy-to-use tool that speeds up the process of content creation. It has a short learning curve, allowing us to get started almost immediately. The variety of choices within the content author allow us to diversify the look and feel of the training, leading to more interest.”

Combining this tool with pre-built Litmos Training Content helped the SouthernCarlson team to get their Litmos solutions live in just two months.

5. Improving company culture with SouthernCarlson academy

Since implementing Litmos in December of 2022, SouthernCarlson has documented significant improvement in their learner engagement and compliance rates, with over 34,000 courses completed, and 1,300 employees per month actively engaging with the platform.

Standardized training content and tools have been deployed across all locations and teams, benefiting even deskless employees. The positive impact on the company culture has been palpable, with employees expressing excitement about the company’s investment in their development.

“We receive a lot of positive feedback about the value that SouthernCarlson Academy is adding to our organization. It has opened our eyes to the way that we can communicate and the messages that we want to deliver. People who have worked here a long time say they are excited about the future and how the company is investing in them,” explains Kimbril.

So, what does the future hold for SouthernCarlson Academy? The company plans to extend their learning program to external vendor partners on the unified platform, aligning with their ongoing goals to create more content, enhance safety protocols, and refine the onboarding experience.

SouthernCarlson’s journey with Litmos exemplifies how a tailored learning solution can revolutionize training and development efforts within a large and diverse organization. The quantifiable improvements in engagement and company culture demonstrate the immense value Litmos has brought to SouthernCarlson’s mission of providing exceptional service and empowering their workforce.

Learn more about SouthernCarlson’s Litmos journey. Read the full case study here.