Company background
RizePoint is a quality management software company that has been working to help companies keep their brand promises for almost 25 years. The RizePoint platform allows companies to collect and analyze meaningful data to identify trends and drive improvement. With a strong focus in the food industry, RizePoint helps companies like McDonald’s in safe workplace accountability so they can proactively see issues and take appropriate actions to keep the workplace safe. RizePoint has experienced continued growth and needs to support that with R&D growth and innovation. In an era of scarce technology resources, this requires a focus on internal training and promotion and making learning a critical and celebrated part of their culture.
Key results
98%
retention rate in the engineering team, over the past 2 years, thanks to culture of learning
100%
fulfillment of open technology positions by training and promoting from within
55%
reduction in time to fulfill customer feature requests, thanks to cross-training
Challenge
RizePoint’s CTO of R&D, Darrel Williams, was facing a common problem — business growth during a technology resource shortage. “Trying to hire for software development positions was extremely difficult. The prices were sky-high, and the people that were out there were getting snatched up super quickly.” They needed to find new ways to promote internally and find development efficiencies. Both Williams and his Software Development Manager, Mary Shultz, felt that training was the answer.
Our retention rate for the past few years is in the high nineties. Having Codecademy and our ladder training program excites people and actually shows them that there is a path for them to grow in our organization.
Darrell Williams
CTO of R&D, RizePoint
Unfortunately, according to Williams their existing training solution wasn’t getting the desired results. “The training solution we were using was watching videos, taking notes and assuming that you’re being successful. It’s just not the in-depth learning that we needed to successfully develop our people at RizePoint.” Shultz further explained their frustration, “For people like me, who need hands-on experience coding an application to really learn it, our training solution didn’t provide that for us. And as a manager, we just didn’t have the visibility on actual learning to really help those that needed it.”
RizePoint knew they needed a dynamic learning solution that not only kept pace with emerging programming languages and frameworks, but that also had a more immersive practice environment. They also wanted a high level of visibility and flexibility for managers to tailor programs for their employees.
Solution
Williams and Shultz built an internal career advancement track for technology employees to have a path for career growth. When looking for a training solution that would support this, they turned to Codecademy, which they had both used as individuals to further their knowledge.
Williams loved that Codecademy wasn’t just a training workflow, but provided live feedback. “What stands out to me with Codecademy is the IDE within the tool. You can be typing code, and it’s checking syntax and providing error feedback as soon as you hit ‘Submit.’ That’s incredibly valuable.”
With confidence that Codecademy was the learning solution they had been searching for, Shultz put it into action. “Codecademy helps us gamify and manage our career advancement tracks. I can take those areas that we find, add them to tracks that then can become a path that is a senior software engineer. And as they complete each piece of the syllabus, it checks it off the list for them so that they can get really good feedback about completion. And as a manager I can see the progress and help celebrate their achievements.”
What stands out to me with Codecademy is the IDE within the tool. You can be typing code, and it’s checking syntax and providing error feedback as soon as you hit ‘Submit.’ That’s incredibly valuable.
Darrell Williams
CTO of R&D, Rizepoint
With a robust system in place to support their learning initiatives, RizePoint rolled out various use cases such as employee onboarding and Shultz also applied it to intern onboarding. “Before I let interns into my code base, I need to make sure that they understand enough so they don’t wipe six weeks worth of information accidentally. So, I have a certain set of lessons that they’re required to go through within Codecademy. Being able to see the results of their learning more granularly is really helpful.”
Shultz and Williams also felt that if they could break down some of the knowledge silos across teams, they could improve collaboration while removing some of the need for development resources. Shultz said that cross-training between solutions and implementations teams was a great place to start. “Codecademy helped our implementation team learn basic JavaScript, so they can help with introductory level development tasks without needing to rely on the development team. This significantly reduces the delivery time for client requests.”
Outcomes
Williams asserts that Codecademy has helped fill open positions organically. “To solve the skills gap challenge, we use Codecademy to develop from within. When a customer support employee shows any kind of an inclination towards any technical skill, we can point them into one of those career tracks, which leads to a six-month crossover training program between customer support and IT. If that goes well, they can continue their career without having a degree in that area. It fills open positions and gives our team members a reason to stay with RizePoint.”
Williams and Shultz aren’t just filling positions, they are keeping their IP. Williams stated, “Our retention rate for the past few years is in the high nineties. Having Codecademy and our training program excites people and actually shows them that there is a path for me in this organization, there is a place for me to grow and I’m not going to just be stagnant in a topped-out, specific role for who knows how long. It’s giving a lot of different folks opportunities that they wouldn’t normally see in an organization.”
We found that Codecademy really helps promote accountability as well as the understanding that the organization is also walking in parallel with you and supporting you.
Mary Shultz
Software Development Manager
Shultz added, “We found that Codecademy really helps promote accountability as well as the understanding that the organization is also walking in parallel with you and supporting you. RizePoint is committed to growth as an organization, but also at an individual level. And I think that Codecademy really helps with that.”
RizePoint has been so successful with Codecademy that they are now using it to train non-degreed coders. Shultz explains, “Codecademy gives us this opportunity to take someone who did six to nine months at a code bootcamp, but doesn’t really understand what they want to do and explore their fit while filling in their knowledge gaps. Codecademy is really helpful for blending non-degreed coders into the organization.”
Williams sees the impact of Codecademy beyond just R&D. “Codecademy has helped RizePoint become much more collaborative by helping us cross train employees. We don’t have to worry about those silos that we’ve had in the past that can really just hinder an organization’s movement forward.”
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