The Pegasus Learner Management System
Luis Ramirez joined Pegasus in December of 2020 as a Corporate Trainer and has risen to Training Supervisor for the Los Angeles area. He describes the journey as incredible. “Let’s just say I wasn’t surprised when we were named one of Inc. Magazine’s Best Workplaces of 2021. I knew it on day one.” Throughout the year, he has spent his time training front-line employees throughout LA and Orange County, creating training content for our new Learner Management System, Pegasus University, and providing any type of training and assistance for our corporate employees. He’s always been a bit of a techie, always building tools in Excel or creating PowerPoint or Google Slide presentations, and Pegasus has let him focus on those skills and more. Luis says if you ever need to find him, he’s usually sitting at his desk, multiple screens at the ready, video-editing, voice-recording, building PPT slides, or working on an Excel tool – while on the phone planning his next drive to go and train our front-line employees.
Training and Development as a career is actually relatively new for Luis. The bulk of his career was spent as both a teacher and administrator in an Adult Education setting. Working with young adults, not only did he focus on academic and technical skills, but also employability. That focus on employability, leadership, and personal growth planted the seeds for a career in Training and Development. In every leadership position he’s had, he set three main goals: train the team so they can excel in their work, develop their skills so they have the opportunity for a promotion, and help them achieve whatever professional goals they had. In that sense, officially moving to a career in Training and Development felt like a natural progression of his career.
As a kid, Luis remembers spending some of his summers going to work with his mom as she cleaned houses. She wasn’t fortunate enough to work with a company like Pegasus, and there were many times that she would have benefitted from the community, support, resources, and advocacy that Pegasus provides its employees. When Luis works with our front-line staff, he sees mothers, fathers, aunts, and uncles – each of them working hard toward a better living for their family – just like his mother did. “If through my work I can help them succeed or give them a skillset they didn’t have before, then I know I’m contributing to something more than just job training.”
Luis has plenty of practical, measurable goals that he wants to accomplish: increasing employee retention, lowering turnover, creating engaging and effective training curriculum and content, and of course leading a team of effective trainers. As much as those types of goals are important, Luis is a firm believer of having an ultimate goal – a driving philosophy behind everything you do, and his is fairly straightforward: Be an agent for Pegasus Employees’ upward mobility. Whether or not employees are actively seeking a promotion, he would like to get them to a place where they’re a part of the conversation. The more skilled and knowledgeable our workforce is, the better we’ll be as a whole.
What are the most important components of a successful training program?
If I had to choose just one thing it would be to ensure training is practical, relevant, and applicable. I’ve participated in many trainings where I generally appreciated the information and theory presented by very knowledgeable trainers. I often found myself asking – “But how can I practically apply this?” We can teach people about all the most important qualities of a strong leader, but if there’s no direction on how to practically apply those qualities in their job, then what’s the point?
How can successful/engaging training programs affect employee retention?
If employees feel valued, supported, and have the skills to not feel overwhelmed at work – employee retention will follow. Along that thread, taking the time to adequately train people and ease the stress of learning a new job or learning a new facet of a job shows that you value that employee. I’ve seen companies approach retention by having fun events, handing out prizes, and generally looking for ways to bring bursts of joy to their employees. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of all of that, but the root of employee retention will always be the work they do. If you show people that you value their growth and development and help them develop skills that will make them successful at work, they will find it very hard to leave because of the environment you’ve created.
What changes have you observed since the launch of PegU?
I see that PegU has brought training to the forefront of Pegasus staff. Since it’s delivered in a convenient and engaging manner, the conversation is shifting from “What training do we need to do?” to “What training is next?” We’ve even received requests for specific skills people want to learn – which we are more than happy to oblige!
How can PegU be used to improve company culture?
What’s great about PegU is that training for new employees, as well as company-wide training for new initiatives, can be rolled out seamlessly. Whether they jump on the computer, tablet or phones to complete the latest training, everyone will hear the same message, hear the same plan, and see the same goals. This coupled with our focus on developing staff skill sets will mean that it won’t matter if you’re part of our Arizona team, California team, Colorado team, or any new teams we start in the future, we’ll all be part of the same Pegasus family.