How TrainingToday helped a nonprofit optimize its learning and development

The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City

The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art has served Kansas City, Missouri, for nearly a century, showcasing a diverse collection of art spanning 5,000 years. As a nonprofit, its mission is to foster an inclusive space for art appreciation while supporting the community.

Karrah Merritt, director of talent and people development, has been with the museum for over a decade, advancing from HR coordinator. Tasked with introducing a training solution for the first time, she needed to find a system that met the museum’s unique needs on a nonprofit budget.

Nelson-Atkins by the numbers

• Over 300 employees
• In operation for 92 years
• Over $75 million in revenue
• Curating over 42,000 pieces of art

Challenge: Finding the right learning solution on a budget

The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art operated without a Learning Management System (LMS) for years, relying instead on manual tracking and reporting of employee training. This labor-intensive approach consumed countless hours, hampered productivity, and frustrated department heads.

As the museum’s workforce grew, it became more challenging to manually track and manage compliance training. Additionally, employees found the outdated training materials unengaging, viewing them as a chore rather than a valuable learning opportunity. Karrah Merritt recognized the need for a modern solution that could streamline training management, improve employee engagement, and meet compliance requirements.

As a non-profit, the museum needed an affordable solution that could provide compliance and soft-skills training while simplifying training administration and reporting.

Key challenges

• Starting from scratch
• Cost-effective solution
• Wide range of content
• Compliance tracking
• Buy-in from cross-department leadership

Discovery: How Merritt found BLR

Merritt was a member of the Association for Talent Development (ATD), at both the national and the Kansas City chapter levels. She discovered BLR’s TrainingToday through ATD’s Vendor Directory, where it was listed as a recommended eLearning service. Drawing from her recruiting experience, she compared TrainingToday with other compliance training solutions, evaluating providers on features, course quality, cost, and responsiveness.

Solution: Why TrainingToday stood out

After careful evaluation, Karrah and her team selected TrainingToday for its product value, course selection, and support—key considerations since the museum was implementing an LMS for the first time. “TrainingToday had all the content needed in one convenient library. That, combined with the dedicated customer service team, made TrainingToday the most cost-effective solution,” she noted.

TrainingToday offered an extensive list of compliance content, with over 130 state and federal compliance courses available in the HR All-Access library. This comprehensive library included all the content Merritt needed, and came with the comfort of knowing each course is backed by a team of legal editors and compliance experts. These experts work diligently to ensure that all courses remain up to date with changing compliance requirements, while still creating an engaging learning experience for employees.

Implementation and results: A smooth transition

Despite being an experienced HR professional, Merritt was new to learning and development implementations. However, with the support and guidance of the BLR team, she navigated the process successfully.

“This was my first LMS implementation, and it was challenging. But I had support from both BLR and my professional network, which made it easier.”

One of the key compliance training objectives was to ensure employees met their training deadlines, as motivation had been a challenge in the past. Following the implementation of the new HR All-Access courses, employees at the Nelson-Atkins found the content to be highly engaging, modern, and enriched with a diverse range of characters. As a result, they not only completed their required training well ahead of schedule but also expressed enthusiasm for the material. Many employees even reached out to Merritt and the HR team to share their excitement and pride in finishing ahead of schedule.

“Our employees enjoy the relevant and modern courses, while leadership appreciates the up-to-date compliance content. HR-All Access provided all the training content we needed in one library, which helped streamline our training program.”

The museum also had a goal of upskilling new managers to step into recently vacated leadership positions due to retirements. TrainingToday’s HR All-Access library includes dozens of courses educating leaders on communication, conflict-resolution, coaching techniques, and how to promote employee engagement. These courses have helped Nelson-Atkins achieve their strategic objective of developing a new generation of leaders.

A strong partnership for the future

Merritt’s experience with BLR showcases the impact of great customer service, budget-conscious solutions, and industry recognition. Since adopting BLR, Merritt has become an advocate, recommending the platform to industry peers.

“I’ve told multiple people about BLR—it’s what I use, and I stand by it.”

Looking ahead, Merritt and her team are committed to furthering their expertise in TrainingToday’s LMS to optimize their training initiatives. They plan to introduce additional gamification elements to enhance employee engagement and knowledge retention. By building on their current success, they aim to develop a highly effective, dynamic training program that continues to engage and inspire their workforce.

Achieve the same success

Ready to optimize your training program? Visit our training resources page to learn how TrainingToday® can optimize your training.