Aspiring to New Heights

Yardi eLearning Levels Up

By Mike Sederholm on Jun 17, 2020 in People, Technology

This is an exciting time for the team behind Yardi’s learning management software platform. Formerly known as Yardi eLearning, the product is now called Yardi Aspire, a name which showcases the software’s potentially exceptional benefits for users.

At the same time, the features of Yardi Aspire have increased in demand as clients find creative uses for the software to solve 2020’s unique challenges

At the helm of the Yardi Aspire team is Patty Evans, director of Yardi Aspire content and support and Yardi corporate training, as well as Yves Hajjar, director of Yardi Aspire product development. Read on to learn more about Evans’ outlook on the recent product changes.

Q: Tell us about the change to Yardi Aspire?

Evans: Yardi Aspire has evolved over the past several years. It was time for the product’s name to truly reflect the scope of the solution, including all the forward-thinking features designed specifically for the property management industry’s leading learning and content management system.

Q: Describe the recent developments that led to the rebrand?

Evans: The Yardi Aspire catalog inspires a higher level of engagement than simple “training” videos. We feel that videos can be helpful in quickly transferring information to a student who is already familiar with a concept or for basic topics. I think many would agree when I say that video-based training is a learning style that may not work for everyone.

Additionally, the Yardi Aspire catalog contains much more than Yardi software product training content. Approximately 25% of the 1,200+ course library is not about Yardi software at all. We offer nearly 400 courses on compliance, human resources, professional development, safety, leadership, leasing, personal development topics and more.

Q: What other features may be important for new users?

Evans: We’ve spent time carefully developing several tools and features that complement your employee training program. Our powerful and flexible survey tool is just one example. With it, users can launch anonymous surveys or enable tracking of respondent information. This makes it possible to send surveys to employees or external contacts to gain perspective and make informed decisions within an organization.

We’ve also incorporated a digital survey module into the platform. The eSign module facilitates online form and acknowledgement processing efficiently. The need for efficient paperwork processing around onboarding, mentorship, equipment distribution, and training completion acknowledgement has become even more critical in the past year.

Q: One of the biggest hurdles people have with implementing new software is creating and managing user access and permissions. What tools do you have to facilitate this quickly and easily?

Setting up and maintaining accurate employee records in your training platform is critical. It is easy to set up a data import from whatever software (HR, Payroll, Identity Provider) your organization uses to maintain employee records. Integrating with other systems allows our clients to ensure records are always accurate and therefore the automated training assignments, group/team assignments and scheduled reporting can be integrated accurately and effortlessly.

Speaking of simplicity, there’s a new product we’ve just launched called Aspire On Demand, and not only is it pretty exciting, it’s also available free to clients during an initial launch period through July.

Q: Tell us more about Aspire On Demand.

Evans: Aspire On Demand answers a simple question: How do we make the Yardi Aspire catalog more accessible to a larger portion of the industry without licensing the full Aspire solution?

Q: That’s a great question, how does it work?

Evans: Aspire On Demand provides licensed users with access to bundles of the most popular courses from the Yardi Aspire catalog. Using these course bundles, Yardi clients can get a new employee quickly up and running, even when coming into the office for training is not possible due to social distancing guidance. Or they can reinforce key concepts that were delivered during the live training. The content bundles feature professional and personal skills courses grouped in 2- to 5-hour topic-specific learning plans. Register your employees for access to a wide variety of topics including time management, telephone skills, computer skills, working from home and more.

Q: Where can clients learn more?

Evans: Clients can log in to the training resources page on Yardi Client Central, filter for self-paced courses to register their employee for a topic-specific Learning Plan. This online learning opportunity is a cost effective and accessible solution for filling individual knowledge or skill gaps within your organization. We invite you to give it a try, for the next three months by simply registering your employee before July 31, 2020, and we will waive the modest fee.