What do you think of when you hear the words Yardi Aspire? If you know Aspire helps property managers train their team, then you may think online courses are what it has to offer. And, you wouldn’t be wrong. But, of course, over the years, Aspire has grown. We’ve added new features and technologies that are benefiting property managers from every component of the industry, including: commercial, affordable, PHA, multifamily, industrial and every other type of property managed by our clients. Yardi launched Aspire in 2013, and over the years it’s grown into a complete learning management solution (LMS). Aspire helps trainers and human resources professionals develop talent, track growth, communicate with employees, host live meetings, maintain compliance with government regulations, and much more. And through all of that development, it’s true that on-demand, online classes are among the most popular features of Yardi Aspire. Every training program relies on content, and Aspire comes with hundreds of predesigned courses covering topics for professional roles found in property management. Aspire clients also have access to tools to design their own custom content. With all of that available standard in Aspire, it’s no wonder many of us still think of the Aspire LMS as primarily a tool for getting on-demand coursework onto the screens of employees. So, let’s take a moment to recognize the benefits of online classes. What better way to do so than by highlighting how we at Yardi use them to train our own team? Enhancing Learning with a Curated Learning Approach Aspire helps Yardi drive seamless, personalized online experiences and workflows for employee tasks and activities. It helps our company craft and consolidate work activities into centralized, simplified and highly accessible assignments. We benefit from Aspire by seeing higher employee success and...

If you are still conducting live training courses, you are missing out on the opportunity to save time, save money and customize the learning experience for your employees. e-Learning can work on its own or in tandem with live trainings to expedite corporate education. Why e-learning?  The market size of e-learning is growing at exciting speeds. The market value surpassed $250 billion in 2020, and it is anticipated to grow more than 21% before 2027.This industry-wide shift away from classroom education reflects the perceived and calculated costs of live training courses. Yardi Aspire is a training solution that transitions clients to online learning using role-based plans. The customizable program offers savings in four key areas: Personnel This category includes the cost of all people involved in producing the training such as content designers, IT professionals, reviewers and approvers. Aspire software significantly reduces administrative costs through the introduction of technology. The software also allows users to eliminate travel and lodging expenses.Technology The cost of the e-learning solutions, computers, web conference system, and any other technology involved in conducting the training are included in this category. These costs are the primary reason many companies choose to invest in e-learning.Content This category includes the cost of content production and the cost of acquiring content from a vendor. By recording an instructor once and delivering the recorded course online, organizations can maximize the use of content and decrease costs associated with instructors.Administrative Significant time is spent recording training activities, setting up training opportunities, and communicating with trainees and instructors before and after the event. Decreasing administrative costs offers benefits throughout the organization. Cost savings, line-by-line  What do these savings look like in a real world, real estate example? Let’s take a sample client who is in the middle...

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...

No one likes to pay for things they don’t use. Hundreds of cable channels never to be watched. Millions of songs you’ll never listen to yet included with a subscription. Thousands of streaming movies and TV shows you’ll never get a chance to see. Thankfully, Yardi eLearning clients have some relief. New features recently added to the learning management software platform come with options for Yardi clients to choose which feature sets best fit their organization’s needs. To be specific, Yardi eLearning clients can now choose from four package tiers: Yardi eLearning (base solution), Yardi eLearning Pro, Yardi eLearning Plus and Yardi eLearning Premium. Yardi eLearning The core of Yardi eLearning includes more than 800 online courses that cover every piece of Yardi software and service. Users have unlimited, online access to courses. Courses can be curated into learning tracks personalized for users. Users access courses anytime, even on the job as a convenient knowledge resource. Yardi eLearning interfaces with many types of software products such as human resources information systems and webinar management tools. Yardi eLearning Pro Yardi eLearning Pro adds digital signatures and surveys to the base Yardi eLearning solution. Digital signatures, called eSign, allow users to execute documents without printing, signing, scanning or emailing. Simple and discreet digital signatures instantly and securely track agreements between organizations and employees. The new surveys feature in Yardi eLearning makes it easy to ask staff anything, any time. Without the need to license or log in to a web-based survey software, administrators can quickly set up a poll to determine gaps in training, course effectiveness or even just what’s for lunch. Response data is immediately available in Yardi eLearning – no need to import data from a web-based service. Yardi eLearning Plus Yardi eLearning Plus...

Do you find that your internal staff training program lacks engagement or consistency? Yardi eLearning’s featured topic for this month focuses on creating effective and sustainable training programs for busy real estate companies. Take the pressure off of your training team with these best practices. The Balance Sheet caught up with Michael Joiner of Yardi eLearning’s client services team to get the inside scoop on what this valuable training platform has to offer. What does it mean to have an Effective and Sustainable Training Program?  Joiner: An effective training program is one that meets the training needs of a company. A sustainable training program requires a balance between the administrative tasks—like scheduling training, assigning courses, communicating between instructors and students, validating student work, running reports—and maintaining existing training with the development of new training that meets additional needs of the company and its employees.  What’s one common hurdle that keeps clients’ training programs from being effective?  Joiner: Not identifying the needs of the learners. For instance, you can assign a ton a courses, but do those courses help bridge a skills gap or correct a behavior? Ineffective training programs assign courses for the sake of assigning content that someone thinks is necessary, but it may not be relevant or applicable to an individual. What’s one common hurdle that keeps clients’ training programs from being sustainable? Joiner: Focusing too much on developing new training and letting existing training become out dated. Out-of-date training leads to a lack of engagement and trust on the part of the learner. A sustainable training program creates new training initiatives while regularly updating existing content. How can users access this information after the webinar? Joiner: We’re teaching this class at YASC Washington, D.C. May 30- June 1, 2018. We’ll also be...

The user experience can make or break a piece of software, and user feedback is of key importance to the software development process. Companies strive to learn how customers respond to products wherever possible, be it through social media, focus groups, surveys or client conferences. Without input from users, software developers can miss out on opportunities to innovate new features that take into consideration the unique needs of their users’ daily workflows. Chris Ulep, Yardi vice president of multifamily product development, describes how a strong client involvement benefits his team’s development process. “Clients have a strong voice in the design of Yardi solutions. We value their input because it makes our development process faster and more responsive to their immediate needs. We embrace the opportunity to engage clients during development process, and leverage their vast experience and understand their requirements,” Ulep said. That philosophy is also evident in how Yardi develops content for its online staff training platform, Yardi eLearning. One of the main ways the Yardi eLearning team solicits input from clients is through monthly roundtable sessions, available to any client free of charge. “Our monthly client roundtables are interactive, informative and collaborative. Leading trainers and content designers from around the country gather for quick, one-hour sessions that cover a variety of topics. Our roundtables bolster creativity and foster new ideas by sharing new ideas on the screen for everyone to see. Prioritizing those ideas as we develop features and curricula is just one of the ways we ensure Yardi eLearning content stays relevant and in alignment with our clients’ needs,” said Patty Evans, director of corporate training and eLearning for Yardi. While inspiring conversation is valuable for participants, the camaraderie of the events is even more important. “The opportunity to meet regularly with a community of...

The modern workplace must accommodate different learning types and different generations of learners. Heidi Fuller, Training Consultant at Bigos Management, explains how she uses Yardi® eLearning to educate employees of all ages and learning styles. Cross-Generational Technology Millennials compose more than half of the current workforce. To these young adults, technology isn’t a luxury; they expect technology to play an integral role in job training. According to a recent article in Forbes, Millennials see technology as a necessary tool to work efficiently and intelligently. Fuller builds training courses with tech-savvy new hires in mind. “Millennials have a greater need for technology and learning. I create a lot of webinars, videos and ways that they can use mobile technology. In terms of industry training, that is where we’re going.” While preparing for the future is important, Bigos also strives to support its current staff. Bigos employs learners with less exposure to virtual and mobile technologies, many from Generation X and the Boomer populations. Learners who are accustomed to traditional, instructor-led courses face a learning curve when it comes to virtual learning formats. “Integrating technology is easy with the younger new hires,” observes Fuller. “They don’t know any different. The challenge is with the people who aren’t quite ready, getting everyone on the same page and getting them used to using new technologies.” Bigos turned to Yardi eLearning to develop a cross-generational learning management system. “We use more of a blended approach,” Fuller explains. “eLearning courses are paired up with instructor-led courses as well as on the job training with their managers.” Multi-format training is necessary to reach a cross-generational staff base. But more importantly, blended training is necessary to reach different styles of learners, as described by the Kolb LSI. One study reveals that a...

The power of online learning for real estate companies is highlighted in a new video featuring Yardi client Roscoe Properties. A multifamily firm in Austin, Texas, Roscoe has drastically reduced staff training time using Yardi’s customizable online learning platform. Mariana Estrada, Vice President of Operations at Roscoe Properties, shares in the video how the multifamily organization has been able to grow with help from Yardi eLearning. Critical trainings at Roscoe Properties would previously take up to four weeks. After implementing Yardi eLearning, staff was able to reduce critical training duration to three days. “eLearning has allowed us to take our training to the next level,” says Estrada. “It has provided us with a scalable training strategy that will take us to the next 10,000 units.” Yardi eLearning facilitates customizable online training that appeals to different learning styles. Students can access courses anywhere there is an Internet connection and review content as needed. Assessment tools empower course moderators to identify students who may need additional support. The results are flexible, effective trainings that save time and resources. “Just in travel alone, we’ve been able to save tens of thousands of dollars,” Estrada says. Roscoe Properties learns on Yardi....