The decision to transform ChoiceU—the franchisee-facing corporate university at Choice Hotels International—was propelled, as such initiatives often are, by an urgent need to connect with the organization’s learners. In 2016, it was clear that ChoiceU needed to mount a comprehensive initiative to improve participation and increase course completions.

To do this, the company would have to dramatically enhance the talent development experience to make learning more accessible and relevant to all levels within franchisees. It also would have to strengthen connections to, and ultimately drive, key business results. ChoiceU’s transformation, which continues to evolve, included new initiatives that combining adult learning principles and leveraging available technologies. The talent development team also examined data from various sources to build dashboards to present learning data and identify trends. Dashboards now help track progress on initiatives, determine learning-related gaps and weaknesses, and ascertain the relative value of certain statistics, such as the potential correlation between the amount of completed training or engagement and performance at the property.