Practical Guidance for Performance Conversations

iNStep redesigned Fairfield's HR management training into a more interactive, performance-focused learning experience that helps managers across the organization set expectations, provide meaningful coaching, and navigate disciplinary procedures with greater confidence and consistency.

Project Type

Corporate HR training redesign

Platform

Articulate Storyline 360

Learning Solution

Self-paced eLearning with practical workplace examples, interactive learning activities, and HR system demonstrations

The Need

Fairfield needed to modernize its existing HR training to help managers across corporate and construction operations follow consistent practices for managing employee performance. The course covered responsibilities that directly affect employees, from setting expectations and providing ongoing feedback to documenting performance concerns and taking disciplinary action when necessary.

The existing course relied on a narrated slide presentation. Fairfield wanted to improve opportunities for learner participation, update the visual design, and incorporate new workflows from its HR management system.

With an audience that included managers at every level, including senior leadership, the training needed to communicate important policies accurately while making the guidance practical and easy to follow.

“

This was an important topic for our managers company-wide. With Nicole's help, we were able to shorten the course duration, elevate the visual design, and most importantly, present the content in an engaging and varied manner.

“

I was impressed with the level of detail for the subjects covered as well as emphasis on areas that are often overlooked during coaching and performance check-in sessions. Thanks for making this available, it’s a great addition to our overall curriculum.

Our Solution

iNStep redesigned the training from the ground up, using the original presentation and findings from our QuickLaunch session to identify essential content and create a new instructional structure.

We organized the material around the progression of managing employee performance, from establishing expectations and providing coaching to recognizing when disciplinary action is appropriate. Throughout the course, we emphasized the behaviors and decisions Fairfield considered most important, building in opportunities for managers to recall information, consider workplace situations, and demonstrate their understanding of appropriate actions.

The course combined concise narrated instruction, visual explanations, practical coaching examples, and demonstrations of the company's updated HR system.

Fairfield HR for Managers eLearning course displayed on a laptop and tablet. The laptop shows the course title screen, while the tablet illustrates the four stages of the disciplinary action process: verbal warning, written warning, final written warning, and termination.

Our Process

Inside Our Approach

Restructuring content around manager responsibilities

During our QuickLaunch session, we worked with Fairfield's training representative to establish the learning objectives, priorities, and expectations for the redesigned course. We then developed an instructional design document to validate our approach against the desired outcomes and guide the remaining design and development work.

Using the original narrated presentation as a reference, we extracted the essential concepts and reorganized them into a more purposeful learning sequence. We rewrote the content with positive, performance-oriented language that emphasized setting expectations, addressing concerns promptly, providing constructive feedback, and documenting actions appropriately.

We also incorporated updated HR system workflows into the disciplinary action section. Working with Fairfield's training team, we gathered screenshots and video demonstrations, then developed new instructional content to show managers how to complete required documentation within the system.

Making performance conversations more relatable

Managers needed to understand more than the steps in a disciplinary procedure. They needed to recognize when to coach an employee, how to approach the conversation, and when to involve Human Resources.

Working from Fairfield's priorities, we identified the situations and behaviors that deserved particular attention. We developed practical examples around familiar workplace challenges, including tardiness, missed deadlines, and failure to follow procedures. These reinforced important practices, such as holding coaching conversations privately, exploring ways to help an employee improve, and documenting follow-up actions.

We used these situations to create opportunities for managers to recall important guidance and demonstrate their understanding of how to respond. By focusing on decisions they might encounter in their own work, we reinforced the practices Fairfield wanted managers to carry forward after completing the course.

Visually, we carried forward the established course design iNStep had created for Fairfield's earlier training. We combined corporate and construction photography with consistent illustrations and iconography, creating a recognizable learning experience that reflected the people and environments across the organization.

Coordinating development from design through delivery

iNStep managed the development process from initial discovery through final delivery, coordinating instructional design, scripting, visual production, narration, stakeholder reviews, and quality assurance.

We worked directly with Fairfield's senior training representative, preparing targeted questions and content recommendations for HR leadership to review. Their input helped validate the instructional content and ensure that the updated procedures reflected Fairfield's expectations.

We developed the course in Articulate Storyline 360, incorporating professionally recorded narration, multimedia instruction, and interactive learning activities. Throughout production, we maintained consistency with Fairfield's established course design and reviewed the deliverables for instructional accuracy, functionality, and overall quality before preparing the completed course for LMS delivery.

Impact

Fairfield launched the redesigned course as part of its company-wide management training curriculum.

The updated course replaced a primarily lecture-based presentation with an interactive learning experience grounded in relevant workplace situations. By giving managers opportunities to actively engage with the material and demonstrate their understanding, the course was designed to support retention and application beyond the training itself.

Feedback from Fairfield's training manager highlighted the improved visual design and more varied presentation of the content. A manager who completed the course also praised its attention to details that are often overlooked during coaching and performance check-ins.

The project continued an established partnership built on successful training engagements. Fairfield subsequently engaged iNStep to develop an additional course on fraud prevention.