Farmlands
Supporting the farming community to make better crop choices
Giving advice is a huge responsibility
Making the wrong choices about planting, nurturing and harvesting crops has a huge impact on the farming community and it can be a multimillion-dollar headache for an organisation if they provide the wrong advice, a crop fails, and they are found to be at fault.
Nobody wants that! Farmlands took on the challenge to ensure that their staff have access to the relevant information, understand the commercial implications of the advice they provide around crop choice, and are aware of their responsibilities as Farmlands representatives.
Meeting a variety of learning styles
We worked with subject matter experts and other stakeholders to understand the target audience and to draw out the key messages. The learning experience uses customised characters and explainer animations to provide visual appeal and to target a range of learning styles. The end result was a range of online modules which the learner could complete at their own pace, and could refresh their learning at any time.
Scenarios based on real-life experiences, meant they could apply what they learnt, and could translate the learning into real and relevant practice. This gave Farmlands confidence that working through this learning would make a difference when it came to the next customer interaction.
The need for speed!
As a season-driven business, Farmlands needed this project to be turned around in a tight timeframe with a fixed season start date. It meant some adjustments to our processes and resourcing, working with Farmlands to schedule when their input would be required. This helped them to plan their availability around other priorities, and not let time slip away. Communication was critical and making sure those target dates were met allowed us to navigate successfully around a tricky timebound challenge.
Deadlines were tight and several modules were under development at the same time, but everyone knew when their input was required and there were no nasty surprises.
“Like-minded built two online courses for our field staff. They were a delight to work with and produced an end product that exceeded our expectations. They took technical information and produced a series of modules that captured not only the technical aspect, but also the “soft skills” required in the field. They are experts in their field and come highly recommended.”
Sam Lucas, Head of Agronomy & Farm Systems, Farmlands Co-operative Society Limited