Case Study: 50% Reduction in New Hire Training Time for Service Desk

The Challenge: Redesigning an Outsourced Service Desk New-Hire Training Program 

A leading provider of outsourced IT help desk and managed services for law firms and legal departments engaged KA to redesign its Analyst New Hire Training program. With service desk operations around the world, the company hires more than 300 new analysts each year for dedicated and shared support teams. Candidates complete an eSkills assessment before entering the training program. By shifting from fixed-start classroom training to blended, self-paced learning, the client cut its training window in half and enabled rolling hires for its service desk with operations in Atlanta, St. Louis and London.

The classroom-dominant training model was slowing the company’s hire-to-productivity pipeline and putting analyst retention at risk: 

• Fixed-start classes prevented the company from hiring on demand because candidates had to wait for a class to fill before training could begin.

• More than 40% of new hires left before their first anniversary, driving up the cost of every vacancy.

• The six-week training program relied heavily on in-person, trainer-led lectures and demos, leaving limited time for hands-on practice.

• Trainers spent most of their time delivering content, leaving little capacity to coach recent hires or support existing analysts. 

The Solution: A Customized Copilot Accelerator 

Knowledge Accelerators partnered with the client’s trainers to transform the existing curriculum into a blended, problem-based learning experience, built around a “Trainer as Facilitator” model: 

• Five problem-based learning themes—Day in the Life, You Are What They Hear, Be Productive, Strive for Certifications, and Get Connected—mapped every training goal to self-paced modules.

• On-demand e-learning and new-hire orientation allowed analysts to begin before day one, complemented by live instructor-led sessions.

• Coaching Corner sessions—both scheduled and on demand—enabled trainers to guide each analyst through culminating activities and provide remediation when needed.

• A hands-on sandbox and custom how-to video library supported the real tools analysts use, 

• Learning campaigns delivered paced microlearning to reinforce skills for both new and existing analysts. 

The Results: Complete Transformation of New Hire Program

The client achieved every success measure defined for the engagement:

• 50% reduction in training time (6 weeks → 3 weeks)

• Rolling hires enabled — analysts start anytime with no class constraints

• Higher training completion rates — more hires make it to the service desk

• Improved new-hire readiness through hands-on practice and coaching

• Strong engagement with e-learning content, rated highly by users