Category: News

San Francisco, Calif., June 29, 2023 – For the second year in a row, SweetRush is thrilled to announce it has been recognized as the number one content provider for diversity and inclusion training by eLearning Industry. (Along with many other organizations, SweetRush embraces equity and belonging within this work, and it abbreviates diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging as “DEIB.”) 

This recognition reaffirms SweetRush as a DEIB champion, committed to fostering inclusivity and equality in the workplace, both internally as a company and through its innovative diversity and inclusion learning programs. According to eLearning Industry, highlights of SweetRush’s diversity and inclusion training include, “meeting client and learner needs, inclusive storytelling, and real-life character design.” 

The award-winning People Manager Qualification (PMQ) program, which SweetRush created with client-partner the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), is an example of an industry-leading diversity training program. With 70 diverse characters and modules on workplace bias and social justice, the program speaks authentically to a diverse audience of new people managers in varied cultural settings, industries, and locations. This trailblazing leadership training won eight Brandon Hall awards, including a Gold award for “Best Learning Program that Supports and Promotes Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion,” and the Gold Chief Learning Officer Learning in Practice Award for “Excellence in Content.” With 300,000+ SHRM members in 165 countries, the training has the potential to impact the lives of millions of workers globally. 

“DEIB is infused in our core values and in who we are as people individually and together, as a company,” said Gonzalo Solorzano, SweetRush DEIB Lead. “It starts internally with our culture, and it extends outward in how we show up in our community and how we co-create diversity training with clients, such as SHRM, Hilton, Wells Fargo, and the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). We’re excited about the progress we’re making with our DEIB Academy, which embraces our DEIB employee resource groups: Race and Representation, Partners in Pride, Making Space (Body Acceptance), Neurodiversity, Accessibility, and more to come.” 

By blending interactive multimedia, real-life narratives, and immersive experiences, and through continued research in L&D, SweetRush fosters genuine empathy and deep understanding in learners, which can propel organizations toward inclusive cultures. 

“At SweetRush, we are in service of life potential—it’s our belief that business has the responsibility to play an influential role in positively shaping a life-affirming world,” said Andrei Hedstrom, SweetRush Cofounder and CEO. “Creating safe and inclusive spaces in which people can bring their whole selves to work is absolutely essential to activate an organization to its full potential. Education and relationships are cornerstones in that effort, and all of us in HR and L&D have the opportunity and obligation to serve as changemakers. I’m proud of how SweetRush has used our craft and collaborated with DEIB leaders to further amplify the impact of their diverse communities.”

This award comes on the heels of SweetRush being named the number one provider for sales training and recognized in a 2023 Top Training Companies™ list for Custom Content Development in corporate learning and development (L&D) by Training Industry. In addition to DEIB training content, SweetRush is known for its comprehensive suite of human-centered eLearning solutions tailored to the evolving needs of organizations.

If you’d like to speak with SweetRush about its award-winning approach to DEIB training programs, get in touch to be connected with a consultative expert!

ABOUT SWEETRUSH

SweetRush is trusted by many of the world’s most successful companies to help them improve the performance of their employees. We are known for exceptionally creative and effective solutions that combine the best of instructional design with highly engaging delivery. Our work has earned a long list of awards and accolades in collaboration with our clients. Discover more at www.sweetrush.com.

San Francisco, Calif., May 9th, 2023 – SweetRush is thrilled to announce its top position on eLearning Industry’s Best Sales Training Programs by Top Content Providers 2023 list. 

Sales training has been a core focus in SweetRush’s portfolio and an area of innovation for more than a decade. The company creates custom learning programs for sales professionals that offer high engagement and relevant practice, keeping them motivated while respecting their time.

“Upskilling your sales team is one of the most high-impact training initiatives a company can take on, given its direct impact on revenue,” says Arturo Schwartzberg, SweetRush Chairman and Cofounder. “Yet salespeople are one of the most challenging audiences because they really want to spend their time closing sales. SweetRush’s tailored approach keeps them engaged and on their toes, motivating them to learn new ways to strategize and consult, handle difficult people, create larger deals, and overcome objections.”

Four areas that differentiate SweetRush’s sales training offerings:

• Immersive learning—Using VR to enable sales professionals to experience and emotionally connect to the benefits of the products and services they sell.
• Education-based marketing for the extended enterprise—Programs that win the hearts and minds of sellers who are not our clients’ employees, building brand loyalty, product knowledge, and sales skills.
• Learning in the flow of work and sales enablement tools—Resources that support sales professionals at the moment of need, including microlearning, mobile apps, and AR-enabled sales sheets.
• Sophisticated learning journeys—SweetRush designs custom, learner-centered sales training programs for all audiences, from sales onboarding for new retail associates to executive sales professionals closing enterprise deals. These programs blend leading-edge learner experience design techniques, creating the right opportunities for interactive practice, game-based learning, reflection, and social connection.

According to Christopher Pappas, Founder of eLearning Industry, “SweetRush has a proven track record of helping sales teams in business and financial services, technology, and retail distinctly improve their performance. Their team has won over 20 Brandon Hall Gold awards in sales training categories.”

SweetRush has indeed won in several Brandon Hall Group sales training award categories, including Best Sales Training and Performance Program and Best Unique or Innovative Sales Training Program, with world-class clients such as Adidas, Bridgestone, Google, and Sally Beauty.

If you’d like to speak with SweetRush about its award-winning approach to sales training programs, get in touch to be connected to a consultative expert!

ABOUT SWEETRUSH

SweetRush is trusted by many of the world’s most successful companies to help them improve the performance of their employees. We are known for exceptionally creative and effective solutions that combine the best of instructional design with highly engaging delivery. Our work has earned a long list of awards and accolades in collaboration with our clients. Discover more at www.sweetrush.com.

The recognition, based on employee feedback, reflects how SweetRush cares for its people, communities, and the world.

San Francisco, Calif., January 12, 2023 — SweetRush, a leading provider of people empowerment and talent success solutions, is proud to be Certified™ as a Great Place to Work® for the first time. As a culture-forward organization that strives to be human-centered, this recognition reflects the leadership philosophies, activities, and behaviors that make SweetRush’s work environment unique and special. 

“We’ve been focused on building, maintaining, and evolving our life-centered culture since our founding in 2001,” said Andrei Hedstrom, SweetRush Cofounder and CEO. “In fact, clients often ask us the secret to our unique culture. Receiving the Great Place to Work® certification validates that our culture really is built on caring, commitment, and doing Good Things.” 

SweetRush received a remarkable 100% rating for the statement, “People care about each other here,” with additional high scores related to trust, honesty, and ethics.

SweetRush is a leading provider of culture, leadership, and learning solutions with a trusted client base of over 100 of the world’s most successful organizations, including Google, Capgemini, Hilton, Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), and 40 nonprofits. SweetRush’s thought leadership includes advocacy of human-centered culture, which was captured in the eBook, It’s All About Your People. 

A 100% remote organization since 2009, SweetRush constantly innovates new approaches to promote connection in a remote work environment. The highly successful program “36 Questions,” now on its fourth cycle at the company, brings together groups of three to five people from different areas of the company to share their stories, insights, and dreams through a thought-provoking question each week. These sessions have generated supportive professional connections and lasting friendships across the company. 

SweetRush’s Good Things division focuses on social responsibility and amplifying the impact of nonprofit organizations and foundations. A recent accomplishment is creating training for the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) to bring critical safety training to its staff and over 175,000 volunteers, many working in humanitarian crisis situations. 

Another example of SweetRush’s Good Things is a carbon-neutral reforestation project in Costa Rica called La Maestra (“teacher” in Spanish). SweetRush team members traveled to the Limon province to plant trees as an act of service and moment of connection. SweetRush devotes a portion of each project to tree planting and invites clients to participate in the effort.

“It’s a dream come true to receive the Great Place to Work® recognition for the very first time,” said SweetRush Human Resource Leader, Maricruz Vicente. “Surveying employees is so important because it gives us deep insight into how our culture is actually being lived and experienced at any given time. We’re able to assess how things are working throughout the employee journey. It also shows us data and metrics related to our people and teams, so we can continue to improve the experience for our employees.”

Looking to grow your career at a company that puts its people first? Visit SweetRush’s Careers page to find the latest openings.

About SweetRush

SweetRush’s focus on team culture and mastery of performance improvement is reflected in loyal clients, uniquely low turnover of teammates, a 20-year track record of success, and a remarkable portfolio. Our work with clients has earned us gold awards from our peers and high ranking on the top industry lists.

We are over 200 people strong and have been in business since 2001. Our service areas include Custom Learning (including eLearning, mobile learning, gamification, and virtual training), Talent Solutions (temporary talent to augment our clients’ L&D teams), XR/Immersive Tech (VR, AR, and emerging technologies), Transforming Leaders & Culture (expert coaching and consulting to create connected, unified cultures, leaders, and teams), and Good Things (amplifying the impact of nonprofits and the social impact space). Every day, we give thanks for the trust of our world-class clients. Learn more and get in touch with SweetRush at www.sweetrush.com.

About Great Place to Work Certification™

Great Place to Work® Certification™ is the most definitive “employer-of-choice” recognition that companies aspire to achieve. It is the only recognition based entirely on what employees report about their workplace experience—specifically, how consistently they experience a high-trust workplace. Great Place to Work Certification is recognized worldwide by employees and employers alike and is the global benchmark for identifying and recognizing outstanding employee experience. Every year, more than 10,000 companies across 60 countries apply to get Great Place to Work-Certified. 

About Great Place to Work®

Great Place to Work® is the global authority on workplace culture. Since 1992, they have surveyed more than 100 million employees worldwide and used those deep insights to define what makes a great workplace: trust. Their employee survey platform empowers leaders with the feedback, real-time reporting, and insights they need to make data-driven people decisions. Everything they do is driven by the mission to build a better world by helping every organization become a great place to work For All™.

Learn more at greatplacetowork.com and on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Explore these 7 themes in our best learning & development articles from 2022.

Happy New Year! We hope 2023 is treating you well so far. 

One of the best parts of a new year is that, while it’s a fresh start, it’s also a time to reflect on the past. Reflecting helps professionals in all fields grow from lessons learned and, ideally, leverage data, insights, and trends to carry out their strategy.

And that especially applies to learning and development (L&D) professionals. Luckily for us, learning continues to top the list of priorities for many employees and organizations! 

In 2022, learning professionals saw their roles and influence change and grow, as L&D goals merged with organizational goals for an ever-increasing strategic influence. 

So, what can we, as L&D professionals, do to maintain our seat at the table? 

Step 1 is leveraging the resources in this article to help you carry out your learning and development strategy in 2023. 

We’ve selected the articles that reflect the best of 2022 and give us a peek at what’s to come in 2023 (and beyond), arranged by 7 themes, as shown below.

#1: L & Deja-Vu!

Let’s take it wayyy back… Why stop at just 2022? Hop into our time machine with us as we cruise decades back through our interactive timeline. Take a look at the different generations (Alpha, Gen Z, millennials, Gen X, Baby Boomers, and the Silent Generation), norms in media, and advancements in technology over the last century. 

How did these circumstances affect L&D? 

How did they affect the workplace? 

This in-depth analysis of the workplace shows us the context of how L&D has evolved and how disruptive change is constant.

Changes in the Workplace and What’s Ahead for 2022 

Over the past century, the workplace has evolved to reflect changes in society. Journey with us as we take a trip through time and explore what the future holds.

Learn more here.

#2: Skills (Resilience and Power Skills Lead the Way)

Both employers and employees are focused on acquiring skills. Skills have been called the new “currency” of 2022 in the workplace, highlighting the importance placed on upskilling and reskilling. 

And L&D is now helping organizational leadership navigate this complex process while also empowering employees to take control of their careers by providing pathways to job opportunities. 

In the articles below, our experts explore the top skills challenges and opportunities, what L&D teams can do, the importance of power skills, and the most in-demand skills in the workplace.

L&D Challenges, Life-Centered Solutions: Transforming Business & Unlocking Human Potential

Our 2022 L&D trends report analyzes data collected from learning leaders and practitioners. Discover the top challenges they’re facing and find out what advice our team of experts has to help L&D succeed.

Read the full L&D trends report to learn more.

12 Tips for Using Power Skills to Create the Workplace of the Future 

Discover how to harness power skills (also known as soft skills) and future proof your organization with our 12 tips for the C-suite, leaders, and individual contributors.

Harness your power skills. 

The L&D Trifecta: Why Agility, Adaptability, And Resilience Top The List Of In-Demand Skills 

This article is an award winner! It was voted #2 in the employee training category by eLearning Learning, which evaluates content from hundreds of industry thought leaders. The article features data from 200+ L&D leaders, who report that agility and adaptability are the most vital workplace skills for 2022. And there’s a prerequisite: resilience. Try these 3 tips from our workplace culture experts to boost your team’s resilience—and your own.

Discover more about the most in-demand skills.

Is Your L&D Team Ready to Meet the Employee Skills Development Challenge? 

Employee skill development is a hot topic—but helping employees develop skills isn’t easy. Our experts share the three-part employee skills challenge, the opportunity, and the inspiration for building skilling solutions that engage learners and help them springboard into the future of work.

Get your team ready to develop employees’ skills here. 

#3: Learning Experience Design (LXD) and Learning Analytics

Data and analytics continued to be hot topics and areas that are both a challenge and an opportunity in L&D (we like to call this a “challenge-tunity”). Check out these articles to get inspired on different ways to incorporate measurement into learning & development.

How Needs Analysis Can Help Solve the Learning Analytics Challenge
Measurement and analytics continue to be struggles for L&D. In this article, Emma discusses why she thinks learning analytics is a challenge and shares her top three tips for those who are just getting started.

Solve the analytics challenge with needs analysis.

Beyond the Smile Sheet: Measuring Level 1 to Improve Learning Design 

This article landed on Training Industry’s Top 10 Articles of 2022 list! Discover how xAPI can enhance Level 1 data for stakeholders, L&D leaders, and UX designers with insights into learner behavior. 

Go beyond the smile sheet. 

Ask a Psychometrician, Part 1: What’s a Psychometrician? 

Want to write better, smarter, fairer tests and rubrics? You’ve got a case for a psychometrician! Learn how these assessment MVPs measure progress and mastery.

Find out more about this intriguing role. 

#4: Helping You Make Informed Decisions

When it comes to choosing an eLearning partner, we know you have a choice. In an effort to model transparency and openness, we’re demystifying the pros and cons of different eLearning solutions. Our step-by-step guides contain cost comparisons, use cases, and answers to your burning questions by offering an honest view of the different options available to you. What’s the catch? There isn’t one! We want you to find a solution that will best suit your organization’s needs—even if it means you don’t choose us. (Honestly!)

Comparing Off-the-Shelf vs. Custom eLearning Solutions: Which Is Best? 

Make more informed decisions about whether to “build or buy” training content with these pros and cons of off-the-shelf and custom eLearning solutions.

Get the full comparison to see which eLearning solution is best for you and your organization.

Buy, Build, or Blend? Use Cases for Off-the-Shelf and Custom eLearning 

Still unsure whether to buy, build, or blend your next eLearning solution? In this article, we’ll help you decide with 17 different use cases. Discover which one matches your specific needs with our comprehensive guide.

Find out which eLearning solution works for you in this in-depth analysis.

#5: Understanding Immersive Learning and the Metaverse

In the year that SweetRush was named No. 1 Content Provider for Immersive Learning by eLearning Industry and joined Training Industry’s Top 20 List for Experiential Learning Technologies Companies, we sought to unravel the mysteries of the metaverse with an eBook and article series.

Ready, Learner One? The L&D Innovator’s Gateway to Immersive Learning and the Metaverse

Wondering what the metaverse is—and what’s in it for L&D? Join us for this guided tour of immersive learning in the metaverse and beyond. You’ll discover who (and what) lives in the metaverse, four strong use cases for immersive learning and what the future holds for this space. 

Dive in deep and explore the full eBook on immersive learning and the metaverse. 

The Metaverse: Just a Fad, or the Future of L&D?  

What is the metaverse, and what’s in it for L&D? This level-set shows you what’s there, how it works, and how you can leverage the learning potential of the metaverse to create immersive learning experiences that make a difference.

Understand more about the longevity of learning in the metaverse. 

7 Steps to the Metaverse: Is Your Organization Ready for Immersive Learning? 

The metaverse is an exciting place—but is it the right home for your learning strategy? Find out with these seven needs analysis steps for immersive learning.

Access the 7 steps. 

A Match Made in the Metaverse: How to Partner Up with the Perfect Immersive Learning Pro 

This six-step checklist helps L&D leaders and practitioners identify immersive learning vendor-partners with the right skills, priorities, and team members.

Find your perfect immersive learning partner. 

#6: Hybrid Workplace + Virtual Learning + Collaboration = Screen Fatigue!

Let’s face it, we all struggle with keeping our attention undivided these days. Engagement is everything when it comes to learning. People won’t learn if they’re not engaged. L&D continues to vie for the attention of increasingly distracted, screen-fatigued learners so that learning sticks. 

In these articles, we dive into factors that affect remote learners, such as asynchronous learning, how to build in learning pit stops along with rest, how nature impacts learners, and the secret to better virtual management.

Create Impactful Virtual Training Experiences for Asynchronous Learning 

As more hybrid workplaces embrace zoom- and video-free days, we reflect on what this means for L&D and the asynchronous learner. Discover how to design impactful virtual training experiences for your asynchronous learners with our 6 tips.

Start creating impactful asynchronous learning now.

How Learning Journey Pit Stops and Nature Can Beat Screen Fatigue 

Learning engagement is a top challenge in content creation. To create human-centered learning, empathize with screen-fatigued learners. Learning designers can build communities for learners, ritualize learning with artifacts, and create opportunities for rest and reflection away from screens.

Find out how nature, rest, and pit spots help learners. 

Manage as if You’ve Never Been Burned: Mindsets and Practices for Better Virtual Management 

Need better virtual management skills? Borrow these proven mindsets and practices from our 10+ year experiment in remote work! 

Get the tools you need for virtual management. 

#7: Workplace Matters—Exploring the Intersection Between Life and Work

This year, we launched a new monthly series, Workplace Matters. In it, we explore the latest in life and business, mixed with a healthy heaping of pop culture.

The inspiration for the series was the first article we mentioned above in theme #1 about changes in the workplace. We looked back at the last few generations of the workplace. And that got us thinking about work, life, and everything in between.

Top 10 Songs About Work and the Employee Experience 

What “Cat’s in the Cradle” and “Break My Soul” tell us about empathy, work-life balance, quiet quitting, and more.

Enjoy the tunes and analysis. 

Top 10 Movies/Shows About the Workplace 

What The Office, The Devil Wears Prada, Office Space (and more) can tell us about the employee experience, corporate culture, and workplace trends.

Relive your favorite tv shows and movies and see what we can learn from our favorite (or least favorite) characters at work. 

So, that was 2022 in a nutshell! It was a lot, wasn’t it?

We hope you were able to reflect and enjoy reminiscing and examining the L&D industry, which continues to find new and exciting ways to improve the lives of people around the world.

Armed with the insights, research, and data provided in this article, we have no doubt that 2023 will be the best year yet (for both you and L&D). 

If you want to stay in the know, sign up for our newsletter.

Here’s to a new year of learning, growing, and exploring! 

San Francisco, Calif., Dec. 12, 2022 — SweetRush is honored to be named No. 1 Content Provider for Team Building Training by eLearning Industry.  

eLearning Industry Founder Christopher Pappas notes that the list celebrates content providers with “the tools to help you manage, lead, and develop strong teams, even when working remotely.”

A human-centered organization since its founding in 2001, SweetRush is also an early adopter of remote work. Since its transition to a fully remote organization in 2009, the SweetRush team has accumulated a wealth of experience, best practices, and lessons to share with leaders looking to build stronger remote and hybrid teams.

Clients trust SweetRush to help their leaders and teams become more connected, innovative, and aligned on their shared purpose. In addition to its team-building skills training and leadership coaching programs, SweetRush also helps L&D managers build their teams with industry-leading learning and performance management talent.

Three core areas of focus define SweetRush’s approach to team-building: 

• Leadership and power skills: Effective teams need connected leaders and “power skills” such as communication, collaboration, and empathy. SweetRush’s custom learning solutions facilitate the mental model shifts new and experienced leaders need to level up their power skills. Exemplary programs include unique, innovative, and highly engaging leadership development learning experiences created in partnership with Bayer, Capgemini, Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), and American Association of Critical-Care Nurses. 

SweetRush’s work with these and other forward-thinking partners has been recognized with 23 Gold Brandon Hall awards and three Chief Learning Officer Learning in Practice Awards in 2022. 

• Team connection: Teams with mutual understanding are more likely to be creative and innovative and achieve their goals. SweetRush’s Transforming Leaders & Culture (TLC) team helps teams authentically connect and care for one another as individuals while also taking ownership of the team’s shared purpose.

SweetRush TLC’s expert facilitators and coaches engage leaders and teams in activities that inspire collaborative learning, mutual trust, and shared insights into how the sum of the team is truly greater than its individual parts. 

SweetRush TLC helps leaders drive culture transformation by valuing their people and aligning around a life-serving purpose while creating robust financial value for their organizations.

• Staff augmentation: When leaders need to build their own L&D teams with additional capacity or specialized skills, SweetRush’s Talent Solutions team has an experienced pool of talented L&D professionals ready to help. With years of experience in building the right team for every project, they excel at finding, onboarding, and mentoring industry-leading L&D talent.

With connection and care at its heart, from recruiting to retirement, it’s no surprise that SweetRush enjoys sky-high ratings on Glassdoor, near-zero team turnover, Gold awards from Stevie Great Employers and the Learning & Performance Institute, and recent certification as a Great Place to Work. 

To speak to SweetRush about its award-winning human-centered approach to team building, visit the company website.

About SweetRush

SweetRush’s focus on team culture and craft is reflected in loyal clients, uniquely low turnover of teammates, a 20-year track record of success, and a remarkable portfolio. Our work with clients, custom solutions for talent empowerment, and people success have earned us gold awards from our peers and high rankings on the top industry lists.

We are over 200 people strong and have been in business since 2001. Our service areas include Custom Learning (including eLearning, mobile, gamification, and virtual training), Talent Solutions (temporary talent to augment our clients’ L&D teams), XR/Immersive Tech (VR, AR, and emerging technologies), Transforming Leaders & Culture (expert coaching and consulting to create connected, unified cultures, leaders, and teams), and Good Things (amplifying the impact of nonprofits and the social impact space). Every day, we give thanks for the trust of our world-class clients. Learn more and get in touch with SweetRush at www.sweetrush.com.

San Francisco, Calif., Nov. 28, 2022 — SweetRush is honored to receive three Learning in Practice Gold Awards from Chief Learning Officer for Excellence in Community Service, Excellence in Content, and Excellence in eLearning. 

Chief Learning Officer’s Chief Content Officer and Editor-in-Chief Ashley St. John describes this year’s 46 Learning in Practice Award recipients as representatives of “a transformative era in L&D: one marked by resilience, creativity, compassion, and the constant willingness to stretch outside the box.” 

An L&D industry disrupter since 2001, SweetRush meets this transformative era by blending outstanding instructional design with agency-level creative design to create innovative, engaging, learner-centric custom learning solutions. 

SweetRush Chairman and Cofounder Arturo Schwartzberg credits SweetRush’s success to partnerships with like-minded clients who dare to think creatively, act boldly, and build transformative learning solutions. 

Each of these Learning in Practice Gold Awards represents a relationship founded in collaboration—with client-partners who care deeply about crafting highly engaging and effective learning experiences.  

Here are the stories behind the awards: 

• Excellence in Community Service: American Diabetes Association (ADA)/American Heart Association (AHA) 

AHA, ADA, and SweetRush joined forces to create Know Diabetes by Heart, a story-based learning program that helps health care professionals reduce the incidence of cardiovascular deaths, heart attacks, and strokes in people living with type 2 diabetes. The program equips specialists with the tools they need to step out of a compartmentalized view of patient care to a holistic approach that treats the whole patient. 

SweetRush’s Arturo Schwartzberg observes, “Know Diabetes by Heart was the perfect opportunity to use our L&D craft in service of life potential. For the 537 million people living with type 2 diabetes, ADA’s and AHA’s willingness to think creatively with us is nothing short of heroism.” 

• Excellence in Content: Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) 

Through extensive research, SHRM discovered that new managers were often left on their own to sink or swim, risking team morale and productivity. Inspired by the opportunity, SHRM partnered with SweetRush to create a best-in-class leadership certification program that helped new people managers become great people managers. 

Thinking boldly together, SHRM and SweetRush created the People Manager Qualification (PMQ): a high-interest dramedy that follows a group of friends as they clash, cringe, and grow together as managers and people. PMQ’s binge-worthy seasons and episodes keep learners clicking “Play Next” through 13 hours of vital management content. 

Jeanne Morris, SHRM’s Vice President of Education, shares, “SHRM sought the very best when committing to elevating workplace culture by developing stronger people managers through the PMQ. SweetRush exceeded our expectations and helped us to raise the bar on how to deliver this learning experience. Developing high-potential employees into powerful leaders of the future can have a profound effect on your business and employee experience. SweetRush shares our vision, and our teams have a deep understanding and respect for each other, which results in world-class programs. It is the way every client/vendor relationship should be.”

•  Excellence in eLearning: Bayer

Bayer needed a fresh, bold, and unique approach to help its managers embrace new mindsets and skills and put them into action. They called on SweetRush to collaborate and create something Bayer leaders had never seen before.

Enter Rise & Thrive, a colorful, impactful microlearning experience that opens with a thought-provoking challenge: Think small to make big changes. Bite-sized video content, weekly “dares,” and reflections reinforce the power of thinking small and help learners build new leadership habits. 

Rachel Lamb, Bayer’s Global Performance & Development Learning Experience Lead, explains, “Learning today should look very different than it did a few years ago. Screen fatigue is real, and attention spans have decreased. We need to make learning fun and experiential. Bold, bright, bite-sized, and beautiful is our secret sauce for creating learning that is memorable and impactful.”

The SweetRush team extends its heartfelt congratulations to its client-partners and all Learning in Practice award winners who work to transform and elevate the L&D craft. 

To speak to SweetRush about its award-winning approach to learning and development, visit the company website.

About SweetRush

SweetRush’s focus on team culture and craft is reflected in loyal clients, a uniquely low turnover of teammates, a 20-year track record of success, and a remarkable portfolio. Our work with clients, custom solutions for talent empowerment, and people success, has earned us gold awards from our peers and high rankings on the top industry lists.

 We are over 200 people strong and have been in business since 2001. Our service areas include Custom Learning (including eLearning, mobile, gamification, and virtual training), Talent Solutions (temporary talent to augment our clients’ L&D teams), XR/Immersive Tech (VR, AR, and emerging technologies), Transforming Leaders & Culture (expert coaching and consulting to create connected, unified cultures, leaders, and teams), and Good Things (amplifying the impact of nonprofits and the social impact space). Every day, we give thanks for the trust of our world-class clients. Learn more and get in touch with SweetRush at www.sweetrush.com.

“When we can create engaging learner experiences that transform performance and that learners enjoy and have fun doing, we know we’re doing something right.” – Adrian Soto, Director of Immersive Technologies

San Francisco, Calif., Oct. 10, 2022 — SweetRush is honored to join Training Industry’s list of the “2022 Top Experiential Learning Technologies Companies.” 

“Learning by doing,” the heart of experiential learning, is woven into the fabric of SweetRush’s instructional design philosophy. Best known for its learner-centric, custom learning solutions that blend instructional design best practices with agency-level creative design, SweetRush has been leading the Learning & Development industry since 2001. This human-centric company is judged by many to be the world’s most innovative learning provider.

Experiential learning allows learners to gain skills through hands-on experience using game-based learning, scenario-based learning, and immersive technology solutions, such as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). In this safe space, learners can practice, fail, and make mistakes in a simulated environment rather than in real life.

As SweetRush Chairman, Arturo Schwartzberg, says, “Learners want a learning experience and not an exercise in force-feeding or memorization. Would you rather read about playing tennis or actually practice playing tennis?”

He continues, “As we explore the intersection between experiential learning and immersive technologies, which now include VR and AR, there are several things we consistently hear from clients. First, they need consultation. The technology is new, it’s understandably confusing, and they want to understand the landscape, their options, and what makes sense based on their specific needs. Second, they want to know how these new technologies overlap with custom learning and how the DNA of instructional design is embedded.”

He adds, “Third, just like in the early days of eLearning, clients want to understand how project management, such as the steps, timelines, and review cycles, is similar to or differs from more ‘traditional’ learning projects. It’s a new medium and preexisting eLearning templates no longer apply. And the final element that clients need? Trust. Our clients need to trust that even as things change in real time, SweetRush is dedicated to getting the project done right.”

 Adrian Soto, SweetRush Director of Immersive Technologies, agrees: “I love the consultation process with clients. It’s so exciting to come together to understand their needs and then show them just how far we can take experiential learning with immersive technologies. When we can create engaging learner experiences that transform performance and that learners enjoy and have fun doing, we know we’re doing something right.” 

To learn more about immersive technologies, read SweetRush’s recent eBook, Ready, Learner One? The L&D Innovator’s Gateway to Immersive Learning and the Metaverse. 

About SweetRush

SweetRush’s focus on team culture and mastery of performance improvement is reflected in loyal clients, uniquely low turnover of teammates, a 20-year track record of success, and a remarkable portfolio. Our work with clients has earned us gold awards from our peers and high ranking on the top industry lists.

We are over 200 people strong and have been in business since 2001. Our service areas include Custom Learning (including eLearning, mobile learning, gamification, and virtual training), Talent Solutions (temporary talent to augment our clients’ L&D teams), XR/Immersive Tech (VR, AR, and emerging technologies), Transforming Leaders & Culture (expert coaching and consulting to create connected, unified cultures, leaders, and teams), and Good Things (amplifying the impact of nonprofits and the social impact space). Every day, we give thanks for the trust of our world-class clients. Learn more and get in touch with SweetRush at www.sweetrush.com.

SweetRush is helping its clients achieve a competitive advantage by developing top leaders, supporting employee well-being, and fostering a purpose-driven culture.

San Francisco, Calif., August 25, 2022— SweetRush, the industry-leading provider of custom solutions for talent empowerment and people success, is thrilled to announce the launch of SweetRush Transforming Leaders & Culture (TLC). This new service is backed by the power of SweetRush’s award-winning custom learning and communications solutions and its 20-year track record of successful client partnerships with global businesses and nonprofits.

The SweetRush TLC team of specialized coaches and consultants, led by former CEO and culture expert Gregg Kendrick, helps top leaders striving for innovation and success to create the optimal environment for growth, stability, employee well-being, and impact. A strong focus is guiding leaders to the right-fit approach—understanding what is already working in their organizations and what needs to be improved to evolve into a unified, connected, and empowered culture. 

“When you approach us to say that you’re interested in culture or leader development, we show up as a partner to you,” says Kendrick. “We start from the very beginning: We help you explore and get clarity around your current situation, goals, and where you want to go. From there, we design a response that will integrate your strategic goals with the cultural shifts that you want to see.”

SweetRush Cofounder and Chairman Arturo Schwartzberg adds: “As companies grow, face disruption, and are impacted by external forces, old ways of leading are no longer successful—that’s normal and inevitable. Yet taking on a culture or leadership initiative is daunting and confusing. Clients are concerned about spending a lot of money with consultants to develop plans that never gain traction. We take a different approach: SweetRush TLC eliminates confusion and shows you a clear path forward.”

Helping shift leaders’ mindsets—showing them how to build a culture of caring and accountability, and how to lead through trust, is core to SweetRush TLC’s offering. “We teach leaders how to ignite people’s intrinsic motivation to show up, contribute, and belong to something bigger than themselves,” says Kendrick. 

“Our clients felt and experienced our culture and asked us to help transform theirs—so we created our culture and leadership transformation service,” says SweetRush CEO and Cofounder Andrei Hedstrom. “SweetRush TLC’s approach creates alignment and harmony in organizations that have infinite potential but recognize they need to change to better support their people and have a positive impact on the world. This life-centered approach is being embraced by the world’s top leaders and organizations, and it’s possible for everyone.”

Reach out and get started with a free, exploratory call with the SweetRush TLC team by contacting [email protected] or learn more at tlc.sweetrush.com.

SweetRush won 28 awards at the 2022 Brandon Hall Group Awards in 15 categories, including multiple wins for leadership development, sales training, and blended learning.

San Francisco, Calif., August 19, 2022 — SweetRush, the industry-leading provider of custom solutions for talent empowerment and people success, has won a record 23 Gold, three Silver, and two Bronze awards (28 total) at the 2022 Brandon Hall Group HCM Excellence Awards along with its client-partners.

One of the top winners overall, SweetRush was honored in 15 distinct categories. These accolades are shared with the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN), the American Diabetes Association (ADA) and the American Heart Association (AHA), adidas, Bayer, Bridgestone Americas, Capgemini, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), The Kraft Heinz Company, Sally Beauty, and the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).

“Once an afterthought, our L&D craft is being better understood by organizational leaders as an essential way to embrace and unleash potential,” said Andrei Hedstrom, SweetRush CEO. “As our amazing team and client-partners discover new applications for our work together, we are reminded by these awards just how blessed we are to be in service of life potential. Education, still tragically under-resourced and underutilized, is a solution to much of the suffering in the world. We are proud to meet the challenges of our times with a way to help.”

Highlights include:

• Awards in 15 categories
• Seven Gold awards for leadership development
• Five Gold awards for unique or innovative learning programs
• Three Gold awards for association professional development, highlighting SweetRush’s deep expertise in developing certification-type programs 
• Gold wins in diversity, equity, and inclusion and social/collaborative learning categories

SweetRush’s winning collaborations with its client-partners have significant positive impact on learners, their organizations, and their families and communities. These initiatives:

• Support new leaders as they move from individual contributor to supervisor roles
• Help leaders of all levels become more connected and human-centered
• Teach health care professionals how to take a holistic approach to patient care
• Help R&D professionals prepare for their functional roles
• Allow salespeople to practice in safe environments and improve selling skills
• Help humanitarian teams save lives in crisis situations

These learning programs also represent the breadth and depth of SweetRush’s L&D capabilities and expertise, including eLearning, video, learning games, scenario-based learning and simulations, social/collaborative learning, virtual reality and augmented reality, virtual instructor-led training, learning artifacts, and marketing/communications.

SweetRush works with clients in a wide array of industries, including business services, banking and finance, healthcare, consumer goods, automotive, retail, nonprofit, and pharmaceuticals.

SweetRush’s 2022 Brandon Hall Group Excellence Awards:

23 GOLD AWARDS
Best Unique or Innovative Leadership Program (3)
Best Association Professional Development Program (3)
Best Unique or Innovative Learning and Development Program (2)
Best Advance in Leadership Development (2)
Best Program for Sales Training and Performance (2)
Best Development Program for Frontline Leaders (2)
Best Advance in Custom Content (2)
Best Use of Blended Learning (2)
Best New Hire Onboarding Program
Best Learning Program that Supports and Promotes Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Best Advance in Creating an Extended Enterprise Learning Program
Best Use of Social/Collaborative Learning
Best Use of Video for Learning

3 SILVER AWARDS
Best Advance in Competencies and Skills Development
Best Unique or Innovative Learning and Development Program
Best Unique or Innovative Leadership Program

2 BRONZE AWARDS
Best Advance in Competencies and Skills Development (2)

“Excellence Award winners distinguish themselves through their growing understanding that all the functions of HCM are integrated and must work together to move businesses forward,” said Brandon Hall Group Chief Operating Officer Rachel Cooke, leader of the HCM Excellence Awards program. 

“It is a pleasure to see more organizations collaborating across functions and getting more sophisticated and accomplished at delivering measurable benefit through groundbreaking HCM practices,” she said. “For example, it was inspiring to see how diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives are increasingly embedded into people and business strategies and cultures. We saw more alignment between HCM and business objectives than ever before.” 

Entries were evaluated by a panel of veteran, independent senior industry experts, Brandon Hall Group analysts and executives based upon these criteria: fit the need, design of the program, functionality, innovation, and overall measurable benefits.  

If you’d like to speak to SweetRush about its award-winning approach to learning and development, visit the company website.

View the winners on the Brandon Hall Group website. Congratulations to all!

About SweetRush

SweetRush’s focus on team culture and craft is reflected in loyal clients, uniquely low turnover of teammates, a 20-year track record of success, and a remarkable portfolio. Our work with clients results in custom solutions for talent empowerment and people success, earning us gold awards from our peers and high ranking on the top industry lists.

We are over 200 people strong and have been in business since 2001. Our service areas include Custom Learning (including eLearning, mobile, gamification and virtual training), Talent Solutions (temporary talent to augment our clients’ L&D teams), XR/Immersive Tech (VR, AR, and immersive technologies), Transforming Leaders & Culture (expert coaching and consulting to create connected, unified cultures, leaders, and teams), and Good Things (amplifying the impact of nonprofits and the social impact space). Every day, we give thanks for the trust of our world-class clients. Learn more and get in touch with SweetRush at www.sweetrush.com. 

About Brandon Hall Group

Brandon Hall Group operates the largest and longest-running awards program in Human Capital Management. As an independent HCM research and analyst firm, they conduct studies in Learning and Development, Talent Management, Leadership Development, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, Talent Acquisition, and HR/Workforce Management. These benchmark studies help organizations by providing strategic insights for executives and practitioners responsible for growth and business results.

Coupling the research studies with the best practice from the awards, Brandon Hall Group has helped more than 10,000 clients globally and more than 28 years of delivering world-class research and advisory. At the core of our offerings is a membership program that combines research, benchmarking, and unlimited access to data and analysts. Membership enables executives and practitioners to make the right decisions about people, processes, and systems, coalesced with analyst advisory services that aim to put the research into action in a way that is practical and efficient.

Brandon Hall Group has also launched professional certifications for business and human capital management professionals to upskill themselves and gain credentials for career advancement. (www.brandonhall.com)

San Francisco, Calif., Aug. 8th, 2022—SweetRush is honored to be named the No. 1 Content Provider for Immersive Learning by eLearning Industry. SweetRush’s XR/Immersive Tech team prides itself on an end-to-end consulting strategy that helps clients navigate and leverage the ever-changing possibilities that immersive technologies present for L&D leaders. 

Best known for its learner-centric custom learning solutions that blend instructional design best practices with agency-level creative design, SweetRush has been disrupting the L&D industry since 2001 and has been judged by many as the world’s most innovative learning provider.  

Adrian Soto, SweetRush Director of Immersive Technologies, credits the team’s success to a passion for research of immersive technologies and their L&D applications. He adds, “Everyone on the team is deeply committed to applying these new tools effectively to learning.  This recognition by eLearning Industry is validation that we’ve chosen the right path.” 

eLearning Industry Founder Christopher Pappas observes, “Clients count on SweetRush to be innovators, so their team jumped into VR/AR early. SweetRush is delivering exciting, high-quality immersive learning programs. They’re ready to collaborate and show you how you can put these tools into practice.”

Collaboration and care are the guiding principles of SweetRush’s immersive learning innovators. Before building—or even blueprinting—the team thoroughly explores each client’s organizational learning strategy, business needs, learners, and work environments to understand the optimal immersive learning experience for their needs. To help clients understand the landscape and possibilities, the team provides brief, highly informative workshops. This end-to-end consulting practice is one of the main reasons so many leading organizations choose SweetRush as their provider of custom immersive learning. 

As more L&D leaders get curious about immersive learning, the SweetRush XR/Immersive Tech team is committed to helping them make an impact at their organizations with new, exciting, and effective ways to learn. In their recent eBook, Ready, Learner One? The L&D Innovator’s Gateway to Immersive Learning and the Metaverse, the team level-sets on XR technology, needs analysis, and L&D use cases for immersive learning in the metaverse and beyond.  

As a life-centered company, SweetRush is honored to work with client-partners who share a passion for building a better world and for creating learning experiences that touch lives, empower people, and create connections. Through SweetRush’s La Maestra initiative, every learning project also leaves a lasting legacy in the form of trees planted in Costa Rica’s Limón province. 

About SweetRush

SweetRush’s focus on team culture and mastery of performance improvement is reflected in loyal clients, uniquely low turnover of teammates, a 20-year track record of success, and a remarkable portfolio. Our work with clients has earned us gold awards from our peers and high ranking on the top industry lists.

We are over 200 people strong and have been in business since 2001. Our service areas include Custom Learning (including eLearning, mobile learning, gamification, and virtual training), Talent Solutions (temporary talent to augment our clients’ L&D teams), XR/Immersive Tech (VR, AR, and emerging technologies), Transforming Leaders & Culture (expert coaching and consulting to create connected, unified cultures, leaders, and teams), and Good Things (amplifying the impact of nonprofits and the social impact space). Every day, we give thanks for the trust of our world-class clients. Learn more and get in touch with SweetRush at www.sweetrush.com.