The Problem No One Talks About After Go-Live
Here's an uncomfortable truth: the biggest post-implementation failures we see have nothing to do with the system itself.
Most organizations choose HiBob precisely because it's modern, clean, and employee-friendly. The pitch is compelling: "Instagram on the front end with Workday on the back end." Executives love it. The demos go well. Everyone agrees the old system needed to go. But then something predictable happens after go-live—employees still don't use it consistently, managers bypass workflows, and HR finds itself answering the same questions over and over.
The assumption is that beautiful design equals instant adoption. It doesn't. What actually happens across the 400+ implementations we've supported is this: intuitive interfaces lower the barrier to entry, but they don't teach people how to do their jobs differently. That gap is where most HiBob deployments either accelerate or stall—and it's exactly why Align Academy exists.
What We See After Go-Live
Across hundreds of HiBob implementations, we see the same patterns repeat:
Training treated as a checkbox activity. Organizations schedule one 90-minute session two days before go-live, record it, and assume that's sufficient. Employees sit through a feature walkthrough, nod along, and then panic when they actually need to submit a time-off request or complete a performance review on day one.
Over-reliance on "the system is intuitive." HR leaders genuinely believe that if the interface is clean enough, employees will figure it out. But intuitive doesn't mean self-explanatory. An employee who's spent five years in BambooHR doesn't automatically know where to find org charts in HiBob, how to update their emergency contacts, or why they're suddenly getting notifications about approvals they've never been responsible for before.
Super-users drowning in questions. One or two HR team members become the default support line. They're fielding 50+ Slack messages a day, walking managers through the same process repeatedly, and missing their own deadlines because they've become full-time HiBob translators.
Generic vendor training that doesn't match workflows. HiBob's standard training is solid—for generic use cases. But it doesn't cover your specific approval chains, your custom fields, your compensation review process, or how your particular organization handles contingent workers. Employees learn the platform in theory, then get stuck the moment they encounter your company's actual workflows.
Why This Matters Right Now
Poor adoption creates a compounding set of problems that show up quickly:
HR workload spikes instead of dropping. The whole point of a modern HRIS is to reduce administrative burden. But when employees can't find what they need, HR becomes the help desk. Support tickets that should have disappeared after go-live keep coming—sometimes for months.
Data integrity suffers. When people don't trust the system or don't understand how to use it correctly, they work around it. Managers approve things via email instead of in HiBob. Employees submit paper forms. Data gets entered inconsistently or not at all. Six months later, you're still trying to get clean headcount reports.
Manager confidence erodes. First-time managers, in particular, need their tools to work predictably. When they're unsure how to run a pay cycle review or where to find their team's time-off balances, they lose confidence in the system—and sometimes in HR's ability to support them.
System ROI gets delayed. You bought HiBob to move faster, gain better insights, and improve employee experience. But if only 60% of your workforce is using it properly, you're not getting the value you paid for. The ROI case you presented to leadership starts looking shaky.
5 Warning Signs Your HiBob Training Isn't Working
Here's how to tell if your training approach is setting employees up for success—or setting them up to struggle:
- Your "training plan" is a single recorded session. If onboarding to HiBob means watching one hour-long video, you're hoping for adoption instead of building it. People retain about 20% of what they hear in a lecture-style session. The other 80% disappears the moment they close the video.
- Every employee gets the same training. A payroll admin needs to understand HiBob very differently than a manager approving time off or an employee updating their benefits. If everyone's sitting through the same content, most of it isn't relevant to them—and they'll tune out the parts they actually need.
- Training stops at go-live. You trained people two weeks before launch. Great. But what about the employees who join three months later? What about the manager who just got promoted and suddenly needs to run performance reviews? If there's no plan for ongoing learning, every new hire or role change becomes a support burden.
- You're seeing the same questions repeatedly. When HR is answering identical questions from different employees every week—"How do I request PTO?" "Where's the org chart?" "Why didn't my manager get my approval request?"—it means training didn't land. People aren't retaining what they need.
- Adoption metrics are trending down, not up. In the first month, usage is high because it's new and mandatory. But if logins drop off, self-service features go unused, and managers start asking for "the old way" of doing things, you've got an adoption problem that won't fix itself.
Why Align Academy Was Built for This Gap
Align Academy exists because we kept seeing the same post-go-live pattern: beautifully configured HiBob systems underperforming because organizations skipped the people side of the implementation.
Here's what we focus on—and what makes the approach different:
Role-based learning, not feature training. We don't walk people through every button in HiBob. We teach them how to do their specific job using HiBob. A manager learns manager workflows. An HR business partner learns HRBP workflows. Employees learn employee workflows. That specificity is what drives retention and confidence.
Scenario-driven, not lecture-driven. Instead of explaining how the performance review module works in theory, we walk through your actual performance review process—your rating scales, your calibration approach, your compensation connection. People learn by doing, not by watching.
Reinforcement, not one-and-done. Training isn't an event. It's a system. Align Academy builds learning into the flow of work—quick-hit videos available on demand, job aids embedded where people need them, micro-trainings timed to when features actually get used. A manager doesn't need to remember everything from a training session six weeks ago; they need help the moment they're running their first performance cycle.
Built around your workflows, not HiBob's defaults. We don't teach generic HiBob. We teach your HiBob. That means understanding how you've configured approvals, what your custom fields mean, which integrations matter, and where your processes deviate from out-of-the-box functionality. That alignment is what makes training stick.
This isn't supplemental. It's foundational. A system only works if people know how to use it—and more importantly, if they trust that it works.
What Getting This Right Actually Looks Like
When training is treated as a strategic priority instead of a checkbox, the results show up quickly:
Employees actually use the system. Self-service adoption climbs. People find what they need without asking HR. Manager portals get used consistently instead of sporadically.
HR stops firefighting. Support ticket volume drops. The Slack messages slow down. HR can focus on strategy instead of explaining how to update a phone number for the fifteenth time.
New hires onboard faster. Instead of waiting for someone to walk them through HiBob, they follow a structured learning path and get productive immediately.
Managers feel confident. They run pay cycles, approve time off, and manage their teams without hesitation—because they know how the tools work and where to get help when they need it.
Data gets better. When people understand how to use HiBob correctly, data entry improves. Reports become trustworthy. Dashboards reflect reality instead of requiring constant cleanup.
ROI accelerates. You start seeing the value you bought HiBob for—better insights, faster processes, improved employee experience—because people are actually using it the way it was designed to be used.
Want to Evaluate Whether Your Training Plan Will Actually Support Users?
If you're planning a HiBob implementation—or already live and struggling with adoption—let's walk through your training approach together. We'll help you identify gaps, clarify what's working, and build a learning strategy that sets your people up for success.
