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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the literature of blended learning by practically implementing best practices in employee training. Design/methodology/approach In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, an organization had modified its training procedures over the course of three years to improve employee and organizational outcomes. Employee candidates who were onboarded into sales positions during the years 2019–2021 were given the opportunity to learn the content in an online format and subsequently evaluated prior to their in-person training and final evaluation to provide them with a self-paced blended learning experience. Both evaluation scores, along with the length it took to complete the trainings, were used to determine the trainings effectiveness and efficiency respectively. Findings The findings for the study showed that the organization was successfully able to improve upon the efficiency of the training by reducing training length and the effectiveness by improving employee outcomes. Research limitations/implications The study’s design was limited to the probation process, which resulted in issues drawing conclusions for employee outcomes that were relevant to their long-term organizational success. This emphasizes the importance of comprehensive investigations for future practical studies. Practical implications The findings allow for the improvement of blended learning models within real-world organizational contexts that provide organizations with the opportunity to improve employee outcomes while reducing time costs. Originality/value This study provides data from applied blended learning procedures that were validated using empirical findings, which contributes to the practicality of blended learning in workplace training.

Purpose This study aims to examine how incorporating gamification elements into an offline training program influences learner engagement and learning outcomes in a non-academic, organizational setting. Design/methodology/approach A randomized pretest–posttest control group experiment was designed to investigate participants’ levels of affective, behavioral and cognitive engagement (learner engagement), as well as their scores on a knowledge and skills assessment (learning outcomes) under two training conditions – traditional instructional strategy (TI) and gamification instructional strategy (GL). Training content, which was the same in both groups, included disease-related information, diagnostic expertise and product operational assistance. Participants (N = 98) were medical sales representatives from a multinational company. Findings Participants in the treatment group had higher levels of learner engagement in comparison to those in the control group. Additionally, participants in the GL group had outperformed their counterparts in the control group on the knowledge and skills assessment. Originality/value This is one of the first studies demonstrating how incorporating gamification elements into corporate training can improve medical sales representatives' learner engagement and learning outcomes.

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