5 Ways XtraMile Helps HR Teams Build a Stronger Company Culture

Company culture isn’t just about perks or the occasional team-building activity. 

It’s about creating an environment where employees are aligned with the company's mission, feel valued, and are empowered to do their best work.

Research shows that highly engaged organizations see 18% higher revenue per employee compared with the average​.

The key to sustaining this culture? 

Foundational skills training that aligns employees with the company’s values.

Today’s workplace is no longer confined to a single office space. Whether your employees are working remotely, in hybrid setups, or across global locations, the strength of your company culture must transcend physical boundaries.

In this article, we’ll explore the real drivers of company culture, the impact of foundational skills training, and how XtraMile helps you maintain and strengthen that culture in a boundaryless world.

What Is foundational skills training?

Foundational skills refers to the essential knowledge and competencies that every employee must have to contribute to the organization’s success. 

This includes training on corporate policies, your employee handbook, compliance requirements, and increasingly important topics like sustainability and diversity and inclusion.

As we navigate a boundaryless workplace, these skills serve as the bedrock of an organization’s culture, ensuring that employees not only understand their roles but also how to align their actions with the company’s values.

Foundational training is more than a check-box activity

In our experience, many organizations approach foundational skills training in an inconsistent, ad-hoc manner. 

HR teams either purchase off-the-shelf courses or, if time allows, develop their own materials. Most of the time, teams are forced to rush creating a digital course when new regulations or company policies come into effect. 

This results in generic content that fails to engage employees or reflect the unique culture of the organization.

This especially happens in relation to foundational training.

But foundational skills training isn’t just about checking boxes for compliance—it’s about reinforcing the values and practices that drive business outcomes.

According to a report by the Ethics & Compliance Initiative, organizations with strong foundational training programs experience 40% less workplace misconduct, which directly impacts productivity and employee engagement.

Culture is critical to business success

It’s easy to assume that culture is driven by perks—things like free snacks, team outings, or flexible work hours. 

But in reality, true culture comes from deeper values: clear communication, alignment with the company’s mission, and growth opportunities for employees.

In a survey titled “Core Beliefs and Culture”, Deloitte found that 94% of executives and 88% of employees believe that a distinct workplace culture is critical to business success.

Interestingly, the survey reveals that while 83% of executives believe the company communicates its core values and beliefs, only 67% agree.

Source: Deloitte Core Beliefs and Culture, Chairman’s Survey Findings

This gap highlights the importance of making sure that the programs HR teams create are meaningful and effectively communicated across the organization, emphasizing the role of foundational training in bridging this gap.

Yet, many companies fail to recognize that foundational training, on topics like compliance, ethics, and diversity, plays a crucial role in reinforcing this alignment.

Without training that reflects company values, employees are left guessing how they fit into the larger picture, leading to disengagement. 

This is why companies like Zappos use onboarding programs that immerse employees in their culture from day one. 

Through continuous training on foundational topics, companies can ensure that their culture isn't just a buzzword.

It’s something employees live every day.

5 ways XtraMile helps HR teams build a stronger company culture

1. AI-powered course creation: Free up time for human engagement

Many HR and L&D professionals are overwhelmed by the manual tasks associated with creating, distributing, and tracking training. 

These manual processes typically involve creating content from scratch, distributing it across teams, and manually tracking completion—all of which are time-consuming and repetitive.

According to the Association for Talent Development (ATD), the time to develop training content varies significantly based on the complexity and format of the training. 

For example, creating highly interactive e-learning or microlearning units can take a considerable amount of time and effort. 

Source: Association for Talent Development

This significant time investment often prevents HR teams from focusing on more strategic initiatives, such as engaging employees and fostering a positive company culture.

With XtraMile, you can cut that content creation time down significantly.

Start by uploading existing documents, such as your employee handbook, code of ethics or corporate policies document and the platform automatically converts the document into engaging e-learning courses, complete with pictures.

Once you upload your existing documents, XtraMile’s learning automation platform transforms them into interactive e-learning modules. From there, the e-learning course is already 80% ready - saving your team valuable time and effort.

All that’s left is to make small edits, such as tweaking the text and updating images to better match your brand. 

If you're pressed for time, the AI functionality can even help you fine-tune the content, ensuring it feels tailored without requiring heavy lifting from your team.

2. Blended learning for a complete training experience

One of the biggest challenges in L&D is keeping training engaging and relevant. 

Too many organizations rely solely on e-learning modules, but the real key to effective training is using a combination of methods that address different learning styles. 

Research shows that blended learning, mixing online and in-person learning, improves knowledge retention and boosts engagement.

XtraMile solves this by offering three learning methods in one learning platform. Each method can be automated or you can combine all of them to create your own customized program. For example, you might start with an e-learning module, followed by a quiz, then a webinar, and finally a live classroom session.

Using XtraMile’s triggers and automations, you can customize learning paths for different departments, ensuring employees are engaged at every stage. 

This flexibility supports both continuous learning, making it easier for HR to foster a culture of growth and development.

3. Multi-language translation helps you build culture across borders

In today’s global workforce, it’s not enough to offer training in just one language. 

Companies with offices in different regions often struggle to maintain consistency in training and culture. According to Deloitte’s 2024 Global Human Capital Trends Report, almost a third of new workers leave their jobs within the first 90 days of being hired, with unmet expectations from recruitment and culture being key factors​. 

This highlights the importance of a strong, consistent culture. It's one that can transcend geographical and language barriers.

With XtraMile, you can create a course in one language and have it automatically translated into 80 other languages, ensuring that employees across different locations receive the same, cohesive training.

This is important for building a unified culture that transcends physical boundaries. 

Employees feel included and aligned with company values, no matter where they are located, helping create a culture that’s not just local but global.

4. Automations that let you focus on people, not processes

HR teams often struggle to keep up with the growing number of employees who need onboarding, compliance, or other foundational training. 

Manually enrolling new employees, sending reminders, and tracking their progress becomes an administrative nightmare. This detracts from HR’s ability to focus on employee development and engagement.

With XtraMile, new hires are automatically enrolled in relevant training programs, follow-up reminders are sent without human intervention, and certification is issued upon course completion.

This end-to-end automation allows HR teams to focus on the human side of culture-building rather than getting bogged down in repetitive administrative tasks. 

By streamlining the process, XtraMile ensures training is timely and consistent, all while freeing up HR to focus on strategic initiatives that drive company culture.

5. Follow-up and insights: Leader activation for better employee development

Even with automated training, follow-up is critical to ensuring employees are engaged and learning effectively. 

Many organizations lack visibility into who has completed training and who is falling behind, making it difficult to intervene and support struggling employees.

According to CultureWise CEO David Friedman, accountability should be embedded into company culture as the foundation of all employee behavior. Without accountability, efforts to build a strong culture “amount to little more than wishful thinking.” 

When leaders weave accountability into their culture, it becomes clear that taking ownership of one’s actions is “the way we do things here,” fostering employee buy-in and pride in their work​

XtraMile helps companies establish this kind of accountability. 

The platform provides real-time reporting and insights, allowing managers to track training progress and activate leaders in follow-up processes.

XtraMile helps activate leaders by utilizing your company’s organizational chart. The system maps out which managers are responsible for each department, allowing it to provide personalized insights for every leader. 

Here’s how it works

• Team progress overview. Managers receive a clear overview of their team’s training progress, making it easy to track who has completed the training and who might need additional support.
• Actionable follow-up suggestions. The system suggests follow-up activities for managers to engage their teams post-training, ensuring that learning is reinforced and applied in the workplace.
• Manager activity points. Leaders earn points based on their engagement and interaction with the training process. This gamified element encourages managers to take an active role in employee development.
• Clear action items. The system informs managers about the specific actions they need to take to support their teams’ growth, such as providing feedback or scheduling additional training sessions.

The leader activation feature helps managers take responsibility for helping their teams grow and learn. By sharing this responsibility with all the managers, it makes the whole company more supportive and engaged.

It also helps managers give direct feedback and advice to their team members, which builds stronger relationships between employees and their leaders. 

This way, everyone can keep learning and improving together.

The key to building a future-proof company culture

For too long, foundational skills training has been seen as a necessary evil—something employees dread and HR teams rush through to tick a box. 

It’s often viewed as a dry, compliance-driven task, far removed from the excitement of more strategic initiatives. But it’s time to change that mindset. 

Foundational training doesn’t have to be a check-the-box exercise. When executed well, it can be the cornerstone of a thriving company culture and a powerful driver of business outcomes.

When training on topics like company rules, ethics, diversity, and values is fun, interactive, and customized to fit your company’s goals, it stops feeling like a boring task and turns into a valuable opportunity.

Employees who are well-versed in these critical areas are more likely to feel aligned with the company’s goals and make decisions that positively impact performance. 

In our experience, companies with strong foundational training programs experience reduced risk of workplace misconduct and better overall productivity​.

This isn’t just about meeting regulatory requirements. It’s about building a unified culture that drives growth and resilience.

At XtraMile, we believe HR and L&D professionals should view foundational skills training as a key investment in culture and business success. With our tools, ranging from automated course creation to blended learning approaches, you can create engaging, customized programs that resonate with employees and deliver measurable results.

It’s time to stop seeing foundational skills training as a checkbox. Instead, treat it as an investment in your culture, your people, and your company’s future.

Are you ready to learn how XtraMile can help build your company’s culture through foundational training? Sign up for a free demo today!