Conlan Carter
- Jul 21, 2022
- 5 min read

Ethena boosts Deputy's compliance training engagement to 82%

Updated: Mar 10

Deputy Global Director of People Kaisi Guo uses Ethena to automate their compliance training while saving administrative time

About Deputy

Deputy is on a mission to Simplify Shift Work™ for millions of shift workers and businesses globally. The Australian-based company’s software streamlines scheduling, timesheets, tasks, and communication for 280,000 workplaces.

The company’s goal is to run efficient teams without hours of administrative work. It’s this shared value that makes Deputy’s compliance training with Ethena so successful at saving teams time during a busy work schedule. The proof is in the data with Deputy reporting a 91% completion rate in the first 90 days and a 17% increase in engagement since adding Ethena.

The Challenge: Streamlining compliance training across time zones

Respecting employees’ time is important for the People Partner team at Deputy especially since much of its workforce is remote. Their growing international workforce is split between multiple time zones.

“From an employee’s perspective, two hours of training content all at once was simply not feasible,” explains Deputy’s Global Director of People, Kaisi Guo. “We couldn’t allocate that huge block of training.”

Kaisi joined Deputy in 2020 as a people partner manager overseeing the U.S. and EMEA. She joined the startup at a time of hypergrowth and knew Deputy needed a scalable compliance partner able to support international growth and onboarding.

“I needed something more user-friendly, admin friendly, and easier to manage.”

Deputy’s previous training program was confusing from an admin perspective according to Kaisi. She knew Deputy needed a compliance training platform that would be informative and could be easily executed across all markets as they focused on expanding into the U.S. marketplace.

“I wanted an automated compliance solution that could scale with a global team."

The Solution: Automating L&D training to save time

Deputy found the answer with Ethena's automated course library. The library offers content tailored to Deputy with topics relevant to their employees. The ability to tailor courses is important for a startup like Deputy that doesn’t have an internal learning and development program or a dedicated compliance position.

Ethena wasn’t new for Kaisi. She had previously used Ethena’s platform at her previous company to simplify training workflows.

“Ethena was definitely the first thing that came to mind,” said Kaisi who was tasked with helping get new hires compliant with Deputy’s policies as the company grew.

Making the switch to Ethena solved several pain points Kaisi had experienced with the previous compliance training platform at Deputy including:

How do people access their training portal?
How do we see who has completed training?
What training are they outstanding on?

Solving all three of these issues was easier with Ethena’s intuitively designed platform which offers smart assignments, reminders, and trackable reporting.

“It was a pretty easy decision,” explained Kaisi, who liked that Ethena would put Deputy’s L&D resources on autopilot while still being scalable.

Deputy began by using Ethena for three training courses: Harassment Prevention, Hiring and Interviewing, and Anti-bribery and Corruption.

Ethena’s flexibility means Deputy could add additional training courses later as certain compliance topics become more relevant.

Using Ethena as a compliance solution was aided by Kaisi’s confidence in Ethena’s ability to onboard administrators quickly and launch within a large organization.

“I was very confident about Ethena and how it would work for Deputy. ‘I said to my CFO, ‘This is gonna work for us. I guarantee it.’”

The Results: Finding value with automated compliance courses

Valuing Employee Time

Kaisi’s confident decision paid off quickly for Deputy. One of the key benefits comes down to time and its value to admins and employees.

The growing company could easily offer inclusive training to their staff with Ethena's flexible, cringe-free content which resulted in better engagement rates.

The flexible training is offered in multiple mediums which is essential for Deputy’s remote workforce. Deputy employees no longer need to complete an entire course at once with Ethena.

Instead, Ethena’s courses allow employees to come and go from the platform in their own time, leading to higher completion rates.

The majority of the Deputy team completes training within 90 days and 86% have shared positive feedback about their training experience.

Career Development Value

The ease of use doesn’t mean that Ethena’s compliance content is cutting corners. Each training program is designed to go deep while still keeping employees engaged.

“I like that Ethena gets into the gray areas,” added Kaisi who noted that Deputy engagement rates climbed 17% with 85% of employees taking part in the compliance training which shows a serious investment in career development.

The feedback has been positive for the People Partner team. Kaisi said employees even send her Slack messages complimenting Ethena and its content.

Monetary Value

Deputy doesn’t only save time with Ethena. It also saves money by avoiding costly alternatives like in-person training and localized legal presentations.

Instead, Ethena offers Deputy location-specific training with the same core lessons and tools. The platform gives Deputy teams the foundational knowledge needed to bridge gaps internally. It’s this career development that also helps Deputy better serve the millions of shift workers using its software to navigate workforce legislation including wages, overtime, entitlements, and penalties to build a thriving workplace.

Deputy needed a compliance partner they could trust to make a consistent positive impact as they focused on scaling their team, and with best-in-class admin experience, new employee onboarding, and inclusive training content, Ethena was the best choice out there. “I was very confident about Ethena and how it would work for Deputy,” Kaisi said, “so I immediately proposed a longer partnership. I said to my CFO ‘This is gonna work for us. I guarantee it.’”

Compliance training platform frees up startup resources

Employees find the platform easy to use too. Content is delivered directly to inboxes with direct links to programs. The backend is user-friendly for admins like Kaisi.

Deputy doesn’t need to worry about updating compliance training with each new wave of hiring. Ethena automatically enrolls new hires in training courses and tracks their progress.

“The best part about Ethena is being able to set it and forget it.”

It’s key for a scaling company where resources can be limited. And it makes time one of its more valuable resources.

Entrusting Ethena gives the Deputy team more time. It frees up managers like Kaisi and refocuses their talents elsewhere to focus on future growth.

Looking for a training solution that scales with your team, wherever they're training from? Talk to a member of our team to learn how Ethena can solve your training needs and grow with your team.