ORC (O.R. Colan Associates) is the human side of infrastructure. A premier leader in the highly specialized Right-of-Way and land acquisition industry, ORC provides critical expertise in relocation, project controls, and land rights for major highway widenings, power line installations, and public infrastructure projects across the United States.
Because right-of-way isn't a standard university major, expertise in this heavily regulated space is traditionally built through family ties and word-of-mouth. With ~550 employees sitting at kitchen tables and knocking on doors nationwide, ORC’s people are the product.
To sustain rapid growth, ORC needed to architect how it develops talent from within. By partnering with HowNow to power ORC Academy, ORC operationalized its learning culture, turning L&D into a daily workplace habit and directly driving company recognition as a USA Today Top Workplace with an eNPS of +58.
As ORC expanded into a national, remote workforce, its traditional learning model began to break down.
Previously, learning relied on informal office apprenticeship, sitting next to a senior colleague to absorb knowledge. When workers went remote, critical expertise remained trapped inside people's heads.
Kayshia, Vice President of People and Organizational Development at ORC, explains:
Our people were asking us two questions we couldn't answer well: 'Where can I go in this organization?' and 'How do I grow?' Knowledge was scattered across SharePoint, intranet sites, and Dropbox folders with different permissions and owners. There was no single front door. Performance evaluations were a simple 'yes or no' on meeting expectations, with no underlying skills language to build from.
With these challenges in mind, ORC partnered with HowNow to achieve the following objectives:
When evaluating platforms, ORC took a strict, problem-first approach. They gathered non-negotiable requirements across every department, knocking out half the market during initial security and IT evaluations due to strict requirements like single sign-on (SSO) and automated provisioning.
While traditional LMS vendors offered rigid, off-the-shelf tools for massive enterprises, HowNow stood out for its willingness to co-build and solve ORC’s specific workflow challenges.
The moment we knew HowNow was the one was when I asked if we could push skills from our performance platform into theirs to map dynamic learning journeys, says Kayshia.
Every other vendor said, 'We can't do that.' HowNow said, 'Let's get our engineering team in the room with your IT team.' That told me everything: they were a partner who would build with us, not just sell to us. We weren't buying for the 250 employees we had then, we were buying for the 500+ we've become and the 1,000 beyond.
To ensure seamless adoption across a national workforce, ORC executed a strategic rollout before day one:
Today, HowNow serves as the core engine powering ORC’s talent strategy, turning L&D from an administrative overhead function into an award-winning driver of business growth.
ORC maintains a 96% active user rate across field and corporate teams, a metric that has never dropped below 90% in over four years. Learning has shifted from mandatory compliance into an organic daily habit.
Through ORC Academy, all new and promoted managers enter the Ignite Program. Within 60 days, managers complete modules on manager standards and employee relations, earning verified digital badges they display on LinkedIn. ORC is actively tracking toward 100% credentialing across all ~80 managers.
Because field agents can contribute knowledge directly, ORC’s learning content more than doubled in under a year. Technical experts now crowdsource job aids and field insights, ensuring best practices reach the entire company instantly.
Instead of repeating basic task instructions one-on-one, managers use ORC Academy to deliver job aids and fundamental skill training. This elevates the manager’s role to high-value coaching, strategic evaluation, and handling complex industry judgment calls.
With a significant portion of the right-of-way industry approaching retirement over the next decade, ORC Academy captures senior experts' knowledge, converting decades of tribal expertise into accessible digital pathways for the next generation.
The ultimate proof of ORC’s learning transformation shows up directly in their workplace sentiment and retention metrics.
Launch is the starting line, not the finish line, adoption is a culture you have to tend to, reflects Kayshia.
By giving our team a single front door through ORC Academy, people self-serve the answers they need in the flow of work. When employees see that you actively invest in their skill gaps and give them transparent career paths, it changes how they feel about coming to work. That empowerment is why we achieved an eNPS of +58 and were named a USA Today Top Workplace.
“There’s a Nugget for That” & The Human-in-the-Loop Balance
A key factor in ORC Academy’s long-term adoption was creating a cultural hook, coining the phrase, "There's a nugget for that." Whenever employees ask where to find a process or guide, colleagues direct them to bite-sized content nuggets in the Academy.
However, ORC learned an important lesson about balancing self-service automation with human connection:
We learned that 'there's a nugget for that' isn't always the complete answer, says Kayshia.
If someone is stuck or frustrated, they don't just want a link, they need a human. We evolved our culture to say: 'Here is the resource nugget, and let's also jump on a call.' Self-service frees our management team up from answering basic questions so they have real, dedicated time for the people who genuinely need coaching.
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