Access Services Sees 84%+ Compliance Rates Over 3 Years, Develops Leadership Program with Relias

Before partnering with Relias, Access Services managed training manually — relying on spreadsheets to track assigned and completed courses. But as the organization expanded, this approach became unsustainable. Tracking staff compliance, delivering timely training, and managing the administrative demands of a growing workforce proved increasingly difficult.

That’s when Access Services turned to Relias.

With the Relias Platform, administrators gained critical visibility into training progress across the organization. They can now pinpoint who is on track, who is behind, and what could be done proactively to stay ahead of audits and licensing deadlines. “I honestly don’t know how we’d function without Relias. Between audits, licensing, and statewide training requirements — we need instant access to clean, reliable data. Relias gives us that,” said Cordiero Cotton, Director of Learning and Development for Access Services.

That visibility is vital.

“Without Relias, we’d be absolutely blind,” Cotton explained. “You could try to piece things together with spreadsheets and manual tracking — but Relias brings it all into one streamlined system. It houses our custom trainings, provides a vast, NADSP-accredited library, and gives us the ability to track, monitor, and prepare for audits with ease.”

Thanks to the platform’s powerful reporting tools, staff can upload documentation, mark trainings complete, and have those completions recorded and reportable instantly. Administrators can quickly run reports by program, learner, or requirement — saving countless hours.

Improving career pathing

On top of easing administrative burden for leadership, Access Services has also used Relias to reinvigorate career pathing for its staff. To start, Access Services made the entire catalogue of Relias learning courses available to everyone.

“The ability for every employee to self-enroll in any course they find valuable? That’s a game-changer. It sends a clear message: we’re invested in your future,” Cotton said.

Next, leadership had to disseminate this information to their staff. Fortunately, the message was simple and effective. “We tell our team: use Relias to build the skills you need for the career you want. Whether that’s leadership, subject matter expertise, or something entirely new — it’s all there,” Cotton explained.

This policy has had a great reception among Access Services’ staff. As leadership spoke with their clinicians and made it clear that this policy meant they had access to any Relias course they wanted to take, it created true “aha moments.”

“It’s really opened up their eyes in terms of setting a path for their development,” Cotton said.

Creating learning culture

By freeing up administrators to improve their learning and development program and giving Access Services the ability to offer hundreds of courses to every staff member, Relias has helped Cotton’s team create a true culture of learning at their organization.

Staff’s ability to decide which courses they want to take, and when to take them, has fostered a hunger for self-directed learning. Adult learning theory tells us that adults want to, and can, learn just as effectively as younger people; they just need tangible benefits tied to their learning to keep them hooked. By allowing its staff to tie their learning to improved career outcomes at the organization, Access Services has created real buy-in on learning.

And the results speak for themselves. From 2023-2025, Access Services saw their total yearly course assignments grow by 20%, while their course completion percentage has remained well over 90% and their compliance rate has stayed north of 84%.

“We moved from compliance-driven training to purpose-driven development,” Cotton shared. “That’s what full access to Relias unlocked for us.”