AAID wins Brandon Hall Gold for learning and development

The American Academy of Implant Dentistry won a Brandon Hall Group Gold HCM Excellence Award for its learning team and onboarding work, marking the organization’s fifth Brandon Hall honor. The recognition highlights an onboarding model that cut training time, boosted platform use and supported measurable business gains.

Why it matters: - The award recognizes AAID’s effort to turn onboarding into a scalable learning system that supports staff capability and operational continuity. - The results point to a direct link between learning design and business performance at AAID, including faster onboarding, higher platform engagement and lower administrative costs. - The recognition also adds external validation for AAID’s continuing education strategy as the organization expands digital learning.

What happened: - The American Academy of Implant Dentistry won a Brandon Hall Group™ Gold award in the Best Learning Team category. - AAID was recognized for its entry, “Creating Lasting Capability for Onboarding.” - The award is AAID’s fifth Brandon Hall Group™ Excellence® Award. - AAID previously received two Gold awards in 2025 and two Silver awards in 2024 for Learning Excellence. - The Brandon Hall Group™ HCM Excellence Awards® honor organizations that deliver measurable business results in human capital management.

The details: - AAID developed the award-winning onboarding model with Simply Innovative Consulting LLC. - The approach combined structured learning, hands-on application, reusable templates and knowledge transfer built into daily work. - The Embedded Capability Model reduced onboarding from 20 weeks, or about 80 hours of instruction, to 40 hours. - The model also enabled immediate ownership of learning management system administration and instructional design. - Monthly active users on the AAID Implant Institute platform increased by 543% during the project period. - Sales rose 95% compared with the first quarter of 2025. - The shift to digital certificates is projected to save about $25,000 annually. - AAID said the results show how staff capability can improve learning operations and organizational performance. - The HCM Excellence Awards entries were judged by independent senior industry experts, Brandon Hall Group analysts and executives on business alignment, learning approach, delivery and measurable impact.

Between the lines: - The award suggests AAID is treating learning operations as infrastructure, not just support work. - The onboarding redesign appears aimed at reducing dependency on individual staff knowledge by embedding processes and documentation. - The numbers indicate AAID is using its education platform as both a member service and an operational lever. - Jonathan Sprague, AAID’s Director of Education and Credentialing, said the team focused on making learning scalable, sustainable and tied to measurable organizational outcomes.

What's next: - AAID and SIC plan to continue working together on knowledge transfer, instructional design practices, learning technology and internal capability building. - AAID will keep using the AAID Implant Institute as part of its broader strategy to expand flexible continuing education and improve the learner experience. - The partnership is expected to further strengthen AAID’s ability to retain institutional expertise while maintaining specialized consulting support.

The bottom line: - AAID’s Gold award reflects more than recognition for training quality; it signals a measurable overhaul of onboarding, learning operations and digital education performance.