Effective Learning Culture Supporting Business and Transformation Goals – Part 2

Ahead of our annual Speexx Exchange conference, hosted by Laura Overton, we’ve talked to Hannelore Kolb, Learning Program Manager of Corporate Talent Management at Hager Group and Speexx Exchange speaker. Here we close our two-part series where we share with you Hannelore’s perspective on how an organization can successfully adapt a culture of learning through digital transformation; how L&D has changed in recent years; learning processes unique to Hager Group, like “change levers”; and what, in her view, learning and development professionals need to do to keep up with these fast-paced, ever-changing trends.

learning culture transformation

How did you overcome the challenges of establishing a learning culture within your organization?

  1. Communicate via different channels
    We found the most important and successful measure we took was constantly communicating through the managers and through different channels (like regular newsletters and updates in different formats). We implemented  a competition at the beginning where we highlighted our best learners and published testimonials of learners who were embracing our digital learning approaches. This helped to excite people and made others curious and eager to try is as well.
  2. Establish the value and importance of learning
    We conducted very local and extensive feedback sessions with participants and managers explaining why we were doing what we were doing – it is important that everyone understands why the training is important and the value it brings. Some employees wanted to do their own local classroom training but we had to explain to them this is not possible on a global basis, especially for several thousand people located internationally and speaking different languages.
  3. Gather feedback and learn from it
    We also conducted many different feedback sessions, including the input of participants, managers and our HR Business Partners on how we can improve, what should be changed and what is working well for different teams. We tried to adapt and to best include their feedback in order to improve and modify our learning offer in the best way to their needs. Then we had a lot of testimonials as well; distributing messages on how employees learned best, what their experiences were like and why they enjoyed learning digitally.

It was an evolution phase for the first few years. Eventually, people from other functions started to approach us saying they also wanted to learn and have training, and this is where we went global and all functions within the organization were offered to different digital learning formats. The process began to accelerate, and we were communicating on a very frequent basis about the project and keeping people informed. After two years we were running smoothly and it was more or less a running system.

learning culture at hager group

What does the future of learning look like for Hager Group?

More than four years ago we have implemented an LMS and have experienced mixed feelings of adoption and satisfaction from our teams, so we’ve decided we need something beyond an LMS. We want people to be even more happy and eager to use digital approaches to learning and not only checking on a catalogue which courses they can take. We’ve tried a lot of different digital and blended learning approaches and created communities and learning groups to enhance cross-functional collaboration and exchange on methodologies or specific projects by also including digital experiences and learning from others through the process of adapting digital learning.

We are now taking the approach to say that we want to go beyond where we are in the present state, go beyond offering various tools and learning formats. We want to create a learning experience platform: a virtual place where people can easily manage their own learning, have their own space to collaborate with others and do extended learning if they need it. We want to offer small learning nuggets and have a very modern approach and a digital platform which is easy to use.

This is something we are currently working on and we are having a pilot group now within the German leadership program. Gradually this digital platform will be rolled out on a global basis next year supporting our business in developing people and our organization  in terms of learning transformation. We want to make Hager a learning company where people understand learning is not only a one-time course, it is a constant and continuous process of life-long learning and should be easy and available whenever you need it. Take ownership for your learning!

About the speaker

learning transformation with Hager Group

Hannelore Kolb is the Learning Program Manager for Corporate Talent Management at Hager Group. Responsible for group wide learning programs in terms of designing and implementing learning formats for all employees of Hager Group or for global functions like Engineering, Product Marketing, Sales, Project Management etc. in order to support transformation strategy by enhancing Hager’s global learning offer.

To discover more about learning transformation from Hannelore and other industry experts, register now for Speexx Exchange Berlin 2019! The conference will be held on Wednesday, November 27 from 9 am to 5:30 pm at the Hotel InterContinental Berlin, ahead of the international event, OnlineEducaBerlin. The Speexx Exchange conference is free of charge for friends and partners of Speexx!