The Future of Corporate Learning: from Training to Learning Experience

Learning.
A priority for a
21st-century
organisation.
Invisible
Learning.
Build Corporate
Training as an
Experience.
Attractive
Learning.
Design the
Learning
Experience.
Exponential
Learning.
Fuel strategy with
training & training
with strategy.

Why conduct this study?
To conduct this study, we immersed ourselves for
three months in the heart of the most innovative
corporate training ecosystem: San Francisco. We
talked with dozens of people who are revolutionising
training: start-ups, investors, big companies,
researchers, and more.
We believe that talent is the most important asset
for the company of tomorrow. As such, we must
create organisations built around that talent and
their concerns – one of the most important being
learning. We look forward to continuing discussions
with you on the subject.
Happy reading!
Antonin Torikian
Partner, FABERNOVEL

Methodology
The study was conducted between February and
May 2019, in Paris and San Francisco. Following a
review of the literature on learning, schooling and
corporate training topics, we interviewed a group
of actors from the sector, from startups to the
investment funds, and large groups.
Respondents came from the startups and investment
funds' management teams, and human resources
departments, learning departments, innovation
and digital departments of large groups.
Not all companies wished to be name, but some
of the participants included Coorpacademy, Teach
on Mars, Edcast, Danone, Hachette, Keolis...

Timeline of Corporate Learning
From industry-focused to service-focused training.

Learning.
A priority for a
21st-century
organisation.

<
Learning
“The illiterate of the 21st
century
will not be those who cannot read
and write, but those who cannot
learn, unlearn, and relearn.”
Alvin Tofﬂer,
Futurist.

Learning
<
“An organisation’s ability to learn,
and translate that learning into
action rapidly, is the ultimate
competitive advantage.”*
Today, the pace of innovation is accelerating and companies
are being disrupted faster and faster. For companies, today’s
employees must be capable of growing with their company,
of adapting with the company to technological changes
imposed on them, and of getting ahead of competitors.
The companies have the duty of training their employees.
At the same time, the ability to adapt becomes the top
priority for recruiters.
*Jack Welch,
Former CEO of GE.
Learnability
(or learning capacity) a person’s
desire and ability to develop
and adapt their skills quickly.
“The new economy is just the latest in
a series of technological revolutions,
a period of innovation and expansion
brought about by a technological
breakthrough. As with past technological
revolutions, the new economy has been
a source of intensive job creation. In
the United States, the software sector
employed one million people in 1993.
In 1998, the ﬁgure had risen to 1.6 million.
Most of these jobs depend on a high
degree of learning capacity, which
the OECD calls learnability.”
Parliamentary Assembly
of the Council of Europe,
2002
Concept

<
Learning
A generation
of “learning animals.”
At the same time, a generation that grew up with
accelerated cycles of technological disruption is entering
the labour market.
They are digital natives and they know the importance
of being able to adapt in order to be employable.
96 %
of universities say that they prepare
students well for the skills needed
in the labour market.
11 %
of employers say that students who
start working at their company have
the skills they need.
13 %
of students say that they are well
prepared to enter the labour market.
Many Business Leaders Doubt U.S. Colleges Prepare Students,
Gallup, 2014
news.gallup.com/poll/167630/business-leaders-doubt-colleges-
prepare-students.aspx

<
Learning
“To support these changes, entire
companies must move towards a learning
organisation structure where talent
development is a
natural part of the organisation.”*
A learning organisation is an
organisation where learning
is encouraged, spread, and
systemically anchored, and one
that is capable of transforming
that learning into innovation.
*Satya Nadella,
CEO, Microsoft.

Learning
<
The ﬁrst step towards creating a learning organisation is to
rethink the compact of commitment between the company
and the employee. The employee provides their time and
skills (particularly their capacity for learning), while the
company provides a training experience.
Tours of duty
A new, viable compact must be
established. Essentially, in this new
compact, the employer and employee
aim to create value for each other.
Employees invest in the company’s
capacity for adaptation, while the
company invests in the employability
of its employees.
Tours of Duty: The New Employer-Employee
Compact, Reid Hoffman, Ben Casnocha, and
Chris Yeh, Harvard Business Review
Concept
Reaching the learning
organization requires a
new compact.

<
Learning
Learning
organizations
are win-win
situations.

<
Learning
Benefits for the employees
of a Learning organization.
/ The expertise and skills of each individual
are promoted.
/ There are infinite learning opportunities.
/ Management is redesigned around continuous
learning for employees.
/ Training is no longer a bonus – it is continuous
and expected.
Benefits of a learning
organization.
/ Learning, and thus constant innovation,
allows the company to remain competitive.
/ Sharing of knowledge is constant,
cross-functional, and multiplied, and
thus more easily produces value.
/ The employer’s brand is improved, with
the company seen as “people-oriented”.
/ The learning organisation brings out
unnoticed and unnoticeable talents.
/ This limits brain drain because these people
are valued and stimulated, and no longer
just in their area of expertise.
/ If knowledge is shared by as many people
as possible, the company becomes more
resilient in taking on the challenges
of tomorrow.

<
Learning
Example
Google
Google is without a doubt the
Silicon Valley company that is
most interested in the subject
of corporate learning, studying
it and communicating about it
more than any other.
Learning at Google is:
1
A process, not an isolated event.
2
An integral part of employees
daily lives.
3
Personalised.
4
Social.
G2g (Googler-to-Googler), a volunteer
teaching network of over 6,000 Google
employees who dedicate a portion of
their time to helping their peers learn
and grow. The volunteers, known
internally as g2g’ers, can participate
in different ways, like teaching courses,
participating in mentorship, or
designing learning materials. They
come from all departments of Google.
At Google,
80%
of training uses this network.
“20 or 30 years ago, you educated
yourself and that carried you through
for the rest of your life. That is not
going to be true for the generation
which is being born now.”
Sundar Pichai,
CEO of Google.

<
Learning
ExampleExample
Slack
From the ﬁrst few years of Slack’s
existence, the learning department
has been a stakeholder in the
company’s strategy. Learning is also
intrinsically tied to Slack’s vision for
its product (the name stands for
Searchable Log of All Conversation
and Knowledge), which is just
another reason why it has been
placed at the heart of the company.
The learning department has had
the freedom to establish initiatives
that have tied training to other
major focuses for the company:
learning and collaboration, learning
and continuous improvement,
learning and R&D, learning and
consumer insights, etc.
“At Slack, virtually every learning
experience we offer is optional and
open to all. This creates a democratic
environment where learners are
motivated by curiosity, relevancy, and a
deep business need. Instead of pushing
lots of mandatory content, we allow
people to pull what they need from an
integration between Slack and Bridge,
our learning management system.
Each learning experience is brief,
targeted, and modular.
At Slack, it’s common to ﬁnd groups
of people exchanging feedback, role
playing, or building prototypes.
This makes it more likely that people
will transfer their learning back to
their day-to-day work experiences.
We’re always looking for the intersection
of learner curiosity and business needs.”
Kristen Swanson,
Former Director of Learning
Slack.

<
Learning
To make
data-Informed
decisions...
That scales
by role & team.
To empower
every employee at
Airbnb...
By providing data
education...
Example
Airbnb
The Data University initiative.
After realising that few
employees were trained on using
data, a crucial factor for the
company, a data scientist took
the initiative of creating this
programme.
The Data University, taught by
other data scientists and analysts,
is open to all Airbnb employees.
Data University
Vision.
“Learning really is, in and of itself, a
journey... We challenge ourselves to do
things that we never thought we’d be
able to do.
‘The role of learning and development
at Airbnb is to get employees to
understand what it means to be
stimulated by learning, which must
involve talking with the people around
them, learning for the good
of the community.”
Kate Shaw,
Director of Learning,
Airbnb.

<
Learning Three axis to becoming a learning organization.
1
Invisible
Learning.
Build Corporate
Learning
as an Experience.
2
Attractive
Learning.
Design the Learning
Experience.
3
Exponential
Learning.
Fuel strategy with
training, & training
with strategy.

Invisible Learning.
Build Corporate Training
as an Experience.

Invisiblelearning
<
“Learning is an experience.
Everything else is just
information.”
Albert Einstein

Invisiblelearning
<
Course of a learner today.

Invisiblelearning
<
From static training
to dynamic learning.
To organise training more effectively and design
it to be continuous, companies should play
around with different timings for learning and
tap into the immense opportunity represented
by real-time learning.
Most often than not, for employees, this does not
mean learning something new, but rather
responding to a current need for help. Similarly,
for companies, this does not mean gathering
together people with knowledge, but rather
offering simple solutions to complex problems.
Concept
Flow of work
is a concept proposed by Josh Bersin.
It recognises that for learning to really
take place, it must be adapted and
aligned with the everyday life
of work. Instead of thinking of
corporate learning as a destination,
it should be incorporated into
the production stream so that
it becomes nearly invisible.
EdCast
EdCast’s approach to learning
is similar to Netﬂix or Spotify.
Understand what interests the learner
and offer them a ﬂuid, on-demand
experience. This learning platform
enables direct integration
with work tools like Slack, Salesforce,
Oracle, etc., offering content linked
to the subject the employee is working
on. EdCast also facilitates the creation
of content by the company’s internal
experts.
Example

Invisiblelearning
<
Learner’s activity

Invisiblelearning
<
Each point of contact is a
learning opportunity.
Within a company, knowledge is not kept in one
place; each individual is a source of learning for
their co-workers.
To redesign training as a continuous experience,
you have to be aware of it, encourage it, and
value it through mutual training opportunities
using reverse mentoring (new employees in
the organisation teach senior staff) and
peer-to-peer learning.
F A B E R N O V E L
Fabernovel created a programme
called FaberSchool in which
employees from different teams
offer training modules to the rest
of the company. Subjects offered
by FaberSchool range from SEO,
to chatbots, to branding, to design,
and more.
Example
55 %
of employees turn to
their peers when they
want to learn a new skill.
Degreed study, How the Workforce Learns in 2016.

Invisiblelearning
<
Peer-to-peer learning, from learner to teacher.
The advantages
1 Increase sources of learning,
with each person becoming a teacher.
2 Take advantage of more skills
to be shared.
3 Better anchor learning with
employee-teachers.
4 Create free exchanges of ideas
outside of managerial constraints.
5 Integrate teaching into the company’s
context and support the impact of
learning on internal projects.
6 If knowledge is shared by as many
people as possible, the company
becomes more resilient in taking
on the challenges of tomorrow.
“Anyone at Tesla can and should email/talk
to anyone else according to what they
think is the fastest way to solve a problem
for the beneﬁt of the whole company. You
can talk to your manager’s manager
without his permission, you can talk
directly to a VP in another dept, you can
talk to me, you can talk to anyone without
anyone else’s permission...
We obviously cannot compete with the big
car companies in size, so we must do so
with intelligence and agility.”
Elon Musk,
CEO
Tesla.

Invisiblelearning
<
Fostering the
open-learning model.
The open learning model, largely facilitated
by digital tools that connect people with
knowledge beyond their normal geographic
limits, encourages us to go outside of our
companies to learn from our ecosystems.
For companies, the challenge in this model
is being able to support open learning,
encouraging it and helping it have an impact.
To do this, it is also important to redesign
learning materials so that they are better
adapted to mobile habits in everyday life.
Vincent Desnot
Co-founder,
Teach on Mars.
When Teach on Mars was created,
mobile technology was taking off.
Mobile devices were changing how
people interacted with information
and how they used digital technology
in general. Naturally, this would end
up affecting the digital training
sector, and not just from a technology
standpoint. More importantly, it
would affect habits, making it so that
training could be considered not just
a moment, but a process.
Testimonial

Invisiblelearning
<
Establish a system for engagement to support the learning
experience.
Awareness
Learning is a product, with a brand identity and
a style guide; it should be promoted through the
appropriate channels. An engagement campaign
is a tool to always come back to.
Acquisition
The most effective way to attract attention
and get employees engaged in a training
programme is to gather them together at
a launch event. Online and offline activities
must be interconnected and support each other.
Retention
Creating a ritual for training times, generating
constructive competition, and offering certification
for skills learned are all ideas that help develop
habits, support engagement, and create a
long-term impact.
Impact
Tracking performance indicators allows to measure
the impact of training. Similarly, a system of rewards
for learners according to their engagement, their
ability allows them to apply their learning to their
work, and to share what they learned.
Recommendation
This step in an engagement campaign is certainly
the most difficult to implement. It involves turning
employees into ambassadors for corporate training,
or even trainers themselves.

Invisiblelearning
<
1While commuting to work, Elodie
plays around on her mobile learning
app, where she tests her knowledge
about a new skill she wants to work
on.
2When she gets to work, she works on a
project on her computer. Pop-ups
integrated into her work tool offer her
bite-sized learning opportunities on
subjects that she’s working on, as well
as recommended readings or events.
She signs up for one of these events.
3Elodie is having trouble solving
a problem that requires a speciﬁc
technical skill.
She wants to ask one of her
co-workers to teach her that skill.
An online tool recommends the
right person for that.
4She can follow the evolution
of her skills live thanks to an
updated dashboard in real
time.
A collaborator’s learning day.

Invisiblelearning
<
Take aways.
Static training is no longer adapted to time constraints
and renewal of accelerated knowledge. It must be
redesigned continuously, like an experience.
For this, the current tools are based on technologies
such as machine learning to break down learning
and offer it at the right time.
This new timing means the sources of learning must
be optimised, emphasising social learning, where the
employee learns in real time from experts in their
company. There are tools that can effectively
connect people with particular proﬁles.
This new timing also requires to optimise training
materials, offering smart blended learning that
combines mobile and in-person learning. Training
managers have to facilitate access to learning
programmes by creating an efﬁcient engagement
system. This system must have the goal of making
training a habit in the everyday lives of employees.

Attractive Learning.
Design the Learning
Experience.

Attractivelearning
<
To enable a seamless learning experience, you
need to allow training without restrictions, but
within a framework established by the
company.
The classic system where an employee must
ask for their manager’s permission to attend
training is outdated. It is essential to make
corporate learning independent (and to
empower employees) so that it is streamlined,
faster, and more responsive to the realities of
the market.
Streamline access
to the learning experience.
In this case, when it comes to training, the manager
takes on the role of coach, developing the skills of
their team via feedback, counselling, and
recommendations for attaining the learning goals
set together.
From there, it is crucial that learning stop being a
form of gratiﬁcation reserved for the best
employees; learning must become an expectation
that the company has for all of its employees.

Attractivelearning
<
An ultra-personalised
learning experience to
meet the needs
of each employee.
Adaptive Learning
Adaptive learning is ultimately about
combining research in cognitive sciences
and artificial intelligence (AI) and
applying these to big data to produce
better, more efficient and more
personalised learning systems. (...)
Adaptive learning draws on the learner’s
history and the data they have generated
to produce personalised learning plans
and content adapted to their specific
abilities. (...) All this is computed on the
basis of individual learners, their learning
objectives, their learning history and
previous learning content. (...)
79 %
of the whole training programme was
remembered after a period of 3 months
by those using the adaptive platform,
versus only.
28 %
of those not using the platform.
We all learn in different ways. We all have our
own basic knowledge, methods, and interests.
Personalisation of teaching, to make it better
adapted and thus more engaging and effective,
has been proven as a best practice.
Defining Adaptive Learning, Domoscio, 2017
Concept

Attractivelearning
<
Active learning for better
retention and understanding
of information.
Active learning can come in several different forms
1
Learning
by doing.
“The guiding principle could not
be any clearer: a passive person does
not learn. So, we have to aim for active
engagement. Teachers can only help if
children or learners help themselves.
And yet, without testing the reliability
of knowledge, you are stuck with an
illusion of knowing—and by the way, it
is a strong bet that this concerns
anyone in any subject area. Children,
learners must be able to test
themselves.”
Stanislas Dehaene,
Professor at the Collège de France, holder of
the chair in experimental cognitive psychology.
4
Learning spaces.
2
Gamiﬁcation
of training.
3
Virtual reality.

Attractivelearning
<
Only high-quality content
can provide real value to
a learning experience.
Beyond form, the difference
between two programmes
offering training in an attractive
way is the quality of the content.
Margaux Schmitt,
Partner Success Manager, Coorpacademy.
Melchior Merlin,
Head of Product, Coorpacademy.
Coorpacademy offers a digital learning solution. It takes
inspiration from the Netﬂix model from the viewpoint of
entertaining content. It is a virtuous cycle in three parts:
1 An impeccable user experience that
engages people in the content.
2 Premium Coorpacademy Originals (like Netﬂix
Originals) content that makes sure that the content
at least grabs the user’s attention.
3 A seemingly endless catalogue, which ensures
regularity of visits (the user gets the impression that
they
will never get through it all).
This last point can generate frustration, which brings you
back to step one: the importance of having an
ultra-intelligent UX so that users are engaged and do not
feel lost.
Testimonial

Attractivelearning
<
Take aways.
The ﬁrst challenge encountered by training
managers is getting employees to want to learn.
Often employees are turned off by the many steps
needed for approval. These should be streamlined
as much as possible.
Designing a high-quality experience must become
the top goal for training managers. The learning
experience must blend into employees’ reality.
To do this, machine learning is used in tools to offer
employees the most relevant content possible.
An effective engagement strategy, active learning
(whether digital or physical) is an essential tool for
bringing learning to life, but also for better anchoring
knowledge and skills.
Just as important as the formats offered, if not
more so, the content must be of top quality and
constantly updated. Only select partners are
capable of offering you that.

Exponential
Learning.
Fuel strategy with training,
& training with strategy.

Exponentiallearning<
Fuel training with strategy.
To attain its strategic goals, a company needs
a set of key skills and knowledge among its
employees. By mapping its skills in real time
(workforce planning), the company can
identify the missing skills and respond
with training or recruitment.
MMPJ
On the initiative of the Director
of Digital Transformation Martell
Mumm Perrier-Jouët, FABERNOVEL
has designed a Digital Index
distributed to more than 200
employees grouping all departments
of MMPJ around 5 pillars (Agile
Methods, Data, New BM, Marketing
and communication). The Digital
Transformation Index allows
employees to measure their
digital knowledge as well as
their digital experiences.
The results of the questionnaire
allowed MMPJ to build adapted
training programs for their employees.
Example

Fuel strategy with training.
Corporate training can also be the ideal opportunity to
learn while testing new solutions which can then become
new offerings. This means turning talent development into
the company’s laboratory, a catalyst for innovation.
Value
capture
Value
creation
Strategic
planning
Workforce
and training
planning

Promotion of training
opportunities among
employees and
accessibility of training.
The correspondence
between training and
the needs of the company
(mapping of missing skills
vs needs of the company,
types of training vs
long-term goals).
Measure training impact on business.
The degree of continuing
training of employees.
/ Methods of collecting
feedback (frequency of
meetings between talent
and their managers,
format), degree of
independence (measured
via employee surveys).
/ Variety of proﬁles,
skills, and talents within
each team.
Indicators for evaluating resources used by the company and the relevancy of training.
Tracking these indicators enables constant
improvement of training and learning within the
company so that they correspond as closely as
possible to the company’s needs and goals.
The quality of the
training offerings.
/ Content (number of
training hours, variety of
topics covered, number
of employees trained, etc.)
/ Methods (types of tools,
degree of innovation,
methods of reward).
/ Satisfaction of employees
(measured via scales
and surveys).

Career changes.
/ Number of positions occupied and time
spent in each position, speed of
promotions, new responsibilities, etc.
/ Commitment rate
(often followed by survey).
/ Retention of employees
(regretted turnover rate).
Development
of individual skills.
/ Evaluation of the performance of each
employee (success rate on projects,
feedback from clients, satisfaction
of managers, change in effectiveness).
/ Skill acquisition (number of new skills
acquired and mastered.
Measure training impact on business.
Tracking these indicators helps highlight <the
positive impact of training on the company’s
performance.
Indicators for evaluating the positive impact of training on the company’s performance.

Take aways.
Knowing the map of your skills is the ﬁrst step
in a successful workforce planning strategy, whether
enabled through observation of employee proﬁles
or skill indices (from employee declarations).
Training is a space for experimentation in a learning
organisation. Not using it to create and test the
company’s future offerings means missing out on
a major opportunity for agile transformation.
We cannot stress enough the importance of
measuring the impact of your initiatives.
For training, evaluating employee satisfaction is not
enough. In a new training environment, business
performance indicators must be tracked.

While the talent war is still raging, particularly driven by
tech companies constantly offering new beneﬁts to win
over the best proﬁles, it feels to us like a somewhat
outdated way of thinking. Attracting new employees is an
important factor, but engagement and continuous
upskilling of existing talent at a company are even more
crucial.
The companies that we imagine, that we wish to see, are
talent companies, which we ourselves aim to become.
These are a combination of company and school that
develop their employees, foster their curiosity, and
increase their employability.
We can see that learning is becoming an essential strategic
factor: in terms of workforce planning, of course, to ensure
the company’s growth, innovation, and competitiveness,
but also in terms of employee experience, attractiveness,
engagement, collaboration, and more.
As such, it is not just the training department that must be
reformed; instead, the entire company must be transformed
using learning experiences so that each day, each project,
each conversation with a manager becomes an opportunity
for personal growth. Companies also need to work with
new technologies and solutions, moving from a culture
of expertise to a culture of curiosity and test and learn.
Conclusion

Toolkit for an
augmented
learning experience.

client_ofﬁce@fabernovel.com
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The Future of Corporate Learning: from Training to Learning Experience

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