Digital Learning is more than just training
In recent years, Digital Learning has made a name for itself as a key business training tool. The flexibility of the digital format and the ease of customisation combined with the wealth of available content and innovative educational techniques have quickly convinced businesses to use Digital Learning in areas other than training. From HR tools and internal and external communications platforms to tools for sales teams, companies now use e-Learning for a wide range of different purposes – and the L’Occitane.
Digital Learning, a multifaceted sharing tool
While Digital Learning offers a whole host of formats and platforms, the aim is always the same: sharing.
This can mean sharing knowledge, a technique, an idea, or even a vision, taking advantage of the natural benefits that digital brings:
– The ability to pass on messages, even complex ones, while adapting to the learner in real time through interactive tools and the chance to add an element of fun through « gamification »
– The ability to customise the content to different target audiences within the company and break free of the limitations of physical distance.
– The ability to use multimedia content and learning technologies that promote information retention.
The many applications of Digital Learning
Thanks to its many benefits, Digital Learning is used for a range of purposes within companies.
Digital Learning as a training tool, naturally
Of course, l’e-Learning was first introduced into the world of business as a way of making training more dynamic and easier to deliver to employees – even across several sites
Internal communications platform and HR tool
Digital Learning is also the ideal tool to share a company’s values and culture, such as when welcoming a new employee, for example. It can also be useful as a way of raising employee awareness of a cause – for example, disability awareness, which can be introduced through an online role-playing game. HR teams also make use of its educational benefits to explain new procedures to employees, for example, whether it’s PAYE tax deductions or the impact of a new regulation on their work (GDPR, etc.).
A marketing and sales tool
Digital Learning can become the preferred tool of marketing and sales teams – for instance, it can be used to train sales staff with real-life situations (serious games) or can even be made available in-store to help customers get to grips with a new product.
External communications tool
External communications teams can use e-Learning tools to showcase the company, communicate about an innovative technique (through an interactive tutorial, for example), or offer practical content to their audiences. This is why some companies offer MOOCs based on their areas of expertise to the general public.
Digital Learning at the heart of the business at L’Occitane
Among the market leaders in natural cosmetics, L’Occitane Group is an excellent example of a company that’s capable of using Digital Learning in a wide range of areas. The Group, which manufactures and sells its products in over 3,000 points of sale all over the world, has been using e-learning modules at its outlets and in distributors’ stores for two years, reaching almost 9,000 people. Claudia Furtado, International Digital Learning Manager at the L’Occitane Group, says:« We offer training on our products, on internal sales techniques and on our retail operations, such as merchandising and the loyalty programme. Overall, we’ve developed around 50 training programmes featuring about 100 modules, rolling them out in 40 countries (25 subsidiaries and 15 national distributors). Each of these countries is encouraged to make them their own, translate them and adapt them. »
Thanks to these modules, all L’Occitane advisers have the same approach to customer communication, strengthening the common values they all share.
L’Occitane has also called on ITycom to create more visual, immersive and interactive content with a focus on the customer experience and the position held by sales teams. “Learners are placed in specific situations and win “empathy points” and sales techniques based on their responses. The salespeople are then invited to test out what they’ve learned on their friends and families or on customers before sharing their experience,” explains Claudia Furtado.
With take-up and completion rates reaching an impressive 90%, L’Occitane has already covered a huge amount of ground. But the company still has a number of Digital Learning projects in the pipeline to improve its teams’ sales efficiency. On the agenda for this year: mobile learning for education on-the-go and customised courses to provide a learning experience that’s tailor-made for learners and specific local requirements.
