Personnel Surveys Blog by Sam Flynn

Volvo uses e-learning to drive culture shift

31st Aug 2010

A digital e-learning programme at Volvo Cars UK is helping to bring about a shift in management culture to boost staff engagement.

The employer is using digital training films from Video Arts to train 500 managers at its UK dealerships.

John Merrell, leadership and e-learning manager, explained that the aim of the programme was to get managers to think differently about their management style and strategic planning because of the changing nature of management in the 21st century.

He said employees were likely to be less loyal to their employers than in the past and that may be because budget constraints are having an impact on pay structures.

“Today people in the workforce are more ambitious, they need to be engaged, challenged and managed differently,” Merrell said.

When the programme was first launched, earlier this year, it was available to the whole 5,500 strong workforce in the UK and Ireland.

Merrell said that the programme had met initial resistance from line managers’ but was then refocused on just managers so they would realise through using the system first-hand “that e-learning is not the beast that they thought it was”.

He explained that commercial areas of training included turning managers into coaches to bring about team improvements through a top down approach.

But he said it was important to use e-learning as part of a blended approach retaining some face to face training.

This new approach to learning has also persuaded managers that their own training is just as important as that of their team.

“To boost sales and keep people motivated and retain talent, managers need to be engaged about their own development,” Merrell said, “and this is slowly happening.

“Before the response might have been: ‘I’m a manager, therefore I don’t need any training’”.

Now, he said, managers who realised they might need additional training could obtain it without having to lose face in front of employees.

“People are taking much more responsibility for their own learning,” he said.

In October this year, Volvo plans to relaunch the roll out of its video e-learning to its whole workforce.

Souce: People Management Online