As part of Asda's overall blended learning programme, Thomson NETg is supplying over 300 targeted e-Learning courses, which are accessible to over 1,800 employees at Asda's headquarters in Leeds via the company's intranet.
The implementation of e-learning is intended to meet the demand for a cost effective, flexible and tailored learning solution, which provides instant access to a powerful knowledge resource designed to equip employees with the latest skills they need to perform at the maximum.
The learning programme is also helping to ensure a basic standard of IT literacy at Asda and to minimise reliance on the internal IT helpdesk.
"As a leading retailer we need to ensure our employees have the skills at hand to provide excellent customer service and to be able to adapt quickly to the constant changes taking place in our industry," commented Maggie Kotek, People Development Manager at Asda.
"With increasing time constraints on busy employees and with diverse job roles to cater for, classroom-based training is not always the most effective medium for transferring skills.
"Although we will continue to use classroom-based learning, the e-learning courses will ensure our colleagues have immediate access to highly personalised learning in an impressive range of subjects."
The Thomson NETg Open Learning Solution provides Asda employees with easily accessible learning-on demand in areas that are directly relevant to their job roles.
The courses include business and professional development skills such as strategic decision-making and communication, IT end-user skills ranging from Microsoft Office courses to the European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL) course, and IT professional skills such as Java.
A learning management tool has also been implemented to measure and track usage of the learning, and results so far have been very impressive with over 400 users signing up to take a training course in the last two months and nearly 1000 courses being accessed. The most popular course has been Excel 2002 Fundamentals.
Aligning learning to business objectives
In order that all skill requirements are covered, the Asda training team has worked hand-in-hand with project members from each area of the business throughout implementation.
The courses are tightly linked into the Asda competency framework, ensuring they meet Asda's unique business objectives.
"Part of our learning programme's success is due to involving every area of our business so that learning is tightly linked to organisational goals and employee requirements," commented Maggie Kotek.
"Throughout the process, Thomson NETg has worked very closely with us and has played an invaluable role in helping us to create a learning programme that is targeted to our business needs."
Strong marketing and a partnership approach
An internal marketing programme with the theme 'Professionalism with Fun' has been implemented to raise awareness of the learning programme and to educate staff on the long-term benefits of training.
Marketing activities include regular communications that encourage the use of the new courseware, evaluation forms on the company intranet to provide an open forum for feedback, course completion certificates, departmental 'super users', and 'late lunch' company-wide presentations on learning, delivered in a comedy sketch style.
