Background

During the winter season, Intersport, one of the largest global retailers of sporting goods, hosted their annual Alpine and Cross-Country Ski-training. The three-day training was designed to equip customer-facing sales staff with specialist knowledge and exposure required to sell alpine and cross-country skiing equipment.

Challenge

Although the ski-training is regarded highly among trainees who have attended the event previously, their progress was not monitored and remained unknown. It was also not evident whether previous training events had accounted for obstacles and support trainees would require when they returned to work.

We are aware that we deliver world-class Ski-training, but we need to ensure our employees' development is not a one-time event. Therefore, we need to focus on supporting and monitoring the progress of our employees before and after training. This is the key to ensuring that each employee can take the learnings from training and turn it into actions when they get back to work.

Maria Lindgren, Chief HR Officer at Intersport Sweden

As it stood, Intersport identified three core activities required to address their challenges.

1. Perform a needs analysis on each trainee before the training
2. Support each trainee after the training
3. Track the progress of trainees to ensure transfer into the workplace

The Solution

We worked with Intersport to implement Knowly's platform. Our Learning Analytics dashboard allowed Intersport to capture and track the necessary trainee data, as well as suggest activities to better prepare trainees before and during the training. After the training event, trainees were provided with follow-up using the digital coach integration. Follow-up coaching helped trainees reflect on their progress and stay accountable to the expectations weeks after the training.

Trainee data generated on the portal before the training:

• detailed knowledge gaps around selling ski equipment
• current obstacles experienced when selling ski equipment.

Understanding the individual needs and expectations of trainees' helped us tailor the training to address the knowledge gaps of each trainee. During the training, we put trainees in groups with other colleagues who had complementary knowledge and expertise to maximise peer to peer learning.

Ivette Killian, HR Partner Intersport Sweden

Trainee data available on the portal after the training:

• goal(s) and their desired behaviour(s) they would practice back on the job
• schedule of when they would take time to reflect on their progress
• detailed plan on how to overcome the obstacles they presented before the training
• mentors(s) chosen by each trainee.
• regular progress data once trainees completed their weekly reflection

A mentor could be the trainees' manager, colleague or friend. Mentors offer domain knowledge, consultation, etc. They also help trainees stay accountable to their respective transfer goal(s). The transfer portal assists mentors by providing a resource bank, with recommendations on how to best support their respective mentee.

Insights and Results

70 %

of trainees demonstrated  they had successful transferred learnings from training into the workplace

1.6

Participant to mentor ratio

83 %

of managers continued to support the transfer activities of their employees 60 days after training

The Knowly platform has allowed us to monitor the progress of trainees well beyond the training event and offer support if needed. Even more terrific, we now see managers' becoming involved in the development of their employees and reducing obstacles that could hinder them from applying their new skills at work.

Maria Lindgren, Chief HR Officer at Intersport Sweden

Would you like to get sneak peak into the Knowly platform? Click here