Challenge: A flexible and scalable global workforce platform
KOMPAN is the global leader in outdoor playground and fitness equipment. The company employs 2,000 people located across 30 countries.
KOMPAN needed a scalable, flexible, and user-friendly platform to support its global workforce learning program. Through its KOMPAN Academy, the organization aimed to provide essential training to employees and external partners while fostering a deeper global learning culture.
“Learn365 is easy to navigate and manage. It’s so straightforward to add courses, training plans and then track the progress. I would strongly recommend a system like this!”
Anders Fabricius, Group Training & Development Manager
Solution: Learn365 meets KOMPAN’s diverse learning needs
KOMPAN has a global, diverse workforce of 2,000 that is spread over thirty countries. This includes around 300 people in their headquarters in Denmark and 700 based in KOMPAN’s manufacturing plant in Brno, Czechia.
Roles cover everything from sales to product design to those working on the factory floor. KOMPAN employees have a wide range of training and learning needs which are all met through KOMPAN’s Academy program.
The team were looking for a flexible learning solution to support their learning Academy. Ultimately, the Academy’s primary goal is to support professional development, ensure compliance, and streamline onboarding processes worldwide.
Anders Fabricius, Group Training & Development Manager, explains, “Our learning platform plans a vital role in delivering our training and development strategy. It’s the main place employees go to acquire knowledge and enhance their skills. We were looking for a global and easy-to-use scalable solution that could support, train and onboard people from various cultures.”
Better onboarding, all within Microsoft 365
Additionally, the learning platform needed to embody KOMPAN’s identity, helping new hires integrate seamlessly into the company’s unique culture.
We sell playgrounds and fitness equipment that help create healthier and happier societies. This is also reflected in KOMPAN’s culture – having fun, staying healthy and taking care of each other, while we also develop and grow in our roles and job functions.
KOMPAN has a strong tradition of design and innovation. The company has invented several iconic playground “classics” including the Crazy Hen and 3-dimensional rope structures. Today KOMPAN’s product designs and features are also informed by scientific elements.
The team needed a solution to support product knowledge for employees. However, they also required a platform that could be accessed by external suppliers who help to install KOMPAN’s playground and fitness equipment around the world. The solution also had to integrate seamlessly with Microsoft 365 and SharePoint, reflecting KOMPAN’s wider digital workplace.
The team chose to implement Learn365 not only because it ticks all the boxes around flexibility, Microsoft 365 integration and external access, but also because it has a rich set of features and an exciting product roadmap that includes the increasing use of AI. These can help support KOMPAN’s ambitions to provide an exceptional and smart global workforce learning experience.
We have a strategy where we want to transform our learning platform into a true experience platform. We want it to be like visiting Netflix where the system always seems to know what you want to see today. We want to do the same with learning.
Results: Transforming global workforce learning with Learn365
Having implemented Learn365 in 2023, today over 1800 people access the Academy for their learning, primarily entering via a page on KOMPAN’s SharePoint intranet.
It’s a completely seamless experience. When people enter through SharePoint, they don’t even notice that they’re being brought over to Learn365.
A strong focus for the Academy is on mandatory and onboarding training. Anders Fabricius comments, “We have a very structured training plan for onboarding new hires who can view all their mandatory courses on their personal dashboard. We also have compliance and IT security training for all employees which is taken annually.”
This mandatory compliance and IT security training takes advantage of Learn365’s certification feature; employees get certified once the training is complete and then get notified when a certificate expires, so the process begins again. To date, the onboarding process and mandatory learning has been highly successful, with completion rates continually over 90% and rising.
The team are also busy adding additional course topics including sales training on how to best position the unique, science-based design of KOMPAN products to customers, as well as softer skills such as how to resolve conflicts.
One of the original reasons for choosing Learn365 was the platform’s ability for external partners to have access.
Anders Fabricius comments “We have external distributors and partners that need to understand our products, sales process and even our culture. We have implemented an external platform called MyKOMPAN that uses Learn365 so our partners can enroll on specific courses. Our roadmap also includes a certification program for our installation partners and contractors.”
An intuitive platform backed by exceptional support
One of the strengths of the global workforce learning platform has been that it is very easy to use, not just for learners but also for administrators. Anders Fabricius comments “Learn365 is really easy to use and navigate. We don’t have to spend time getting this to work or figuring out how to do something. It also has all the functions and features that we need to be able to bring our ideas to life.”
The learning team attributes some of the success of the Academy to a strong working relationship with the Zensai team. Anders Fabricius comments, “It’s been a good partnership! The Zensai team are very open and honest about what Learn365 features can bring to the table and how they could help us to succeed. They certainly care about their customers.”
The team have also found value in Zensai’s customer workshops.
The Zensai team try to bring similar customers together to share valuable feedback and ideas. We had a workshop here in our office. The knowledge sharing between clients is where the magic happens.
Future: Unlocking features to evolve the learning experience
Looking ahead, the team are planning to keep on extending the use of Learn365 throughout the business, with new courses added, potentially using third-party content.
At the moment we create 90% of our own training content. However, we’re looking into using a vendor to provide leadership training courses. One of the great things about Learn365 is the opportunity to integrate with vendors like Go1 or LinkedIn and have one seamless entry point into all our training courses.
There are also plans to unlock other Learn365 capabilities, including the skills feature.
Andres Fabricius comments, “In the future this will be a vital feature because we can try to map out our skills across the organization. Where do we have gaps and how do these relate to performance? How can we enhance people’s skills? Bringing this to the Academy will also allow managers to have an overview of the skill within their team.”
The team also want to extend reporting and analytics, taking advantage of Learn365’s seamless integration with Power BI.
At present we’re mainly measuring enrollments and completion rates, but we want to extend that to build a custom dashboard covering training and performance. There’s a whole bunch of data points that we want to include, like the average rating of the courses. Bringing that to life via a Power BI dashboard will be a tremendous step forward.
Ultimately unlocking these features will help deliver KOMPAN’s learning ambitions to a higher standard, with the hopes of increasing the adoption of the Academy and changing attitudes to learning.
We want to get more people to become more familiar with what really lies within the Academy. How do we get more people in and realize that they can spend a few minutes per week learning something? It takes time to change old habits and culture, but we’re already starting to move towards a learning experience where people want to more actively engage with the content.
About KOMPAN
KOMPAN is the global leader in outdoor play and fitness equipment. It designs, manufactures and installs more than 1,000 playground or fitness sites each month across over 90 countries. KOMPAN employs over 2,000 people across 30 countries and is on a mission to create healthier and happier communities.
