Accessible learning for a diverse workforce at Princes Limited

Princes, one of Europe’s largest food and drink groups, has offices and processing facilities across Europe, as well as in Mauritius.

Its L&D team was looking for a solution that would help on the next steps of their learning strategy that would be accessible and suitable for their diverse workforce no matter their level or learning style.

Jayne Owen, the company’s Head of Learning and Development, wanted to improve their predominantly classroom-led approach.

Jayne was looking for an L&D solution that would meet three key criteria:

• A platform that is easy to access, navigate and use

• Well-curated content relevant to their business’ needs

• Available online and in a variety of formats, such as text and video.

This last requirement was especially important considering that a high percentage of the company’s employees were working with equipment –that in some cases didn’t have sound functionality, for example.

Princes’ L&D team carefully researched cloud-based learning providers, but they had trouble finding a partner that could meet all their requirements. Time and again, they came across what appeared to be a promising solution, only to realize that its content was entirely in video format.

Princes’ L&D team immediately went to work incorporating the Mind Tools for Business Toolkit into their existing learning strategy.

They started with a learning campaign titled Mind Tools Tuesday, which was centered around a weekly co-branded, company-wide email campaign that focused on a particular theme, such as stress reduction, and provided links to toolkit content. Its success led to Manager Thursday. Upon the COVID-19 lockdown taking effect, “Daily Development” was born to encourage and facilitate regular remote learning. “Our Mind Tools usage shot through the roof,” Jayne remembers.

They also integrated Mind Tools with Princes’ training curricula, which helped build awareness around the content that’s available and how employees could use the toolkit for their own self-directed learning. This integration alone led to a powerful boost in usage and engagement.