car interiors so designers can consider them from all angles
On both counts Jestaz claims early results
indicate success. “People are learning in areas
that are completely new to them – some of
which have taken us by surprise,” he says.
“We published a course on blockchain and
had 3,000 people follow it. We could never
have known there was demand for this type
of content.”
Although the most popular courses still
have a compliance focus (internal control or
health and safety for example), other top
courses include those around teamwork,
ethics, performance management and
understanding business transformation.
Competitive learning is encouraged with
International case study Operational efficiency
games and league tables, and so far more than
32,500 so-called ‘learning battles’ have
occurred between ‘Faurecians’.
MOOCs have proved incredibly popular.
Faurecia now has the ability to create a
new MOOC and distribute it within
eight weeks. Currently 35 are completed
every minute.
An interesting observation is that 5% to
10% of all learning is done by people using
their own devices during weekends,
demonstrating new-found engagement with
L&D. The average individual’s consumption
has increased from an hour a month when the
rollout first began to two hours a month today.
This is backed up by the number of training
questions now being answered by HR. To
begin with around 40,000 a month were being
dealt with, today it’s 350,000 globally.
With coming up to a year of data under his
belt, Jestaz says the next phase of the
programme is to bring in more detailed
analytics about which locations are learning
what, and why. India, for example, currently
demonstrates faster learning rates.
The team will also be delving into how
learning outcomes can be measured against
performance by tabulating these to moves and
promotions within the business.
“We’re removing buzzwords from L&D
and replacing them with real learning,”
says Jestaz. HR
Importing back home...
France has a vested interest in upskilling its
workers and improving its businesses’ appeal to
global customers. Late last Autumn fi nance
minister Bruno Le Maire declared skills
development was “the most important
economic issue in France”, adding: “We have
a system of learning that does not provide the
skills that are needed”.
To address this the government announced
that from January 2020 each worker will be
able to spend €5,000 (£4,458) over their
careers on training courses of their choice.
Employers supplementing state support with
their own smörgåsbord of pick-and-choose
training (often referred to as the ‘Netfl ix’
approach) is one that’s growing in popularity
around the world. This
solution is riding the wave
of micro learning.
LinkedIn’s 2018
Workplace Learning Report found 49% of staff
prefer to learn at the point of need. It found
that lack of work time is often a barrier to
learning. And research by Merrill Lynch also
fi nds smart device-enabled learning can
actually be done 45% faster than on a PC, with
comparable learning transfer scores.
Firms already applying a content-discovery
form of learning include Labeyrie Fine Foods
(for 1,000 staff at UK sites Lyons Seafoods and
Farne Salmon), as well as international giants
including L’Oréal and Google.
In focus:
France
Key statistics
France – the EU’s
second-largest
economy – joins
most of the rest of
Europe in facing
considerable talent
shortages. Recent
unemployment
fi gures (for the
second quarter of
2019) show
joblessness was
down to 8.7% in the
country – the lowest
since 2008
Hiring conditions
According to a
report by public
investment bank
Bpifrance, nine out
of 10 companies
say they face
recruitment
challenges
because of
inadequate skills
and qualifi cation
levels. In France two
in fi ve vacancies
are now classed as
‘hard to fi ll’
Of note
Nearly 7% of
people in France
are employed in
the high-tech
economy, but only
29% are classed as
having ‘abovebasic’
digital skills
hrmagazine.co.uk October 2019 HR 49
/hrmagazine.co.uk