How Nestlé cancelled classrooms and empowered learner experiences online

Improving the learning experience for employees worldwide

Nestlé is the largest and most renowned global food and beverage company in the world but once the pandemic hit, much like everyone else, everything had to change — and fast. Operating in more than 80 countries worldwide with a training programme that was primarily classroom based, Nestlé needed to move all learning online, virtually overnight, to make learning accessible for everyone working from home. It also required a way to deliver structured and clear learning paths to its people to meet both learners’ and business needs. In addition, Nestlé wished to use this opportunity to encourage its people to take ownership of their development and career paths. Nestlé is also responsible for the employee training of its partners licensed to sell popular coffee labels, such as Starbucks concession holders, so it was necessary for these partners to be able to access learning in the same way as Nestlé employees.

Why Cornerstone?

Nestlé turned to its iLearn platform and Cornerstone OnDemand to help structure existing content, introducing learning playlists and creating academies to accelerate the digital learning process and the move online. With the help of Cornerstone, Nestlé was able to effectively roll out learning content services on a much wider scale than previously available. Nestlé also implemented the Cornerstone mobile app to ensure that all employees had easy access to learning. With many juggling childcare, home schooling and other key commitments, this offering guaranteed that learning could be conducted anywhere, at any time.

Partners across popular coffee labels also needed to have access to learning fundamentals, as well as soft skills training such as how to become a great barista. Nestlé was able to harness the power of Cornerstone’s Extended Enterprise and Create offerings to guarantee learning was as easily accessible for non-Nestlé employees.

The Results

Created a centralised point of learning: With the iLearn platform and the creation of academies, powered by Cornerstone, Nestlé is now able to share content worldwide and ensure employees have access to the right materials. The creation of playlists meanwhile has enabled for more structured learning pathways and for Nestlé to create clear development journeys for its employees.

Improved access to learning: By enabling learning on-the-go and making sure that training could be conducted via mobile and tablets, users are now able to access relevant training easily, regardless of their technology setup. Since moving to mobile, Nestlé has also seen a ten-fold increase in usage on the iLearn platform, with monthly visitor numbers reaching highs of 100,000.

Increased engagement: On average, every Nestlé employee has increased their time spent on the iLearn platform by 50% in the last six months and the average session time on the iLearn platform has increased from seven to ten minutes. With clear insights and analytics also being fed back to managers, it will be easier to create new engaging content moving forward.

Promoted proactive learning: With academy and playlist browsing, employees can search for what interests them rather than only using iLearn for mandatory training, helping transition from a culture of ‘push’ to ‘pull’ learning. With Cornerstone, learners can now also create their own content playlists to really drive the autonomy of personalised learning.

Enabled seamless partner integration with extended enterprise: With Cornerstone’s Extended Enterprise, Nestlé has been able to set up personalised learning portals dedicated to partner training in one place for a smooth and seamless learning experience. This training is also highly accessible as coffee concession employees can complete training while at work on their mobile phones.