How the implementation of the Learning Hub at Stuart scaled global learning and increased engagement

Founded in 2015 and part of the DPD Group, Stuart is an organization of 800 employees expanding across Europe offering state-of-the-art urban logistics for a more sustainable world. Through its leading on-demand logistics platform, it connects companies and customers of all sectors and sizes (restaurants, grocery stores, retail, luxury, e-commerce, or professional services) with a fleet of geolocated couriers to transport and provide on-demand logistics deliveries in 6 countries and more than 120 cities.

The Challenge

Learning: from a startup to a full-fledged company

Two years ago, Stuart was in a phase of rapid growth: by the end of 2021 the size of its workforce doubled from 300 to 600 employees; In 2022 that number was over 800, across six European countries. To keep pace with this growth, the L&TD (Learning and Talent Development) team in turn grew from two to five people last year. The main need was to move learning and talent development from a startup dimension to that of a fully-fledged company, in a completely hybrid and flexible working model, where full remote contracts are preferred as part of the technology.

For L&TD to match this new way of working and the speed of change within the organisation, offerings also had to be scaled and adapted. The company had to ensure that it could maintain constant on-demand learning, running new, relevant, and personalised learning at its own pace.

The need for a centralised, scalable, and hybrid training space.

There was a need to transform Stuart Academy, the center dedicated to the professional development and growth of the company’s internal talent for Stuart’s employees, known as “Stuwies”. Prior to the launch of the new Learning Hub, all of Stuart’s global learning offerings were managed manually. A central digital space was needed to reduce the time spent manually updating information, and at the same time, increase the impact of its wide range of course offerings.

The challenge:

• Improve the organisational learning culture
• Put learning at the forefront by build a learning space that was scalable and catered to the company’s hybrid workforce
• Increase engagement and participation in Stuart Academy
• Define and standardize internal brand identity
• Level up learning analytics to be able make informed learning decisions to anchor and impact the organisation’s business objectives
• Centralise training activities for geographically dispersed Stuwies working in a hybrid and flexible working model

The Solution

A common learning platform: Totara, Actua, and the new Learning Hub

Totara partner Actua‘s solution was to implement an online learning platform to offer all of Stuart Academy’s offerings inside the new Learning Hub. The learning offerings found within the 5 pillars of the Stuart Academy are aimed at different audiences and focused on developing different areas, from leadership skills, core competencies, increasing collaboration, and even how to embrace and engage with the Stuwie culture.

With the implementation of Totara and the creation of the Learning Hub, hybrid and blended learning opportunities emerged: a combination of self-directed, on-demand, collaborative, digital, and face-to-face offerings. The company went on to offer a comprehensive agile L&TD learning loop, focused on continuously developing internal talent, and ensuring that a culture of innovation that empowers employees to drive their own professional development is fostered.

One of the first programs that proved to have the greatest potential and impact for digitization was the Ambassador Program — a program that falls under the “Engage” pillar of the Stuart Academy (focused on company culture).

The Ambassador Program: a successful reward system

The Ambassador Program is a gamification program implemented in the Totara environment that is open to both individual contributors and managers, who want to make a difference, stand out, and be recognised for their contribution.

The Ambassador Program has been the main success story of Stuart’s Learning Hub thanks to its digitalisation and gamification with Totara. It was possible to transform it from a manual and “unattractive” program to something dynamic and innovative, focused on our Stuart value: think outside the parcel.

Following its launch in 2022, more than 1,000 activity submissions and a total of 21 Rising Stars and 4 Ambassadors were received that year. Furthermore, ambassador coins were exchanged for rewards, and Ambassadors have been assigned a badge within the Learning Hub and are also all being given recognition at the global monthly meeting with the whole company, where they detail the activities in which they participated.

The Learning Hub has helped us go the extra mile in terms of automated reporting. Reports on the activities completed by each employee can be downloaded, and these are shared with business leaders as part of the quarterly learning report by department. The Learning Hub also helps automate and generate reports with additional valuable training and development data and metrics, such as  completion rates. This data is added to the annual training tracker to help measure whether we are on track to achieve key outcomes for each department, ensure compliance with legal training laws, and ultimately make more informed learning decisions about program development and impact on the organisation as a whole.

Results

Learning Center Results and Facts

The Learning Center was launched in April 2022. Since then, a total of nine online learning programs have been introduced:

✅ Ambassador Program

✅ Mentorship Program

✅ Aspiring Managers

✅ Core Manager Program

✅ Cultivating Communication

✅ StuLibrary

✅ Performance Management for People Managers training

✅ Hiring Academy

✅ GBS Courses

Since the beginning, a completion rate of over 25% has been achieved for the e-learning courses, and the course with the highest participation rate was the Mentoring Program, with 20% of Stuwies (160 participants).

The Ambassador Program in figures

The new Ambassador Program was launched on the Learning Hub in April 2022. The activities submissions had an amazing increase. In 2021, a total of 526 activities were submitted, while in 2022  there were 955 — an 82% increase in activities submitted, with a total of 14,230 Ambassador Coins earned. In 2022 there were a total of 4 Ambassadors and 21 Rising Stars, while in 2021 there were no Ambassadors and only 13 Rising Stars.

“Stuart’s Learning Hub has provided us the perfect solution to create engaging learning experience for Stuwies and increase our business impact. Since its implementation, we have transformed our hybrid learning offering, through internally developing e-learning courses across learning, performance & business related topics. It is the perfect tool for innovative learning design! “

 – Gemma Incoronato, Head of Learning & Talent Development