What 5 Leading Companies Teach Us About Collaborative Learning Success

Now more than ever, learning impact is about business impact. Traditional, top-down learning approaches are too slow and generic to keep up with the needs of modern workforces.

As companies face the growing challenge of keeping up with the speed of innovation, staying competitive requires speed and agility—qualities that are directly influenced by how well a workforce is prepared to adapt. 

Employee development is no longer a side strategy; it’s essential for equipping employees with the skills needed to drive business performance and stay ahead of the curve. That means the ability to leverage skills data as a goldmine for understanding the strengths and gaps within a workforce is more crucial than ever.

At 360Learning, we understand that the only way to upskill quickly at scale is by empowering internal experts and leveraging AI to create collaborative learning academies.

Our platform is designed to help organisations collaborate with subject-matter experts to create learning programs that are both scalable and impactful, enabling L&D professionals to become the architects of skills and earn a seat at the table in driving business outcomes.

In this article, we'll showcase how five organisations—Michelin, Mitsubishi Electric, Simplyhealth, The Croud Group, and Arkema— harnessed the power of collaborative learning to transform their employee development strategies, tackle major L&D challenges, and drive significant business results.

5 L&D success stories: challenges, solutions, and results

1) How Michelin turned their SMEs into Learning Champions who can create full training courses in less than 4 hours

Michelin, the world's leading tire manufacturer with 132,000 employees, is recognized for its commitment to sustainable mobility and innovation. By 2050, Michelin's ambition is to achieve "Net Zero Emissions" of CO2 across all its sites.

This involves many challenges in terms of skills management: Michelin needed to train its employees on the latest technologies and industry practices to ensure their employability both within and outside the group. To achieve this, Michelin sought to leverage its internal expertise to create a dynamic, community-driven learning environment. 

User-generated content is at the heart of Michelin's digital learning strategy. Each employee possesses unique subject-matter expertise and Michelin needed to be able to share this with as many people in the company as possible.

 Their biggest challenges

1. Need for faster upskilling: Michelin's existing training initiatives were too slow to address the immediate and specific upskilling needs of its diverse workforce.
2. Outdated training methods: Relying on SCORM modules made knowledge sharing cumbersome and time-consuming. The company needed a process that allowed constant improvement with learner feedback.
3. Driving immediate impact with user-generated content: To strengthen its learning culture, Michelin wanted to empower employees to share their unique expertise quickly and on a global scale.

Solutions implemented

Michelin implemented 360Learning to build a community of learning champions, focusing on a collaborative and decentralised learning strategy:

1. Breaking down barriers to creation: Employees could finally create and share knowledge quickly, enabling SMEs to author a complete course in less than four hours–compared to the 6 months it used to take with SCORM. This approach led to the formation of a group of over 100 learning champions who could respond rapidly to local upskilling needs.
2. Example: An employee at the Roanne factory created a safety training module after noticing unsafe handling practices. Within a week, 70% of the targeted learners had completed the training, improving safety procedures and reducing accidents.
3. Proactive recruitment of learning champions: Michelin identified and recruited internal champions using achievement badges on the 360Learning platform, building a motivated and skilled learning community.
4. Building community loyalty: Michelin created an inclusive and rewarding learning culture, offering tangible benefits like skill validation, global training content visibility, and access to exclusive content. The learning community was further strengthened through dedicated Microsoft Teams groups and regular meetups.

Results

• 22,000+ active users: This number has doubled annually over the past three years due to the network of internal champions.
• 82,000 hours of training: Completed online without any mandatory requirements, highlighting the success of user-generated content.
• 9,400 courses created: Developed through the network of champions, emphasising the impact of collaborative learning.
• 50+ modules in 14 languages: Supporting Michelin's decentralised training strategy on a global scale.

2) How Mitsubishi Electric used collaborative learning to achieve 99% customer satisfaction and reduce training costs by 65%

Founded in 1921, Mitsubishi Electric is a global leader in heat pumps and air conditioning units, known for its innovative products and sustainability efforts. To maintain high-quality service, the company needed to provide extensive training to thousands of customer engineers worldwide. Not an easy task, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Their biggest challenges

1. High volume of training demand: Mitsubishi Electric had a backlog of 1,500 engineers waiting for training, with existing classroom-based programs unable to scale effectively due to limited capacity and health and safety policies.
2. Impact of COVID-19: The pandemic further complicated in-person training, necessitating a rapid shift to remote learning to continue educating engineers.
3. Need for scalable and engaging training: Existing training methods, while engaging, relied on static presentations and live equipment demonstrations, which were not scalable and lacked flexibility for engineers with varying technical skills.

Solutions implemented

Tackling those challenges meant finding a new way to deliver training at scale, capture expert knowledge, and stay flexible despite the shift to remote working. Mitsubishi Electric turned to 360Learning to create a blended learning program focused on five key areas: blended learning, authoring, social interaction, engagement tracking, and upskilling.

1. Blended learning (80/20 model): Mitsubishi Electric implemented a blended learning approach, digitising 80% of the content while retaining 20% as live, virtual workshops. This approach balanced the need for flexibility and direct interaction with trainers.
2. In-house content authoring: Using 360Learning's built-in authoring tool, Mitsubishi Electric's L&D team could develop and update training content quickly, ensuring content relevance and eliminating the need for costly freelance designers.
3. Social interaction features: 360Learning's social features allowed learners to interact directly with trainers, ask questions, and provide feedback, fostering a supportive learning environment.
4. Engagement tracking: The L&D team utilised 360Learning's dashboards to monitor course completion rates, engagement, and feedback. This enabled them to measure the program's success and improve content based on real-time reactions.
5. Upskilling the L&D team: The transition to digital training involved upskilling the L&D team to use the platform effectively, including storyboarding programs, developing new content types, and conducting live webinars.

Results

• Increased volume and efficiency: Monthly training participants increased from 200 to 300. The same training volume can be delivered with just 10% of the resources previously required–resulting in a 65% reduction in training costs.
• 99% customer satisfaction rate: Reduced customer training wait times to 30 days, and received positive learner feedback on the training's flexibility and ease of use.
• Positive environmental impact: Michelin saved 600,000 miles of employee travel and 230,000 sheets of paper in their shift to online learning initiatives.

3) How Simplyhealth achieved 100% completion on compliance training and maintained regulatory standards

Established in 1872, Simplyhealth’s mission is providing affordable and accessible healthcare for millions of people across the UK. With 900+ employees, the company has a big focus on employee wellbeing and wanted to expand its talent development programs to support the growing organisation.

Operating in a highly regulated industry, Simplyhealth also needed to prove it was delivering training for its employees’ Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) compliance. But as the company grew and training needs evolved, scaling in-person training became difficult to manage–and a major expense.

Their biggest challenges

1. Inconsistent and costly in-person training: Previously, Simplyhealth relied on face-to-face training, leading to inconsistent learning experiences and high costs due to varied group sizes and differing delivery methods.
2. Accessibility issues: The existing training was time-consuming and difficult to access, especially for new hires and external partners like dental practices, slowing down the onboarding process.
3. Tracking and reporting difficulties: Training progress was tracked using a complex spreadsheet, making it challenging to monitor compliance and report to the FCA.
4. Outdated learning system: Simplyhealth used a career development site filled with off-the-shelf content that was neither relevant nor engaging for employees.

Solutions implemented

Simplyhealth adopted 360Learning to transition from in-person to a blended learning model, focusing on collaborative learning. Key benefits included:

1. Efficient onboarding: Digital onboarding through 360Learning reduced the process to a 2.5-hour induction, providing consistent and timely information to new hires.
2. Compliance training: 360Learning’s tracking features enabled Simplyhealth to monitor course sign-ups, completion rates, and time-on-task, ensuring compliance with FCA regulations.
3. Collaborative content creation: Instructional designers collaborated with subject-matter experts to create engaging, relevant training content.
4. Accessible learning: By digitising training, Simplyhealth made learning accessible to all employees, regardless of location, and integrated with MS Teams for seamless access in the flow of work.

Results

• High platform adoption: 80% monthly user login rate on 360Learning.
• Extensive course creation: More than 1000 in-house courses developed.
• Increased co-authoring: Collaboration with 20+ subject-matter experts.
• Accessible learning: Greater inclusivity and cost savings by eliminating the need for travel to in-person sessions.

4) How The Croud Group reinvented its L&D strategy through internal experts and their global freelancer network of “Crowdies”

Since 2011, UK-based Croud has evolved into a global full-service digital agency with offices in New York, London, and Dubai. Serving an international client base through strategic and creative digital marketing solutions, Croud collaborates with a network of 2400+ freelancers, known as the Croudie Network. 

Over the last few years, the Croud Group has grown massively in terms of headcount and scope, and also acquired two other agencies: luxury-focused VERB Brands (now Croud Luxe), and global social media specialists Born Social. But even though learning was always part of the culture at Croud, digitising and streamlining their L&D processes at scale was a major struggle.

Their biggest challenges

1. Ineffective onboarding and lack of tracking: As Croud expanded, the existing onboarding process which relied on Google Drive and Slides wasn’t engaging learners. The team also struggled to track learner progress and the impact of their learning materials.
2. Quality control of contractors: Onboarding contractors to the Croudie Network was manual and inconsistent. Croud lacked a standardised assessment system to vet freelancers, leading to rework and affecting client expectations.
3. Upskilling clients digitally: Croud wanted to empower clients through digital upskilling but lacked the right tools to create and deliver comprehensive blended learning strategies.
4. Standardising L&D content at scale: Croud struggled to design and deploy training content that felt unique to the brand, but consistent across the growing Croud Group.

Solutions implemented

Croud adopted 360Learning to centralise and enhance its learning and development initiatives. The key benefits included:

1. Centralised L&D with Croud Campus: With 360Learning, Croud created "Croud Campus," a centralised learning hub, enabling a standardised and customizable onboarding experience across its agencies. This improved the accessibility and diversity of learning content, catering to various learner needs.
2. Scaling contractor assessments: Croud used 360Learning to assess contractors during onboarding, ensuring quality control within the Croudie Network. This standardised approach provided in-depth feedback to freelancers and improved client trust.
3. Client training platform: 360Learning facilitated branded client training, offering digital training sessions and creating scalable upskilling programs for clients globally.
4. AI-powered course authoring: Croud used 360Learning’s course builder and authoring tools to automatically create branded course structures, while making it easy and rewarding for SMEs to refine the content. 

Results

• High engagement: Achieved a 99% positive reaction score on learning content with over 50,338 reactions from 2,000+ learners.
• Extensive learning pathways: Created 230 learning paths and 1,588 internally developed courses in the past year.
• Effective learning impact: Enabled the L&D team to track performance and engagement effectively, proving the business impact of their learning initiatives.

5) How Arkema made knowledge accessible to a global workforce with 360Learning x SAP Integration

Arkema, a global leader in specialty chemicals, is driven by a mission to innovate and meet the growing demand for sustainable materials. With 21,100 employees across 150 plants in Europe, Asia, and North America, the company aimed to unify its workforce under the "One Arkema" culture and lead the specialty chemicals market by 2024.

The enterprise was looking for an innovative training solution to address the multifaceted challenges they faced, and to support its global L&D ambitions.

Challenges

1. Managing sustainable growth: With a strategy focused on acquisitions, Arkema needed to create and maintain a unified company culture and develop its employees' skills.
2. Recruitment and development: Arkema required a solution to attract, develop, and retain top talent across its global workforce.
3. Interoperability between HR solutions: The existing L&D applications were not integrated, leading to inefficient data processing and a poor user experience.
4. Complex administration: The legacy training system was overly complex for administrators to manage effectively on a daily basis.
5. Limited accessibility to training: It simply wasn’t possible to provide personalised, relevant content to over 21,000 employees in 55 countries with their existing learning system.

Solutions implemented

Arkema chose 360Learning to transform its digital learning strategy into a collaborative and integrated approach:

1. Connecting HR and L&D strategies and tools: Arkema integrated 360Learning with SAP SuccessFactors to create a seamless learning ecosystem. The integration automated data synchronisation, centralised training data, and streamlined HR and L&D workflows for learners, authors, and managers. The connector enabled single sign-on (SSO) for learners and automated the import of learning statistics, enhancing data accuracy and reducing administrative workload.
2. Aggregating a rich content catalogue: Using 360Learning’s LXP features, Arkema provided employees with on-demand access to a diverse range of soft skills training. The globalisation solution automatically delivered training in learners' preferred languages, ensuring accessibility for 90% of employees in their native language.
3. Capturing and sharing internal expertise: Arkema utilised 360Learning’s collaborative Academies and authoring tools to empower internal experts to create training content efficiently. Employees could volunteer to become content creators, sharing relevant knowledge quickly and enhancing team performance.

Results

• 9,810 learners: Achieved 140% of the target number of connected learners.
• High on-demand training uptake: Over 2,500 learners completed courses from the online catalogue, surpassing targets by 70%.
• Active authors: 64 active content authors created 143 courses, supporting factory training in France, Europe, the USA, and Malaysia.
• Positive engagement: 93% positive reactions on the platform.
• Multilingual access: Training available in 14 languages, making learning accessible across the entire organisation.

So—we’ve answered what, how, and why to achieve success with collaborative learning across a diverse range of use cases. 

It’s clear that organisations must move away from slow, top-down learning models and instead lean on centralised learning academies to leverage institutional knowledge to its fullest potential.

The 360Learning platform addresses these challenges head-on by providing the tools to collaborate, capture, and share knowledge from within your organisation. With AI-powered skills management, companies can target specific skills gaps, deliver tailored upskilling programs, and foster engagement in a way that aligns learning directly with business outcomes.

If you want to drive similar results with your employee development programs, we’re here to help. Schedule a personalised demo with 360Learning to see how we can support your L&D strategy.