How HEINEKEN is Transforming L&D for 85,000+ Employees with Collaborative Learning

A small team with a global mission

The learning and development initiatives at HEINEKEN are spearheaded by a three-person Global L&D Center of Excellence. Based in Amsterdam, their role is to enable the local learning and HR teams across HEINEKEN’s 85 operating companies. This decentralized model means the team's primary "customers" are these local teams, who in turn serve the company's employees.

The challenge: From the "wild west" to a unified strategy

With such a vast distributed workforce, HEINEKEN faced a huge challenge: how to deliver learning that was both strategically aligned at the global level and flexible enough for local needs.

HEINEKEN faced four main challenges.

1. Fragmented learning – 85 operating companies managed training independently, resulting in duplication, inconsistent quality, and limited ownership.

2. Content clutter – Years of accumulated material made it hard for learners to find relevant resources. “Mandatory training wasn’t being done particularly well,” recalls Geraldine Murphy, Global Learning Experience Manager. “Our previous system had become the ‘wild west’—with little ownership or strategy.”

3. Low engagement – Learners were overwhelmed by confusing navigation, while admins found the system slow and unrewarding. “People should spend their time learning skills, not learning how to use the platform,” Geraldine explains.

4. Poor mobile access – A modern workforce needed seamless, on-the-go learning, but the system couldn’t deliver.

The company needed more than a new platform—they needed a partner to capture proprietary skills, drive engagement, harness AI, and build toward a skills-driven talent marketplace.

The solution: Collaborative, AI-powered learning at scale

To solve these challenges, HEINEKEN selected 360Learning after a rigorous RFP process. The choice was driven by three differentiators that matched their transformation goals:

1. Scalability for global deployment with local flexibility.

2. AI-powered tools for translation, content creation, and speed of delivery.

3. Ease of use for both admins and learners, reducing overload and duplication.

Here’s how the team brought their new learning strategy to life by focusing on community and peer-to-peer knowledge sharing:

Collaborative learning to engage every level of the business

The launch of their learning platform, UBREW (powered by 360Learning) has enabled new global and functional academies, ensuring consistent structure while allowing local adaptation. A customized mobile app gives employees easy access anytime, anywhere.

To build community, HEINEKEN  launched a global ambassador network, a shared knowledge center, and a playful “Little Green Learning Book” to guide employees through the change. Role-based training certifies admins, authors, and coaches, empowering subject-matter experts (SMEs) to create and share high-quality content autonomously.

AI for impact: Faster, smarter, global delivery

360Learning’s AI-powered authoring has transformed how content is created and deployed at HEINEKEN:

AI course creation helps respond even more quickly to emerging business needs.

Automatic translations let the team “design once, deploy everywhere,” eliminating the need for 50 separate local adaptations.

As Geraldine explains, “from a cost perspective, we’re saving significantly by reducing reliance on external vendors. And the speed—AI translations and the end-to-end process of developing a course, translating it, doing quality assurance and deploying it, the speed in which we can now do that in 360Learning is phenomenal.”

An easy to use, skills-focused learning platform

360Learning’s tagging and taxonomy tools have supported the platform change. Learners can now search by competencies and skills, while global product owners can monitor learning needs submitted by employees, identify emerging skills gaps and the SMEs that can help fill that gap. “That’s super smart,” says Geraldine. This allows the team to keep a pulse on all the skills within the business and  HEINEKEN will be exploring skills-based learning in even more detail in the next 12 months.

The implementation: Seven months from start to finish

The implementation of 360Learning was ambitious: a complete migration, rebuild, and relaunch in just seven months. 

“In moving to 360Learning, this was never just a system change—it was the start of a transformation,” says Geraldine. “We retired nearly 50% of our old content, because it wasn’t being used, wasn’t owned, or wasn’t relevant. That allowed us to start fresh.”

The scope of work was staggering. The team of three had to:

• Rebuild more than 1,000  learning Paths

• Launch new global academies and a HEINEKEN Academy

• Integrate global catalogues,  Outlook and productivity tools

• Run a comprehensive communications and change management program (including regional ambassadors, weekly drop-ins, a launch playbook, and operating procedures for admins and authors)

• Design and develop a learning academy with a catalogue of role-based training and create a cycle of certification around upskilling for Authors, Coaches and Admins

“There was nervousness at the start—was this even possible on such an aggressive timeline?” Geraldine recalls. “But we had no choice. The old system was being switched off and downtime wasn’t an option.”

To keep the project moving, the team relied heavily on strong stakeholder management. A steering committee was set up to help navigate challenges, align priorities, and secure executive sponsorship when tough decisions had to be made. “Some of those conversations were very challenging,” Geraldine noted. “But the steering committee gave us the backing and influence we needed to overcome sticking points and keep momentum.”

360Learning’s team also played a critical role in guiding the project. “I have to call out Carolyn Li and Alastair Buckle from 360Learning,” Geraldine says. “They were fantastic. They leaned in, understood our challenges, and kept us moving forward at pace. They were responsive and active, and we couldn’t have done it without those two. It was a great collaboration.”

The results so far: Crushing benchmarks and gaining momentum

Despite the scale and compressed timeline, the launch exceeded expectations.

Within the first six weeks:

• 25% of all colleagues were active in the system, smashing the benchmark KPI of 20%

• In the APAC region, every operating company beat the average activation rate

• In just 1.5 months, the platform had already achieved 65% of the annual engagement seen in the old system

“These numbers show the scale of what we’ve achieved,” says Geraldine. “Doing this kind of transformation at a company our size is incredibly difficult. To see adoption this high so quickly is something we’re really proud of.”

Creating a space to train and certify stakeholders with different platform roles was a key feature of the implementation. This role-based upskilling was recognized as “best in class” by 360Learning’s team.

The next phase of collaborative learning

For HEINEKEN, 360Learning is more than a platform—it’s the foundation of their future talent strategy.

“Learning is part of our bigger master plan,” Geraldine explains. “‘UBREW,’ is the first step toward a talent marketplace where AI will map skills and identify gaps. Next, we’ll upskill the business where needed and give people equitable career opportunities—using UBREW to capture skills data, generate insights, and link training to those gaps.”

The company is also expanding collaborative learning, encouraging SMEs to co-author and share knowledge. “We already have a principle of ‘learn, share, reapply.’ Now we want to take that further—empowering experts to collaborate directly on the platform so we don’t lose proprietary skills when people leave.”

AI will shape HEINEKEN’s content strategy through a ‘build, borrow, buy, or bot’ model. “For long-term content, we’ll invest and build. For quick needs, AI can generate material that SMEs refine. It’s about choosing the right tool for the job.”

Ultimately, HEINEKEN sees 360Learning as the driver of a cultural shift. By combining collaborative learning, AI-powered impact, and a skills-first mindset, HEINEKEN is laying the foundation for a future where every employee can multiply their impact and advance their professional development.