Hachette turns a page in the management of learning

Article Type: Notes and news From: Industrial and Commercial Training, Volume 44, Issue 6

Hachette UK has installed a new learning-management system to manage the delivery of classroom training and e-learning across its publishing business.

The Kallidus system, from e2train, went live in March and has already been rolled out to more than 1,000 employees across all the group’s publishing divisions. There are plans in place to incorporate Hachette’s warehouse and distribution operations by the end of the year.

Kallidus replaces a manual system of spreadsheets that Hachette UK’s learning and development function had been using to manage group-wide classroom training programs – primarily soft-skills development, management development and information technology.

Victoria Hotchkiss, group training and development manager, explained:“Hachette is a very digital business and we wanted the way we manage and deliver our training to move with the times and reflect the needs of the business. We were looking for a system capable of streamlining and automating the manual processes we have been using to deliver classroom-led training. We also wanted it to enable us to deliver e-learning.

“Time is always short and the introduction of e-learning will mean less time spent away from the workplace and more time focusing on core activities.”

Hachette UK has also invested in two authoring tools from e2train, which will enable the publisher to create its own e-learning modules, reducing some of the costs of classroom learning.

The learning and development function can now manage and track the delivery of training more effectively. The system will also help managers to keep track of the learning and development of their teams.

Hachette began looking at implementing a learning-management system in 2010 and developed a robust proposal to move the project forward in the summer of 2011.

Victoria Hotchkiss explained: “We looked at several learning providers and at the end of the day it came down to two companies that could meet our needs. We chose Kallidus because we particularly liked the functionality it offered to tailor the home page to our desired look and feel. It was also intuitive from a user perspective.”