Digital adoption platform supports global employee development
Digitalization projects demand a rethink in employee development
The automotive division at KIRCHHOFF is under enormous efficiency pressures. Customers expect innovation, impeccable quality and absolute delivery reliability. To ensure it can continue to meet these high expectations, the company has been implementing a digitalization program for a number of years. Through this approach, KIRCHHOFF aims to continuously improve the quality of its data and expand its analysis capacities. Moreover, it hopes to drive forward issues such as predictive maintenance, virtual reality and the creation of smart, cross-company networks.
“The pace of change has increased massively in recent years,” explains Lisa Kitterer, Global Director Employee Development at KIRCHHOFF Automotive. “That’s why the issue of how best to train our staff and prepare them for the upcoming change projects has long been strategically important to us.” However, when KIRCHHOFF integrated a learning management system (LMS) into its global K-People HR system in 2019, it quickly became clear that the range of functions and options this brought would not be enough to help it achieve its objectives. Although staff were able to book their own professional development training, the offerings still consisted predominantly of in-person courses. What’s more, the training offerings of most sites were not available for everyone in the LMS. “We quickly realized we needed a new, truly global approach based on digital learning formats and a tool that, as much as possible, would generate its own momentum for our digitalization projects,” says Kitterer.
A central port of call for eLearning and digital adoption
After scouring the market, Kitterer and her two colleagues who run Employee Development for Europe, Asia and North America opted for the tts performance suite.
This digital adoption platform is a key component in the KA Academy, which was developed in 2018. As part of this educational concept, all the company’s training offerings are made available to all staff worldwide via the LMS and the QuickAccess function of the tts performance suite. This digital adoption platform from tts provides precisely the digitalization boost the company was looking for in employee development and talent management. For example, the 150 authors from 17 specialist departments at the company can use its integrated recording function to quickly and easily create digital training formats ranging from step-by-step guides and PDFs to PowerPoint presentations and eLearning courses, all of which are then made available in QuickAccess or the LMS. KIRCHHOFF is also utilizing the context-sensitive assistance of the digital adoption platform, which has so far been installed on around 4,000 of the company’s notebook computers. By answering questions about processes, compliance and cyber security as and when they arise and directly within the workflow, this form of business guidance helps staff work efficiently with business applications from SAP and Microsoft, as well as other programs.
As part of the quality assurance approach for content, the authors meet up with the team at Employee Development every two months. A quality check is held every six months, too, so the teams can clarify which content needs to be deleted, updated or newly produced. “Users also play a key role in our quality assurance processes, because their feedback helps ensure the content continuously improves,” Kitterer points out.
A successful balance between business innovation and business continuity
Since the tts performance suite digital adoption platform was rolled out, KIRCHHOFF has created approximately 1,000 eLearning units. All 4,000 members of staff who work on notebook computers, whether on-site or in their home office, can use this training content either for their professional development or as context-sensitive help during a working process. As a result, KIRCHHOFF is providing needs-based training that dovetails with its digitalization strategy. What’s more, by ensuring even major changes to software, business processes and customer support don’t negatively impact quality assurance and efficiency, the company is also mastering the tricky balancing act between business innovation and business continuity.
Kitterer believes her department has benefited considerably, too: “The whole issue has brought us closer to the organization and clearly reinforces our position as a strategic partner to the executive management team.” The key reasons for this include the high level of acceptance among staff and the positive feedback from the specialist departments supporting the project on a cross-site basis.
We quickly realized we needed a new, truly global approach based on digital learning formats and a tool that, as much as possible, would generate its own momentum for our digitalization projects.
KIRCHHOFF considers itself well placed for planned digitalization projects and everything else the future holds in store. In the next stage of the project, the company aims to expand its digital learning offerings to the shopfloor. The company also wants to add to its KPIs so that the user experience provided by this business guidance can be gauged properly. “Even though we know satisfaction levels are very high, and can now get new colleagues up to speed faster during their onboarding, we want to measure exactly what is happening where, so that potential can be harnessed even better,” explains Kitterer.
What KIRCHHOFF Automotive has achieved with the tts performance suite
- A global single source of truth for around 4,000 members of staff
- Cross-application support for staff
- Safeguarding efficiency and quality in ongoing transformation projects
- Reliable applications and processes, thanks to digital adoption and business guidance in the moment of need
- Dynamic content development for digital training through intensive support for all sites and specialist departments
About Kirchhoff Automotive
KIRCHHOFF Automotive is a major supplier to the automotive industry. A mid-sized global player, it manufactures structural parts such as crash management systems, front end frames, battery trays and cross beams for all the big-name vehicle manufacturers – from Audi and Tesla to Volkswagen. Its production volumes are huge – in 2020 alone, over 94 percent of the automobiles manufactured in Germany incorporated at least one component made by this family-run company. To handle these volumes on a just-in-time basis, the necessary components are assembled in close proximity to the customer, at 27 sites across Europe, China and the USA. Employing a workforce of around 8,000 and generating sales of 2.18 billion euros in 2021, KIRCHHOFF Automotive is the biggest division of the KIRCHHOFF Group, which is based in the German city of Iserlohn.
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