It might sound like a straightforward recipe for success, but there is little room for error in the discount store business. Virtually no other sector is shaped by such cut-throat competition, with newcomers such as Amazon bringing disruptive ideas that ramp up the pressure on brick-and-mortar retailers. “With the level of complexity and pace of change in our sector being so high, we can no longer rely on preparatory learning alone,” says Tobias Kindler, Head of Learning Technology & Performance Support. “That’s why it’s becoming hugely important for us to provide them direct support at the workplace whenever they’re in urgent need of information.”
In late 2017, Lidl paved the way for doing just that, rolling out the tt performance suite throughout the entire company worldwide. The tts software is not a substitute for conventional classroom training or awareness campaigns. Both are still in place at Lidl, partly because not every member of staff works at a PC. It is, however, the centerpiece of a global learning architecture that never stops evolving. Indeed, Kindler and his team are always on the lookout for new ways of putting the tt performance suite to use.
Based on various use cases, Lidl compiles specific application products that first undergo testing as prototypes. Only those that make the grade are then rolled out across the company. They cover everything from eLearning and step-by-step guides and their context-sensitive provision in the workplace right up to interlinking with additional systems, including collaboration applications on the intranet, the learning management system (in this case, SAP SuccessFactors Learning), web applications, mobile apps and chatbots. “Every use case brings its own requirements, but due to our decentralized structure, which encompasses 700 authors based in 30 countries, they need to be easily scalable,” says Kindler. “We therefore attach particular importance to intensive communication between everyone involved (especially those responsible for the learning content), clear roles in the learning process and, last but not least, a high degree of standardization when creating and providing all content.”