A Global Learning Day by Kering - Looking Back at an Innovative Learning Initiative

As a global luxury goods company, Kering brings together and nurtures a group of emblematic Houses in Fashion, Leather Goods and Jewelry: Gucci, Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga, Alexander McQueen, Brioni, Boucheron, Pomellato, DoDo, Qeelin, Ginori 1735, as well as Kering Eyewear and Kering Beauté. By placing creation at the heart of its strategy, Kering encourages its Houses to push back their limits in terms of creative expression, while shaping a sustainable and responsible luxury industry.

At Kering, learning is a priority and a strategic lever for engaging and retaining employees. By awarding the Learning Culture and Marketing Trophy, Learn Assembly wished to salute the company’s commitment to promoting learning and employability. An internal audit conducted in 2021 to re-assess the Group’s learning and skills development priorities identified three key observations: the need to redefine learning priorities, the need to strengthen the learning culture, and the desire of employees to play an active role in their learning journey.

Organizing an event-based learning ritual

In response, Kering has organized Global Learning Day, a day dedicated to learning, open to all employees. The 2023 edition of Global Learning Day is :

17,500 participants from all Houses
25 cities and 16 languages
3 types of events: A global online conference bringing together internal and external experts and sharing inspiring employee stories. A masterclass on “learning how to learn”, facilitated by in-house trainers and broadcast remotely.
Local conferences adapted to the context of each country, company and its own challenges.

The event attracted worldwide interest, and doubled the number of participants originally planned. This success was due to the active involvement of the learning community, through the adoption of collaborative and agile working methods, the shared definition of needs and constant conversation, creating an atmosphere that promoted exchange and mutual improvement. Before and during the event, a dynamic internal communication campaign also contributed to these encouraging initial results.

What future for the Global Learning Day?

30% of Kering employees participated in the 2023 edition. To build on this success, the company set up ambitious new targets for 2024, including:

An extended two-day format on March 21 and 22 to make it easier for employees from different time zones to participate,
A specific approach for sales and operating teams, given their particular learning constraints,
Early communication of the event (three months in advance)
Maintaining post-event learning momentum by making content available on an LXP platform and organizing employee challenges to stimulate learning.

Over 17,000 employees took part in the two-day event. Over the next 3 months, the initiative’s impact will be further enhanced by content and communication initiatives.

This positions Kering as a company with a strong commitment to employee learning, able to capitalize on the lessons learned from previous editions of Global Learning Day to enrich and constantly improve its future initiatives.

Learn Assembly is a hybrid consulting firm created in 2013 to support the transformation of all those involved in learning and employment. Our mission is to help them play a strategic role in their organizations to meet the challenges of skills in a context of environmental transition and technological transformation. We support the general management and L&D departments of major groups, public bodies and higher education institutions in their strategic development.