Anheuser-Busch’s learning transformation: Enabling agility and resilience
Hear how to rethink your learning strategy and what considerations to keep in mind.
Learn how to shift processes and operations, the growing pains that those changes can bring, and lessons from L&D leaders who have been there too.
Consider whether your current approach to learning is sustainable for your future organization.
This panel discussion covered the challenges that Anheuser-Busch has faced and shared best practices on how to shift learning processes and operations, with or without an LMS.
The Anheuser-Busch journey
Anheuser-Busch (AB), the makers of Budweiser, Stella Artois, and Bon Viv, have around 15,000 employees in North America. If this wasn’t challenging enough for a learning leader, the L&D team also provides required training to their extended network of wholesalers and their respective employees.
With this mammoth task at their feet, learning leaders at AB have enabled a highly successful corporate transformation and pivoted to be more agile, resilient, and prepared for the future.
They have achieved this learning transformation through improving learner communication and training; solidifying their reskilling and upskilling strategy; focusing on worker flexibility and wellbeing; and enabling corporate trust and accountability – all encompassed in their overhauled learning strategy.
Devin Hastie, Director, Commercial Learning at Anheuser-Busch, told the audience that the journey for transforming learning at AB started around 4-5 years ago when there was a larger, more general people transformation enacted across the organization. Throughout this journey, they have adapted their learning model, being supported by the Absorb LMS. They are now able to turn on content that the business needs through their resource library, allowing the time for the learning team to create proprietary and AB-specific learning content, to suit their individual business needs.
The AB team is also able to now curate learning paths to develop the skills and capabilities of their individual employees. And the same is happening in the AB wholesale partner L&D programs. They have been able to catalyze the consumption of learning content for both soft and hard skills, and the result is a learning path that is matched to career growth and progression.
You need the right technology and you need the right environment to enable learning, to make it easy. The user experience needs to be engaging and as you start to evolve, the technology doesn’t fix the problem if you don’t have a thoughtful process.
Devin Hastie, Director, Commercial Learning at Anheuser-Busch
There has been a clear mentality shift inside the AB organization around learning, as a result of the possibilities enabled through the technology and partners they have onside. The team clearly wants to provide an appetite for learning and a change in culture that comes from building competence and connection with L&D, as opposed to it being something employees and partners have to do.
Alyssa Wied, Senior Manager, Learning and Development at Anheuser-Busch, predominantly works with the AB wholesales partners. She spoke to the webinar audience about the mindset transformation they experienced too. She explained that the tools and resources they now have, including Absorb, are empowering people to be excited about learning. Given their old system was clunky and provided a poor admin experience and user experience, they are now comfortable with their new processes and technologies that are “providing content that helps people grow and advance.”
Being able to assess the entire vision, from the employers and learner perspective, explained Tara Brooks from Absorb, is where the technology can really help differentiate an employer as being agile, resilient, and ultimately successful in their learning culture.