Our internal knowledge management is an asset for both the speakers and their audience. True to our principles “Think like a Company Owner”, “Raise the Talent Bar” and “Role Model at all Times”, we live our corporate culture within the framework of the Academy. You can learn more about it in this blog article.
How do I provide feedback? How do I conduct a negotiation? What does our Marketplace Management actually do? How can I work better with Google Analytics? These and many other questions are answered regularly thanks to our in-house Academy. “We want to promote the personal and professional development of our employees, which is why we practice knowledge management within our company”, explains Laura from the HR department at Kaufland e-commerce. She is responsible for coordinating the Academy, which was launched several years ago – at that time, still under the name real.digital. The goal is “to learn from each other and pass on our own knowledge”.
The Academy offers a wide range of courses, which are usually held remotely via Teams or Zoom and can be attended by all colleagues. So how does it all work?
The organisation of the Academy
Firstly, the needs and wishes of the employees are identified by means of a wish list, surveys and feedback discussions. For mandatory legal courses that need to be refreshed regularly, experienced speakers from the legal team are already an integral part of the Academy. To ensure that new input is continuously offered, our HR department is always on the lookout for new speakers for a wide variety of course content – and regularly calls for new contributions.
“Constantly creating new and exciting offers – in line with our “Raise the Talent Bar” principle – is one of the biggest challenges in organising the Academy”, Laura explains.
The Academy’s courses are advertised on the corresponding #academy Slack channel as well as in the internal newsletter, and all interested parties can sign up via the respective list. Depending on the course, the number of participants is limited to ensure a good learning environment and to give the speakers the opportunity to address individual questions. All courses are offered regularly depending on demand.
The various topics
The topics of the Academy courses are as diverse as our company itself. They impart both company-specific knowledge, e.g. on tasks and work processes in specific departments, as well as more general content that expands technical knowledge or strengthens personal skills.
Academy topics include:
- Legal & Information Security (data protection, compliance & antitrust law, money laundering, information security, legal news)
- Learn about Kaufland e-commerce (OKRs, vision & mission, team presentations, get-to-know sessions with different departments, SEOcademy)
- Personal Development (coaching, feedback training, tensions and conflicts in digital collaboration, negotiation skills)
- Technical Skills (Excel, Confluence, Kafka, SQL/BigQuery, Data Dog, Google Analytics, product design)
- Language Skills (English, German)
Fail forward
“After the sessions, we send out a survey through our feedback tool to find out how participants felt about it. We want to constantly improve our offers and respond to the wishes of our colleagues”, explains Laura. In general, the feedback on the various courses is very positive. This was also the case with Nora from Online Marketing:
I think it’s great that in-house training is offered regularly, covering a wide range of topics. Furthermore, it is very helpful that these take place across departmental boundaries, so that you can step outside your own bubble and develop synergies with colleagues.
– Nora, Social Media Team
And the Academy is also a wonderful experience for our speakers. Here, they can share their knowledge and learn something new themselves:
As a speaker, I have given an introduction to our wiki tool Confluence multiple times. Not only is it great fun to share your knowledge and experience with others – the relaxed and flexible structure of the sessions and the questions from the participants have meant that I myself have learned something new about the program every time.
– Lars, Online Editorial Team
However, the Academy is set to get even better in the future: To make the offers more flexible and scalable, informative videos for self-study will be increasingly used in addition to live online training. Kaufland e-commerce is growing and growing – and with it, so does the demand for even more knowledge.