LEGO inspires the learners of today, to help inspire the builders of tomorrow

Within a year of adopting LinkedIn Learning, 90% of Lego’s knowledge workers are now active on the platform.

The LEGO Group’s mission is to inspire and develop the builders of tomorrow. For the company’s Learning & Development team, that has to involve finding new ways to inspire and develop the LEGO Group’s own learners of today. The decision to invest in LinkedIn Learning licenses for every knowledge worker proved the crucial foundation for building a powerful learning brand within the LEGO Group – and empowering employees to take ownership of their personal development to unlock their potential.

“We always assume that there is unrealised potential within our organisation, and our role is to find new ways to unleash that potential,” says the LEGO Group’s Learning & Development Manager, Johannes Lystbæk. “We realise that people learn in different ways in the modern workplace, and we are on a journey to innovate what we offer and motivate people to explore what’s available. LinkedIn Learning is a big part of that.”

Johannes sees employee learning contributing to LEGO’s mission in two important ways. “We want a qualified workforce but also an engaged workforce,” he says. “We know that a feeling of developing in your role correlates with employee engagement, and that’s our aim. People have a good idea of what skills they need to work on to perform in their role. However, when it comes to wider development, they don’t always know what they need. That’s where we’re looking to inspire them as part of our journey towards being a more agile business.”

The strategy for inspiring employees involves a customised LEGO® Learning Hub, a range of different learning resources that Johannes and his team pull together – and a learning platform that could pull it all together. “LinkedIn Learning was a great choice from a user experience, data and content point of view,” says Johannes. “Our people were already familiar with LinkedIn as a platform, the data quality means that we can track learner engagement and have smart recommendations based on skills and experience. And obviously, the content is crucial. LinkedIn Learning has very high-quality content on business, on media and on technology – and those were three priority areas for us.”

The speed with which LEGO® employees have embraced LinkedIn Learning proves the value of each of these strengths. The LEGO Group purchased 7,500 licenses to cover all of its knowledge workers who have access to either a PC or a smartphone. Just 12 months later, 90% of those workers are now active on the platform. Learning at LEGO Group now has its own brand, its own learning engagement campaigns, and its own role in life at the business.

Building a learning brand for the LEGO Group through LinkedIn Learning

With a background in communications, Johannes knew the importance of developing a marketing plan to promote the value of learning and development. And there was an obvious place to look for inspiration. “I found some really helpful background on building a marketing strategy on LinkedIn Learning itself,” he says. “It helped me work through the process of building a compelling proposition, before going into the details of the engagement plan.”

LinkedIn Learning may have provided a helpful framework for Johannes’ communications strategy. However, the creativity he brought to it was all his own – and his approach aligned perfectly with the values of a company that has learning embedded within its culture. Johannes created a Learning @ the LEGO Group brand and logo – and then developed a collection of campaign materials starring LEGO characters, to illustrate priority learning topics for the business.

“We curated learning paths around 12 priority topics that we felt were particularly relevant on our journey towards being an agile business,” he explains. “They included critical thinking, design thinking and emotional intelligence. We’ve been launching content series called Monthly Spotlight and Productivity Hacks as “vehicles” to promote these big topic learning paths, along a video series with learner testimonials, direct email (monthly newsletter) and Intranet news posts to drive engagement and activation.”

As the LEGO Group moves into its second year with LinkedIn Learning, Johannes is focusing on new targets. “We’ll be aiming to grow the time that each learner spends on the platform,” he says. “We’ll also be looking at the response to questions in our employee surveys about whether our people have good opportunities to learn and develop – and whether they actively seek out development opportunities. Those are our most important KPIs and we’re looking forward to tracking progress against them.”

"We realise that people learn in different ways in the modern workplace, and we are on a journey to innovate what we offer and motivate people to explore what’s available. LinkedIn Learning is a big part of that."