La Redoute, steers a course towards distance

Success Story
La Redoute, the leading clothing and
homeware e-retailer, steers a course towards distance learning
In the current economic climate, performance can no be longer assessed solely on the basis
of expertise; it also involves our ability to anticipate social and technological advances. This
is why La Redoute decided at an early stage to opt for digital technology and to defend its
position in the world of e-commerce.
To help its staff cope with this digital revolution and rise to future challenges, the distance
selling specialist set up a distance training school aimed at developing and consolidating
the knowledge of staff members in the fi eld of e-commerce and e-marketing. Launched at
group level and called RISE, Redcats International School of E-commerce, its goal is also to
be synonymous with a rich, enjoyable and innovative learning experience.
In 2011 La Redoute, determined to
remain one of the major distance
selling players and driven by the
Redcats group to which it belonged
at the time, decided to undertake the
modernization of its training offer and
to acquire innovative technological
solutions and content that would
be able to help its teams along the
road to digitalization. “We want to
rapidly develop the skills of our staff
so that they are fully aware of the
new challenges of e-commerce”,
explains skills development
manager Bénédicte Decoster. To
make acquiring new knowledge as
attractive as possible, the organization
moved from a 100 % classroom-based
training offer to a blended approach.
“Our staff were becoming increasingly
demanding in terms of training. The
desire to develop selftraining on a
day-to-day basis and to use a variety
of training media also encouraged us
to completely rethink our approach. In
choosing CrossKnowledge, we knew
we’d have at our disposal a global
solution that would enable us to
disseminate training content rapidly,
on a large scale, and cost-effectively”,
says Bénédicte Decoster.
More information, videos and success stories on www.crossknowledge.com
Success Story
Opting for integration to ease
deployment.
Priority was first given to managers,
supervisors and customer relationship
offi cers. “CrossKnowledge’s
integrated approach gave us an
all-round solution – a training
management platform, a course
design tool and off-the-shelf content
– which was very easy to deploy.
Integration was a necessary condition
for the success of our project”,
explains Bénédicte Decoster. La
Redoute internalized e-learning
content development and gradually
enriched its training offer. “Today,
the modules we’ve developed using
Mohive focus not only on productrelated skills (materials, weaving,
textile quality), but also to business
skills, e-commerce, marketing and
client community management
techniques, mobile commerce
and performance analysis, that are
specific to our business sector…
In choosing
CrossKnowledge,
we knew we’d have
at our disposal
a global solution
that would enable
us to disseminate
training content
rapidly,
on a large scale,
and cost-effectively.
Bénédicte DECOSTER
SKILLS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER
LA REDOUTE
For all the other subjects, we use
the CrossKnowledge catalogue.
CrossKnowledge modules account
for about 70 % of our overall training
offer, focusing in particular on
individual or team management,
project management, client
orientation and self-development in
the broadest sense. All the content
is hosted on the platform and
distributed in the training formats
featured in the CrossKnowledge
Learning Suite.”
Attracting learners with
innovative training formats.
To get staff members on board, La
Redoute opted for the entire suite
of training formats available on the
platform: blended paths, learning
communities, 100% distance-learning
packages, all offering a wide range
of content including modules,
videos, virtual classrooms, and
self-assessments… “To ensure that
people would spontaneously sign
up for training and take control of
their own development, learning
had to be varied, enjoyable, fl exible,
and relevant to their needs”, says
Bénédicte Decoster. Some subjects
can be dealt with in the form of
communities leveraging the social
functionalities of the platform, while
others require more structured
blended training paths. The relevance
of the training formats coupled with
the intuitiveness of the modules
opened up new learning horizons for
staff. “Thanks to RISE, we provide a
total of 5.000 training hours annually.
And even if some staff members
still need to be incentivized using
communication tools such as e-mails
and teaser videos, most come to the
school portal spontaneously and
sign up for training paths lasting
about thirty hours”, states Bénédicte
Decoster.
Involving teams: the key to
success.
“For the most part the project
has not been a technical initiative,
but more an operational and
organizational one. Thanks to the
support of the IT teams, deployment
went off without a hitch as the
platform interfaces seamlessly
with our own HR information
management system”, explains
Bénédicte Decoster. La Redoute
went further still, implementing
a unique integration between
CrossKnowledge Learning Suite
and the platform run by Forco,
the OPCA [French body that
collects trainingrelated corporate
contributions] for the commerce
and distribution sector. This interface
makes it possible to automate
requests for professional training
paths. To ensure success, a specific
team of four people within the
training department was set up.
By becoming fully conversant
with CrossKnowledge solutions,
the team quickly mastered all the
techniques necessary for running
courses, integrating new resources
and creating new modules. Once
they had been trained up, the team
members became actively involved in
supporting and communicating with
both HR and staff. It was a winning
formula! As well as using training to
trigger self-learning initiatives, RISE
has allowed La Redoute to develop
the collective intelligence it needs to
keep travelling the road to innovation.
More information, videos and success stories on www.crossknowledge.com