Designing a global learning and development experience for 12,000 employees

The challenge

A global financial services organisation asked us to improve how employees accessed learning and development information.

The Learning and Development function supported more than 12,000 employees across regions, roles and professional capability levels.

Content covered leadership, capability development and learning programs, but employees struggled to understand what was available and where to start.

Each global region maintained its own learning pages, priorities and delivery models and those local pages were not going away. This created duplication, inconsistent messaging and confusion for employees moving between regions, roles or career stages.

The organisation also wanted to clearly demonstrate its investment in modern leadership and employee learning and development. Existing content described programs, but it did not clearly communicate a learning philosophy or organisational position. The challenge was alignment, trust and navigation across a complex global and political environment.

The approach

We followed an end-to-end content design process, starting with audit and discovery before any design work began.

We completed a detailed content audit across global and regional learning pages to create a complete content inventory. This clarified what content existed, who owned it and how it related to employee learning needs.

In parallel, we conducted content discovery research with employees, leaders and learning partners across regions.

We explored how people learned on the job, sought guidance and balanced formal and informal learning opportunities. Research findings aligned strongly with the 70/20/10 learning model and modern leadership development principles. Employees wanted clear self-service guidance, supported by experience, social learning and formal programs.

We engaged regional stakeholders early, focusing on listening, shared goals and practical constraints. This approach helped reduce resistance and build trust before introducing any proposed content changes.

Understanding users and stakeholders

Research showed employees were not looking for long descriptions of programs or frameworks. They wanted clear guidance based on real work situations and common development challenges.

We developed user stories and journey maps for priority learning scenarios, including leadership transitions and capability growth.

Leaders wanted a clear organisational position on learning investment, expectations and shared responsibility. Regional teams needed flexibility to reflect local needs, programs and cultural context. We addressed these tensions through negotiation and influence rather than structural enforcement.

Global content focused on principles and pathways, while regional content provided local depth and delivery.

Content design and publishing

We designed a global learning and development site that clearly articulated the organisation’s learning philosophy and intent.

The site positioned learning as a shared responsibility between employees, leaders and the organisation. Content explained how learning happens through experience, relationships and formal development opportunities.

Self-service pathways helped employees understand options and decide appropriate next steps for their development. Content consistently directed users to the right mix of on-the-job learning, social learning and formal programs.

Global pages provided entry points and frameworks, while regional pages delivered local detail and support. Navigation and linking made relationships between global and regional content clear and predictable.

All content was co-designed with subject matter experts through structured, collaborative workshops.

Governance and capability building

The project created a clear opportunity to uplift content design capability across the learning function.

We introduced content design principles, page standards and publishing guidance tailored to the Intranet platform. Content owners learned how to design content based on user needs rather than organisational structures.

We worked with learning leaders to define ownership, review cycles and quality expectations. A federated governance model was agreed, balancing regional autonomy with platform-wide consistency. This approach improved trust, reduced duplication and supported long-term sustainability.

The outcome

The organisation gained a clear, user-centred learning and development experience at global and regional levels.

Employees could quickly understand how learning worked, what support existed and where to go next. Leaders could clearly see the organisation’s commitment to capability, leadership and employee development.

Regional teams retained ownership of local content while benefiting from shared standards and improved visibility. Relationships across regions strengthened through collaboration, clarity and shared evidence.

Learning content became easier to manage, easier to navigate and more aligned to real employee behaviour.

Reflection

This project demonstrated the value of combining content design with influence, negotiation and stakeholder empathy.

Progress came from research, clarity and respect for regional expertise rather than forced standardisation.

By investing in governance and capability, learning content shifted from just publishing ‘push’ content to an ongoing service model.