The Brief
How do you encourage employees to engage with a non-mandatory learning experience?
The Solution
Tell stories, make it enjoyable and create useful tools. Then remove all barriers to entry that have traditionally blocked employees from accesses learning resources at the point of need.
Learning by Stealth
Why would employees spend time learning if they don’t have to?
When BP approached us to help create a website for new joiners, it was with this question in mind. Traditionally, BP provided new employees with a comprehensive overview of their organisation through a series of workshops. However, attendance was no longer mandatory, so they needed another approach.
The BP team asked Tilt to create a portal that was compelling enough to encourage new joiners (and existing staff) to visit voluntarily.
TELL STORIES, MAKE IT ENJOYABLE
BP’s request fitted neatly with what we believe at Tilt – that if you create experiences similar to those that people enjoy on the public web, then engagement will follow.
That means opting for stories over abstract concepts, making personal films rather than video lectures, focusing on visual information over text-heavy documents, and more informal delivery over stiff corporate language.
In short, make the experience enjoyable for the user.
BEAUTIFULLY SIMPLE UX
Through workshops and guided sessions, we mapped out the key messages that BP wanted to communicate through the portal, and the main goals for site users.
We organised this information into categories that made sense to new joiners, resulting in a portal designed to be:
- Process content (suitable for infosheets, infographics)
- People content (profile films, headline montages)
- Business content (animations, factsheets, interactive timelines)
What we created
Among other things, we created:
Headline films: Rapid-cut ‘trailer’ style pieces designed to introduce each portal section and entice the user to discover more.
The Business of BP: An interactive 3D-rendered virtual BP city, featuring several stunning motion pieces, which helped new employees understand what the different business areas and functions actually do.
Profile films: Informal, documentary style stories with friendly advice from BP colleagues. Animated overlays helped to illustrate key points.
Infosheets and factsheets: Turning traditional copy content into highly visual, easy-to-absorb pieces. Infosheets help communicate journeys and processes, while factsheets convey stat-heavy info.
Leader films: Short interviews with BP leaders, giving them the space to articulate their ideas for what makes someone succeed at BP.
IMPACT
Over 1,000,000 unique visits to this non-mandatory resource over a four year period
Year on year, high levels of returning visitors, with little to no promotion
Employees actively choosing to engage with this non-mandatory resource
Discover BP has had a transformative effect on both BP culture and the learning & development industry.
Nick Shackleton-Jones Director, Learning Innovation & Technology