Amgen and Hemsley Fraser’s digital learning transformation achieves international acclaim

Amgen, one of the world’s largest biotechnology companies, and global learning specialist Hemsley Fraser, have been awarded ‘bronze’ by the Brandon Hall Group in recognition of their excellence in enterprise learning.

The learning solution is comprised of two main components: the Amgen Learning Hub, which hosts a virtual curriculum, and a programme of 210-minute Extended Virtual Instructor-Led Training sessions (xVILTs).

Available to all of Amgen’s 23,000 staff, in more than 20 countries around the world, the blended learning programme is a true ‘hire to retire’ solution, which effectively supports employees throughout the entirety of their professional career development.

Since the implementation of the programme in 2020, the number of instructor-led learning events delivered has doubled from the previous year. Amgen staff viewed an additional 50,000 digital learning resources and the organisation was able to reach an expanded global audience in-language.

Ian Klein, Solution Architect, at Hemsley Fraser, comments “In order to make our plans with Amgen a reality, we had to completely reimagine the learning experience. It was vital that we found a way to foster effective learning within a shortened timeframe in a virtual environment with an audience accustomed to classroom-based workshops.

“We also had to ensure that all content would be globally applicable, while still able to be nuanced for regional delivery. This wasn’t a case of simply adapting our existing classroom content, instead it required a total rethink to deliver a learning experience as engaging and effective (if not more so) than its predecessor.”

The blended programme is comprised of more than 25 topics, organised into three categories: leading myself, leading others, and leading the business. This more than doubled the existing learning topics, and new instructional design work was completed in record time.

Though the xVILTs provide the building block of the programme, this is a truly blended approach, designed specifically for Amgen’s neurodiverse global audience. Participants can learn in their preferred style, with a variety of asynchronous online micro-learning assets such as interactive eBooks, infographics, videos, quizzes, and podcasts. There are also a variety of a content sources integrated in the programme, including internally Amgen created, Hemsley Fraser customised content and additional third-party content.

Paul Koval, Director, Global Learning and Development at Amgen said, “In creating this programme, we knew that we would have a solution which would enable us to greatly scale our learning delivery and lower the amount of time spent ‘off the floor’, but the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic made the shift in learning even more critical.

“The infrastructure and programme design meant that we could continue as planned, and support our staff as they adjusted to the new ways of working. The impact on overall learning culture and engagement has been noteworthy; our ability to deliver learning that is both scalable and globally consistent is invaluable to our organisation.;

Part of the programme’s scalability is the ability to seamlessly integrate new topic areas. As we move into the latter half of 2021, Amgen and Hemsley Fraser are working together on a new enterprise-wide diversity, inclusion and belonging initiative, two new field-facing leadership academies and an expanded resilience offering.

Ian Klein adds, “We are extremely pleased with the recognition from Brandon Hall. The evolution of this learning programme is further proof that our excite, engage, embed model can work in a virtual environment – if due care and attention is taken to recreate the experiences within the new parameters.”

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