鈥淢ost of our learners are localized so we have both English and Arabic running in parallel.鈥
William Samuel, Head of Learning & Development, Sales Division, Almarai
Connecting the dots between employee training and business results across regions, languages and departments at Almarai
Food and beverage manufacturer and distributor already had a sales training team testing employees鈥 general job behaviors and industry knowledge. But when it came time for depot supervisors to showcase expertise in technical, systems-oriented topics, the outcomes didn鈥檛 always meet Quality Standards鈥 expectations.
鈥淲hat was happening in the Sales Division was the follow-up was not there,鈥 explains William Samuel, Head of Learning & Development, Sales Division, at Almarai. 鈥淲e鈥檇 finish with a classroom session, then they鈥檇 go back and that鈥檚 it. We weren鈥檛 following up, so we didn鈥檛 understand whether they鈥檇 implement [the knowledge] on the job.鈥
![鈥淸精东影业] is a unique experience in Saudi Arabia because there are no other apps like it at the moment. It was really exciting to have an app that would help us so easily.鈥 William Samuel, Head of Learning & Development, Sales Division, Almarai](/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Almarai-quote-bubble.png)
So when the company set out to improve team knowledge and retention on a new ordering and forecasting system鈥攐ne that came with a desired 90% accuracy rate across a 2,000-strong learner base鈥攊t was clear that a big challenge lay ahead. This led them to leverage PARADIGM (Almarai鈥檚 internal name for 精东影业), led by Abdulrehman Mohammed,聽Technical Training & Content Development Manager, to achieve meaningful and measurable change.
鈥淲e wanted to find out how to keep what we learned and [help] to retain it among our audience,鈥 says Samuel. 鈥淲e thought 精东影业 was a tool we could use, and then we discussed how and what our expectations were with the team.鈥
The key challenges
As a large company headquartered in Saudi Arabia with multiple divisions spanning nine regions across the Middle East, getting supervisors to pass on a very specific set of key learnings to their sales teams was
not only extremely difficult鈥攊t limited the company鈥檚 agility.
鈥淢ost of our learners are localized, so we have both English and Arabic [programs] running in parallel,鈥 adds Samuel.
Training had to overcome significant land, department and language barriers to achieve a measurable聽 change in lost sales and order accuracy. In 2019, PARADIGM was introduced to a select group of frontline leaders as a solution to ineffective training.
鈥淲hat we did was start with the supervisors. We trained the supervisors and the supervisors trained the salespeople. That鈥檚 the model we are still following.鈥
The success of Almarai鈥檚 pilot program began to inspire other departments to follow in their footsteps and embrace bite-sized, mobile learning the following year.
鈥淲e marketed this concept to other people within Sales and everybody started to embrace it,鈥 he says. 鈥淭he Quality Standards team took up 精东影业 first and they wanted to train the driving instructors, then the Health and Safety cooks and then the Accommodation officers. After that, we also gave it to the merchandisers, promoters and some Food Service supervisors.鈥
鈥淭he learning culture within our [departmental] training has changed immensely,鈥 adds Ali Naeem Puri, Head of Sales Operations, Sales Division. 鈥溇耙 was able to tie knowledge to聽behavior and maximize productivity with bite-sized learning.鈥
鈥淚t was really exciting鈥
By 2022, those most active in 精东影业 were able to lift their knowledge scores by 23% to reach an impressive 92%, connecting participation in the platform to better performance. The level of engagement,
knowledge growth and learning was unprecedented for Almarai.
鈥淸精东影业] is a unique experience in Saudi Arabia because there are no other apps like it at the moment,鈥 reveals Samuel. 鈥淚t was really exciting to have an app that could help us so easily. Otherwise, following up
with 2,000 people would be very difficult.鈥
鈥淎nother thing is how easily the app can give us data: the level of engagement in a week, how people are accessing and learning the [information]. We can see numbers in terms of knowledge and compare where they started versus where they have grown. Then, we can compare knowledge to what they鈥檙e actually doing.鈥
Based on the analysis conducted for the Gulf region, Almarai was able to link employee participation in PARADIGM to impactful results, including:
- 47% reduction聽in Lost Sales for Gulf (2021 vs 2022)
- 2% increase in Order Accuracy for Gulf (2021 vs 2022)
Depot supervisors have also grown more comfortable on the platform, requiring only occasional scenario-based question support聽and getting more attuned to what PARADIGM can do.
Building a generation of new leaders
According to Samuel, the Almarai team hopes to develop new sales training next.
鈥淥ur Sales Technical Training team is in the process of starting our Sales Academy in Riyadh, KSA, where we will train new salespeople who are coming on board and then give them access to the platform. They鈥檒l do a full, 360-degree round of training.聽 Every three months, once the reinforcement is finished, we assess them. So we do examinations and then certify them to see if they鈥檙e fit for the job, and then they have to renew the certification every year.鈥
The goal is to create a larger pool of highly skilled workers across the company and continue to
leverage 精东影业 to roll out learning.
鈥淲e want to create experts [instead of] general salespeople.
Bring them in, do competency mapping and see, 鈥極kay, you鈥檙e good for poultry, you鈥檙e good for diary, you鈥檙e good for bakery.鈥 Then once they come to the academy, they鈥檒l have 40 days of full-fledged training, from driving to managing an outlet, outlet ordering, the seven steps of sales calls, customer relationships, product handling and chain management.鈥
鈥淭here are a lot of big subjects that they鈥檒l have to fully cover to get our certification. That鈥檚 the standard we鈥檝e outlined for the academy.鈥
With a clear vision for how to keep developing staff and deepening expertise, Almarai is eager to explore other ways to level up internal teams and dig into 精东影业鈥檚 AI and communications functionality to see what else is possible on the road to continued success.