Trace Id is missing
May 26, 2023

Grundfos extends its culture of learning to every area of its business with Microsoft Viva Learning

Grundfos began in a moment of self-directed learning. Nearly 80 years ago, a Danish blacksmith named Poul Due Jensen created a new, more efficient irrigation pump in his basement and started the business that would become Grundfos, a heritage manufacturing company. To this day, the company maintains a culture of learning, even as it’s grown to 20,000 global employees and expanded the scope of its products and services.

Grundfos

As the business continues to expand, Grundfos needed to make it easy for globally dispersed employees to find opportunities to learn. By adopting Microsoft Viva Learning, the company created a learning platform that’s easily accessible, simple to use, and meets employees where they already work. “We want to empower our employees to drive their own learning and development,” says Marcus Jøhnck Bendt Haure, Product Owner for Learn & Grow Technologies at Grundfos. “To do that, we need to make sure our employees have as few barriers to learning as possible. We used Microsoft Viva Learning to achieve that vision by creating a one-stop shop for learning in the flow of work.”

“We need to make sure our employees have as few barriers to learning as possible. We used Microsoft Viva Learning to achieve that vision by creating a one-stop shop for learning in the flow of work.”

Marcus Jøhnck Bendt Haure, Product Owner for Learn & Grow Technologies, Grundfos

From multiple learning platforms to a unified, user-friendly space

While continuous learning and innovation have always been a big part of the company’s culture, employees had trouble navigating a wealth of learning options in the past. “When I joined Grundfos, I was excited because there were so many learning opportunities,” says Lina Ludwigstorff, Global Graduate at Grundfos. “But the downside was that it could get very confusing very fast. There were at least five different digital platforms where I could go to learn.”

With an abundance of learning opportunities but no clear structure, employees like Ludwigstorff found themselves creating their own strategies. “I sometimes had 10 links saved in my browser for courses that I wanted to revisit later,” says Ludwigstorff. Stuart Blakeley, Global Key Account Consultant at Grundfos, agrees that as the company grew, learning opportunities proliferated and created a sense of confusion. “Because of the sheer size of Grundfos and how we’re structured, a lot of information was in a lot of places,” he remembers.

The company chose Viva Learning to help it consolidate learning opportunities into a single destination in Microsoft Teams. For Sacha Luthi, Vice President of People and Organizational Growth at Grundfos, implementing Viva Learning was a way to improve the employee experience while strengthening the company’s existing focus on self-directed learning. “Viva Learning improves the learning experience because it’s much easier to find whatever you need, whenever you need it,” he says. The tool stood out because of its interoperability with Teams, which was already a hub for digital collaboration at Grundfos. “An important differentiating factor of Viva Learning is how well it works with the wider Microsoft 365 ecosystem, which makes it easy to access content in the flow of work,” adds Luthi.

“An important differentiating factor of Viva Learning is how well it works with the wider Microsoft 365 ecosystem, which makes it easy to access content in the flow of work.”

Sacha Luthi, Vice President of People and Organizational Growth, Grundfos

Personalized content helps employees plot their learning journeys

In addition to making navigation to a learning platform easier, Grundfos uses Viva Learning to help employees discover content that’s tailored to them. “Viva Learning helps us understand learners’ needs by generating insights that indicate the kind of content they want,” says Luthi. “One of the Viva Learning features I like most is how quickly it suggests the right content after selecting my skills and interests. Going forward, the analytics piece is going to be instrumental in helping us better understand employees’ needs in the learning space.”

For employees who want specific learning opportunities, designing a personalized course list is simple. “The type of training I need for my role is very diverse,” says Blakeley. “I must stay current on topics like Key Account Management, Supply Chain, Sustainability, and Compliance, so when I see a topic that might benefit my role, I bookmark it to revisit later.” Ludwigstorff sets up weekly, hour-long learning sessions in her calendar, which she uses to stay informed about subjects that will help her as she progresses to new roles within the company. “I want to educate myself more about talent development,” she says. “So, I’ve created a list in Viva Learning where I put all the content I find on that topic.” Other Grundfos employees are also using Viva Learning to self-direct their learning strategies for more personalized outcomes. “Viva Learning has empowered us to dictate our own learning, at our own pace, and structure it in a way that suits the individual,” says Blakeley.

The company also chose Viva Learning because it makes including other learning content in the Viva Learning ecosystem easy. “The fact that bringing external content into the Viva Learning platform is so easy really confirms our choice,” says Luthi. Grundfos added its existing learning management system (LMS), SAP SuccessFactors, as a content source in Viva Learning. “That was a critical component of bringing one-stop learning to life,” says Haure. Ludwigstorff has already experienced the benefits of combining content from multiple platforms in one location. “In the past, I felt like information could be anywhere,” she says. “But now I can go to the search bar in Viva Learning and find content from LinkedIn Learning and our LMS all in one place.”

“Viva Learning has empowered us to dictate our own learning, at our own pace, and structure it in a way that suits the individual.”

Stuart Blakeley, Global Key Account Consultant, Grundfos

Staying at the forefront of learning to innovate new products and services

When envisioning the future of learning at Grundfos, Luthi says his ambition is for people to see learning opportunities everywhere. “Wherever you work and whenever you have a conversation, there’s a learning element to explore.” Today’s employees are highly mobile, and the ability to learn from anywhere is a hallmark of Viva Learning. “One of the biggest benefits of the platform is that I can use it on my laptop, desktop, or mobile device,” says Blakeley. “For example, if I’m traveling to a customer site and I’m on the train, I can open the Teams app on my phone and take some courses or trainings while I’m on the go. It’s so easy to use.”

For a company that has already experienced several decades of innovation, staying at the forefront of emerging technology is nonnegotiable. “At Grundfos, investing in the skills and development of our 20,000 employees is really important,” says Haure. “We want to ensure that our people have the right skills for the future, which is a big part of how we’ll continue to build innovative new products and services for our customers. We use Viva Learning to bring our learning culture to life so that it really becomes a competitive advantage.” Luthi agrees that in an evolving technology landscape, learning is at the heart of an adaptable and successful business. “Investing in learning technology is absolutely critical to how we plan to adapt our skills to a fast-changing world.”

Find out more about Grundfos on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

“We use Viva Learning to bring our learning culture to life so that it really becomes a competitive advantage.”

Marcus Jøhnck Bendt Haure, Product Owner for Learn & Grow Technologies, Grundfos

Take the next step

Fuel innovation with Microsoft

Talk to an expert about custom solutions

Let us help you create customized solutions and achieve your unique business goals.

Drive results with proven solutions

Achieve more with the products and solutions that helped our customers reach their goals.

Follow Microsoft