News story

United Biscuits drives success culture with new elearning

Plymouth, UK17 Nov 2015Learning NewsSponge

United Biscuits (UB), the leading manufacturer of biscuits, cakes and snacks, is supporting ongoing culture change in the organisation with new elearning for its staff.

The global company behind brands such as McVitie’s and Jaffa Cakes has launched two online learning modules for new and existing employees about the key behaviours and culture change helping to drive success in the business. 

Award-winning elearning provider, Sponge UK created the bespoke modules using responsive technology so UB staff can access the training on any device.   

The elearning outlines UB’s PACE behaviours (performance, ambition, competitiveness and energy) and the role they play in helping the company achieve its goals.  

Employees are introduced to PACE through the eyes of three illustrated characters, based on real life employees. 

Louise Pasterfield, Sponge UK’s Managing Director, said: “Culture is vital to the success of modern organisations, but it can be a difficult thing to teach. 

“Providing authentic examples and experiences is important and the illustrated characters do this in a really engaging way. 

“Each character has a different perspective and experience so learners get to see how PACE works across a wide range of situations.  

“We’ve also created a short video animation which sets the scene and helps to introduce new employees (and remind existing ones) about the context of PACE within the company.”   

Head of Learning and Development at UB, Lisa McCandless said: “Our challenge was simple – create something that helps new starters and current employees understand and ‘get’ what the culture we describe as PACE actually means at United Biscuits. However, we soon discovered the solution was not that simple.

“Working in collaboration with the creative minds of Sponge, who truly understood human psychology, was key in helping us to create something we are really proud of. 

“By using storytelling with real people within UB combined with their avatar characters, which genuinely look like them, we were able to bring PACE to life. 

“We are really impressed by the feedback we’ve had from our employees, those involved and even our CEO on these two new modules.” 

The elearning has been created using Adapt, the world’s leading multi-device elearning technology that allows a single version to run perfectly on any size device. 

More than 4,500 UB employees in the UK will undertake the training and the elearning will be rolled out to a further 9,000 staff globally in the near future. 

Workers also have access to a supporting workbook called PACE in my Pocket which will be available in print, or as an app, to act as a quick reference guide.