400% ROI for global retailer Fendi helps land learning impact award nomination
Video Interact, a specialist provider of interactive video and 360-degree virtual reality, has been nominated in the ‘learning impact’ category of the prestigious 2021 Learning Awards.
Leading fashion brand Fendi commissioned Video Interact to deliver a worldwide health, safety and security training programme. Using video, interactive video and 360-degree virtual reality Video Interact delivered an innovative, engaging mobile learning experience – which has just been nominated in the 2021 Learning Awards for ‘learning impact’.
An analysis by Fendi compared the number of thefts in store in the 6 months before training (March–August 2019) to the following 6 months (September–February 2020); it revealed that thefts were down by 55% in number and 40% in value – a saving of many tens of thousands of pounds. It’s also worth highlighting that the reduction took place during the run-up to Christmas retail’s busiest time and the one in which the majority of thefts take place. This module alone brought a 400% ROI to the entire course.
Founded in 1925, Fendi is an Italian luxury fashion brand with around 280 stores worldwide. For its audience of around 1,800 customer-facing staff in 280 stores, across 32 countries, speaking 11 languages, Fendi wanted the learning programme to be something special.
The learning topics reflected the real-world, day-to-day experience of Fendi’s store workers and included fire evacuation, fire risk, first aid, housekeeping, manual handling, opportunistic theft, professional theft, security and terrorism. Improving skills in these areas can directly translate into real benefits.
All the filming was done over 6 days in the evenings and overnight at Fendi’s Sloane Street store – using professional actors and fashion students. By filming in-store the content was kept relevant and the learning environment was completely authentic.
The training was delivered via mobile phones, using video with a level of production polish designed to match that of Fendi’s exclusive brand. Learners accessed training in-store, between serving customers – so brevity and clarity were key. Fendi needed ‘testing’ of learners’ progress to be seamless, entirely within the course – and for the data to automatically update each person’s training record.
Assessment was embedded and was invisible to the learners, who needed to demonstrate awareness, via observation, as part of the course’s natural progress. Interactive video provided a frictionless means of doing this – no ‘post-course tests’ were needed.
Francesco Fassio, Fendi’s worldwide retail facilities manager, was responsible for the training programme. Fassio said,
“We were always more interested in building our culture than people being certified – and view this as high-level training, so low-level measurement isn’t important. What was important is that we establish a common knowledge and culture of health and safety – and this has been a great success. Feedback from learners has been positive, rating the course highly for its quality, their understanding of its content and its duration. The course was, for us, competitively priced, low effort in terms of distribution – and yet highly effective.”