In order to meet the challenging demands that digitalization poses on the workforce, German chemical and consumer goods company Henkel has launched a digital upskilling initiative for its 53,000 employees around the world. The company is currently analyzing the status quo by assessing the digital knowledge of its people. This serves as the basis for new digital training offers that will clearly target future business needs.

Sylvie Nicol, Corporate Senior Vice President Global Human Resources stated, “In an increasingly challenging and volatile environment, we need to stay ahead of the game. Digitalization has a huge impact on our work environment. We need to know where our organization stands, in order to systematically advance the skills of our employees. That’s why we joined forces with our Chief Digital Officer and his team to drive this company-wide initiative, which will significantly support the e-transformation of our organization.”

Henkel has introduced a new approach by launching a global, company-wide digital upskilling initiative. The first step is a profound analysis of the status quo. Based on anonymous online self-assessments, the firm is evaluating the employees’ digital skills. These comprise tests on general knowledge in a playful way which falls under Digital BaseFit as well as an advanced review of experts’ skills targeted to specific job roles which is Digital ExpertFit. The results help Henkel to understand how digitally savvy the employees are and what kind of training they need.

The Digital BaseFit has been developed together with H-Farm while for the Digital ExpertFit, Henkel teamed up with the leading global professional services company Accenture and developed a digital capability framework for each “job family” such as marketing, sales, IT or HR, which will serve as a future-oriented industry standard. 

Each employee group will complete an anonymous online self-assessment. Based on the results, Henkel will develop tailored training recommendations, matching the “ideal future skill set-up” captured in the framework. Training will focus on aspects such as analytics, ecommerce or sourcing the future workforce.

The specific trainings for digital skills and knowledge are being offered on a new learning platform that has been launched to support all employees on their digital learning journey. It has been developed together with Cornerstone.

The development comes as Henkel wants to ensure that its people have the digital skills and knowledge that is needed – now and in the future. Nicol aptly added that driving such a change across a highly diverse global team of over 50,000 individuals with many different backgrounds and job profiles won’t happen overnight but is a journey that will last three to five years.