How dmg events developed a learning culture

dmg events, an award-winning international exhibitions and publishing company, is at the forefront of face-to-face communication. The events it organises provide a focal point for global businesses. It prides itself on bringing people together, creating opportunities for visitors to do business, network and learn.

That is why it was so important to the company to accelerate the personal development of its employees. dmg events provide extensive opportunities for visitors to learn. Therefore, it must provide unrivalled learning opportunities for its employees too.

It was dmg events’ desire to move away from a more traditional training model to a learning culture that promoted continuous learning and development. As a result, it chose to work with LinkedIn Learning to offer employees reliable content, credible training and access to thought leadership/ influencers.

Premila Braganza, HR Director at dmg events, explained: “Two years ago, we decided to embark on a journey to build a learning culture in our business. As a result, we decided to implement a blended learning approach, which led us to look for digital learning platforms.

“LinkedIn Learning offers learners the ability to obtain professional certifications. We currently have 200 licenses and it’s the best investment we have made on the people front.”

dmg events’ targeted strategies include an annual learning calendar, monthly email campaigns and Summer Challenges that inspire engagement.

Annet Fernandes, HR executive at dmg events, commented: “We firmly believe that inspiration creates a determination to learn. Therefore, we recently launched an initiative called ‘i-inspire’ through which we recognise our learners in the hope that their stories will inspire their colleagues to learn.”

Premila added: “But what is really exciting is the creation of ‘learning@dmg’, an internal brand that we have launched to promote learning, encouraging our employees to learn new skills. It has three main pillars – Develop, Master and Grow (dmg) your skills.”

dmg events’ adoption of LinkedIn Learning was a natural one. The platform is recognised across the globe. Therefore, using LinkedIn Learning to develop a learning culture that would be entrenched within the business made perfect sense.

To date, 927 courses have been completed, compared to 314 in 2019. Furthermore, 21,162 videos have been completed, compared to 9,867 in 2019, and 1,118 hours of content have been viewed, compared to 665 in 2019.

Annet added: “LinkedIn Learning has helped us onboard new hires effectively. We endeavour to capture our learners’ interest at the very start of their journey by hosting a dedicated session to LinkedIn Learning, as part of our onboarding process. We use the session to highlight the various functionalities and benefits of the platform.”

Premila concluded: “The video content and courses are communicated in a way that our employees find easy-to-follow. Because of this, they are incredibly popular with our employees; in today’s world, where clear communication is key, this is absolutely crucial.”

The results

CHALLENGE:
●  Create a culture of learning, promoting continuous development

●  Empower employees to take ownership of their own personal development

●  Provide a diverse content platform that can be used across the business by various job functions

SOLUTION:
●  Create an internal brand – learning@dmg – that promotes a learning culture

●  Promote an annual learning calendar, with themes driving engagement

●  Inspire employees by promoting targeted LinkedIn Learning content

RESULTS:
●  Onboard quickly
Curated learning paths helped people managers onboard new hires quickly

●  Increase in courses completed
927 courses completed compared to 314 in 2019

●  Increase in videos watched
21,162 videos watched compared to 9,867 in 2019

About dmg events

Headquartered in Dubai, UAE, since 1989, with operations in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Singapore, Canada, South Africa and the UK, dmg events is an international exhibitions and publishing company. Each year, it attracts more than 425,000 visitors to its portfolio of 84 exhibitions.

NO. OF EMPLOYEES: 201-500 employees

HEADQUARTERS: Dubai, UAE

dmg events company page

dmg events website

Download Customer Story

What the learners say:

“Since joining dmg events, I have had to learn the nature of the business quickly and familiarise myself with tax accounting. LinkedIn Learning helped to support me in my new role. There are multiple courses that allow you to enhance or revisit a skill already acquired. I did five courses, mostly accounting fundamentals and bookkeeping. I was able to personalise them, based on my relevant skills and interests. I am a visual and illustrative learner; the videos and practical examples made things quick to grasp. I used what I have learned through LinkedIn Learning to expand my professional competency.”

Theresa Letshoene
Tax and Compliance Manager, dmg events

“Each video offers an introduction to a new skill or helps improve an existing one. Visual learning is not one of my best traits, but LinkedIn Learning offers short videos with great presenters. Each presenter has a valuable insight and the best part is that they have the solutions too. If you don’t like a solution that one presenter offers, there are others with different solutions. LinkedIn Learning helped me organise my priorities and tasks and introduced me to new ways in which I can prepare for challenging times.”

Hasan Alwayel
Sales Manager, dmg events

“My goal was to learn something extra about everything that interests me, to give myself an edge. LinkedIn Learning was the perfect platform for this. It has definitely helped me refine my skills, gain new ones and learn something interesting every day.”

Namitha Sathish
Marketing Coordinator, dmg events

“LinkedIn Learning helps me to stay proactive – I have vast learning material at my fingertips. As a data analyst and working in technology, we need to constantly stay up-to-date with new skills and systems. LinkedIn Learning not only supports me with solutions to my analytical problems, but also provides new ideas, new ways of reporting and data visualisation.”

Pallavi Manghani
Data Analyst, dmg events

Learning opportunities should be made available to everyone

Why LinkedIn Learning is the best investment

An internal “learning brand” with LinkedIn Learning at its core

Offering employees learning opportunities makes business sense