Launching ‘LearnUp!’- a week dedicated to continuous learning

To ensure readiness for the future, Majid Al Futtaim has a culture of continuous growth and improvement at the heart of everything it does. To instill this mindset in all their employees, it needed a unifying event that would bring their workforce together and encourage personal and organisational growth through learning.

This was what inspired ‘LearnUp! - Creating the future’, MAF’s first-ever learning week, designed by its Learning and Leadership Centre of Excellence to instigate a cultural shift towards making learning an integral part of daily work and professional development. The initiative also aimed to showcase MAF's partnership with LinkedIn and offer a platform for employees to share knowledge through workshops and foster a collective mindset that solidifies MAF’s learning ethos: ‘grow by giving.’

LinkedIn Learning had been MAF’s primary learning platform long before it launched its ‘LearnUp!’ initiative. It appreciated its diverse learning content, interactive features, and potential to seamlessly integrate learning into day-to-day workflows by providing employees access to a vast library of resources and courses from industry leaders. MAF recognised its potential as a robust learning resource that empowers employees during their workday and helps them develop their knowledge in topics which have been identified as future skills, such as AI and big data.

‘LearnUp!’ was rolled out to the MAF workforce in four phases: planning and coordination, content curation, LinkedIn integration, and finally, feedback and iteration. Collaborative sessions among MAF’s operating companies took place to ensure stakeholders were aligned on the organisation’s strategies and objectives. Companies then shared their industry-specific insights and delivered training sessions based on their expertise. This was followed by integrating LinkedIn into their processes, where it could host live sessions, sneak peaks, and training materials with MAF employees. Throughout ‘LearnUp!’ feedback was encouraged, listened to, and acted upon. This cycle helped to refine the learning process and create the best possible educational environment for everyone.

Majid Al Futtaim further embraced LinkedIn solutions by integrating live sessions into existing learning management systems and leveraging activation booths to engage with employees who attended events in person. The LinkedIn team was on hand to provide guidance on maximising engagement, using the learning platform effectively, and troubleshooting any technical issues that arose.

LinkedIn became a pivotal tool for MAF in promoting skills development and staying updated with industry advancements. The ‘LearnUp!’ initiative exceeded MAF’s expectations, with higher engagement than anticipated which helped strengthen its trust in the relevance and value of LinkedIn Learning modules. The collaboration with LinkedIn played a crucial role in MAF delivering a successful inaugural learning week, as they were given the tools to discuss industry insights, deliver informative training, and help build a culture of continuous learning.

Following the success of ‘LearnUp!’, MAF plans to build on their partnership with LinkedIn by launching an activation campaign to further bolster employees’ ability to advance in their roles. The aim is to amplify learning opportunities, collaboration, and professional growth, by leveraging LinkedIn's diverse content and networking opportunities. MAF is going big on learning and will continue to use LinkedIn to build upon its culture of continuous learning, and empower a collaborative, innovative, and dynamic workforce.