Case study
Industry
Financial Services
Company HQ
McLean, VA, United States
Number of Employees
50,000+
Capital One Accelerates Transformational Learning through Udemy Business
Udemy driving business outcomes
Case study details
Capital One’s global workforce of 50,000+ required a wide range of innovative, skill-building L&D resources to best retain talent and deliver on business strategies. By partnering with Udemy Business and their collection of thousands of courses, Capital One associates have access to self-driven learning to upskill in critical technologies and to broaden their career opportunities.
An established L&D program looking for further customization
With a large workforce of over 50,000 spread across several countries, Capital One uses a mix of online and instructor-led Learning and Development (L&D) programming. Associates receive a wide range of innovative learning resources and experiences, helping Capital One attract, develop, and retain the best talent and deliver on its business strategies.
One of the ways Capital One has invested in L&D is through Tech College. Developed in 2017, Tech College serves as the company’s internal tech-learning program and was designed as a way to keep engineers, product managers, and designers up-to-date on cutting-edge technology skills that could aid in the development of new products and applications.
Led by Capital One’s Senior Director of Technology Learning, Eric Lawson, Tech College has expanded in size and scope since achieving the company’s cloud-based transformation. As Lawson explains, “We use Tech College to help reskill and upskill our associates and ensure all new Capital One tech associates — both recent college graduates and experienced hires — are equipped with the right resources and training for success.”
Self-paced learning for superior talent skilling
Programs such as Tech College are able to personalize associate learning by curating their course offerings while still empowering associates with the freedom and flexibility to customize their learning.
“We intentionally build time into associate’s schedules so they can invest in their own growth and development,” explains Lawson. “We also encourage and celebrate associates who give back to the learning community through class facilitation, peer coaching, and content contributions.”
Little wonder why Capital One won two Brandon Hall Group awards in 2022: Gold for Best Advance in Learning Strategy and Bronze for Best Program for Upskilling Employees.
Senior Director of Technology Learning
One vendor, thousands of courses, countless opportunities
To help Capital One achieve its strategic goals, the company initially rolled out Udemy Business to its technology organization, supported by a comprehensive communications plan to create awareness and excitement around the launch.
Platform adoption and associate feedback was so positive that Capital One ultimately decided to make Udemy Business available across its entire business. Lawson explains: “The breadth of course options, AI-driven recommendations, and community course ratings were all very popular with associates and provided both guidance and reassurance that they were enrolling in highly rated, in-demand courses.”
Since debuting, Capital One associates have consumed over 300,000 hours of Udemy Business content. 92.5% of surveyed associates reported that they’ve found Udemy Business helpful, and the average course rating has been 4.6 out of 5 stars.
Skills insights at the touch of a button
Capital One leverages user data to influence how it continuously enhances learning experiences for associates — tapping into key metrics across course content and user trends.
“Udemy Business’ Skills Insights Dashboard is really useful for letting us know which topics and skills our associates are investing their time in,” says Lawson. “The platform also allows us to measure where associates organically spend their time. We can identify which topics and skills learners are searching for, providing us with valuable insights. We get to learn what’s on our associates’ minds, which informs new strategies,” adds Lawson.
Senior Director of Technology Learning
Enhanced skills and productivity — with positive ROI to boot
By taking advantage of Udemy Business’ wide-ranging courses, Capital One’s tech team now has gained significant experience in machine learning, APIs, and cloud products.
“Thanks to our tech team’s skill set boost, we can take greater advantage of the agility, scalability, and elasticity of the cloud to accelerate data center migration, helping Capital One build the bank of the future,” says Lawson. “And in productivity terms, the icing on the cake is that greater efficiency puts more time in our associates’ schedules to focus on priority projects. Our technology teams can focus on what they do best: building great software and delivering innovation to our customers.”
But the impacts are felt beyond tech. “Udemy Business has been a tremendous resource for our associates targeting learning opportunities to assist in their career development,” says Lawson. “Whether it’s enhancing a human-centric skill or learning a new job skill, our associates use Udemy Business’ resources to help grow and develop their careers at Capital One.”
Senior Director of Technology Learning
A continuously developing L&D culture fit for the future
As we’ve all come to learn, the only constant is change. As Lawson explains, “At Capital One, we believe if you want to attract talent, you have to give them an environment in which they can really be productive, be inspired, be motivated, and can continue to develop their skills. Emerging technologies will continue to shape the way we live, and Capital One will be ready to provide the necessary learning experiences to allow our associates to keep pace with whatever’s next.”
Senior Director of Technology Learning
Senior Director of Technology Learning
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