Creating a knowledge sharing culture

The way we share knowledge across the business has been hugely improved thanks to Skillbook and the people behind it. Jinny leads the team, who are all passionate about sharing the best digital expertise across over fifty global markets, to inform the roll-out of premium e-commerce and digital strategies.

Jinny explains, “The digitisation of knowledge is so important as it enables us to document our expertise and share it with others, reducing trial and error and encouraging collaboration. From a business perspective, we recognise that a siloed mentality does not work. Sharing knowledge allows us to learn from others, even long after they may have moved on to other roles. With Skillbook we have created a user-friendly platform, with consistent up-to-date content that everyone can access and use to learn from each other.”

An incredibly valuable resource

Since its launch last year, Skillbook gathered 100,000 views. It has proved to be an incredibly valuable resource for sharing rich content, including over 120 best practices and digital skills. In addition, it contains more than 500 minutes of video trainings featuring Miele X digital experts, recorded by Paulina Verdejo, our Knowledge Content Specialist. 

To engage the audience, Claudia creates newsletters and social media style videos with fun and witty articles that focus on making our people the stars and celebrating their successes. Claudia shares,

“Our articles focus on real Miele people sharing their personal perspectives on projects, how they went, and how it felt. It is this human connection that creates such engaging content to learn from. We have the Skillbook newsletter for Miele X and Digital Heroes newsletter for Miele subsidiaries, highlighting great work from colleagues and showcasing all digital projects across Miele. Encouraging everyone to share every digital project success for others to tap into, learn from and trigger new and exciting ideas.”

Focusing on Forever Better

Jinny explains our need to continuously improve the platform, “We decided to create Skillbook 2.0 because we really believe in the power of change. The world is constantly evolving, and consumers needs change with it. We are keen for Skillbook to maintain a consumer-centric approach. And change is part of that process.”

Everything we do at Miele X is about collaboration and Skillbook 2.0 is being created as a direct result of people sharing knowledge and contributing innovative ideas at a Hackathon event, which took place in April, with participants from all over the world.

The Hackathon

The premise of a Hackathon is to create a space where people can collaborate and share ideas to build something new or to improve an existing build. The event took place over a day, and it was a fantastic opportunity to bring together digital experts from Miele X, as well as the UK, Germany, The Netherlands and Belgium, to talk about Skillbook and share their ideas on what they would like to see from the platform.

Commenting on the event Jinny shares, “We want Skillbook 2.0 to be the one stop shop for all Miele employees when it comes to digital knowledge. The Hackathon was an amazing opportunity to create solutions quickly and efficiently by working together, and to bond with each other. The work that the teams produced was impressive, going from problems to solutions, prototypes and testing in under a day. The new Skillbook 2.0 is being developed directly from the input of our users, which is really important to us.”

Skillbook 2.0 - What’s new and improved?

Skillbook 2.0 is packed with new and improved features. Some will be ready for the launch during fall months while others will arrive next year and beyond.

Firstly, the new version has a better user experience. The main page has been completely redesigned to include a dynamic video header. There is now a prominent search bar in the middle of the webpage, a drop-down menu for faster navigation and login sections to view the content you have saved for later, including your browsing history and notifications regarding page changes. As well as a sneak peek carousel slider to enable quick access to the ‘most liked’ articles, ‘hidden gems’, and ‘latest publications.’

We’ve created more direct ways for users to reach Skillbook, namely with a permanent link connected to Miele intranet. Skillbook 2.0 is also more interactive with social media type features. The welcome page will show the latest content and trending topics, every page will have comments sections to encourage discussion, and keep a look out for our new mascot the Skillbook Owl, as voted for by Miele X colleagues.

As we evolve and improve, we will also optimise the learning experience with personalised education based on learning level and explore this further in future, along with chat and gamification which have been popular topics.

Another exciting feature is the new section Skillbook Voices, a forum where colleagues can ask questions such as, “How can I create the best campaign for Black Friday?” People can comment on these questions, with the most popular becoming the topic of a regular podcast.

Claudia shares, “The podcasts provide another convenient and accessible format with a human touch. We can listen to insights that help us in our work while also learning about each other, where we came from and what our stories are. It’s a quick and easy way to connect with our colleagues, while furthering our knowledge.”

Claudia further explains, “Every voice matters here and through Skillbook Voices we can empower our employees to ask questions and discuss topics that matter to them. There are just so many opportunities to learn and grow.”

Continuously improving for a better future

The goal of Skillbook 2.0 is to be a resource that can help us every day. It can help us learn and grow our digital skills and capabilities and help us connect with each other and collaborate, while giving us a voice to talk about what matters to every one of us. Most importantly, it will help us continuously improve as individuals, as teams and as a business.

What’s Next? You decide.

At Miele X, we believe that knowledge shared is knowledge squared. Why not bring your unique skills and experience to our global iconic brand. Take a look at our current vacancies.