Argenta fuels proactive learning with their intuitive, centralized LMS

Founded in 1956, Argenta is today Belgium’s fifth-largest banking institution by customer deposits, with over 1.7 million customers. They pride themselves on their close, personal relationships with customers, and their focus on local banking services.

The Challenge

Argenta was previously using an outdated version of Totara Learn (version 2.7) that no longer adhered to Argenta’s current learning requirements. For instance, it was not GDPR compliant and had been heavily customized, making it difficult to upgrade.
Argenta needed a future-proof solution, a learning environment which could support the organization in realizing the business strategy, and started looking for a new LMS to help them find a platform that would integrate with their other systems and could be adapted to their needs without any customization.

The Solution

Argenta quickly realized that Totara Learn was, indeed, a best-of-breed solution, and they worked with their Totara Partner Deloitte to upgrade to Totara 13 to create their new solution, Watson. This was a huge leap forward in terms of features and functionality, and Totara 13 is built with GDPR compliance in mind, which ticked one of Argenta’s boxes straight away.

“The full platform refresh gives our users what they’ve been asking for and more: a significantly upgraded user experience, gamification that makes learning more fun, a modern layout and a points system that rewards them for their investment in Watson. We are excited to build on our innovations going forward.”
– Tom Jonkers, Manager Talent Management, Argenta

Argenta needs to provide learning opportunities to two separate audiences: 1,200 staff at Argenta’s head office and a second group based in local bank branches, who needed more specialist knowledge. Across both groups, there were some courses everyone had to take for regulatory reasons, along with optional content for additional development opportunities. They use Totara’s audiences and hierarchies functionality to organize these groups and manage learning more easily. To be able to have accurate high-quality user data available in Totara for the entire Argenta population, Argenta built an interface with their master data system Margot.

Argenta works closely with content partners such as LinkedIn Learning and GoodHabitz to provide learners with a course catalog, along with some of their own specialist content for hard skills training (about their own financial and insurance products). Argenta’s internal trainers deliver product training, and the learning team also offers soft skills training, in collaboration with external training companies, via the LMS, along with content on health and wellbeing to support employees.

Alongside the Watson LMS, Argenta also introduced its Argenta Passport. This passport shows that an employee has acquired the basic competencies to remain flexibly employable. For one specific competency, “digital eagerness,” Watson supports the acquisition of a “Digiploma,” which focuses on developing employees’ digital skills through gamification. Learners can earn points by taking courses and earn badges upon completion, which motivates employees and ensures that everyone has the digital skills they need to continue delivering their great customer service.

In a highly regulated sector such as finance and insurance, reporting and compliance are vital, so Argenta also makes extensive use of Totara’s reporting functionality to better understand usage and course completion rates.

The Results

Argenta’s move from Totara Learn 2.7 to 13 helped them completely eliminate their use of customizations, decreasing from 180 to zero. Now, whenever Argenta wants to tailor their LMS, they use plugins – but still as few as possible to ensure maintainability, helping to keep their system future proof.

The new LMS is much more intuitive and user friendly, which has been a huge hit with employees. They find Watson much more visually appealing than the old LMS, and everyone appreciates that the content is centralized in a single tool and easily searchable. The improved user experience now sees employees proactively registering for courses and browsing the course catalog, rather than only accessing the system when absolutely necessary.

In fact, Watson is so popular that users now actively ask the learning team for new content and updates on the points they are collecting.

In the next year, Argenta wants to do more with the data they are collecting and use it to analyze and predict learner behavior and performance. They also plan to more closely integrate the LMS with their other systems, and to open up the LMS to new employees for “pre-boarding,” where new starters can learn more about Argenta before their first day.