Executive Championship of Learning Inspires Avient’s Global Employees, Drives 95% Activation and 95% Engagement Rate

How do you create and maintain employee engagement? That’s the burning question for every L&D organization, and one that Avient Corporation, formerly PolyOne, solved with a simple, but powerful move—a learning request from the leadership team.

A global company that “improves lives all over the world by solving complex material science challenges,” Avient had been making a gradual transition to virtual learning over the last several years, but COVID-19 accelerated the shift. 

Avient’s CHRO Joka San Martin, saw an opportunity to use LinkedIn Learning to keep employees engaged while they were working from home—it was a turnkey solution that they could put resources behind and turn into a campaign. Avient’s L&D leaders, including Mandy Matousek, Director of Talent & Organization Development, Renita Jefferson, Senior HR Manager, and Laurel Kuhar, Training & OD Specialist, were more than ready to deliver. 

The work they had put into building a strong learning program prior to the pandemic was about to pay off. 

The L&D team set the right foundation for the unforeseen global crisis that was ahead

Leading up to COVID, the Avient L&D team was already running robust programs, doing all the right things to drive engagement, such as:

• Offering translated courses in six languages for a global audience; 
• Holding Lunch & Learns and virtual tours with functional and regional teams; 
• Highlighting LinkedIn Learning features including the mobile app; 
• Sending out bimonthly newsletters with recommended courses; and
• Encouraging functional heads to recommend courses to their teams to inspire their teams to always be learning. 

Since 2019, the Avient L&D team has also been running seasonal campaigns, like the “summer fun” campaign, which they promoted on The Loop (the company’s intranet) and socialized by handing out themed cards and giveaways like sunscreen.

Despite implementing all of these best practices, it was still a challenge to get employees to activate their LinkedIn Learning licenses. 

“Once they were activated, we got great feedback,” said Laurel. “But the challenge was getting them over that hump to activate the LinkedIn Learning license and see what’s available.” 

It turns out that a small push from the exec team would have a big impact.

Executive support tips the scales

Based on an ask from Joka—and with support from the CEO. Bob Patterson—to increase engagement with LinkedIn Learning, Renita and Laurel turned on a dime and within days launched a “month of learning” campaign for May.

Not only did the L&D team have buy-in from the top leadership, but they also had participation. The executive team sent out email communication to explain the purpose of the campaign and set the expectation that employees take at least one course by the end of May. They also sent weekly emails about the challenge, all of which included the activation link to provide quick access to employees.

L&D followed up each exec communication with twice-weekly emails and posts on The Loop with new topics for the week and recommended courses. 

“It was clear to employees that the campaign was being driven by and supported at the top and that our leadership team wanted everyone to participate,” said Laurel.  

Engagement went through the roof

It worked. During the campaign, activation of LinkedIn Learning licenses increased from 40% to 95%, and engagement hit 95% (and is still going strong).

“We were excited that our leadership team took such a prominent role in this effort and empowered us to do what we were already doing behind the scenes and bring it to the forefront,” said Renita. 

Once learning became an expectation, it expanded the visibility of the L&D team. Laurel ran and shared reports with the leadership team on a daily basis, and it became an internal competition.

It’s a recipe that works: take an L&D program with solid momentum, add a dose of executive support, and watch engagement soar. 

L&D gets creative, makes learning fun

In the past, leadership courses have always been popular among Avient employees, along with courses that improved skills on PowerPoint and Excel. For this campaign, though, L&D focused on organizational, workstyle and emerging-needs skills. Each week featured a different theme, like how to be productive when working remotely. They offered LinkedIn resources—Working Remotely and Working from Home—and asked employees to share creative ways they’ve managed their time. 

“We were mindful that people were at home and might want to occasionally break away from work topics and do something more interesting, mindful, and self-reflective,” said Renita. So in the latter part of the campaign, Avient offered courses to help employees learn something fun and engage their creativity with courses around learning to play an instrument—Acoustic Guitar or Drums, anyone?

The most popular course, taken by 900 of the 3,000 employees, was The Six Morning Habits of High Performers, also one of LinkedIn’s most popular courses, in addition to Interpersonal Communication Skills and Getting Things Done.

Creating their own success story

Avient’s partnership between L&D and the executive team is a model for success.  In the past, L&D would be in the back of the room, raising their hands to say ‘Don’t forget about LinkedIn Learning.’ Now people are proactively asking ‘Is there a LinkedIn Learning component we can add to bolster this experience?’  

“Since everyone has gotten into LinkedIn Learning and is aware of what it has to offer, our job is going to be so much easier and rewarding,” said Laurel. “But the real winners are our employees who are growing their skills and engagement.”