The Challenge

Replacing a learning platform with limited functionality and no scalability

In the past, the remit of the learning operations team at Booking.com was heavily restricted. The learning platform that they were using had limited functionality, and the team knew there was no use brainstorming customizations and updates that their learning platform didn’t have the features to support.

Senior Learning Specialist Cheney Dent and her team spent most of their time working outside of the learning platform, writing emails, creating documentation, and sending calendar invites.

Automation was non-existent, and the learning team was overwhelmed with manual administrative tasks for workshop operations. They had to individually email learners when they enrolled in courses and manually send them calendar invites for workshops, training, and events—not an easy feat for a company of over 15,000 employees.

Because of these limitations, and for ease of work, many learning initiatives took place entirely through Google Docs and Calendar invites instead of being managed in one central learning management system, which made it impossible to track learning efforts or accurately measure performance.

When the learning team looked at their setup, they realized that the learning platform was hindering them from meeting their goals. They needed a new learning platform with better admin functionality and automation so that they could offer a customized, personalized experience to both enhance and simplify the learner experience.

“Before Docebo, our team had become complacent because we knew there was so much we couldn’t accomplish. So we never brought up new ideas for the platform, we never prioritized that or planned that in.”

Cheney Dent, Senior Learning Platform Specialist for Booking.com

The Solution

Customization, personalization, and automation with Docebo

With Docebo, the only limit to Booking.com’s learning setup and configuration is the team’s imagination.

They’ve created personalized homepages so that users open the portal and immediately see learning that’s relevant to them. They use course catalogs to help learners easily find role-specific content without being overwhelmed by the volume of content or range of topics available.

They’ve also automated most of the course operations tasks that were previously draining a lot of the learning team’s time and resources. Notifications alert users when a new relevant course is available and let managers know when one of their team members completes training. Data security and compliance are maintained by managing admin access, permissions, and group visibility within the platform.

With Docebo Connect, Booking.com has integrated both their Google Calendar and their HRIS platform with their learning.

The Google Calendar integration automates calendar invites for courses, eliminating the need for manual scheduling.

The integration with their HRIS allows them to automate the creation and deactivation of users when people start their jobs or leave the company. It automatically updates user profile information to match their employee file, saving the learning team considerable time and effort in updating employee information across systems.

The integration has also helped them automate and accelerate their employee onboarding. They now use an enrollment rule to automatically begin onboarding for new employees—instead of manually inviting them to a series of onboarding events, as they did previously. With all new employees enrolled in the platform from the start, they can immediately experience the company’s ‘Learn Forever’ value.

Thanks to Docebo, all learning initiatives are consolidated, and the learning team no longer needs to spend so much time duplicating work in and outside of the platform. They can track and measure the impact of every learning initiative with Docebo’s analytic capabilities.

“The amount of customization that you can do within the platform is endless.”

Cheney Dent, Senior Learning Platform Specialist for Booking.com

The Results

Over 800 hours of learning operations time saved

Today, Docebo is the home of all of Booking.com’s learning experiences, including e-learning, ILTs (instructor-led training), vILTs (virtual instructor-led training), micro-learnings and resources. They use over 40 enrollment rules to manage it all.

In 2023, they were able to increase their learning programs by 30%, with minimal impact on their operational workload. Training driven by subject matter experts has been able to scale up by 40%, as they can now self-manage their courses thanks to features like pre-enrollment rules and waitlists.

They estimate they have reduced administration overhead on complex programs by as much as 80%. A single course that used to require 20 hours of admin time each week now takes less than four, saving the team over 800 hours of learning admin time each year.

Thanks to Docebo’s scalability, they can offer courses to many more people without any increased effort. As a result, they’ve also significantly increased the number of ILTs they offer, from 20 to 120.

And, of course, the learner experience has been significantly improved with one home for learning, a consistent experience, timely notifications, and calendar invites.

The time that Docebo saves the learning operations team has allowed them to allocate resources to other projects, find and create new learning opportunities, and even take advantage of learning opportunities themselves. Most importantly, they can now take a more active role in leadership conversations and ILT design sessions to consult on learning solutions for business needs and suggest anything from workshops to learning plans, ILTs, channels, assets, or playlists—none of which were options before Docebo.

Essentially, Docebo’s increased functionality and flexibility make it possible for the learning team to get creative and design innovative learning solutions, because they know the platform can support whatever they come up with.

“Docebo is a forward-thinking company and their platform is highly customizable and that’s exactly what we desperately needed. We’ve left the chaos and apathy behind and are now trusted experts, proactively collaborating with our learning teams to create inspiring learning experiences at scale.”

Cheney Dent, Senior Learning Platform Specialist for Booking.com

About Booking.com

Booking.com is one of the world’s leading digital travel companies and serves as the world’s largest travel marketplace for both established brands and entrepreneurs of all sizes, with more than 28 million total accommodation listings. Cheney Dent is the Senior Learning Platform Specialist for Booking.com.