When a company operates across multiple countries, time zones, and working styles, creating learning programs that truly connect can feel like an uphill climb. But for lastminute.com, the challenge became an opportunity to transform their learning culture—and win recognition for innovative learning experience design (an award they picked up at Docebo’s Inspire 2024).
In our recent webinar, “Building learning that connects,” hosted by Docebo’s Emily Dukes, lastminute.com’s Elizabeth Chaloner and Alessandra Affili shared how they moved from compliance-heavy training to dynamic programs that spark engagement, foster connection, and deliver impact at scale.
The challenge: How lastminute.com connected diverse learners to shared goals
With offices in Switzerland, teams across Europe and India, and a mix of remote, hybrid, and in-office employees, lastminute.com’s learners are anything but uniform.
“There isn’t a typical learner,” said Chaloner. “We have a mix of hybrid, in-person, and fully remote people.” Their challenge? “We needed to have an inclusive experience for everybody so that we were able to communicate content at the same level to everybody, no matter where they were.”
Trouble was when they first began implementing these inclusive practices, they focused too much on compliance. Engagement was low, and much of the content felt disconnected from employees’ day-to-day challenges.
One particular challenge was training managers at different levels of seniority, from people with decades of experience to people who “were in a management role since yesterday.” The turning point came in 2023, when leadership met with managers across the company. In those conversations, 15 traits of good leadership emerged, directly from employees themselves.
These traits and learning needs that came from one-to-one conversations provided the learning team at lastminute.com with an idea of a budget-friendly, resource-friendly leadership training program that would allow managers at different levels of seniority speak “a shared language.”
The Leader Within: A program designed for engagement
The results of their efforts The Leader Within, a 10-week program for all 300+ managers. It combined three core components:
- Curated content: Articles, videos, and resources from thought leaders, all organized into playlists in Docebo
- Scenario-based self-reflection: In-house e-learning modules prompting managers to think through real-life situations
- Social learning: Asynchronous forum discussions where managers shared challenges, successes, and ideas.
They also leveraged Docebo’s automation notifications and gamification, specifically badges and a leaderboard to reward forum posts, collaboration, and course completions.
Aside from boosting engagement and course completions, perhaps the most powerful outcome was cross-department connection. Managers in finance and marketing who had never spoken before found out they were facing the same challenges through the forums the lastminute.com learning team created.
Beyond The Leader Within: Key takeaways for L&D leaders
Since launching The Leader Within, lastminute.com’s L&D team has continued experimenting with program “recipes,” different blends of live sessions, curated resources, expert input, and social learning.
They’ve piloted a Data Storytelling Skills Lab, launched a Leadership Edge Network for ongoing peer discussions, and rolled out a Project Management Summer Camp.
From lastminute.com’s journey, three lessons stand out:
- Involve your learners in design: Build programs around skills and traits your people say matter most
- Blend learning modes: Mix content, reflection, and social interaction for deeper engagement
- Create a branded experience: Give your programs an identity, clear timelines, and a celebratory tone
Out of these three, the branding experience makes a huge difference. As Chaloner explains, “Branding plus programming results in experience, cohesion, and engagement.”
For more details, and to see examples of lastminute.com’s program designs, watch the full webinar replay and download the L&D Cookbook, a free resource the lastminute.com team created, packed with replicable “recipes” for impactful learning initiatives.
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Up next: Beyond the Inspire award—Datadog’s blueprint for L&D governance that scales
This year at Inspire, Datadog was recognized for Best Platform Governance Strategy, a program built on structure, transparency, and measurable impact. In this fireside chat, the Datadog team will share exactly how they:
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- Create the kind of system reliability that reduces support tickets by over 30%
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📅 Aug 12th, 2025, 10 AM EST
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