Arvesta is the largest full-service partner for farmers and horticulturists in Belgium, with a strong international network. In its rich, 120-plus-year history, Arvesta has become the established expert in animal nutrition, agriculture, horticulture, machinery and more. The Arvesta umbrella encompasses no fewer than 40 strong brands and 2,000 employees working at 250 Aveve and three Eurotuin locations, among others.
Arvesta wishes to make agriculture and horticulture sustainable; of course, on its own part it also aims for sustainable entrepreneurship, production and transportation. One way it accomplishes this is by reducing CO2 emissions. Hybrid work is one aspect of this: employees come to the office two days a week, but otherwise, it does not matter where or when they work. It can be done at home, in the office, or at one of the many Arvesta hubs throughout Belgium, the Netherlands and France.
Training courses are also organized in the same hybrid manner. Until 2018, these were still entirely classroom-based. ‘Then we started to think about what and who we want to be as an organization and what we need for that,’ says Jennemie Driesens, Talent Expert at Arvesta. ‘Arvesta wants to be a learning organization, an inspiring workplace where employees can work happily, comfortably and in a motivated way. We want to have strong in-house leaders, attract young graduates and allow people to grow. Instead of a job, we offer our people a career.’
At Arvesta, they believe that working and learning go hand in hand. Employees can work and learn at the same time, online or offline, in the field or by themselves, any time and anywhere.
To put this principle into practice, Arvesta Academy was created. It’s based on three pillars. The first pillar is an open offer: these are freely chosen training courses that focus on generic skills. Under this pillar, Arvesta offers its people an online learning platform with over 120 inspiring courses. Secondly, there are job-specific training programs offering courses on leadership, sales, project management and the like. Finally, there are all the customized training courses; Arvesta looks for a high-quality solution to every learning question.
‘So it’s great in terms of the range of training offered,’ Jennemie Driesens continues. ‘However, after a series of business interviews, we noticed that the knowledge of activities and processes at Arvesta was rather limited in documentation and that little is shared within the organization in a structured manner,’ she says.
That’s why Arvesta has chosen FLOWSPARKS. From finance to marketing, IT to HR, and Animal Nutrition, Agriculture & Horticulture and Retail, there’s a lot of knowledge at Arvesta. Arvesta combines all of this in fun and interactive digital modules on the FLOWSPARKS learning platform. Among other things, the platform is used for change processes and onboarding.
Arvesta started working with FLOWSPARKS in the summer of 2021, and after less than a year, the outcome has been positive. Arvesta first took the time to prepare for the launch of the platform within the organization. This included the technical set-up, establishing the platform, preparing the first modules and introducing FLOWSPARKS into a number of projects within the organization. ‘FLOWSPARKS connects people and offers a great deal of possibilities. Since the beginning, we’ve been very well supported by the FLOWSPARKS team with practical support and advice that helped us make the right choices for our e-Learning modules.’
‘We believe in user-generated content because everyone is an expert in his or her field; this ensures variation and creativity in the digital modules. What’s more, people are real ambassadors of their own education and we can reach a larger audience.’
Arvesta is currently working in a project-based manner and will launch a ‘make your own learning’ principle later this year, involving three different roles: topic expert, script creator and author. Employees taking on these roles will create e-Learning courses themselves. Jennemie Driesens says: ‘We believe in user-generated content because everyone is an expert in his or her field; this ensures variation and creativity in the digital modules. What’s more, people are real ambassadors of their own education and we can reach a larger audience.’ It’s also of course an efficient and budget-friendly method for creating e-Learning courses. ‘Now, we can train our people in a fun, interactive and efficient way,’ she continues. ‘We absolutely believe that we can get all our experts in the field to join in the process.’
