Best Learning & Development Strategy
As Canada’s export credit agency, Export Development Canada (EDC) plays a leading role on the world stage supporting Canada’s post COVID-19 economic recovery. Playing an equally important behind-the scenes role is EDC’s Learning and Development (L&D) team. The team was recognized with an Award of Excellence for Best Learning and Development Strategy in the 2021 annual Canadian HR Awards for delivering outstanding organizational benefits by directly linking the training needs of employees, at all levels, to the business needs of the organization.
“EDC’s ability to help Canadian businesses get back to global business rests on the ambition, drive and capabilities of each and every one of us to acquire new knowledge, develop new skills and adopt new behaviours,” says L&D Director Hugues Bouchard. “Our work and how well we perform has a direct impact on the well-being of Canada, its communities and people.” Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the L&D team challenged itself to transform its traditional ways of working and meet the changing needs of the organization and a remote workforce. With its forward-thinking L&D strategy and precise action plan, the team implemented a governance structure linking its activities to EDC’s business strategy. It also evolved classroom training programs into an online format, significantly increased its offering by introducing more than 160 new courses and programs and implemented a new cloud-based Learning Management System with enhanced tools, functionality and the ability to provide an integrated experience with Microsoft Teams.“
Aligning and integrating our work with our 10-year corporate strategy, along with shifting our focus on capability-building and supporting the changes in mindsets and operations critical for us to better help Canadian businesses grow internationally, is also allowing EDC to enhance returns on its training investments and strengthen its learning culture for driving business agility and efficiency.”
