The landscape of workplace learning is undergoing a significant transformation, driven by technological advancements and evolving employee expectations. In a recent episode of the Future of Learning podcast from Open eLMS, host Andy Howie welcomed Fabian Sanchis, Senior Manager of Global L&D at Ebury, to explore these shifts. Ebury, a Santander-backed cross-border payments FinTech, operates across 48 offices with approximately 2,000 employees worldwide, presenting unique challenges and opportunities for its learning and development strategy.
Fabian Sanchis's journey into L&D is unconventional, beginning in hospitality before transitioning to customer operations at Ebury. His passion for seeing people grow and develop, coupled with a keen understanding of human interaction, ultimately led him to co-create his current role. This background provided a pragmatic, human-centred perspective on learning that continues to shape Ebury's innovative L&D approach.
The discussion highlighted several key takeaways for L&D professionals navigating the modern workplace:
- Shifting from Course Catalogues to Knowledge Bases: The focus is moving from rigid, structured courses to dynamic, searchable knowledge platforms, with AI playing a crucial role in delivering immediate, relevant information.
- Decentralising Content Creation: Empowering subject matter experts and managers to create learning content, supported by L&D oversight and advanced AI tools to streamline the process.
- Prioritising Human Skills and High-Touch Learning: Leveraging technology for efficient information delivery frees L&D teams to concentrate on invaluable in-person, practical, and coaching-focused development.
- Making Development Everyone's Responsibility: Cultivating a culture where employees own their career journeys and managers are equipped to foster their teams' growth, supported by robust learning platforms.
- The Importance of Organisational Culture and Executive Buy-in: Sustained L&D success hinges on understanding and integrating with company culture, backed by strong leadership support and a clear demonstration of ROI.
- AI as a Creative Enabler, Not a Replacement: AI serves as a powerful tool for brainstorming and execution, amplifying human creativity and efficiency in content generation rather than diminishing it.
The Evolution of Learning Platforms: A Customer-First Approach
Upon moving into L&D, one of Fabian Sanchis's initial challenges was finding a learning platform capable of serving Ebury's expansive global workforce. With no existing Learning Management System (LMS), he embarked on a rigorous evaluation of 27 different platforms. His customer-focused background proved invaluable, enabling him to clearly define requirements and quickly identify solutions that could scale with the business for years to come. This meticulous approach underscored the necessity of selecting an LMS that acts as a strategic partner, offering a comprehensive, one-supplier solution, rather than just a repository for content.
AI and the Shift from Courses to Knowledge Bases
A central argument from Fabian Sanchis is that AI has removed the bottleneck of content creation. The goal has shifted from delivering "perfect courses" to ensuring employees receive accurate answers precisely when needed. This means transforming the LMS into a dynamic knowledge base, where AI facilitates search and retrieval, allowing users to find immediate answers to day-to-day queries. For deeper learning, the LMS can then guide individuals to relevant resources or learning paths.
This decentralisation of content creation empowers subject matter experts across the organisation to contribute, ensuring that knowledge is captured and shared effectively. L&D teams, in turn, can redirect their efforts towards high-impact, human-led initiatives such as in-person workshops, online cohorts, and scenario-based training, where practice and direct interaction are paramount. An AI-powered LMS, such as the Open eLMS Learning Generator, can rapidly transform existing materials into engaging e-learning, videos, or even gamified content, making this shift practical and efficient, and significantly reducing content creation time and costs.
Maintaining Quality and Empowering Managers
With a decentralised content strategy, concerns about quality and consistency naturally arise. Fabian Sanchis explained that Ebury addresses this through ongoing tracking, sampling, and proactive engagement. L&D monitors newly created content, identifying high-value pieces that can be amplified and properly categorised for wider visibility. This approach fosters a culture of contribution while maintaining standards. An advanced corporate LMS like Open eLMS, with its custom roles and permissions, allows L&D professionals to maintain oversight and curate content effectively, ensuring quality across a vast, user-generated knowledge base.
A significant challenge for L&D is making employee development everyone's responsibility, not just the L&D team's. Fabian Sanchis emphasised the need for employees to "own their career journeys" and for companies to respond to this demand. Crucially, this involves equipping managers with the skills to develop their teams. Ebury has invested in comprehensive management training programmes, bringing together diverse groups from across departments. These programmes focus on human skills, coaching, and the philosophy of hiring "the next you"—identifying individuals with the potential for growth and delegation, rather than simply filling an immediate gap. Open eLMS supports this by enabling robust skills monitoring and tracking, helping L&D and managers identify gaps and foster competency development.
Proving Value and Adapting to Culture
Demonstrating the value of L&D to budget holders is essential, particularly for a lean team. Fabian Sanchis highlighted the importance of consistently delivering on promises and showcasing tangible results. This includes tracking behavioural changes, monitoring employee engagement through surveys, and actively communicating these successes to leadership. He noted that a shift in learning culture at Ebury, evidenced by increased positive feedback on the LMS, was a clear indicator of progress. Open eLMS's powerful custom reporting with Power BI integration provides L&D managers and HR directors with the advanced analytics and dashboards needed to measure training ROI, track engagement, and prove the tangible impact of their learning initiatives.
The success of any L&D strategy, Fabian Sanchis argued, is deeply intertwined with understanding and integrating into the company's culture. L&D professionals must live the culture, adjust strategies based on feedback, and be prepared to iterate. Ebury's management training, for instance, is continuously refined based on participant feedback, ensuring its relevance and effectiveness. This adaptive approach, coupled with strong executive backing, allows L&D to focus on "high-ticket value items" – the human connection and practical application that technology cannot fully replicate.
AI as a Partner in Creativity
Regarding AI, Fabian Sanchis views it not as a threat, but as a powerful tool for execution and brainstorming. He explained that AI excels at guiding the development of an idea once the human has defined the desired outcome. It can quickly generate content, suggest structures, and provide different perspectives, freeing up human creativity. However, the core idea, the vision, and the final direction must always originate from the human. This collaborative model ensures that learning content remains relevant, impactful, and aligned with organisational goals, a principle at the heart of the Open eLMS Learning Generator.
While AI can automate much of content generation and provide instant answers, Fabian Sanchis affirmed that certain elements, suchs as one-on-one coaching and deep human interaction, remain irreplaceable. Ebury continues to invest in these high-touch experiences, recognising that genuine connection and personalised guidance are vital for holistic human development. This perfectly aligns with Open eLMS's philosophy: leveraging AI to handle the heavy lifting of content creation and administration, thereby empowering L&D teams to focus on high-impact, human-centric learning experiences.
Owning the Journey
Fabian Sanchis's ultimate takeaway for L&D professionals, managers, and individuals alike is to "own that journey." Whether it's charting a career path, steering a department's strategy, or embracing new technologies like AI, taking ownership and proactively planning for the future is paramount. By defining values, setting clear objectives, and consistently working towards them, individuals and organisations can navigate the complexities of modern learning and achieve meaningful growth.
Transform Your Learning Strategy with Open eLMS
Are you ready to embrace the future of learning by empowering your teams, decentralising content creation, and leveraging the power of AI? Open eLMS offers a comprehensive, one-supplier solution designed to meet the evolving demands of corporate training, helping L&D leaders like you achieve measurable ROI and drive employee performance.
Our Open eLMS LMS provides a robust, cloud-based platform for personnel management, live learning, skills monitoring, and advanced reporting with Power BI integration, ensuring full visibility and control over your learning ecosystem. With over 250 custom roles and permissions, you can empower managers and subject matter experts to contribute to a dynamic knowledge base, fostering a culture of continuous learning while maintaining quality and compliance.
Supercharge your content creation with the Open eLMS Learning Generator, our AI-powered tool that creates custom e-learning courses, videos, podcasts, and even gamified content in minutes. This frees your L&D team to focus on high-impact, human-centric development, just as Fabian Sanchis advocates, saving significant time and resources.
Explore how Open eLMS, an established leader in EdTech since 2003, can help your organisation deliver effective, scalable, and human-centred learning. Visit https://www.openelms.com to learn more and discover the unparalleled power of an AI-driven learning management system for your business.