HSB Gothenburg

Since spring 2022, HSB Gothenburg has been running a NanoLearning initiative aimed at increasing awareness and understanding of the changes digitalization brings. Through 3-minute lessons every third week, based on real-life dilemmas, employees and managers across the organization are encouraged to reflect and discuss how to act in line with the organization’s guiding principles.
– We knew there was a gap between leadership communication and how employees perceive change, says Therese Svärd. Our goal with NanoLearning is to build understanding of how we can better meet employees where they are.

New focus shifts the picture‍

When the NanoLearning initiative launched in spring 2022, no one could predict the effects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Since then, the internal strategic focus has shifted, even though the transformation journey is still underway. This has made it more difficult to measure the impact of the initiative as originally intended.
– We conducted a mid-term evaluation that showed essentially the same attitudes toward digitalization and new working methods, says Amanda Runebrant, HR Coordinator at HSB. A fairly expected result given the current situation.

Even if precise impact measurement is challenging under these changed conditions, the content of the NanoLearning lessons continues to play an important role—perhaps even more so when it comes to interpreting agreements and business-related decisions. Together with Junglemap’s instructional designer, Amanda Runebrant has brainstormed new angles and questions based on the organization’s current needs.
– I really want to commend your ability to understand our needs and create dilemmas that spark the right kind of discussions in the organization. That agility has been essential given the situation we’re in.

A useful pulse check‍

Employee engagement currently stands at about 50%, which Therese Svärd considers high enough to serve as a reliable pulse check for the organization’s change journey.
– Cutting through the noise is always a challenge, she says. But NanoLearning helps us “lift different lids” across the organization and see where we might need to take further action.

Although participation rates vary depending on access to computers or work email, HSB still receives a “surprisingly large” number of free-text comments after each NanoLearning dispatch.
– It’s a bit like listening in on what people are saying “when the boss isn’t around,” says Therese Svärd. It’s incredibly valuable to keep our ear to the ground in this way.
– And there’s also a positive signal effect—it shows that the organization listens and takes different kinds of feedback seriously, adds Amanda Runebrant.

HSB Gothenburg plans to continue using NanoLearning throughout 2023 as a support tool in its ongoing change journey. What happens beyond that remains undecided. But two things are certain: the need for change will remain, and no one knows what the world will look like a year from now—a reality that underscores the need for agile methods in any transformation effort.