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Credit Suisse transforms learning by embracing creativity, innovation and technology

Credit Suisse’s Goals 

Credit Suisse is one of the world's leading financial services providers. The bank’s strategy builds on its core strengths: its position as a leading wealth manager, its specialist investment banking and asset management capabilities and its strong presence in its home market of Switzerland. The bank employs more than 50,000 people. 

Within the Digital Learning function of People Development, the eLearning Advisors team is responsible for elearning production across the bank and has seven members working out of Zürich and Wrocław. In 2018, this specialist team, in partnership with Kineo, set about to dramatically and measurably improve the elearning produced and delivered for the bank. 

Credit Suisse's Results

Kineo Over 120 projects each year, delivered on time and on budget
Kineo 7.7 Net Promoter Score from internal teams
Kineo 50% of staff say it helps day-to-day performance
Kineo 21% uplift in learner rating for games and innovation

THE CHALLENGE

Transform learning by embracing creativity, innovation and technology 

The eLearning Advisors team are responsible for key compliance content routinely rolled out globally three times a year, as well as non-mandatory learning for a range of initiatives, to drive awareness, build skills and change behavior at the bank. However, the mandatory elearning had gained a reputation for having a somewhat dry and standardized design, meeting regulatory needs, but not necessarily engaging learners or encouraging behavior change.

Credit Suisse wanted their elearning to dramatically improve and become: 

  • More engaging to facilitate knowledge retention and behavior change
  • More accessible, not just in terms of mobile access, but also by providing accommodations for learners with visual impairments
  • A tool to help solve important business issues and challenges

HOW DID THEY DO IT?

Credit Suisse partnered with Kineo to transform elearning in the long-term 

Transformed ways of working 

A journey from order-takers doing just mandatory learning, to internal consultants pushing the boundaries with their internal customers 

Getting creative 

Exceptional creativity, focused on delivering impact, and being willing to defy convention and change the rules and expectations within the bank 

Responsive design 

Developed using Kineo’s Adapt Authoring Tool, learning is accessible via any device, is on brand and uses modern web standards to create a compelling learning experience accessible to all

Embracing challenging themes 

Projects that are changing lives, improving the business, and raising the bar in society  

CREDIT SUISSE'S SOLUTION

New ways of working 

As this initiative was about transforming elearning in the long-term there needed to be new ways of working.

Firstly, the team worked together to build positive and dynamic working relationships: 

  • Between Credit Suisse and Kineo, engendering a real 'single team’ dynamic as opposed to a vendor/client one (helped by the fact two Kineo employees were embedded in the Credit Suisse team) 
  • Between the Kineo/Credit Suisse team and internal customers

Secondly, they established a robust process for effective and efficient ways of working which were also collaborative and mutually supportive.  

Advanced creativity and technology 

A key part of the digital strategy Kineo and Credit Suisse developed centered on creating more engaging learning content through interactive video, gamification, and storytelling. 

The team put this into action when creating a new piece of learning for what may be considered not the most exciting topic – cyber and information security. A focused and immersive learning experience was delivered using an escape-room themed challenge for learners, which supported their exploration of the topics. 

Even across a broad target audience – all employees, globally – over 95% of learners said they would recommend it. 


A new content strategy with mobile friendly Adapt 

To meet the expectations of ‘always connected,’ tech-savvy learners, Kineo worked with Credit Suisse to place multi-device learning at the heart of the design approach. Kineo was able to apply its mobile friendly Adapt authoring tool to create content that could reformat itself based around liquid layouts for mobile and desktop devices alike. Just as importantly, using Adapt has allowed Kineo to design all courses to be fully screen reader accessible and both Kineo and the Credit Suisse team have tested courses extensively with visually impaired learners, in order to optimize their learning experience.

Embracing challenging themes 

When the team were asked to design a memorable learning resource to educate and support the Credit Suisse LGBT+ Ally employee network, they knew it would need to cover multiple and sometimes sensitive themes – the importance of acceptance, inclusion and belonging – as well as being impactful and engaging. 

The approach had to deliver some agitation and disruption. If it was just bland, corporate, and emotionless, it wouldn’t have made a difference. The team opted for a sliding-doors theme, producing videos to demonstrate what the firm’s culture could look like with and without an open and inclusive environment.   

THE RESULTS

An improved learning experience 

Kineo engaged an independent evaluation consultancy to design a survey to assess the impact of the new strategy, and to analyze the results. 

Learners surveyed identified clear improvements across all areas evaluated, when comparing the new digital learning content to the previous offering. The highest jump in ratings was in ‘accessibility of content’, which was closely followed by ‘the use of games and other innovations’. Importantly, learners widely agreed with the statement ‘The digital learning at Credit Suisse improves my day-to-day performance’. 

A survey of internal customers also demonstrated a positive impact, giving the team an average score of 7.7/10 for likelihood to recommend working with the team. 


The LGBT+ Ally learning resource got fantastic feedback across the board for it’s creativity and storytelling and had a major impact, assuring people that Credit Suisse was a safe space. In addition, the number of LGBT+ allies at Credit Suisse has grown from 5,000 to more than 7,000+.

“I hear time and again how much it’s making a difference to those I work with and care about. It never ceases to move me and make me proud. 

Working with the entire team and Kineo was an incredibly productive, very streamlined, and also a really rewarding experience.” 

Pips Bunce, Head of Global Markets Strategic Programs, Credit Suisse  

An award-winning solution

In 2022, Credit Suisse was listed as one of Stonewall’s Top 100 Workplace Equality Employers and for the first time, received a Gold Award as part of this for their focus and progress on intersectionality across the LGBTQI+ community. 

Credit Suisse in partnership with Kineo were also named the winners of the ‘Team of the Year’ award at the prestigious Learning Technology Awards in 2022



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