Talentenregio: growth and sustainable employability

A broad offering lets the region flourish

Talentenregio offers a wide and versatile range of services focused on learning, development, and collaboration within the public sector. Employees of affiliated organizations can participate in events, webinars, trainings, and learning programs.

In addition, Talentenregio has its own trainee program, promotes labor mobility, and facilitates a regional job market.

Network support for professionals

Talentenregio also supports various professional networks in which knowledge sharing and collaboration are central. Through the regional coaching network, employees also gain access to personal guidance and development.

A diverse range of organizations actively makes use of this collaborative approach, including the Province of Overijssel, 21 municipalities within and outside Overijssel, ONS, Tiem Zwolle, the Safety Region IJsselland, and the Environmental Agency IJsselland. Together they pool their strengths to regionally strengthen talent development, knowledge sharing, and sustainable employability.

In search of a versatile learning platform

To support ‘learning and development,’ Talentenregio searched for a learning platform that could meet its diverse requirements. The new system needed to support the extensive classroom-based training catalog, alongside online trainings.

It was also a requirement that each organization affiliated with Talentenregio would have the ability to offer its own employees specific trainings in their own corporate identity, in addition to the central platform.

Furthermore, they wanted a platform that could support and promote networking between organizations. After an extensive market exploration, Talentenregio chose Totara and UP learning.

One platform for a variety of possibilities

Talentenregio’s goal is clear: by 2029, five years after the launch, 50% of organizations will be using the platform. With a clear vision and strategy, Talentenregio is already on track to meet this objective. The chosen setup within Totara plays an important role in this.

The generic and specific training catalog smartly combined

Talentenregio ensures that affiliated organizations, in addition to the generic training catalog, can provide their employees with their own offerings. Totara’s multi-tenant setup makes this possible.

Enthusiasm for this setup is so great that organizations are increasingly replacing their own Learning Management System (LMS) with Totara. They benefit, among other things, from the ability to consolidate all training and development activities in one place.

From onboarding to talent development

From onboarding and trainings on working within decentralized government organizations to trainings in the areas of personal effectiveness and talent development — it all runs through one central learning platform. Just like networking within the groups relevant to employees.

That this promotes a drive to learn is evident from the number of trainings completed beyond mandatory ones and the many network groups that actively exchange knowledge.

Control over costs. Opportunities for the networks.

All 12,000 employees of the affiliated organizations have access to Talentenregio’s training catalog. Classroom-based trainings make up a large part of that. Participants register via the seminar activity within Totara. Because they directly enter the general ledger number familiar to them, every employer maintains control over costs.

Workspaces to share knowledge and trends

In addition to all learning activities being available in one place, users are also invited to connect with peers at comparable organizations through network groups. These specific ‘digital spaces’ form the heart of the 27 affiliated organizations for sharing knowledge and trends.

Trainees get to know each other

Talentenregio also has multiple groups of trainees each year who work at the various organizations. Totara provides them with an overview of every step in this annual program. Through the platform, trainees are invited to collaborate on assignments, and through network groups they maintain digital contact with one another. This way, collaboration is encouraged at an early stage, and participants can easily find each other even after the traineeship.

Organizations develop together

Organizations work closely together on the development of e-learning modules that are relevant to everyone. By pooling their strengths, not everyone has to develop everything themselves, and the quality of the offering increases enormously. Because Talentenregio does not purchase standardized content, colleagues recognize it as ‘their own learning material’ and are more inclined to complete trainings.

Talentenregio keeps growing

Every month, Talentenregio organizes a meeting with all tenants to gather input for future developments and discuss the use of specific functionalities. Filtering is one example. Filters in the catalog need to be relevant to everyone. Through mutual coordination, this works exceptionally well.

In addition, the meetings bring the affiliated organizations closer together while Totara can be optimized simultaneously. This makes it more attractive for others to join as a tenant, and Talentenregio plays an increasingly larger role as the partner for learning and development in the region.

“TOP helps us work more efficiently, purchase at lower costs, and at the same time increase the quality of our offering.”

HR Learning & Development, Municipality of Meppel

What does TOP already deliver?

Before the introduction of TOP (Talentenregio Ontwikkel Plein), learning administration within the network was carried out entirely manually via Excel spreadsheets. That was a time-consuming and error-prone process without a central overview. TOP has fundamentally changed that.

The platform, built on Totara, now serves as a shared learning infrastructure for 27 government organizations in the provinces of Overijssel, Drenthe, Gelderland, and Flevoland, and supports the professional development of 12,000 employees.

Adoption & Integration

With 22 active SSO connections, 81% of affiliated organizations show that they consider TOP to be part of their organization and that they are committed to Talentenregio.

Efficiency & Speed

Where a standard LMS implementation typically takes a minimum of 3 months, organizations can be fully operational with TOP within 4 weeks — a time savings of 75%. Organizations do not each have to conduct their own search and can immediately connect to TOP.

In the first year, two organizations already switched from an existing LMS to TOP. For two organizations, the concept of an LMS was entirely new.

Quality & Professionalization

Administration that was previously handled manually is now fully automated: attendance tracking, certificate issuance, and communication operate as one smooth, integrated process.

Affiliated organizations now have real-time insight into employee training participation. The platform also promotes social learning through network groups and encourages organizations to collaborate. By jointly developing e-learnings, the wheel does not have to be reinvented each time.

Growth trajectory

With 2 organizations already active, including one migration from another LMS, 2 organizations going live soon, and 6 organizations in active exploratory discussions, TOP is on track to achieve its five-year goal well ahead of schedule.

Learning, developing, and sharing knowledge in your network?

Are you also working toward a learning (network) organization and curious about how to get there? Contact us for advice or a demo from our specialists.