Built on We Are: How Eva improved knowledge retention of Carrefour employees through shorter, impactful courses

Eva Vanoirbeek started working at Carrefour almost 20 years ago as a retail department manager. Five years later, she became a shop director and then moved to the training department, where she led a team of 20 commercial advisors. For the last four years, Eva has worked as a talent officer in the Talent Development department, focusing on creating e-learning content.

During this time, she updated an outdated onboarding training program that was too long and text-heavy. Seeing the need for a better way to share information, Eva made the program more interactive and added gamification to make learning enjoyable. She received strong support from We Are for this project.

​In a conversation with We Are Learning, Eva said, “Real-life examples were missing from our training. It was always someone presenting on the screen.”

​Research like the Learning Pyramid shows that people remember about 75% of information when they practice by doing, rather than just listening or watching.

​To address this, Eva used We Are Learning’s Script Assistant to quickly develop engaging learning content with practical examples. This approach helped learners engage more and retain information better.

Building a core strategy for short-term learning

Eva pointed out that since people often have short attention spans, she tries to make the videos as brief as possible.

​Turning four hours of detailed, slide-heavy material into a lively 45-minute onboarding session meant Eva had to be strict about what to include. She focused only on what short-term student employees need to succeed and stay safe from the start.

• Focusing on legal mandates: She isolated mandatory legal topics such as security protocols and Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) training.
• Trimming executive fluff: While permanent hires learn about complex corporate hierarchies, Eva cut out executive board introductions for temporary workers.
• Prioritizing immediate utility: She kept the focus on operational necessities, like how to request an absence, use device log-ins, and master internal Carrefour vocabulary.

To connect the different modules, Eva used a custom avatar as a friendly guide throughout the training. This approach made the experience more engaging and also solved several practical problems for Carrefour:

• It removed production delays, since filming in real stores used to take half a day just to get two minutes of usable video.
• It also helped avoid problems caused by staff turnover. Videos featuring real employees would quickly become outdated when those employees left or retired, which could confuse new learners.
• It also helped them select diverse characters, ensuring their training modules accurately reflect their core commitment to diversity and inclusion.

AI-powered design: Moving from months to days

The ultimate test of Eva's structural strategy arrived when the workers' union requested an urgent intervention for a spike in workplace injuries around high-stakes slicing equipment. Despite annual refresher courses, accidents were still happening due to underlying employee stress and fatigue.

Without pre-existing content or materials, Eva turned to We Are Learning’s Script Assistant. By feeding the AI an incredibly detailed, context-rich prompt about the store environment, the target demographic of managers, and the specific safety risks, she generated a comprehensive, 15-minute course structure from A to Z in record time.

The AI platform quickly created high-quality content by asking targeted questions. This let Eva focus on refining and personalizing the experience, so she only needed two days to make it as engaging as possible.

Bringing immersive scenarios to life

This new training uses interactive, branching scenarios to keep learners engaged and avoid the usual downtime that comes with standard compliance modules. Eva added her own touch to the AI-generated script by including custom avatars, step-by-step visuals, and real-time choices for each situation.

In one main scenario, managers observe a store employee named Leia. She clearly struggles during a busy evening, making repeated data-entry mistakes, acting irritable, and saying she hasn't slept well, all while using sharp slicing equipment. The manager must quickly decide how to respond and then gets immediate feedback based on their choice.

Rather than simply telling managers about safety statistics, the course has them practice real management. It helps them learn to spot signs of cognitive overload in real situations before an accident happens.

The future of training at Carrefour

For Eva, success means more than just saving time during production. She wants to bring empathy into corporate training. She still remembers her first day at Carrefour 20 years ago and the anxiety she felt as a new hire.

By using We Are Learning to remove unnecessary content and create realistic, interactive environments, she is making sure that today's employees do more than just click "next" through a slide deck. They are building the confidence and muscle memory they need to stay safe.

Built on We Are is a series highlighting the people using We Are Learning to make training more human. Interview lightly edited for length and clarity.