The company has teamed up with digital learning and skills specialist THRIVE to fuel its learning culture and growth plans by making development opportunities accessible, engaging, and achievable for its 11,000 employees.

By using THRIVE's newly launched learning and skills platform, all Matalan employees will receive AI-driven recommendations based on their role, skills, and interests, including resources from the L&D industry's top publishers, THRIVE's own Content Club, and user generated content from their Matalan peers.

Initially, Matalan was looking for a new learning platform and an internal communications tool to keep its people connected during the pandemic. Now, by upgrading its learning-management system to THRIVE, it's combined the two. The new platform will enable interaction and knowledge sharing between dispersed teams, with tailored engagement campaigns and pathways for each individual user, and automated reporting and analytics to understand their behaviours and motivations.

All Matalan employees will have a THRIVE login. Those who aren't desk based can access the platform on their phone (including via an app), from the back office PC, store tablet, or at home on any device.

Cat Davys, Head of Talent at Matalan, said, "Connection is really important to us at Matalan, which is why we searched long and hard for a platform that would enable our 11,000 colleagues to access communications and learning easier, while also feeling connected to the business - and each other.

"THRIVE's functionality blew other competitors out of the water and was the only platform we saw that could meet our ambitions. I am personally most excited about the user-generated content functionality, as I believe it will make both communications and learning more accessible to all, as it will be coming from within the business.

"The AI functionality is great, too, ensuring colleagues can shape their own experience and get to see the content that's relevant and meaningful to them."

THRIVE recently launched its new, built-in skills solution as part of their learning platform, making it the first complete learning and skills platform, on the market.

The solution, which is now an integral part of the THRIVE offering, gives learning and  development teams a seamless, accessible way to manage, develop, and track skills across their entire organisation.

For the first time, THRIVE is bringing together the compliance capabilities of an LMS, the learner-led social feel of an LXP, and a new skills development platform. The integrated learning and skills platform gives L&D teams a one-stop shop for learning, upskilling, communication, and collaboration.

Sean Reddington, CEO and Founder at THRIVE, added, "We are very pleased to announce this new strategic partnership with Matalan, which will enable them to embrace a new, consolidated approach to upskilling, learning, and collaborative knowledge sharing, benefitting its thousands of employees.

"It's widely agreed that the need for companies to modernise their approach to learning and development has never been stronger. However, this has always been more of a challenge for larger firms with geographically separated teams in numerous locations.

"Our new learning and skills platform successfully overcomes this obstacle, and it does so in a personalised way, thanks to an agile framework that evolves with each learner and team, all while helping organisations thrive by staying ahead of the ever-changing demand for workplace skills."