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- How the Etos Academy structurally improves engagement and onboarding
How the Etos Academy structurally improves engagement and onboarding
With more than 500 stores and thousands of employees, Etos had one training house. The offering was substantial, but scattered, hard to find, and difficult to manage. So they built the Etos Academy: one central place that gives every employee the same onboarding and anchors engagement in the work itself.
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Etos Academy
Expert, independent
advice demands
consistent behaviour
Onboarding without structure costs more than you'd think
Etos has always had a large and varied range of training. But for employees, it meant daily searching. Was something mandatory or optional? That wasn't always clear. And figuring out what was relevant to your role sometimes took time.
New employees joined and found a patchwork. Their onboarding experience could differ from store to store. "Sometimes you got intensive guidance. Sometimes you had to figure more out yourself," says Milou Langeveld-de Vries, HR Project Manager & HRBP Supply Chain at Etos.
Meanwhile, Etos has a brand strategy built around expert, independent advice, from skin and hair to health and care. That demands consistent behaviour on the floor. When employees differ in that, it shows up directly in the customer experience.
When onboarding varies, your whole operation varies
The cost of chaotic onboarding doesn't always show up in euros. But it always shows up in time, quality differences, and missed opportunities. Store managers fill the gap in their own way. Employees learn what they see. And processes end up running slightly differently everywhere. And "differently" doesn't scale.
For operations, that means variation between stores. For HR/L&D, constant content chaos. For the management team, a brand strategy that doesn't fully land. In an organisation where mission and behaviour matter, that calls for employees who know what to do, how to do it and why.
How Etos built an Academy that supports the work
To break that variation, Etos made a clear choice: learning shouldn't depend on chance, it should be structurally organised. With a clear ambition: "One accessible, easy-to-find place that answers every learning and development need."
Together with TinQwise, they built that central place: the Etos Academy. Tailored to role, moment, and need. From onboarding to role-specific training, custom content was developed for every position.
"I really appreciate that we can tailor content. Every target group has its own offering. A shelf-stacker follows an onboarding programme, a store manager gets more leadership modules.
It doesn't matter whether you've just started or have been on the shop floor for years. You open the Etos Academy and see straight away what's meant for you. So you always find what fits."
Milou Langeveld-de Vries
HR Project Manager & HRBP Supply Chain
Learning that continues in the work
That also changed the foundation. The standard store processes, set out in the Etos Heartbeat, are now part of one onboarding programme. It covers everything, from stocking a shelf using FIFO to giving customers the right advice. "Now you simply know: everyone has a clear programme and gets the same information at the right time," says Milou.
That information isn't just practical, it's also relatable. New colleagues see how others experienced their first day and get explanations from colleagues in the store. Onboarding isn't an endpoint here. For roles like store manager and Service & Sales Lead, role-specific training follows on directly. Learning doesn't stop after the first few weeks. It continues in the work.
For managers and administrators, just as much has changed. Store managers monitor progress, and administrators update content in minutes. No tickets, no IT requests. Just adjusting what's needed, when it's needed.
Etos' choice
Engagement up, onboarding standardised
The first results
The Academy hasn't been live long, so more results will follow. But the early numbers are clear:
100%
finds the Academy easy to use
90%
finds the Academy useful
80%
engagement among employees under 6 weeks' tenure vs. 30% among longer-tenured staff
A smart launch drives fast adoption
Etos launched the Academy cleverly: with a scavenger hunt where teams could win a wellness moment. This led to high activation, fast adoption, and immediate awareness of the Academy.
"People understand it well and know how to find their way. That's exactly what we wanted to achieve," Milou says, enthusiastically.
Why this works: structure beats motivation
Employee motivation hasn't changed. The structure has. Everyone who now joins Etos finds the same foundation, regardless of store, manager, or start date.
Learning is part of the job. With moments of reflection that get employees thinking about their own behaviour on the shop floor. Relying on individual onboarding buddies makes the outcome unpredictable. The Academy brings structure and grows with the brand.
Etos made that choice.
The first results
The Academy hasn't been live long, so more results will follow. But the early numbers are clear:
100%
finds the Academy easy to use
90%
finds the Academy useful
80%
engagement among employees under 6 weeks' tenure vs. 30% among longer-tenured staff
A smart launch drives fast adoption
Etos launched the Academy cleverly: with a scavenger hunt where teams could win a wellness moment. This led to high activation, fast adoption, and immediate awareness of the Academy.
"People understand it well and know how to find their way. That's exactly what we wanted to achieve," Milou says, enthusiastically.
Why this works: structure beats motivation
Employee motivation hasn't changed. The structure has. Everyone who now joins Etos finds the same foundation, regardless of store, manager, or start date.
Learning is part of the job. With moments of reflection that get employees thinking about their own behaviour on the shop floor. Relying on individual onboarding buddies makes the outcome unpredictable. The Academy brings structure and grows with the brand.
Etos made that choice.
These TinQers worked on this Retail Academy
Curious whether this could work for your organisation?
These are the questions we get asked most often:
How long does it take before an Academy goes live?
It varies by situation. For Picnic, the Academy was live within six weeks. The timeline depends on what's needed and whether there's a deadline to work towards. We always tailor this to what fits your organisation.
We want a strong launch and high adoption. Can you help with that?
Yes, and we go as far as you want. A good launch is the difference between a platform that lives and one that gets left behind. At Etos, a scavenger hunt, with a wellness moment as the prize, drove high activation and instant awareness of the Academy. We're happy to help shape a concept that fits your organisation and employees.
Who manages the Academy after launch?
The client. You decide what goes on the Academy and what doesn't. We're here if you need help further developing content, but you stay in control.
We have employees who don't speak Dutch. Can they use it too?
Yes. The platform supports more than 30 languages, most of which are automatically translated using AI. Employees can simply use the Academy in their own language.
We have different roles with different needs. Can you translate that into a tailored offering per target group?
Yes, and there's no limit to it. Every target group sees its own offering, tailored to role, level, or where someone is in their development. That said, we'll give you honest advice on when differentiation stops adding value.
We want the Academy to genuinely fit our brand. Is that possible?
Completely. Employees learn in an environment that feels like their own organisation's. House style, tone of voice, photography: it all matches, from front to back.
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with a request body that specifies how to map the columns of your import file to the associated CRM properties in HubSpot.... In the request JSON, define the import file details, including mapping the spreadsheet's columns to HubSpot data. Your request JSON should include the following fields:... entry for each column.
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How Etos helps its people grow

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