Engage

Schedule time for upskilling to build a learning culture 

Overview

What is DEAL Hour?

DEAL stands for “Drop Everything And Learn.” DEAL Hours are monthly, organization-wide dedicated learning sessions, set up by your company’s L&D or HR department. Employees take one hour out of their daily tasks to focus entirely on professional development using Udemy Business.

Why DEAL Hour Matters

It’s hard to find time to learn. Over half of employees globally say that lack of time is their top barrier to learning. Meanwhile, 73% of L&D leaders cite “finding time for workplace learning” as their top challenge. 

By scheduling DEAL Hour, you help create a sustainable learning culture by providing protected time for employee development. DEAL Hour helps your people build consistent learning habits and focuses the company on priority topics that will drive real business outcomes.

Implementation Timeline

Day 1: Planning (30 minutes)

Review this guide and customize approach for your organization

Month 1: Foundation (1.5 hours total)

• Secure executive buy-in (1 hour prep + 30-minute meeting)
• Finalize monthly schedule and logistics

Month 2: Launch (2 hours total)

• Execute announcement campaign
• Schedule and hold first DEAL Hour
• Gather initial feedback

Month 3+: Grow (1 hour monthly)

• Continue monthly DEAL Hours
• Implement engagement initiatives
• Track and measure impact

Step-by-Step Implementation Guide

Step 1: Secure Executive Buy-In

Getting management to believe in the value of DEAL Hour is key to a successful rollout and making the program sustainable. Start from the top, and sell your executive staff and high level managers on the importance of learning. If your people managers see that their managers are supportive of DEAL Hour, then they will encourage their employees to participate. Use the pitch below about the benefits of workplace learning and the lack of time for learning to help your executive staff see the value and get behind DEAL Hour.

Key Talking Points for Executive Presentation: - Present the learning time crisis: 54% of employees need more learning time - Highlight skill disruption urgency: 44% of skills face disruption within 5 years - Position DEAL Hour as strategic culture initiative, not just training program - Request visible executive support and participation.

Executive Commitment Needed: - Public endorsement at company meetings - Personal participation in DEAL Hours - Support for employee time investment

Step 2: Design Your Announcement Strategy

The next step is to announce DEAL Hour so your employees know what it is. Use an executive sponsor to help make the announcement and generate excitement. You can create the announcement for them, but having the message come from them will show everyone in your organization that DEAL Hour is something the company is behind. 

Include the announcement in a company all hands meeting or email. Don’t just announce it once, however. It’s important to keep people excited by announcing through multiple channels and reminding people it’s coming. Seek learning champions who can talk about the value of their learning on Udemy and the impact it had on their work or career. 

Campaign Approach: 

• Announcement: Company all-hands or organization-wide email from executive sponsor 
• Visual Campaign: Posters, countdown graphics, branded Teams/Zoom backgrounds 
• Social Proof: Learning champion videos, leadership testimonials
• Communication Timeline: - 2-3 weeks prior: Official announcement and program overview - 1 day prior: Reminder email with course selection guidance - Day of: “Today’s the day!” motivational message

Step 3: Schedule for Maximum Participation

Find a time that works well for DEAL Hour across your organization, and schedule one hour per month at the same time every month so people always have it on their schedule. When scheduling, keep in mind things that might keep people from participating, such as major recurring deadlines, month-end or end of quarter. 

Use your User Activity Report in Udemy Business to see if you can spot any trends for when your employees are learning, and use that as a baseline for scheduling DEAL Hour.

For some organizations, it’s not practical, or possible, to have everyone stop what they’re doing and learn at the same time. If you have workers who are on-call, work on factory floors, or work in a customer-facing capacity that doesn’t allow them to take time away for learning in the middle of their shift, you can make DEAL Hour more flexible. Let the employee find a time that works well for them during that day or week, or alternate times with their colleagues so not everyone is learning at once.

Step 4: Provide Learning Direction

There are many great courses on Udemy Business, it can be hard to choose just one to watch for DEAL Hour! Consider recommending courses based on what you think works best for your organization. Alternatively, create a one-hour learning path with a mix of course portions, internal training and links to company presentations or videos. 

Consider creating AI-powered learning paths aligned with strategic priorities, or address identified skill gaps. You could also have a monthly theme for inspiration focussed on events like wellness, diversity and inclusion or employee career development. 

Use the course insights dashboard in Udemy Business to identify top content or courses, and consider employee-requested topics. Give your learners guidance on how to search and explore for topics of their choice that support their individual development goals. 

Step 5: Optimize the Learning Environment

Sometimes, sitting at your desk can cause distraction--it’s much harder to drop everything and learn when you’re reminded of your work by papers at your desk, email notifications, and direct messages. 

Distraction Reduction: - Encourage email and messaging system shutdown - Promote alternative learning locations (away from desks) - Suggest mobile app use for outdoor learning walks

Physical Space Enhancement: - Create dedicated learning zones with comfortable seating - Book conference rooms for group learning - Set up pop-up learning areas during DEAL Hour

Step 6: Facilitate Group Learning Experiences

Consider hosting one to three curated sessions for employees to attend virtually or in person in the office. In these sessions, employees get together to watch a course or part of a course, and take some time to discuss the content together!

Curated Session Setup: - Select 1-3 courses for facilitated group learning - Recruit diverse facilitators (executives, managers, employees) - Create sign-up system with course previews - Book appropriate spaces (physical and virtual)

Discussion Facilitation Best Practices: - Pre-Session: Prepare 3-5 discussion questions - During Session: Balance content consumption (30-45 min) with discussion (15-30 min) - Post-Session: Capture key insights and action items

Sample Discussion Questions: - What insights will you apply immediately? - How does this content address our organizational challenges? - What additional resources would enhance this learning?

Step 7: Maintain Engagement and Momentum

The best way to keep the DEAL Hour momentum going is by making it fun! Incentivize employees with treats or competitions to inspire them to learn every month. Use your User Activity report on Udemy Business to see which individual learned the most in a month, or which department had the most active learners to inspire a little friendly inter-office competition. Reward those individuals or teams with prizes such as chocolate, lunches, or company swag! 

Another important factor in keeping the momentum going is maintaining executive buy-in. Ask your executives to continue to plug DEAL Hours at company All Hands meetings and by making announcements. Encourage them to share what they are learning during DEAL Hour with the rest of the organisation.

Step 8: Measure and Optimize Impact

Once you’ve successfully rolled out DEAL Hour, measure the impact it’s had on employees by using the Reporting & Insights tools within Udemy Business to track how much more people in your organization are learning every month. You can also send out surveys to get a sense for how people in your organization perceive workplace learning. 

Quantitative Metrics: - Udemy Business User Activity reports - Month-over-month learning engagement increases - Course completion rates during DEAL Hours - Department participation comparisons

Qualitative Assessment: - Post-DEAL Hour feedback surveys - Learning culture perception changes - Employee satisfaction with professional development - Program improvement suggestions

Reporting Schedule: - Monthly engagement dashboards - Quarterly impact summaries - Annual program assessment and evolution planning

Communication Templates

Executive Announcement Email

Subject: Introducing DEAL Hours - Our Commitment to Your Growth

Message: “At [Company Name], we’re launching DEAL (Drop Everything And Learn) Hours to address the challenge we know you face: finding time for professional development.

Starting [Date], we’re dedicating one hour monthly for organization-wide learning using our Udemy Business platform. This isn’t just another initiative—it’s our commitment to your growth and our collective success.

Your Next Steps: - Mark your calendar: [Day/Time] monthly - Explore course recommendations: [Link] - Sign up for curated sessions: [Link]

We’re excited to learn alongside you. [Executive Team]”

Reminder Email

Subject: DEAL Hour Tomorrow - What Will You Learn?

“Tomorrow at [Time], we drop everything and learn together!

Quick Prep: - Browse our curated recommendations: [Link] - Join a facilitated session: [Link] - Or choose your own learning adventure

Ready to invest in yourself? [Executive Team]”

Day-Of Email

Subject: It’s DEAL Time!

“Right now, across all [Company] locations, we’re dropping everything to learn something new.

This Hour is Yours: - Turn off notifications - Find your learning space - Dive into growth

Let’s make this hour count. [Executive Team]”

Success Tips

Do’s:

• Start with strong executive sponsorship
• Maintain consistent monthly scheduling
• Celebrate participation and achievements
• Gather and act on feedback regularly
• Keep content fresh and relevant

Don’ts:

• Don’t skip months without communication
• Don’t ignore accessibility needs for all employees
• Don’t make participation feel mandatory rather than empowering
• Don’t forget to measure and share impact

Troubleshooting Common Challenges:

• Low Participation: Increase executive visibility and peer recognition
• Scheduling Conflicts: Survey for optimal timing and provide flexible alternatives
• Content Relevance: Regular employee input on learning priorities

Technical Issues: Ensure IT support and alternative access methods

 

This guide provides the framework for building a sustainable learning culture through DEAL Hours. Adapt these recommendations to fit your organization’s unique needs and culture.

This article will help you drive skills development at your organization with a focus on assigning learning. Our “Engage Your Learners” series includes practical tips for scalable and impactful learning.  

Assign 3 courses each quarter 

Ask your employees to choose the first course, managers can choose the second course based on what skills they’d like their employee to develop, and your HR team should choose the third course to promote company-wide learning.  

Create learning paths using Udemy AI tools 

Create and assign a targeted, tailored learning path using our AI-powered learning path tool. Creating a path takes minutes, not hours! 

Set up a Drop Everything And Learn (DEAL) hour

Schedule a dedicated monthly hour of learning for your entire organization. To maximize impact, consider implementing DEAL hour within individual functions or business units.

Reserve 5 minutes for daily learning

Even short, consistent time spent learning can advance your workforce’s skills. Schedule five minutes every morning on your team’s calendars for learning. That’s 25 minutes per week and 100 minutes per month. Plus, it helps make learning part of a daily work routine.  

Introduce the 10/5 learning method

Expand upon your existing five minutes of daily learning with the 10/5 rule. That is, reserving 10 minutes at 10 am and five minutes at 5 pm every day for learning. This helps employees stay consistent and build a learning habit that bookends the work day.  

Schedule learning reminders

Set up regular reminders within Udemy Business that encourage employees to pick up where they left off — or start developing a new skill.

Incorporate learning into performance reviews 

This is a strategic way for managers and direct reports to select courses together based on where the employee wants to grow and where their manager feels the employee could develop their skills further. 

Use company badges

Use Udemy company badges to build a career development journey. Udemy company badges recognize and celebrate employee learning achievements, helping to boost motivation, showcase skills development, and foster a culture of continuous learning.

Assign courses with team-based learning assignments 

Assign courses that require a collaborative output, such as working on a shared project or solving a business case study. This encourages teamwork while ensuring skills application.

Tie learning to organizational objectives 

Connect learning directly with measurable objectives, such as improving specific team metrics (objectives and key results) or individual key performance indicators (KPIs). This bridges the gap between learning and real-world outcomes.

Next up: Engage Your Learners: Make Learning an Event 

This article is about how to drive skills development at your organization with a focus on setting up learning events. Our “Engage Your Learners” series includes practical tips for scalable and impactful learning. 

Host learning contests

Create internal learning champions by awarding your top learners (those who have completed the highest number of course minutes) for their efforts. 

Set up skills development challenges

Organize short-term challenges, such as a "Skill of the Month" initiative, where employees focus on learning and applying a specific skill relevant to business or industry trends. 

Start a course club

Lead a book club-style discussion. Have your team take a course or lecture (potentially on a soft skill), and come prepared to discuss the course. To encourage attendance and emphasize the importance of learning, have a leader in your company head up the discussion. 

Lead a lunch-and-learn session

Choose a top learner to lead a lunch-and-learn session about what they’ve learned from a particular Udemy course. The session leader will solidify what they’ve learned and teach their colleagues new skills. 

Host departmental skills development weeks 

Dedicate a week for each department to tackle domain-related skills, followed by a knowledge-sharing session where employees present their learnings to other teams.

Offer VIP learning perks

Reward employees who achieve significant milestones by giving them access to premium resources such as specialized certifications, conference tickets, or one-on-one coaching sessions.

Next up: Engage Your Learners: Share Ideas, Milestones, and More

This article is about how to drive skills development at your organization with a focus on sharing ideas and achievements. Our “Engage Your Learners” series includes practical tips for scalable and impactful learning.  

Share top courses within your company

Dig into your learning platform analytics to identify popular courses, and share that list with employees. By doing this on a regular basis, you’ll help employees answer the question: “What do I learn next?”

Reveal top company learners 

Recognize your company’s power learners and make those employees your top learning advocates. Whether it’s a call-out in a company meeting or an announcement of the quarter’s most prolific learners in an internal forum, show gratitude for those already engaged in learning. Other employees will take notice of the value placed on learning and follow suit.

Share success stories

Highlight employees who have benefited significantly from upskilling efforts on Udemy Business. Sharing their before-and-after stories can inspire others to develop their skills, too.

Highlight the return on investment of learning with metrics

Regularly showcase ROI-driven insights, such as collective skills progression or productivity gains, so employees see how their individual efforts are making an organizational impact.

Highlight new courses

Regularly share the latest courses and content with your workforce so that employees know there’s something new to learn when they log in. Find these courses in the category and subcategory pages by going to the Explore menu.

Share Smart Tips courses

Encourage employees to enroll in a micro-learning course by searching for “Smart Tips” on the Udemy platform. These bite-sized courses have lectures that are 2–5 minutes long. Lectures can be taken in any order. These courses  are designed to help people reach goals, reinforce learning, and apply new skills quickly. 

Encourage learning that benefits the whole employee 

Learning skills that promote mental resilience, such as stress reduction, mindful breathing, fitness, and growth mindset, help employees bring their best selves to work. Discover an array of health and well-being courses on Udemy and assign one each quarter. 

Create an internal learning channel

If your company uses an instant messaging platform for internal communication, create a channel or community where employees can discuss what they learn. Schedule weekly prompts that encourage employees  to share what they’re currently learning, why they enrolled in a new course, or how a new skill is helping at work. 

Next up: Engage Your Learners: Collaborate on Learning

This article is about how to drive skills development at your organization with a focus on collaborating on learning. Our “Engage Your Learners” series includes practical tips for scalable and impactful learning.    

Dedicate a team meeting to learning together

Reinforce your company’s learning culture by encouraging managers to lead learning moments during team meetings. This could include learning a skill together, examining recent work by a business competitor, inviting a guest speaker, or whatever you can imagine to bring value and energy to recurring meetings.  

Match up “learning buddies”

Pair employees with a learning buddy who has similar goals or expertise. They can provide mutual accountability and support as they progress through courses together. 

Implement learning ambassadors

Nominate department or team learning ambassadors who encourage colleagues, share tips, and help others navigate the learning platform effectively. 

Enable peer-to-peer mentoring 

After employees complete courses and demonstrate expertise, encourage them to mentor others who are just starting the same learning path. Teaching reinforces their own knowledge while helping others grow.

Collaborate on cross-industry courses

Demonstrate the organization’s interest in holistic development by promoting courses in emerging areas (E.g., sustainability, AI, cultural intelligence) that employees can apply across various industries.

Next up: Engage Your Learners: Create Company-Specific Solutions

This article is about how to drive skills development at your organization with a focus on creating solutions that are specific to your company. Our “Engage Your Learners” series includes practical tips for scalable and impactful learning.  

Create your own courses in Udemy Business

Simply click on Teach and create your very own course on the Udemy platform. Here’s how.   

Centralize recordings of all-company meetings

Add team meeting or all-company meeting recordings to Udemy Business so everyone can access them later. Use the Teach function to create a name for your course, for example “All-Company Meeting,” and upload each monthly recording to the course as a lecture.

Add a portal for product training

Use the Teach function to create a course or make a learning path to keep your sales and customer support teams updated on new feature enhancements and product changes without taking the teams offline simultaneously. These are great ways to create more scalable product updates for the entire company. Your customer success partner can help upskill your learning team to get things going. 

Create a course or learning path for internal procedures

Bring employees up to speed on key policies that affect all departments within your organization. Common routine tasks like filing an expense report, requesting IT support, and reporting bugs are a good place to start.

Create your own Role Play 

Role Play is the interactive way to practice communication and soft skills, so learners are prepared to meet the world of work. It’s a conversation coach and simulator powered by GenAI. Create your own Role Plays in the Teach function. 

Make a learning path for new-employee orientation

Include instructions for completing new-hire paperwork, create an office video tour, film each of your department heads giving an overview of their department, and use custom content to promote your company’s mission, value, and culture.

Build an industry knowledge repository 

Create a learning path with a collection of industry information (including insights about your competitors). This can be particularly helpful for your sales and marketing teams. 

Next up: Engage Your Learners: Personalize Their Journey

This article is about how to drive skills development at your organization with a focus on personalizing the employee learning journey. Our “Engage Your Learners” series includes practical tips for scalable and impactful learning.   

Have managers make custom learning “playlists”

Learning paths are a great way to guide your employees’ learning. Encourage every team manager to create a learning path of courses that make their teams more effective. Include your courses, courses from Udemy Business, links to podcasts, videos or internal documentation, to round out the series. 

Create personalized learning paths

Use employee feedback and analytics to create highly customized learning paths tailored to individual job roles, strengths, and areas for improvement. A personalized approach shows employees their development matters. Use GenAI Starter Paths to assign role-specific paths to develop each function, so they can access best-in-class courses in AI. 

Curate career development journeys

Use Udemy Business to map out multi-step career growth tracks, showing employees how they've progressed and the skills they’ll need to reach the next level in their careers.

Still need help with learner engagement?

Work with our customer success team to regularly track engagement of your learning programs and get practical tips for maintaining or boosting engagement. 

Communicate with your learners 

Use these short message templates to engage your learners with campaigns. Consider sending one per month for optimal engagement. Customize the below email text with your own company details, learning initiatives, banners and company logos. 

12 Top Email Templates

1. Smart Tips Courses

Subject: Learn in just 2-5 minutes!

Content: Smart Tips courses offer bite-sized learning that fits any schedule. Take lectures in any order and apply skills immediately. Popular Smart Tips:

• Communication & Leadership

• Excel & Productivity

• Wellness & Stress Management

• Project Management & Sales

Pro tip: Schedule recurring learning time and add course URLs to calendar invites.

2. Mobile Learning

Subject: Learn on the go with our mobile app

Content: Transform your downtime into upskilling time! Use the Udemy Business mobile app while cooking, commuting, or exercising.

Best for: Communication, leadership, and soft skills courses in podcast-style format.

3. Coffee & 5 Method

Subject: 5 minutes of morning learning

Content: Start each workday with 5 minutes of learning = 25 minutes weekly or 100 minutes monthly!

Pro tip: Schedule learning before meetings to share insights with your team.

4. Engagement Contest

Subject: Share your learning impact story!

Content: How it works:

• Try any learning tip above
• Share your impact story in [Slack/Teams/1:1]
• Contact [L&D team] to enter the raffle

Sample story: "The Smart Tips communication course helped me reduce filler words and lead meetings more confidently!"

5. Learning Reminders

Subject: Never miss learning time again

Content: Set up learning reminders and make daily learning a habit. Research shows consistent learners are more likely to reach their goals.

Action: Use the learning scheduler to set dedicated learning time.

6. Stand Out at Work

Subject: New skills = career growth

Content: With thousands of courses available, develop skills that make you stand out in today's rapidly changing workplace.

Get started: Browse our curated learning paths:

• [Learning Path 1]

• [Learning Path 2]

• [Learning Path 3]

7. Career Growth Focus

Subject: Your career grows when you do

Content: Access thousands of courses to build skills for your career goals.

Trending at [Company Name]:

• [Course 1]

• [Course 2]

• [Course 3]

Login: udemy.company.com

8. Popular Skills Spotlight

Subject: Top skills for [Year] at [Company Name]

Content: Stay competitive with the latest technology and in-demand skills.

Most popular courses:

• [Course 1]

• [Course 2]

• [Course 3]

9. Colleague Inspiration

Subject: What are your colleagues learning?

Content: Get inspired by your teammates' learning journeys:

• [Employee Name] - [Course] - "[Testimonial]"

• [Employee Name] - [Course] - "[Testimonial]"

• [Employee Name] - [Course] - "[Testimonial]"

Questions? Contact: email@company.com

10. Multi-Language Learning

Subject: Learn in your native language

Content: Access courses taught by industry experts in 15+ languages including:

Arabic, English, French, German, Japanese, Spanish, and more.

Explore courses: udemy.company.com

11. The 10/5 Learning Method

Subject: Build lasting learning habits

Content: The Rule: Learn 10 minutes at 10 AM + 5 minutes at 5 PM daily

This simple method helps create consistent learning habits for continuous growth.

Starter courses:

• [Course 1]

• [Course 2]

• [Course 3]

12. AI Learning Journey

Subject: Start your AI journey today

Content: Discover role-specific AI courses for marketing, HR, sales, tech, and more. Find practical, hands-on content designed for your function.

Get started: Search "AI" on the platform or browse top AI courses.

Learner engagement is critical to the success of your learning program and has the power to transform both your employees’ careers and your organization. Employees dedicated to skills development go beyond their comfort zones to learn the new skills needed to stay competitive and adapt in a changing workplace. 

Read this checklist of practical engagement ideas to help you multiply the value of your organization’s learning program in manageable ways, for learning teams of all sizes. 

Read and complete the checklist

1. Assign courses to employees and teams
It’s a simple solution to a common employee question: “What do I learn first?” Assign courses relevant to an employee’s career goals - or a learning path to upskill a team for an upcoming project. This creates a compelling reason for your employees to engage with learning.

2. Share top courses
Dig into your Udemy Business analytics to identify popular courses, and share that list with employees. By doing this on a regular basis, you’ll help employees answer the question: “What are others in my company learning - and what do I learn next?”  

3. Reveal top learners

Recognize your power learners. Whether it’s a call-out in a company meeting or an announcement of the quarter’s most prolific learners in an internal forum, show gratitude for those engaged in learning. Other employees will take notice of the value placed on upskilling and follow suit. 

4. Host book-club style course discussions
Create monthly course clubs to encourage functional teams or employees with similar career goals to learn together. Like a book club, each employee reviews the material independently and then gathers together with a group to share learnings.

5. Highlight new courses
Regularly share the latest courses and content with your workforce so that employees know there’s something new to learn when they log in to Udemy Business or your learning management system (LMS).  

6. Create an internal learning channel
If your company uses a messaging  platform for internal communication, create a channel for employees to talk about the latest course they took. Schedule weekly channel prompts that encourage employees to share what they’ve learned and how a new skill is helping them perform better. 

7. Offer flexible learning
Help employees fit learning in throughout their work day  by offering courses on a mobile app, so they can learn on-the-go, or whenever they  have a few free minutes.  
 

8. Reserve five minutes of daily learning
Even short, consistent time spent learning  can advance your workforce’s skills. Schedule five minutes every morning on your  team’s calendars for learning. That’s 25 minutes per week and 100 minutes per month. 

9. Schedule learning reminders
Schedule regular reminders in Udemy Business that encourage employees to get back into their learning tool and pick up where  they left off — or start developing a new skill.  

10. Link career goals to tailored learning paths
Ongoing learning doesn’t only benefit  the company. Use learning paths to target employees’ personal career objectives,  and make completion of these paths part of their quarterly goals.  

Still need help with learner engagement?

Work with our customer success team to track engagement of your learning programs and get practical tips for boosting engagement.