How Westmorland Family made learning the road to record retention
Learners using Thrive
Challenges addressed with Thrive
Integrations used
Keeping craft consistent from farm shop to motorway
Westmorland Family is a second-generation, family-owned business best known for its iconic motorway services, with six sites across the UK. A far cry from the dull, dimly lit service stations that pepper Britain's motorways, Westmorland's sites are destinations in their own right. Behind that reputation are skilled craftspeople, including butchers and bakers, whose roles need a clear structure for learning and development.
That makes an engaging learning platform business-critical for Westmorland. With a workforce split between offices, shop floors and kitchens, they needed an LMS that could easily roll out consistent training to every staff member. Communication was another important priority. Westmorland wanted a place where teams could connect and share best practice, keeping everyone aligned through a period of significant change and the expansion still to come.
Swapping the traditional LMS for a people platform
Having worked with traditional LMSs in the past, People Director Alex Sharp-Walker was excited when something altogether different came across her desk: Thrive. The partnership started in 2022, and within just six months, Westmorland was already in the top five most engaged companies on the platform thanks to their use of the Internal Communication features to hook their people in.
Since then, the team has built structured learning pathways around The Westmorland Way, as well as development programmes for induction and leadership. Thrive has even evolved the platform in response to Westmorland’s requests. Today, the mobile app puts everything shop-floor colleagues need right in their pockets, turning daily tasks into a quick tap. With communication tools and Spaces bringing people together, all six sites now feel like one connected team.
Fast lane to fresh skills
That effort has been matched by real results. Colleague turnover is the lowest it has ever been and retention is at its best, which Head of Learning Matthew Brooks sees as a testament to the team’s hard work on Thrive. The business has also seen its eNPS and annual colleague survey results rise year on year, thanks to better communication and more opportunities to learn and grow.
For Alex, the surest sign of success is colleagues coming to the People team and actively asking for more training. Thrive now sits at the heart of Westmorland’s people strategy and culture, and with the partnership committed until 2030, it forms the foundation for the next stage of growth. From farm shop to fast lane, Westmorland is proving that when people come first, everything else follows.
“You know that you’ve won when you’ve got people coming to you asking for more training. We cannot imagine a world without Thrive in it; it’s absolutely fundamental to my People strategy and our culture.”
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