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Dick Lovett has long been recognised as a name synonymous with prestige and service in the UK automotive world. As BMW’s longest-standing official partner in the country, their heritage stretches back to 1966, with dealerships in Bristol, Hungerford, Melksham, and Swindon. But behind the showrooms and service bays is a company just as committed to people as it is to performance – something that’s come to life through their partnership with Nimble since 2022.
When Emma Newton moved from the marketing to the personnel team at Dick Lovett, she brought with her a passion for storytelling and employee engagement. Now, the Talent Engagement Specialist, Emma, plays a key role in shaping how the company uses Nimble LMS to train, empower, and inspire.
Group Training Manager, Jason Bond, had already transformed Dick Lovett’s induction programme by using Nimble to offer new starters an engaging, comprehensive suite of training that could be completed at any time.
Structured learning, strong results
Dick Lovett’s use of Nimble started with onboarding and compliance training. From health and safety to social media policies, courses were tailored to be short, accessible, and relevant. The team used Nimble’s analytics tools to drive high engagement.
“We’re really proud of our 85% completion rate on key induction courses,” says Emma. “That’s over 5,700 completions from more than 6,800 enrolments, across dealerships of all sizes. It shows that the system is intuitive and that people are motivated to complete their training.”
Aided by regular tracking reports and manager follow-ups, the platform has enabled faster adoption and better accountability. Lianne Brown, Personnel Administrator at Dick Lovett, uses Nimble’s results pages to quickly identify who’s completed what, and run weekly reports to make online training part of their rhythm.
Getting teams engaged
Emma’s background in psychology and marketing has informed her approach to course design.
“I’m a bit nerdy about this stuff. We think a lot about assessments and how to structure content that’s engaging and sticks. Nimble makes it easy to build interactivity, using sliding scales, reflective questions and embedded media.”
One standout project has been the creation of a microlearning course about the Lovett Foundation, a charitable initiative supporting care leavers – young people transitioning out of foster care. Emma realised that despite newsletters, emails, posters and banners, many of their team still didn’t fully understand what the Foundation does; so she built a short Nimble course, and over 275 people chose to complete it entirely of their own volition.
That course included videos, infographics, links to get involved, and surveys to collect feedback and gauge interest in mentoring, volunteering, and fundraising. It turned one-way communication into a two-way dialogue, boosting engagement with the organisation’s charity.
Creating real-world impact
The Lovett Foundation focuses on a deeply underserved group: young people leaving the care system. Without the support of foster care, many face an increased risk of homelessness and unemployment.
“We have actually made a real difference to people’s lives. We run CV skills workshops, and one of our partners in Bristol told us that one of the people who came to our workshop is now in full-time employment. We also do a big fundraising day as a company – we delivered spin bikes to every dealership for a charity cycling challenge. It was fiercely competitive and raised a lot of money!”
Dick Lovett is also involved with Homewards, a Royal Foundation initiative tackling homelessness. Nimble stepped in here too, offering free training licenses to help extend skills development to young people in Newport and beyond. Emma plans to create online courses to support their in-person workshops, with downloadable certificates that can help boost the CVs of those looking for work.
Outstanding support, seamless partnership
Throughout their journey with Nimble, Emma speaks highly of the support they’ve received.
“Our Customer Success Manager, Lesley, has been fantastic. She offers really constructive and fair feedback on our content, and I think it’s lovely that you’ve got someone who really cares about that end user and how the course is going to come across. The support has been absolutely phenomenal.”
Emma also noted the inspiration they took from attending Nimble’s free Community Day for customers – borrowing everything from QR code name tags to event structures for their own networking events.
“Everyone we met from Nimble was just so interested in hearing our point of view. It seems like an amazing place to work too, and I don’t think you can fake that!”
From premium car dealerships to meaningful community outreach, Dick Lovett is showing that training done right can drive both performance and purpose. Nimble has become not just a tool, but a strategic partner in that journey.
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