In a highly competitive category, Bank of Ireland pipped GSK and Leaders Romans Group to the top prize with its Career Agility programme, which won plaudits from the judges.
WINNER
Bank of Ireland
The Bank of Ireland Group is predominantly based in the Republic of Ireland, but provides financial services for customers in Great Britain. Around 25% of its 9,500 staff are based in the UK.
It revised its learning platform to reflect new ways of learning and give colleagues a personalised learning experience; launched a Career Agility programme to help develop future skills, incorporating gamification, leaderboards and gentle “nudging” to incentivise learners; developed a You as a Manager course for people managers that involved a blend of personal assessment, classroom learning, peer coaching and leadership engagement; and launched a You as a Leader programme focused on building organisational resilience during the pandemic.The bank recognised the need to support colleagues to transition from a traditional learning mindset to a development and growth mindset. The L&D team conducted interviews and research among senior leaders on future capability requirements; held focus groups with learners and leaders; and launched a talent development framework with specific programmes for key groups such as new recruits and people managers.
Three-quarters of colleagues are now self-directed active learners, against an industry benchmark of 50%. More than half of colleagues are registered on learning pathways or programmes, and 40% of learners have graduated from their programme ahead of time.
The You as a Manager programme has been particularly effective, with the bank seeing significantly higher engagement scores (+7 points on average) among those who completed it.
RUNNERS-UP
GSK
In 2005, pharmaceutical giant GSK found that its graduate chemists were not securing senior roles within GSK and were instead moving to other organisations after the completion of their training.
An L&D team was formed, comprised of subject matter experts in chemistry and drug discovery; HR; corporate intellectual property and communications colleagues; an administrative assistant and an external consultant.
To equip colleagues with the skills they needed to succeed at GSK, the team developed a two-part programme of continuous professional development. The aim was to offer an externally-recognised qualification in association with universities; experiential learning and formal training; benchmarking, peer-review and assessment; and a flexible learning experience to support career breaks.
The GSK Postgraduate Certificate in Professional Development is delivered with the University of Kent and participants graduate at a ceremony in Canterbury Cathedral. Forty-two staff have completed this component of the programme.
Secondly, a PhD/MPhil is offered by the University of Strathclyde. Participants complete their degrees during full-time employment on GSK projects and benefit from both industrial and academic supervisors. This has been completed by 38 employees.
GSK has become the first and only UK pharmaceutical company to be recognised as a higher education provider. GSK chemists have progressed into senior positions and responsibilities within chemistry that have been predominantly filled by postgraduate-entry chemists previously. Five have been promoted into leadership roles, 11 have become key liaison links with universities, and nine are supervisors of GSK staff PhDs.
Leaders Romans Group
Corporate property services firm Leaders Romans Group has developed the LRG Leadership Academy, a six-month management development programme that aims to enhance strategic thinking, create better business outcomes and boost employee engagement and performance.
The programme contains six days of learning, delivered monthly, with a final day for assessment where all attendees deliver a presentation. It was piloted between August 2019 and February 2020, but has since been expanded and is now delivered remotely.
Topics include giving 360 feedback; managing successful teams; coaching; delegation; dealing with change; motivation; dealing with difficult conversations; presentation skills; recruitment; mental health and an overview of the firm’s HR function.
The final assessment involves a 10 minute presentation that reflects on what colleagues have learnt during the programme, how they have applied it, and how it has added value to their teams. Board-level leaders attend the final presentations.
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By May 2021, seven academies launched in 2020 had been completed with 69 colleagues graduating. A further six academies were launched in June 2021 with 94 managers signed up. The 2022 programmes have a waiting list in excess of 80 managers.
CEO Peter Kavanagh said he was impressed with the quality of the presentations given and the commitment staff had put into the course.
