Wealth management company St James’s Place scooped top place in the Learning & Development Award – Smaller Employers for 2023. The company launched an immersive virtual reality programme to help individuals to learn and practise techniques in an accessible and inclusive way – our judges were amazed by the results. We review the winning entry and those of the excellent runners-up.
WINNER
St James’s Place
Feedback showed that in-person training at wealth management company St James’s Place was proving expensive to run, hard to scale up, and inconsistent. Employees reported feeling uncomfortable with face-to-face role play, and an excess of technical content was inhibiting learning.
Recognising the role technology could play in revitalising its learning around client engagement, it launched an immersive virtual reality programme, helping individuals to learn and practice techniques in a safe, accessible and inclusive way. VR headsets are used to simulate the role of a financial adviser, and they can choose from a series of simulations representing typical real-life scenarios. Sessions can be watched back and participants are given a rating out of five based on how they performed. Scenarios can be revisited at any time until participants feel ready for a formal assessment. Weekly reviews and ‘lunch and learn’ sessions are also offered to help prevent ‘Zoom fatigue’.
Phased deployment, repeated review and testing enabled the L&D team to respond to user feedback and fine-tune the technology.
By the end of 2022 445 people from 22 locations had completed the programme. It has boosted motivation and led to better outcomes for St James’s Place’s clients, helping to increase its NPS score to 83%. Feedback from participants showed four out of five felt better equipped to hold a client meeting.
RUNNERS-UP
ATS Euromaster
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Learning and development had not been at the forefront of investment at vehicle maintenance company ATS Euromaster for some time, and employee engagement surveys revealed a greater need for it to develop leadership skills.
The L&D team launched a Centre Operations Manager & First Line Manager programme to give managers the foundational knowledge and tools to drive performance, and in particular develop emotional intelligence so they are able to effectively engage with their teams. Specifically, the programme aims to facilitate impactful, expectation-setting conversations between managers and their reports.
The programme is a six-to-nine-month blended learning experience, incorporating bite-sized e-learning modules, face-to-face workshops where managers can try out what they have learnt in a safe environment, and 90 day action plans to put in place new techniques. The course culminates in a one-to-one development discussion with participants’ line managers to assess the impact the programme has had.
Those who complete the programme receive accreditation as an associate member of the Institute of Leadership & Management, which includes 12 months’ access to online resources, allowing participants to continue their own development.
By April 2023, 171 first line managers had successfully completed the programme. Eighty-six per cent who have completed the course are still with ATS. The company’s employee engagement score has increased and more employees say their manager gives them sufficient coaching and guidance to develop and improve performance.
Bagnalls in partnership with Discovery
Painting and decorating contractor Bagnalls was established in 1875 and now employs 630 people. It has worked with Discovery since 2018.
Bagnalls had historically focused on technical training, meaning that supervisors and managers had received no formal leadership development from the company. However, finding that only 62% of managers felt supervisors mainly or completely understood what they were accountable for, it decided to invest in this area of development.
A pilot saw 36 managers and supervisors attend Discovery’s Building Highly Effective Leadership Behaviours programme, which took place over two days eight weeks apart. The course covered personal commitment to being a leader at Bagnalls and what that means; driving productivity, results and customer excellence through building trust and delegating with clarity; managing performance; and holding effective coaching conversations. As all participants were trained in the trade, it was important that the course involved practical exercises, and theoretical concepts were explained in a way that was relatable to their roles on site.
The programme has since been rolled out across Bagnalls. All participants rated the course as either good or outstanding and 99% agreed they could apply their training at work. The company has achieved its highest ever pre-tax profit which was partly attributed to the success of the programme. Hazard reporting has also increased, demonstrating much more engagement with health and safety from site supervisors.
Channel 4 Television
Channel 4 recognised that coaching was crucial to delivering a high-performing, inclusive culture, but only senior people had access to coaches. To help employees reach their full potential everyone needed access to coaching.
The people team crafted a coaching strategy, breaking down coaching requirements by group. This resulted in the creation of a three-pronged action plan to ensure the needs of everyone were met.
An internal coaching team was created, a cost-effective solution that sees Channel 4’s own people offer coaching to their colleagues. Nearly 30 people were enrolled onto a coaching apprenticeship, and there are now 15 level 5 fully qualified internal coaches, with the remainder nearing the end of their training. It re-interviewed many of its long-standing executive coaches to ensure they continued to meet the needs of senior leaders and Channel 4’s strategy. A virtual hub for non-executive coaching was also created, offering coaching content on the most requested areas based on survey data and feedback from HR business partners and managers.
A third of employees have received coaching, and training increased by 300%. Nearly nine in 10 coachees are satisfied with coaching, with 82% saying it will make a difference to how they work. Managers gave an NPS score of 80, indicating a correlation between coaching and an increase in performance.
Dishoom
In 2022, Dishoom realised it had a significant problem with new starter retention. Before Covid it lost one in three new starters in their first three months, but by 2022 it was losing one in two in their first two months.
The restaurant chain’s solution was the creation of an in-café trainer role and a blended onboarding process, with multi-department ‘classrooms’ and ‘learn on your feet’ exercises to instil culture. New workbooks were created to support the programme, featuring QR codes to direct learners to LMS content, checklists to track progress, practice quizzes, and mindfulness exercises to support their wellbeing at work. In their first week, all new starters attend artwork and history tours of their café, begin kitchen tours, and taste and learn about different parts of the menu.
By having a dedicated trainer in each cafe, the firm can quickly introduce operational changes into week-one training and host face-to-face sessions for the wider team as needed.
At the King’s Cross branch, the first to trial the concept, new starter turnover dropped from one in two to one in 10. Across London new starter turnover has reduced by 20%. Dishoom says the programme has helped it increase recruitment capacity and reduce new runner training days from five to two, saving 25 hours per runner.
Element Six
Element Six designs, develops and produces synthetic diamond and tugsten carbide supermaterials.
To support those early in their careers to develop into potential future leaders, it launched its Growing Potential programme, which runs over nine months. It gives participants insights into their strengths and how they can make a positive difference at work, mentoring from a more experienced colleague to expand their viewpoints, professional coaching, and a meeting with an executive director of their choosing to increase their exposure to senior leadership and learn more about the business.
Learning is further advanced by Element Six’s Developing Talent framework, which provides ongoing support to those further in their careers. This is a nine-month framework where participants attend group learning sessions, work with their manager to identify development needs and plan their year ahead and access team coaching support.
Approximately 40% of participants have progressed in their career over the past few years, through promotion in role, or by changing role, function or location. Managers have observed that people who took part in the Growing Potential programme are more confident, show greater ownership and a willingness to take on bigger tasks, and make more independent decisions.
One participant said: “I truly believe I would not have had the self-confidence to apply for the new role without everything I learnt in GPP.”
Wood Mackenzie
Wood Mackenzie is a consultancy that advises on clean energy investment. Traditional learning methods were no longer fit for purpose or agile enough to keep up with the pace of change in this evolving industry, and employees felt their careers were stalling as they struggled to balance the urgent need to upskill with other responsibilities.
Its parent company’s decision to divest of Wood Mackenzie pushed it to launch a new L&D philosophy based on three principles: agility, agency and accountability. It has completely removed competency frameworks, which it felt encouraged learners to base career development on past role requirements, and instead encourages workers to develop in 20 core and 20 technical capabilities, which were defined by the L&D team in collaboration with HR business partners and functional stakeholders.
It has introduced a central learning hub as a one-stop-shop for learning access and invested in on-demand learning and skills-based workshops that employees can easily fit into their working day. Managers have been developed to act as “connectors” and foster a culture of peer coaching, feedback and mentoring.
Engagement scores around learning have increased by 15 points, the biggest shift in any metric, and visits to its talent development site have soared. Wood Mackenzie is investing in a new social learning platform and providing a dedicated external education assistance fund to support employees’ career development.
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