Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Transforming a training department

by Personnel Today 27 Jan 2004
by Personnel Today 27 Jan 2004

Roisin
Woolnough finds out how a Year In Industry student helped a company’s training
department streamline its processes

Now
a business management student at Northumbria University, Katie Russell spent last
year on a Year in Industry placement at engineering company Advantica – part of
the National Grid Transco energy company.

Seconded
to the training and regulation department within Advantica, she worked on a
project to create an interactive web application allowing customers to access
course training information and book themselves onto courses.

“My
project came about because members of my department were often out of the
offices, travelling across the country delivering courses,” says Russell. “If a
customer had a query or wished to book themselves onto a course, they would
telephone or e-mail the department. Some customers started to become frustrated
as they were not getting instantaneous responses to their queries.”

Russell
was helping her supervisor deal with any training queries, creating reports of
what training was needed and booking people onto courses. This entailed
compiling lists of whose training was running out, informing the employee’s
manager and then waiting for the manager to say what training was needed and
who should get it. This was a lengthy process that took nearly three weeks and
Russell noticed that she kept receiving the same queries.

As
a result, a few months into her placement, Russell suggested that an
interactive web site that enabled users to input the necessary information
would save time for the department and ensure employees requiring training got
a speedier response.

“It
was decided that the web application would improve efficiency as all of the
information customers need would be up to date and available to them
straightaway,” explains Russell. “This was not only to improve efficiency, but
also customer relations within our department.”

Advantica
employees can now view live data that tells them when their training expires.
Training courses can be viewed by region and employees are able to book courses
online. The form verifies and checks the inputted data and then e-mails the
training department with the information.

The
system has also freed up time in the training department as there is no longer
the need to write up time consuming reports to send to managers. Russell says
it has reduced the number of repetitive tasks the training department has to
deal with as many training queries can be answered without contacting a member
of staff. “For example, we do not need to inform managers when members of their
team need training as managers can log on and see for themselves,” she says.

Russell
found the placement very useful in terms of looking at how a business operates
and how different departments are run. “I didn’t expect to learn as much as I
did during my year with Advantica,” she says. “I feel this will help me during
my course because what I learn at university is mainly theory from a textbook.
And after my year out, I can now see how this theory can be put into practice
in a real company.”

Having
not really been aware of how HR contributes to an organisation prior to her
placement, Russell now thinks it is about equipping people with the skills they
need.

www.advantica.biz

Personnel Today
Personnel Today

Personnel Today articles are written by an expert team of award-winning journalists who have been covering HR and L&D for many years. Some of our content is attributed to "Personnel Today" for a number of reasons, including: when numerous authors are associated with writing or editing a piece; or when the author is unknown (particularly for older articles).

previous post
BA set to announce further cutbacks
next post
98 per cent now use online recruitment

You may also like

Barrister wins gender critical belief discrimination claim

27 Jul 2022

‘Patchy’ mental health services failing ethnic minority communities

11 Jul 2022

Global study highlights hypertension treatment failings

8 Jul 2022

NICE sets out new guideline on managing depression

8 Jul 2022

Half of employees struggle to switch off on...

8 Jul 2022

Five steps for organisations across the globe to...

8 Jun 2022

The Search for Talent: Six Major Employer Pitfalls

24 May 2022

Grants scheme set up to support women’s health...

16 May 2022

How music can help to ease anxiety at...

9 May 2022

OH will be key to navigating ‘second pandemic’...

14 Apr 2022
  • 6 reasons why work-based learning is better than traditional training PROMOTED | A recent Fortune/Deloitte survey found that 71% of CEOs are anticipating that this year’s biggest business disrupter...Read more
  • Strengthening Scotland’s public services through virtual recruiting PROMOTED | This website is Scotland's go-to place for job seekers looking to apply for roles in public services...Read more
  • What’s next for L&D? Enter Alchemist… PROMOTED | It’s time to turn off the tedious and get ready for interactive and immersive learning experiences...Read more
  • Simple mistakes are blighting the onboarding experience PROMOTED | The onboarding of new hires is a company’s best chance...Read more
  • Preventing Burnout: How can HR help key workers get the right help? PROMOTED | Workplace wellbeing may seem a distant memory...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2022

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2022 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+