Legal & General
As with many organisations over the last few years Legal and
General have been undergoing a period of rapid change and the HR
and Training function has not been any different. In order to
support the changing needs of the business L&G recognised a
need to transform their approach to Learning & Development
. Transformation of the Learning & Development
function is a key topic within the L&D Community and The
Training Journal have been using Legal and General as one of their
case study organisations for their L&D 2020 Research
Project.
Developing the training function
The main focus for Legal & General is to develop their
training function from a Trainer Centric approach to a more dynamic
facilitative business partnering model. As part of the drive to
build the strength, reputation and credibility of the training
function to fully support this transformation to the business
partner approach, BPP were asked to deliver the CIPD accredited
Certificate in Training Practice. This would enable the
organisation to establish a quality benchmark standard of
professional practice upon which they can build and develop their
Learning & Development teams further.
BPP have delivered two Certificate in Training Programmes to
Legal and General. The first was provided on the basis of one
day a month on-site training for 10 months. This was to
ensure that the Legal and General training team were not all out of
the office at the same time during a period of intense
organisational change. They were keen to ensure that there
was minimum disruption to their internal client base and we were
able to do this.
A speedy, tailored response
When Legal and General entered into a more stable period and
needed to move quickly BPP were able to offer a fast track CTP
programme to get other members of the team qualified as soon as
possible. The second programme took the form of two one week
training sessions with 2 months in-between that were based on site
at the Legal and Office at Hove Park. “BPP were able to
provide a speedy response to my request and very quickly gained a
good understanding of my requirements for the team. As the
course progresses they have been checking in with me all the way to
ensure the content is still relevant and appropriate. To have
this ongoing flexibility and adaptability demonstrates their
professionalism and ensures it is tailored for our exact
needs”.
The CTP encompasses a mix of group discussion, case studies, and
practical activities as well as some tutor led presentation.
All trainees are expected to participate as fully as possible and
to be involved in leading some of the sessions. Additional
support is provided outside of the on-site days via email and
telephone contact with their dedicated tutor. BPP were also able to
offer onsite tutorials and 1:2:1 sessions outside of the dedicated
2 week training schedule.
The first programme was rolled out to a group of 16 training
professionals whilst the fast track programme was delivered to a
group of 9. All those participating in the training had
varying ranges of experience and background. This enabled the
groups to learn from each other and to share ideas and experiences
generating some interesting discussion and debate and giving them
access to information and other areas of the business that they
might otherwise not have gained. What has worked particularly
well at Legal and General is the support available from their
management team and those that have already achieved the
qualification are able to provide additional coaching and support
to those currently undertaking it.
Challenging the status quo
The limitation with corporate groups can be that they don’t get
the opportunity to learn about environments other than their own.
To challenge the status quo it helps to know what alternatives may
look like. The practical business experience of our Tutors
and their professional backgrounds in other organisations enables
them to share both their own experiences and to draw on their
discussions with other corporate groups and students to help bring
in different perspectives and examples.
Working closely together
Prior to the training BPP worked closely with the Head of
Learning and Development to identify links between the programme
content and their Learning and development strategy. This
involved liaising with the Corporate HR and Training team including
John Baker the Director of HR and Training and Alison Batement the
Head of Management and development. The Tutor was able
to re-arrange the CTP programme to provide an opportunity for a
company led session on the future of Learning and Development
within the business. This had many advantages.
Firstly it enabled the tutor to directly link the theory, concepts
and best practice into the “real world” environment of the client
organisation making it relevant for the participants and thereby
encouraging the transfer of learning, secondly it enabled an
opportunity for the corporate centre to meet with the business
units to find out more about what was going on in different areas
of the organisation and thirdly it facilitated an open dialogue
that started the promise of a more collaborative approach across
the different pockets of Learning and Development within the
business.