Lombard finds TAP an asset
Since its founders started leasing out rolling stock almost 150 years ago Lombard, a leading asset finance specialist and part of The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) Group, have been helping businesses to obtain the vehicles, vessels, aircraft, machinery or technology they need. In the competitive finance arena, where customer loyalty is vital and much harder to come by than in the banking world, attracting, developing and retaining the highest calibre of staff is a top priority. Until the latter part of 2006 investment in learning and development (L&D) had been steady but unspectacular. Having disbanded the training function for a while, the business decided it needed to up its L&D game to achieve ambitious business targets and a new small team was formed in the autumn of 2006 to drive the L&D agenda forward.
Brian Pyke, Head of L&D at Lombard, knew how easy it was to spend a lot of money on L&D without focusing sufficiently on outcomes and benefits for the business.
"Good enough simply was not good enough for us," said Brian. "We spent a lot of time talking about key objectives and how we could deliver high quality L&D solutions to the business, not just be well intentioned specialists. Because the team embraced a whole range of backgrounds, experience and skills we wanted to benchmark our L&D provision and make sure that everyone was operating to the same high, structured standards. It was also important to deliver some quick wins to establish the credibility of the new team."
Brian knew that The Training Foundation (TTF) was an approved supplier to RBS Group, so in November 2006 - before the full team was in place - he made a point of finding out how The Training Foundation's TAP Learning System might help him to achieve those consistent structured standards.
"At that stage I had no idea what the skills mix would be, but I knew our key challenges would be flexibility and consistency," said Brian. "What impressed me about TAP was the flexibility it allowed because of the underlying structure and the fact that trainers could build up a credible portfolio of skills through a modular range of programmes. It all fits together. TAP seemed to tie in perfectly with our goal of providing the right solution at the right time in a way that would add value to the business."
Convinced that the TAP Learning System would provide the right framework for future design, development and delivery, Brian and Project Consultant Christina O'Hara set about pinpointing the skills in the team and identifying which TAP courses would best fit need.
The team is split into complementary halves: Brian manages a team of four, responsible for relationship consultancy to the business divisions, setting the learning agenda, talent and cultural issues and product knowledge expertise. Christina manages a team of L&D Project Managers responsible for managing and implementing a range of projects from end to end. Team members are based all over the country, from Edinburgh to Redhill, but they share a common aim of providing value for money and added value to the business.
Investment in business-wide L&D for Lombard has risen sharply, standing at around £1.75 million for 2008. Strong management commitment to raising the bar for L&D is reflected in investment in training the trainers. Over a 15 month period Lombard invested in around 60 days of TAP training for the L&D team, ranging from training delivery skills courses, design and development and blended learning to management and strategic courses. Investment in TAP 'season tickets' has also provided significant cost benefits, easing the financial burden of up skilling the team as and when required.
For L&D consultant Colin Bradley the TAP Certificate in Training Delivery Skills he achieved in January 2008 could not have been better timed. After 12 years as Director of a Business Centre he was on the brink of moving into a training role.
"I was very comfortable with making presentations to large groups of people and had unofficially delivered training sessions over the previous two years. What I learned on the course was that there is a big difference between presenting well and training well. The course took me on a very rapid journey to understanding what effective training was all about. The structure and templates are
absolutely critical to the way we operate now."
Joan Arthur is an experienced trainer but wanted to brush up her design skills, so in 2007 she achieved the TAP Certificate in Training Design and Development Skills.
"It was a powerful learning experience on several levels. Learning alongside training professionals from other organisations, from sole traders to multi-nationals, was a great networking opportunity. I also really liked the fact that it offered a full end-to-end process, from scoping right through to evaluation. One of the key learning points was the importance of setting very clear objectives for training outcomes at the scoping stage - something I now watch out for particularly carefully with external suppliers."
Before any learning intervention takes place the relevant teams sit down with key stakeholders to identify objectives and desired impact and establish measures of effectiveness.
"Too often money is thrown at solutions without identifying what change is required in the business," says Christina. "Customer happy sheets serve a purpose, but they don't measure the change that has occurred. TAP has helped us to develop a strategic philosophy that puts outcomes at the heart of the L&D process."
Using common templates to achieve common goals has also helped the whole team to work smarter, faster and differently. At the end of 2007 they were given little over a month to design and deliver training to support the roll-out of a new competency framework.
"A challenge like this would have thrown the team into a tailspin before TAP," said Brian. "However, drawing on the expertise of our blended learning TAP trainer we developed several different channels for learners to access the knowledge they needed and rolled the framework out to around 800 self nominated staff within the timeframe and for just £2000. Previously we would have spent a lot of
money and time putting all 1800 people through a classroom situation and it wouldn't have been nearly as effective."
TAP has also helped to facilitate a support network for the far-flung team. Because TAP provides a common language the trainers are always on the phone bouncing ideas off one another. It has supported their independence, while reinforcing the value of common standards.
The team's commitment to professionalism has earned it Gold TAP Partnership status, an achievement that won a plaudit from the Managing Director of Lombard. "We started on our journey in 2007, knowing that we must develop the professional standards that would make us best in class," said Brian. "TAP has not only helped us to achieve, but also given us formal verification that we adhere to gold level standards as part of the TAP Partners Programme. The Team is very proud to have become the 100th TAP Partner organisation. We knew that we were good at what we did and now we've got the external benchmarking to prove it."