From caterpillar to butterfly during induction

Sussex Enterprise improved their induction process with bespoke e-learning from Brightwave to ensure all new employees are introduced to the organisation in the most effective way.

Business support organisation Sussex Enterprise is expanding to help meet the challenge of supporting over a third of Sussex businesses. As a result it needed a consistent, effective, and flexible way of inducting its growing team.

"We currently have 160 staff and induct on average five to six people every month," says Katie Timmons, HR Manager for Sussex Enterprise. "The type of induction varies a lot depending on the role. Induction was normally left to the line managers who would organise appointments and pass on information, working through a set of guidelines that were provided by HR."

Because the newcomers join the company from a variety of levels and experience, some are school leavers while others come from senior positions within larger companies, their induction requirements vary a great deal.

The traditional induction approach was therefore becoming inadequate for two main reasons:

Inconsistency - different managers would take a very different approach to induction; some were really good at providing an extensive induction programme while others didn't appreciate its full importance.

Time spent on induction - Sussex Enterprise is a complex organisation that offers a very wide range of products and services, which were proving difficult to teach in a timely and effective manner.

To streamline the process and help solve the challenges Sussex Enterprise therefore decided to add a bespoke e-learning module that could be used as a support tool on an ongoing basis.

Why e-learning

Katie explains why they decided not to use an off-the-shelf product. "To go for a generic off-the-shelf solution was never an option for us. It would not have been suitable because of the complex organisation and very wide range of products and services we offer."

Sussex Enterprise was looking for something more flexible. They decided that they had to be able to chisel and tweak the content and needed a solution that was flexible so that they could update the content on an ongoing basis as the business changes. An off-the-shelf solution would not have offered them all of that. A bespoke solution would also be more suitable as it would be tailored to Sussex Enterprise's brand and would therefore present the information in a much more effective way.

"We chose to work with Brightwave because we were impressed with their professional approach and had seen examples of their work for other companies which mirrored what we wanted to achieve," says Katie. "Brightwave stood out as having the highest quality graphics and content."

As Sussex Enterprise is a government funded organisation they had a fixed budget from the start so they knew exactly how much they could spend. This helped them when trying to get the best value for their budget. Katie explains: "We didn't want to end up with something that was cheap and lacking professionalism, because we knew that wouldn't be cost effective even with a small budget."

'Information Station'

Sussex Enterprise commissioned Brightwave to create a one-hour e-learning programme called 'Information Station'. The course is used to familiarise all new employees with the organisation and used as a pre-induction to give joiners an overview of Sussex Enterprise before they start work. The course is also used as an on-going reference library that staff can dip into to find information.

"We had very good experiences throughout the process," says Katie. She explains: "We were impressed with how creative the Brightwave team was. They gave us several different ideas and approaches of what it could look like and what slant we could take on the content. It was this creative aspect right from the start that we really appreciated with Brightwave. They had a lot of ideas and we received a lot of good support throughout the project."

Brightwave always appoints a dedicated project manager to each new project to ensure that the project is kept on track. A good project manager should enforce deadlines to make sure they don't slip and be realistic about time scales, how long each element will take, etc., to make sure the budget is kept.

Another option that Brightwave offers is the facility for clients to come and work onsite together with the production team. That way it's easier to focus solely on a project, without the distractions you get during a normal work day. Experts will also be close by at hand if you need it.

Everything in one place

'Information Station' was launched during the annual staff event. A laptop was set up on a table so that staff could play with it and find their way around as an initial introduction. The programme was also referred to during the event presentations.

The course is accessed through the company's HR system, where there is a link to the programme from the individual's home page to make sure everything is fully integrated. This ensures that all information is in one place. It also makes it easy to link to a variety of supporting documents directly from the course.

One of the biggest advantages that Sussex Enterprise has experienced since starting to use the 'Information Station' is that they now have all the basic information in one place, making it is easy for employees to find details about products and services. Before it was very difficult for staff to find information, and if they didn't know it existed it was nearly impossible to find what they needed.

The customised e-learning modules also reflects well on the organisation's values, ensuring newcomers that they take induction seriously and want to provide a good start for new staff.

Taking induction seriously is important. According to research from reed.co.uk, 1 in 25 employees have walked out after starting new jobs because of poor induction and nearly all workers believe that a poor induction has a continual effect on their productivity in the job.

"Mixing an online course with more traditional classroom training helps us make the induction process more flexible," says Katie. "The newcomers can decide when they want to complete the online module, cutting down on time wasted on trying to get people together in one room at the same time."

She comments: "It was also very important to us that we can change the content in the course on a regular basis as our business changes often. With an e-learning module this is easy as everything in kept in one place."

Measured success

After running the new induction programme for six months, Sussex Enterprise decided to evaluate its effectiveness through a simple survey. During that period they had been busy recruiting new staff into various divisions and levels.

75% of the newcomers surveyed during that period found the 'Information Station' useful in helping them to understand the organisation. 75% of them also felt that this induction was very good compared to induction they had gone through in other companies. 'Information Station' was mentioned as the main reason for the last comment.

Katie mentions that they will continue to review and monitor feedback on a regular basis. She feels that the e-learning module has also contributed to an increase in product knowledge, and will be evaluating this as part of a forthcoming customer relationship review.

Current challenge

At the moment newcomers are primarily taken through their induction by someone within the HR function but the next goal for the organisation is to better enable their line managers to manage the process.

"Producing an e-learning module is one step in the improvement process," says Katie. "We would like individual managers to take more interest in the induction process and our role is to support them. The more pieces in the jigsaw that we can supply them with the easier it will be for them to offer a high quality induction programme themselves. Having a bespoke e-learning module in place has taken us a long way forward towards our goal."

Supporting business goals

'Information Station' supports the overall business goals for Sussex Enterprise very well. "Our aim is make Sussex one of the best places to do business and we try and do this by offering support to as many Sussex businesses as possible," says Katie. "By making staff more aware of what we do and what benefits we offer to businesses we increase the chances to cross sell services and products, which directly support our business goals."

Because the programme is still relatively new it needs to be more embedded into the company before it can be evaluated properly. Time will tell if people are using it to its full extent but Katie explains that they have received good feedback so far.

"This was our first company wide e-learning project and it is a solution that really works for us." She concludes: "We would definitely use more bespoke e-learning where the situation is right."

Screenshot from Sussex Enterprise course

Introduction

Screenshot from Sussex Enterprise course

Quiz

Screenshot from Sussex Enterprise course

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