Blended learning strategy supports sustainable culture change
Openreach knows you can't just 'train' diversity - with a blended approach you can change cultures.
- E-learning and face-to-face training successfully rolled out to over 13,000 employees in under 12 months
- Training successfully builds on diversity messages designed to increase both gender and ethnic minority mix
- Employee feedback shows diversity is being embraced by employees
Responding to the value and business benefits of a diverse workforce can often be a challenge for any workforce but when Openreach, the proud guardians of the nations local access telecommunications network, decided to implement a new Diversity Awareness policy, they went beyond just talking about it and implemented a companywide initiative detailing individual roles and potential focus areas for a workforce of over 33,000 employees.
As a result of internal research they implemented a new training initiative - the Diversity Awareness Programme (DAP) - enabling them to build on their existing diversity policies and reinforce the strong diversity messages of BT as a whole. The innovative, blended-learning approach created 'Diversity Ambassador' roles to guide employees through a structured online Diversity Awareness Programme, and is successfully challenging common beliefs and misconceptions and increasing employee confidence and understanding of diversity matters.
The main driver behind the new programme was to genuinely achieve a sustainable culture change within Openreach. Openreach had already implemented a strong diversity campaign throughout the business including a new recruitment advertising campaign encouraging female engineers. The new training programme was designed to complement and enhance their current stance on diversity. In order to develop a high performing business they needed to achieve their strategic priority to be more responsive to the diversity of employees, customers and end users.
Historical business nature
"Through internal research, we saw that current trends reflected the historical nature of the business. We didn't want the image of the business to impact on our aspirations of being an employer of choice, reducing the potential opportunities to create and sustain a diverse workforce representative of their customers." explains Jackie Byrne, Learning Solutions Manager at Openreach.
Before implementing the new diversity policy, out of a workforce of 33,000, women represented 1.2% of engineering grades, 6.5% were ethnic minorities, 2.2% had a disability.
Openreach knew that it was imperative that everyone had a greater understanding of valuing diversity across the organisation and the community in which they serve. By understanding the legislation and issues, Openreach employees would feel more empowered when potential barriers arose.
Achieving a sustainable culture change
In order to achieve this sustainable culture change, Openreach commissioned Brightwave, along with diversity partners Astar Management Consultants to design and deliver a blended approach in order to tackle the barriers to diversity that were apparent amongst its workforce.
A blend of classroom-based training alongside an online, interactive Diversity Awareness Programme (DAP) was created for maximum impact and effectiveness for employees, based on the following drivers and challenges.
- It had to be highly engaging
- Go beyond standard "tick-in-the-box" regulatory training
- Push the boundaries to maximise credibility
- Be tailored to Openreach
The DAP introduces the training, contains interactive video scenarios, a mandatory assessment and briefing guides. It is used by Diversity Ambassadors to deliver 4-6 sessions spaced at 1-3 month intervals to 33,000 employees. This supports the episodic structure of the training, reinforcing actions over a continuous period improving staff understanding that diversity is at the heart of Openreach's future. This delivery method was chosen to ensure consistency, structured discussion and action planning. Completion of the course and assessment is monitored by Openreach's LMS.
To ensure training was innovative and increase learning performance, Openreach created 200 Diversity Ambassador roles, critical to the successful implementation of the training. Acting as off-line facilitators during training, they guide employees through the DAP programme and provide an advisory service.
So far the programme has been rolled out to 40% of all employees and following the programme's implementation, visible change has occurred within Openreach. Feedback suggests training has exceeded expectations. Employees have found the training informative and understand its important messages, demonstrating increased awareness of diversity barriers.
Exceeding expectations
Early recruitment statistics were one of the first to confirm a change amongst the workforce at Openreach. Between May 2007 and March 2008, the number of female employees had increased by 140%. A change was also apparent in the number of ethnic minority employees at Openreach. Since May 2005, there has been a 45% increase.
As well as excellent feedback from the Diversity Ambassador training sessions, in a survey they returned an average satisfaction score of 4.62 (1 being poor, 5 being excellent) for the areas of the training they rated including understanding of the role, gained overview of the Diversity Awareness Programme, raising levels of knowledge and practice of their facilitation skills.
Alongside the planned culture change, unexpected benefits also occurred. Some Diversity Ambassadors have moved onto bigger, better things within Openreach due to the confidence the training gave them. Also, during the Openreach 2007 Diversity Conference, the Exec Team agreed to support ongoing initiatives, lead by the Ambassadors, via substantial monetary investment.
A positive outcome
Having employees embracing and responding to diversity issues is vital to Openreach. Learner's performance and the programme are helping achieve this. Employees and managers have recognised past behaviour has not been as it should be. For Openreach, this is a major step towards a successful future.
By creating a clear, consistent diversity message for the whole organisation, employees' perceptions that Openreach is an employer of choice, are improving, increasing the opportunities to create and sustain a diverse workforce representative of their customer and end-user base.
"I believe that the Diversity Awareness Programme is an excellent thought provoking tool. Much care was taken in its preparation, to give it a real flavour of Openreach and this has been extremely effective in adding relevance and context to its audience. Diversity is a difficult subject to "train", as it is about winning hearts and minds, encouraging an inclusive approach, accepting and valuing difference and winning mutual respect. The way that Openreach have rolled out the programme, through facilitated discussion led by trained Diversity Ambassadors, has made people think and given them a forum to consider, reflect and learn. It has been a considerable investment but is tackling long held stereotypes and creating an open and collaborative culture." Explains Caroline Waters, BT Group Director, People & Policy.
Steve Robertson, Chief Executive Officer at Openreach concludes "I'm really pleased with the work that has been done on the Diversity Awareness Programme. Openreach is firmly committed to creating an inclusive environment in which people feel valued, and the spirit of diversity needs to permeate throughout the whole organisation. The DAP is a crucial part of that approach. By using real life scenarios the team has created a realistic, and thought provoking training session that doesn’t skirt around the issues. Unacceptable behaviours have been exaggerated to make a point. It makes uncomfortable viewing in some places, but our feedback from the training sessions has revealed that people have seized the opportunity to discuss things that are bothering them. The DAP has become a powerful tool in educating our workforce and I’m delighted to say it has been instrumental in delivering much needed change."
Case studies quick links.
- Blended learning strategy supports sustainable culture change
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- Sky leads the way with award winning e-learning for health & safety
- Cable & Wireless uses an innovative e-learning approach to train staff on business continuity
- BT uses an enjoyable way to highlight a serious issue
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Welcome screen
Course introduction
Barriers and impact
Video scenarios
The barriers to diversity
Assessment