Nationwide Trust

Nationwide Trust is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Nationwide Building Society and provides personal loans for all customers. It employs 330 staff, split across UK locations with its HQ at St Albans,Hertfordshire. In November 2000 Nationwide Trust became one of the first financial associations to be re-accredited with the IIP Standard, setting a precedent for other financial institutions including the Nationwide Group itself in June 2002.

Their Business Need

Back in 2001, PLS the consultancy arm of former Xebec McGraw-Hill undertook an evaluation of the current state of readiness within Nationwide Trust (NTL) and recommended priority steps for implementation of online learning. Working alongside the NTL team, a winning implementation plan was designed that would support a company-wide launch within four months. This resulted in a pilot that involved a broad cross-section of staff using the existing corporate Intranet to deliver the courseware and to communicate all aspects of the pilot programme to those involved.

Unfortunately, later that year McGraw-Hill withdrew from the e-learning market and the team at Nationwide Trust were left with a project with no support organisation to help keep them on track. Consequently NTL found themselves looking for a new supplier and support mechanism for their Xebec and Harvard software, as well as requiring a decent and affordable Learning Management System and Authoring tool for their portfolio of internal training material.

With staff requiring a managed training facility to meet their training needs and critical success factors from yearly appraisals, it was vital to Jon White the NTL Training Consultant to source a supplier and keep the project moving as a matter of urgency.

Key Facts

• e2train could not be matched in cost and capability
• Kallidus® Authoring system allowed NTL to produce 90 pages of Induction content in the space of 6 weeks.
• The NTL e-learning project was not interrupted by the departure of their original supplier
• e2train have maintained customer-focussed support throughout the project and use feedback as an opportunity to improve the service offer
• Kallidus® LMS allows staff to keep accurate records of training and therefore meet critical success factors outline in their appraisals

The e2train Solution

At first, the team looked at producing their own system using their own IT department, but with resources already committed, it became clear that an external LMS would need to be purchased to manage the company’s portfolio of some 550 titles. NTL had already heard about e2train via the Xebec McGraw-Hill sales team and decided to contact them as well as look at other organisations offering similar products.

“It became clear as we looked at other LMS and Authoring tools that nothing competed with e2train on either price or capability.” Jon White

E2train were able to meet the requirements of NTL in both price and capability. They were also in the unique position of having former Xebec technical support people working for them and so the integration of the Xebec and Harvard courseware was seamless. In addition they were able to install ECDL courseware.

Furthermore NTL had a need to produce an online version of their Induction programme and over a period of 6 weeks produced 90 pages of content including evaluation, personal development and relevant courses and information for new starters using the Kallidus® Authoring System.

The Kallidus® LMS allows NTL to offer a pick and mix approach to training. With staff appraisals highlighting training needs, the Kallidus® LMS manages online and more traditional training, as well as recording progress and subsequent results and this is used to report on how they are meeting their critical success factors.

NTL have also added retrospective data to make sure that everyone who has undertaken training recently is shown on the system. Kallidus® is also used to record usage of books and videos, professional training, workshops and briefing sessions.

Jon uses a traffic light system as a key performance indicator and is working to ensure that he meets a 75% take-up criteria each month.

“As always it is tricky to get a project like this moving, but we envisage that the combination of the Kallidus® email facility which allows us to prompt staff to undertake training, as well as the critical success factors highlighted in annual appraisals which will help motivate staff” Jon White

There are designated training areas for staff and they are encouraged to put aside at least 2 hours a week for this process.

Throughout the implementation project, the e2train staff were on hand to iron out any teething troubles.

“The relationship we have with e2train is two-way, as new versions of the software have come out, they have kept us abreast of developments and in the same way, they have taken our comments and used them positively to improve Kallidus®. “ Jon White

Results and Feedback

• Nearly all employees have logged on to the system
• The software was quickly installed with minimum need to involve the NTL IT department
• The authoring software allowed NTL to quickly prepare courseware enabling new employees to acquire critical knowledge about company culture and working practices and therefore settle in to their roles rapidly
• Management of professional development has improved as staff are able to record their learning in an orderly fashion
• Managers and staff are able to appreciate the importance of training as the system starts to reflect in their appraisals and meet critical success factors