TowerSkills helps build management expertise and good practice

The Challenge:

Norland has always had a substantial commitment to staff development. The company offers its staff a broad range of training programmes, including an established suite of Institute of Leadership & Management (ILM) courses at levels 3 – 5. In 2008, the company identified that there was a skills gap with newly appointed supervisors and team leaders, who had the technical ability but often did not have any previous training around the specific skills of leading teams. What was required was a course that could build management expertise and good practice throughout the organisation, offer career development and internal progression opportunities for staff, and link seamlessly with the existing management programme. It also needed to be a programme that could be accessed across all their sites.

The Solution:

Norland took a systematic approach to planning the course.
1. Identify a training partner, Tower Hamlets College
2. With the College, hold a number of staff focus groups at Norland to determine priorities of both target staff, and their managers
3. Ensure the College is familiar with the company ethos and vision – this included College staff undertaking the ‘Norland staff induction’, and visits to a variety of sites
4. Work with the College to put together a bespoke course that was aligned with Norland priorities and explicitly linked to their core competencies, and still met the awarding body requirements (Institute of Leadership and Management)
 

Measuring the Benefits:

Terry Foster, Training and Development Manager at Norland says...
“Apart from all the benefits you’d expect from a well run and carefully planned course – most noticeably a decrease in staff turnover and a corresponding increase in motivation and job satisfaction – we use the success of the programme in all sorts of ways. It helps us recruit, and is even a factor in tenders we submit, where it’s another very useful and measurable demonstration of our commitment to staff development. In an extremely competitive sector, this programme has given us a measurable advantage.”

To date:
• 20 courses delivered
• 240 undertaken Level 2 ILM Team Leading qualifications
• 236 achieved qualification and certificate (98% success rate)
• Majority of candidates have taken on their first supervision roles
• A number of successful candidates have progressed into full managerial roles

Delivered at (to date):
• London
• Birmingham
• Milton Keynes
• Peterborough
• Edinburgh