Throwing people in at the deep end on e-learning can lead to disillusion. But blend online learning with other methods, and it has a useful role to play. Neil Merrick and Jane Pickard report
People Management, 07 Feb 2002
Ken Sung’s job, selling menswear, is only part time. But his familiarity with computers has landed him a new role helping Birmingham’s House of Fraser store, Rackham’s, to implement online learning.
Sung first sat in front of a computer at the age of four. This is a good deal earlier than many of his older colleagues. His supervisor, for instance, has only had a computer at home for two weeks, while many others have never even been near one.
So Sung, in his final year at Birmingham University, found himself accompanying two or three staff at a time to the training room (where the company had installed three PCs) and showing them how to download and work through customer service modules.
Now, with the backing of his manager, he has devised a questionnaire to explore employees’ computer awareness. The aim is to work out how much support they need so training sessions are better planned.
The exercise is one store’s response to the group-wide introduction of e-learning last year. And it is an example of how organisations launching such systems can support learners with traditional training methods. While information through cash tills has been available for two years, Rackham’s has found computers are much more of a challenge to staff.
“When I’ve shown people what to do, they have been very positive, and all asked for user names so they could come back,” Sung says.
“It’s not replacing the way we have always learnt – but it’s certainly aiding it. Only experience can really teach you, but computers give you a theoretical underpinning.”
The House of Fraser piloted online learning last year in five stores and for selected office managers, using off-the-shelf modules from software firm Xebec McGraw-Hill. After a successful evaluation, it is now available in all stores and offices. Up to three dedicated terminals were provided in each store. There is also a booking system which aims to ensure everyone has a go.
The programme was part of the store group’s retention strategy. Like most retailers, House of Fraser is anxious to stem employee turnover and look to its own ranks for the next generation of managers.
Colin Robinson, the company’s management development manager, is aware that online learning is not going to tackle this turnover by itself. He sees it as part of a package of different developmental approaches which add up to a significant increase in training and development at all levels. Nowhere is this more true than in management. Robinson says that in the past the company has mostly relied on in-house advisers to train its managers. It now mixes this with online learning and on-the-job training.
Denise Harvie had been a first-line manager in the fashion industry for 15 years before taking a job in the House of Fraser’s buying department just over a year ago. Having never received any management training, she grabbed the chance to work through some basic computer modules on leadership, time management, dealing with stress and motivating a team. She enjoyed working at her own pace and at convenient times.
But she admits: “Once I’d completed a particular section of a module, I felt I didn’t have to think about it again. I wasn’t the only one like that.”
So when she and her colleagues heard they were going on a three-day workshop, they did some swotting up. Once there, they discovered that the workshops neither duplicated the online learning nor taught an entirely new set of skills, but reinforced what had already learnt: “The skills covered on the computer were cleverly incorporated into the course,” says Harvie.
The epitome of blended learning at House of Fraser is the 12-month management training programme launched last May to produce more internally promoted managers. It combines workshops, workbooks, seminars and online learning with every type of on-the-job development from “sitting by Nellie”, to assignments, coaching, job rotation and shadowing. Participants also have a mentor.
The recognition of a need to blend e-learning and offline development emerged clearly from last year’s pilot, which showed it was helpful for managers who were working through the modules to get together afterwards and discuss what they had learnt, Robinson says.
“Online learning does not have to be lonely learning. There still needs to be follow-up when somebody has been on a management skills module. People will absorb the knowledge. We have to make sure they apply it. It’s about consolidated learning,” he says.
House of Fraser invested £50,000 in new hardware and has spent a further £50,000 on the software under a 12-month licence. By mid 2002 it hopes to have customised the management units so that they offer training specific to its stores.
Was it worth the investment? Robinson simply compares the £100,000 to the cost of classroom workshops, which the company would have organised if it had wanted to expand its training without using computers.
“Just looking at trainers’ salaries, travel costs and so forth, it would still have cost more,” he says. “We’ve had to work on creating time for people to do the learning. But there are many opportunities for the future.”
Without prompting, managers are already starting to use online learning at home on their laptops. And Robinson is certainly not going to stand in their way.
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