Efficient training at M&G
| Pages | 4-4 |
| Published date | 01 July 2005 |
| Date | 01 July 2005 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/14754390580000808 |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour |
4Volume 4 Issue 5 July/August 2005
e-HR
,
How technology is changing the way HR works
Efficient training at M&G
M
&G is one of the largest fund
managers in the UK, managing
the investments of over 500,000
clients in the UK and Europe. In 1998,
M&G looked at building a corporate
university founded on the emerging
concept of e-learning. It was looking for
a fast, reliable and economical way of
sharing knowledge, training staff on
investment and compliance issues, and
encouraging a learning culture. M&G
opted for SkillGate’s Active eMail
Learning package.
In 1999, M&G was acquired by
Prudential Plc, one of the largest
providers of financial services in
Europe. The company operates as an
autonomous business within the
Prudential group.
Developing the solution
When M&G and Prudential’s existing
fund management businesses were
integrated to create a single fund
management brand, there was an
extensive review of the training and
capability development strategy. It was
decided to retain the SkillGate e-
learning infrastructure and develop it
as part of a blended learning solution.
This centered around compliance,
investment, and mandatory induction
and business awareness issues, as well
as providing learning opportunities for
all staff in commercial, personal and
management/leadership skills.
The program was flexible and
allowed M&G to use a mixture of
generic content, together with in-house
tailored material on industry-specific
issues such as regulation and
investment.
First steps
The first big step was to rapidly move
the system from an intranet to an
internet-based hosted solution. “We
have a mobile workforce and a number
of offices in the UK and abroad,”
explains Gareth Jones, head of
organization development at M&G. “It
was therefore a priority for us to
enable staff to access training,
knowledge management and
knowledge sharing remotely via the
internet.
“Knowledge is a key driver in our
industry – we don’t want staff
disappearing into a niche within the
company. We want them to understand
the broader picture in which we
operate. It can be a costly exercise
adding and deleting content to
e-learning systems. It’s worth noting that
one of our biggest challenges in this fast
moving market isn’t just updating
content, but how to get rid of stuff we
aren’t using.”
Fast, efficient training delivery
M&G was looking for a fast, reliable and
economical way of training staff in
compliance, regulation and mandatory
business issues and has achieved 100
percent compliance training and testing
for all employees. By using internet-
based continuous training solution
delivered via e-mail on a hosted service,
all M&G staff have access to training,
whether office-based or remote. Staff on
the road can also access training e-mails
via Blackberry devices.
Training content can now be
authored and distributed to staff in a
very short space of time. For example,
The Financial Services and Markets Act
2000 – which took effect on 1
December 2001 – was intended to
increase the responsibility of senior
management working in financial
services for any breaches of control
arising within their firms. M&G had
little more than a month to get staff
across multiple sites up to speed on the
regulatory change, and measure that
they had retained the requisite levels of
knowledge. The adaptability and
delivery of the e-learning system
enabled M&G to hit its goal of reaching
all 1,500 staff by the deadline.
Step-by-step training
The blended learning solution works
with M&G’s holistic approach to
training, whereby it selects the best
delivery method for the required
training. At present it uses an
approximate mix of 60 percent
classroom and 40 percent online
training. It has found that “little and
often” step-by-step training is easier for
staff to absorb and allows them to pace
studying around their work.
By closely monitoring study, M&G has
found that continuous reinforcement
training enables staff to retain industry
knowledge. It plans to continue to
focus on bespoke online training,
further enhancing product awareness
to all its customer-facing and
investment areas.
Founded in 1931, M&G was acquired by
Prudential in 1999 and is the Group’s UK
and European fund manager,responsible
for managing over UK£126 billion of
funds. It employs 1,455 staff.
M&G
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© Melcrum Publishing Ltd. 2005 For more information visit www.melcrum.com or e-mail info@melcrum.com
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