Marsh rolls out blended-learning initiative to 36,000 employees

Citation

(2003), "Marsh rolls out blended-learning initiative to 36,000 employees", Industrial and Commercial Training, Vol. 35 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/ict.2003.03735cab.001

Marsh rolls out blended-learning initiative to 36,000 employees

Marsh rolls out blended-learning initiative to 36,000 employees

Risk and insurance specialist Marsh has introduced a global blended-learning programme to 36,000 employees, across 100 countries, involving translations into six languages.

The programme has been designed to unify performance-management methods within Marsh and its parent, Marsh & McLennan Companies (MMC), through consistent, simultaneous adoption of the balanced-score-card concept.

Balanced goals are set for the company and these then cascade down through the organization to individuals. This means that everyone's goals are aligned to the organization, and to those of other team members. The key areas of balanced goals are financial success, client satisfaction, efficient business processes and colleague capability. Historically, many organizations have focused only on financial success. Marsh wanted a balanced focus on all of these areas to be the core of its business strategy.

Rolling out such a strategy world-wide needs consistent communications and comprehensive training. Marsh decided to use a blended-learning programme, a mixture of e-learning and classroom training, as the teaching vehicle. Marsh believed that e-learning was an essential ingredient of such a programme – needed to enable the required level of consistency for such a large audience. It was also necessary to monitor people's progress – something which e-learning could facilitate.

While saving money was not a decision-making factor, studies indicated that the use of e-learning would have significant cost benefits. A Marsh study of training in Europe alone indicated that the e-learning part of the training cost the equivalent of the tea and biscuits supplied as part of a traditional classroom course.

Marsh commissioned a UK-based e-learning company, Harlequin Training Solutions, to develop the e-learning programme. Harlequin's managing director, John Lawton, recalls: "The project had a fairly constrained timescale – less than three months. Also, because of the global nature of Marsh's business, the e-learning programme had to be delivered in six languages. We delivered the entire programme on schedule – including the translations".

The e-learning course comprises three hours of e-learning per person – a mixture of multimedia, developmental games, quizzes and a final assessment to provide each person with a pass or fail grade.

The e-learning teaches the basics of performance management, why it is important to each person and to the company and how performance management is used to demonstrate and measure business goals at an individual and a business level. It also teaches the elements within the balanced score-card, ensuring that all employees are focused on achieving goals that are directly aligned to the company strategy.

The e-learning was deployed using Marsh's chosen learning-management system, KnowledgePlanet Learning, which is used by organizations including General Motors, Hershey Foods, Northwestern Mutual, the Prudential Insurance Company of America and Zurich Financial.

Dawn Griffiths, Marsh Europe e-learning manager, said: "It was extremely important that we worked with someone who listened and understood what we were trying to achieve. Harlequin continually demonstrated a willingness to try new ideas and create 'out of the square' solutions when developing the e-learning programme. This resulted in a bespoke solution that challenged the learner, delivered the appropriate message and met our needs exactly.

"The programme has been extremely successful within Marsh. It is now in its second year of deployment and has been constantly maintained to reflect the ever-changing business climate and learner needs."