AXA meets training deadlines, on time and on budget

Citation

(2008), "AXA meets training deadlines, on time and on budget", Industrial and Commercial Training, Vol. 40 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/ict.2008.03740eab.009

AXA meets training deadlines, on time and on budget

Article Type: Notes and news From: Industrial and Commercial Training, Volume 40, Issue 5

A financial-services company met the deadline for implementing changes in UK pensions legislation on time and within budget, thanks to a training program that involved more than 1,500 customer-service and support staff on two continents.

The changes affected 1,400 staff in 30 departments, 20 in the UK and 10 in India, plus a further 150 sales-support staff across the UK. All needed a clear understanding of the regulatory changes, and front-office staff needed to be confident and accurate in answering questions from policyholders or their financial advisers.

The hundreds of regulatory challenges were analyzed and developed into a series of “knowledge” and “process change” modules. A range of media was also developed, including classroom training, computer-based training and self-study workbooks, and the modules were delivered in phases over four months.

Almost 100 classroom sessions were delivered between October 2005 and January 2006 to prepare staff for the process training that followed. Thirty of these were then delivered, designed to enable learners to recognize how regulatory changes would affect their work.

“The modular approach made it easy to tailor content to suit the different technical needs of smaller teams”, said training manager David Orr. “The secondment of process trainers from the business for short periods ensured local ownership and expertise in the subject matter.”

Completion of the training program on time and within budget enabled AXA Life’s customer-service teams to achieve a smooth transition when the information-technology systems went live. Staff were re-accredited to the level prescribed in Financial Services Authority training and competence standards.

“Simultaneous delivery across two continents was a first for AXA Life”, said David Orr. “And even though the deadline stayed fixed at 6 April, regulatory changes continued right up until deadline, requiring swift planning, retraining and reaccreditation. We have had excellent evaluation results, and, more important, excellent feedback from clients.”