Reinvigorating learning platform engagement at The Children’s Society
Following a restructure, learning has been revitalised at The Children’s Society. Natasha Welbourne and Katrina Brandt focused on creating a consistent approach to learning, whilst aligning with the organisation’s wider strategy and goals.
The state of play
In 2020, amid a period of change and the implementation of a new organisational strategy, The Children’s Society introduced a new learning and development team. Previously, although various learning activities were taking place and information was being shared across the organisation, there was no central ownership, budgeting, or monitoring of these efforts. Additionally, during the transition, some roles were merged or eliminated, resulting in the loss of critical knowledge and creating inconsistencies within the organisation.
The new learning team faced the challenge of establishing a consistent and trackable learning program that addressed employees’ development needs while being easily accessible and shareable. Their goal was to eliminate confusion about where to find necessary information and what was required for each role. The team aimed to lay a strong foundation for the organisation’s future success by building trust in the learning process, promoting positive relationships, and ensuring clear and consistent messaging, branding, and knowledge sharing.
Member fact file:
The Children’s Society is over 150 years old and is dedicated to supporting children in a variety of settings. The organisation has been a member of the Charity Learning Consortium since 2009.
So, what did they do?
Rather than jumping in to create a learning solution, the new learning team started with a strategy.
They began by listening. They got to understand that learners were confused by the offer; people reported how they would find a piece of brilliant content yet when they went back to look again, they couldn’t find it. The team also looked at employee survey data, exit interviews, and content access to inform their thinking. What were the patterns and stories? They looked at how all of this information aligned to The Children’s Society mission, and how that was linked and reflected in the learning experience for employees. There was a branding revamp as part of the restructure, yet they saw this was missing within L&D, leaving learning separate, confusing and unconnected.
Armed with clarity from the stories, data, mission and people, the solution came into view. The learning team focused on what the brand of L&D was. Who are they there to serve? Why? How? All this sat within the heart of a new energy emanating from a whole new people experience.
The new People Experience Framework became the lens with which everything was done. The framework had four quadrants;
- Get the basics right
- Have a voice
- Feel valued
- Inspirational leadership
When designing any learning experience, the team prioritised consistency and alignment with the broader organisational strategy, integrating these elements into the learning strategy. Their goal was to help people connect with the learning content and apply it in their work. To achieve this, they rebranded their learning management system (provided by the Charity Learning Consortium) as the Learning Zone, ensuring it matched the organisation’s overall branding. There was a focus on making content easily accessible and easy to locate on the platform, while also developing blended learning experiences. The result was a cohesive and consistent learning environment.
The resulting impact
The immediate impact was for new starters. Coming into the Learning Zone, a new starter could recognise the branding and be able to access the right information at the right time. They quickly became advocates, returning to the learning resources as they needed to.
There was traction across the wider organisation, particularly in subject matter experts who wanted to contribute towards the Learning Zone content. However, for some longer term employees, there is still the need to be re-engaged in learning beyond annual compliance. This is going to take time, however a blended approach, listening well and encouraging them to see the ease of access and the benefits of engaging with learning outside of compliance was key.
The learning team find themselves moving the organisation towards a learning culture, and whilst they know content on a learning platform does not equal learning, it is clear that easily accessible content in one place which is consistent with wider organisational messaging goes a long way to building learning momentum.
Good practice ideas
Branding really matters in learning. If your learning offer feels outside, distant, or inconsistent, the resulting confusion will both affect access and engagement. Also, the application of learning is affected because of the cognitive load of translating content to context. What we learn from The Children’s Society experience is the effects of working within and alongside the whole organisation and system thinking;
- Learning does not happen in isolation, so make it feel part of the whole organisation. Lean into the organisational strategy.
- Colours and branding are important for ease, comfort, invitation to the learning experience, making learning feel like it is part of their work, not a separate thing to do.
- Seamless integration of learning for induction of new starters will create a wave of people who don’t know things any different. They are your advocates for change.
- Long-standing employees may take longer to turn. They need to be heard and their concerns addressed. Don’t leave it to chance, especially if they have no intrinsic motivation to do things differently. Making it easy for them is the first step.
This case study was written by Michelle Parry-Slater, following her conversation with Natasha Welbourne and Katrina Brantd for Learning Now TV.
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