Hybrid work became the norm as restrictions lifted in the aftermath of COVID-19. AXA UK knew this would need to become part of their workplace going forward, which meant upskilling managers to be able to adapt to these new ways of working.
- Client:AXA UK
- Situation:AXA wanted to incorporate hybrid work training into their policy but recognised that their managers needed support in helping teams adapt to this new way of working.
- Challenge:Designing bespoke training to upskill managers with the new skills they needed to support the organisation in adapting to a hybrid way of working.
- Solution:Working in collaboration with the customer to design bespoke workshops in line with their specific needs.
- Result:12 bespoke client branded workshops upskilling in 6 key areas required by the managers to support their transition to hybrid working.
Our partnership with AXA UK started at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Like many others, they needed to transition their training to the virtual environment and had completed our virtual train the trainer (TTT) programme. With our methods, skills and way of training firmly embedded in their training delivery, AXA UK wanted new trainers joining the company to maintain these high standards and train in the ‘VTT way’. VTT continued working with AXA to train new coaches and ran a series of supercharged TTTs for new trainers joining, to get them up to speed quickly.
As lockdown restrictions eased, more people were eager to return to the office. AXA was keen to support this — they wanted to encourage their employees to work in a hybrid way, which they dubbed as “smart working”. Understanding that smart working would need to be part of their policy going forwards, AXA supported managers to skilfully manage teams in a hybrid environment.
The metrics
- 6 topics
- 12 workshops
- 15 hours of design per workshop
Challenge
VTT was tasked with designing a fleet of bespoke branded workshops, focused on smart working. Curating high quality workshops was paramount — the training was to be delivered on a huge scale, to thousands of managers across the UK. With so many leaders to upskill, and with the VTT virtual TTT already completed, the organisation opted to deliver the workshops internally – using the VTT design.
When it came to the development process, collaboration needed to be at the core of our work. While co-creating the workshops, our design team at VTT worked closely with the AXA team to ensure that each workshop met exacting standards.
There were 6 key skills needed in the workshops to ensure hybrid work training goals were met:
- Change and transformation
- Decision making
- Difficult conversations
- Engagement and motivation
- Performance management
- Smart meetings
Solution
- One of the things we pride ourselves on at VTT is adaptability. Our approach is never a one size fit’s all, and when designing the right flexible training for this business, this was certainly the case. When it came to the design process, we made sure the client was involved in every step, discussing improvements to ensure the results were aligned with their goals until the workshops received the client’s final stamp of approval.
- However, we knew that having well designed workshops was only the first step. Being able to deliver the workshops in line with the design was crucial for successful learning transfer. We developed coach notes and video walkthroughs of each workshop to ensure the company’s own coaches and trainers felt confident with their workshops and had all the support they needed to ensure participants enjoyed the best possible learning experience.
Result
- A series of condensed workshops were bespoke-designed to upskill in 6 key areas.
- Following the successful roll out in the UK, we were contacted by another subsidiary of the parent business requesting delivery of the workshops across their management teams.
