Formicio

Client: The UK Post Office.

Service delivered: A Learning Journey for the HR leadership team.

Objective: To understand whether an innovative learning technology successfully deployed in a number of large retailers in the USA could be applied to communicate fundamental change across 17,000 Post Office outlets, and if so what would be the best deployment model.

Rationale: As a result of changes in government policy the Post Office was faced with a major change that would impact staff in over 17,000 outlets. The leadership wanted to help front-line staff understand why the change was happening and that, as a consequence, they needed to learn new competencies. They knew that written communication was not going to deliver and embed the level of understanding that was required, nor was it practical to withdraw large numbers of frontline staff to attend workshops. The HR leadership wanted to explore if a new learning technology called ‘Learning Maps’ was the answer.

Approach: Formicio consultants designed and delivered a Learning Journey for the HR leadership team that included:

• Visits to organisations in the USA that had deployed the Learning Maps technology, including in-depth conversations with decision-makers, designers and deliverers plus front-line staff who had actually used it. In several cases they participated in learning sessions and experienced the technology first hand.
• Visits to companies that were developing Learning Maps for clients, to learn what was available on the market, and what the implementation issues, considerations and costs might be.
• Daily working sessions to review what had been learned, explore outstanding questions and plan actions.
• Support in deciding on an approach and implementation plan.

Outcomes: As a result of participating in the learning journey the HR leadership team had the insights and confidence needed to use the new technology. Specifically, they:

• Fully understood the Learning Maps technology.
• Were aware of the factors critical to a successful application.
• Were able to successfully design and implement the new technology.

Benefits: Using Learning Maps measurably improved the understanding of Post Office front-line staff of the issues facing the business and the need for change. As a result the Post Office won a number of awards for its innovative approach to learning.