Development Routes
The Training team helps run Career Development Workshops, Assessment Centres and Management Development Centres. All of these initiatives along with training are run through the Lyreco Business School and help build a positive working environment. When people join us or are promoted we invite them onto an induction programme.
Induction
All employees receive an induction to the company and a welcome from the Managing Director. They then follow a development route agreed specifically for their function.
Development Routes
As part of their development people receive off the job training, the length of which depends on their specific job role. For example, our drivers have three days and our Corporate Account Sales Managers, 19 days extending over 16 weeks. Each of the main operational areas has a dedicated Trainer from within the training team who is CIPD qualified.
As part of off the job training many people use e-learning for their development. A good example being our sales force who learn about our sales IT tools using e-learning packages.
Back in the work place people receive on the job training. In the Warehouse, Distribution and in Marketing this is done formally as people work their way through their key task training plans.
Cutting across these vocational routes and development initiatives we run a Personal Development Programme. This is for non-people managers and it covers a range of short courses and distance learning courses.
As people are identified as future leaders, in essence our people managers, we offer them modules from our Leadership Development Programme. This covers key people management modules such as recruitment, motivation, coaching, performance appraisal and team building. When people first start the programme they receive behavioral style feedback and 360º leadership requirement feedback. It all helps to ensure we have talented leaders building high performance teams.
Qualifications
People have the opportunity to study for qualifications relevant to their area of expertise. Our sales people follow the certificates and diplomas offered by the Institute of Sales and Marketing Management of which Lyreco is a registered qualification centre. Our customer service people complete qualifications through the Institute of Customer Service, and Lyreco is also a registered centre for ICS qualifications.
In Finance, Personnel and Logistics people study for professional qualifications sponsored by the company.
The number of people achieving NVQ qualifications in our warehouse is amongst the highest in the West Midlands. Other successes include RoSPA Driver Assessor accreditation through to MHE licences in the warehouse. We have literally hundreds of qualification successes every year.
Recognition For Our Learning Activities
In 1997 we gained Investor in People accreditation for the whole of our UK operations. In 2004 we took IIP one stage further when we committed to the IIP Leadership and Management model and became one of the first organisations in the West Midlands to achieve this accreditation. In Ireland we have achieved the “Gold” standard against the Excellence through People framework.
On the strength of our success against the IIP models our Training & Development Director was invited to be an IIP ambassador. On average he does four talks a year to promote IIP as a development tool.
We have used these assessments as health checks to see how our training and development initiatives and people strategies have been working. We have been able to use the feedback reports to assist our continual improvement process. Our Training & Development strategies have become a way of life and are now embedded in the business. They are sustainable and have been consistently recognised for their quality by external assessors.
