Our Journey to ‘Just in Time’ Training

For 16 years I worked as an external training consultant. I was brought into businesses to design and deliver a programme of training and then leave. In the best assignments, I got to work with managers and teams to make the changes stick – but often not.

Grainne Ridge - Head of Training

2 Minutes

/ 12th October 2022

Sales & Distribution

Over the last 12 months, in my L&D lead role, one of the most notable differences I have felt between now and those 16 years is the satisfaction of seeing positive changes in practice. It’s often not immediate – and it would be easy to say, ‘it takes time to implement new skills and new ways of working.’

But I’ve been thinking about how we can challenge that. (Forever the idealist!) What would need to be in place for our colleagues to learn what they need to learn at exactly the right time for them – and for this to be the norm in every area of our business?

It’s more than just the LMS. We have that. It’s our colleagues being crystal clear on what great looks like and motivated to do a great job. It’s everyone being comfortable giving and receiving feedback; our Team Leaders and Managers being confident coaches; the best possible range of learning resources and recognition that time spent learning delivers a return to the business many times over.

And we have many of the components of this vision. In our manufacturing and distribution functions, we are implementing observational assessments with ‘in the moment’ coaching. Our compliance and health and safety teams relentlessly drive good behaviours through bitesize learning. Across sales and commercial divisions, we have introduced competencies frameworks to give absolute clarity on what great looks like and to help colleagues own their development. We have created tonnes of learning content!

We have travelled virtual miles in our L&D journey at DCS this year – and the road hasn’t been too bumpy! The next stage is different but just as exciting – synchronising learning needs and resources with business objectives. Efficiency is at the heart of how we operate and that applies to L&D as much as to any other area of our business.