bmi

Large-scale international end-user training programme to around 1,500 people within one of the UK’s most successful airlines.

The challenge

When bmi embarked on ‘bluetech’ – a massive PC and laptop upgrade programme – it had some challenging logistics to overcome: not least of which would be the training of around 1,500 people. bmi chose the management and personal development team at QA to handle the entire training programme.

The solution

The first task was to assess the size of the project and develop a training strategy which would support it in the best possible way. QA worked closely with bmi to understand the company’s needs and to develop the right approach to the training – a key part of which would be communications. Many large-scale projects fail because people don’t understand what the projects mean to them - the benefits and objectives. Training can be a powerful tool for communication, helping not only to teach people how to use new software, but also to understand what the advantages of the change will be. This winning of ‘hearts and minds’ can make the overall project far more successful. Richard Dawson, IT director at bmi, supported this approach: “We were very keen to ensure that all of our users were fully informed about bluetech, were convinced of its benefits and understood what they had to do in preparation.”

To achieve this, QA delivered a series of presentations, outlining the key advantages of the new systems – including an overview of the new network structure. The presentations had the desired effect, according to Richard Dawson: “They did an excellent job, and, as a result, we had very little negative reaction to the change.”

The main training programme followed – a significant logistical operation, which included organising and delivering training sessions for 1,500 people, who worked in offices, airports and homes – both in the UK and Europe.

The training was delivered in easily manageable three-hour sessions, to groups of eight people. While each group was being trained, their desktops or laptops were upgraded with the new software, so they could walk back and begin to use the new systems immediately. The training didn’t cover just the new software, but also included new company policies – for example, sending URLs in e-mails where possible, rather than attachments, or using WinZip to compress large files. QA also provided a safety net for those people who had specific queries, using a team of floor-walkers - trainers who were on hand to provide instant, at-desk tuition – for twenty-four hours after the training.

At each phase of the programme, QA undertook a detailed evaluation of the success of the training, ensuring that it fully met bmi’s objectives – and, in some cases, identifying where additional training might be beneficial.

The training was extremely successful, helping smooth the overall upgrade programme. As Richard Dawson commented, part way through the training programme, “Feedback from the initial courses has been extremely positive, for both the training itself and for the delivery team. They are delivering an extremely professional service.”