Client case studies

Nationwide – business skills training

Business skills training for Nationwide, the UK’s seventh largest high street financial organisation.

The challenge

As with all of today’s financial organisations, Nationwide is highly dependent on information technology – and has a substantial IT team. The team doesn’t just manage technology – for many team members, communication plays an important part in their role. Technical teams are often required to prepare reports on which vital business decisions will be made – and while these reports usually centre around technology, they need to be read by senior managers who don’t have in-depth technical expertise. Such reports need to be clear, concise, balanced – and not get swamped with detail.

The solution

Rhiannon Johnson, team manager at Nationwide, engaged the softskills division of Xpertise to help. “IT professionals need broader abilities”, said Johnson. “Being able to communicate technical information clearly and succinctly, in a balanced and objective way, is an essential business skill for a technical team.”

Nationwide had previously tried a standard report-writing course, with another training provider, but hadn’t been impressed. Technical report-writing has many unique challenges, so Nationwide wanted a course which would specifically meet its needs. “Our technical teams support a huge range of technologies and have to cope with the needs of ten million customers. Their expertise is valuable to our organisation. We wanted to make sure that they could communicate their ideas effectively, persuasively and concisely – and without jargon”, said Rhiannon Johnson.

Xpertise developed a course specifically for Nationwide, which consisted of two one-day sessions, each held two weeks apart. At the first session, delegates had to bring a previously prepared report, which was reviewed. The reports highlighted the issues first-hand – they contained excellent technical knowledge but didn’t communicate clearly enough to a non-technical audience. The course, designed with the technical audience in mind, was highly participative, incorporating quizzes and discussion exercises to help people work together better. The first day handled the basics of communication – how to convey information effectively, in a structured way. It also included guidance on grammar, punctuation and structure.

The second day was linked to the first by practical work which was undertaken, back in the workplace, between the two days. This involved the preparation of a report, which was presented to the group and used for discussion and feedback. Working as a team, the group analysed each report, assessing how effectively each person had used his or her new skills when writing it.

Although some of the delegates were apprehensive about attending a course which had the potential to be uninspiring, they found the days to be informative, fun and memorable. Around a hundred people from Nationwide have now attended the course – and feedback has been very positive, with real improvements shown in the quality of written documents. The teams’ managers were so impressed with the results, that they attended their own half-day seminar, outlining the key reporting-writing techniques covered, so they could provide better support for their teams – driving improvement further still.