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A cost-effective answer to compliance

Like many hospitality businesses, Ralph Trustees needs to be fully compliant. Janet Rumbold, Group HR Director, says, “Chefs should not be in the kitchen without the appropriate Food Hygiene training. From a Health and Safety perspective if we have an accident and our people are not trained, then we are liable. If you sell alcohol to the wrong customers you’re prosecuted, so compliance is very important!”

Ralph Trustees needed a cost effective solution where the learning would stick and could be applied in role. With pressure on staffing levels, it was inefficient to have people off on day-long classroom courses. “We needed something that was quick to use, because in hospitality you can’t just give somebody a whole day off to do a course,” says Janet.

Equally, management and HR needed reports that recorded completion of training for compliance. It was important that this was easy to use and accurate to protect the business.

About Ralph Trustees

Ralph Trustees Limited is a family run private hotel group based in England with a portfolio of four hotels operating in the four and five star sector. Their hotels include:

• The Grove (Hertfordshire)

• The Athenaeum (London)

• The Runnymede-on-Thames (Surrey)

• 23 Greengarden House (London)

Across these four sites there are:

• 800 employees

• Each hotel completes over 4,000 online learning courses every year

Compliance training expands into all areas of online learning for leading hospitality group Ralph Trustees

JanetRumbold,GroupHRDirectoratRalphTrustees

WITH UpSkILL pEopLE’S onLInE LEARnInG IT’S A SHoRTER SESSIon bUT IT’S mUCH moRE poTEnT.

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www.upskillpeople.com+44 (0) 8707 66 94 33

online learning is probably better for people who don’t have English as their first language. I think most of our foreign

EmpLoyEES HAvE FoUnD IT REALLy bEnEFICIAL.JanetRumbold,GroupHRDirector

Upskill people partnered with the different hotels under Ralph Trustees’ ownership to deliver online learning across four sites and 800 employees.

keeping it legal

“you could say somebody’s signed a form when they come to training but online learning provides an audit trail that they’ve completed the course and passed.” Accurate records are kept about completion time and pass rate. “It gives us a chance to check that they do know what they are doing and haven’t just skipped through everything - we can see what they’ve done,” says Janet.

Cost reduction

“We are saving people’s time in the business,” says Janet. “being on an 8 hour course is a huge difference to 55 minutes online and everyone can go at a pace to suit.” The other benefit was checking up on the learning. “previously we never knew whether they really had learnt what they needed to learn. With online learning it’s a shorter session but it’s much more potent. We have the added advantage that, should they not succeed, they can do it again, only taking around an hour, compared to a day in the classroom.”

Easy learning

online learning has helped people who speak different languages. Janet explains, “online learning is probably better for people who don’t have English as their first language. In a classroom environment they’re often too shy to ask a question if they don’t understand something.

“With our online learning we’ve provided them with a dictionary so they can look up words. They’ve then learnt a new English word. most foreign employees have found it really beneficial. Probably 90% of them are under thirty so therefore computer-based learning is really easy for them.”

The next step is to roll out the key words and phrases linked documents that Upskill people is producing with a team of clients. This will give a good grasp of English related to hospitality and people’s jobs.

beyond compliance

online learning now includes the new First Aid Refresher course and perfect Serve, where staff will learn how to serve cocktails and other drinks and give the guest a great experience. There are additional courses such as the Sales and Relationship Course and Telephone Techniques Course.

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www.upskillpeople.com+44 (0) 8707 66 94 33

If you took ten people on a course and a course is a day long, they’re out of the business for seven and a half hours each. 10 people doing half an hour’s worth of online learning, they’re only out of the business for thirty minutes.

IT’S qUITE A ConSIDERAbLE SAvInG.JanetRumbold,GroupHRDirectoratRalphTrustees

RTL have achieved Gold Investors in people at The Grove and Runnymede and bronze at the Athenaeum. Additionally RTL has been awarded the status of Accredited Learning Department for its commitment to high quality and process improvement in the provision of learning, development and training services.

Training delivered

between 01/06/2012 and 31/05/2013 there have been 88,144 minutes of online learning delivered with 2,184 courses accessed. This gives a cost of £0.30p per minute of learning.

In terms of successes for four top quality hotels in Ralph Trustees’ portfolio, the results are as follows:

• Cost saving: If you took ten people on a course and a course is a day long, they’re out of the business for seven and a half hours each. 10 people doing half an hour’s worth of online learning, they’re only out of the business for thirty minutes. “It’s quite a considerable saving,” says Janet.

The cost of online learning delivery compared to face-to- face instructor-led learning equates to a 61% saving.

• Quick action: Kellie Hayes, Group HR Project Officer says, “If we identify a problem within a certain area we can get them trained as soon as possible. We can literally get it done that afternoon. We don’t have to try and find the course, book people in, get everyone’s availability. In our business this impacts on the service levels if we have to have certain staff out of the business on certain days.”

• Individual costings: All the training is costed individually, including online learning. This means employees can see how much training they’ve had in a year and the value of it as an investment in them by Ralph Trustees Ltd.

Janet Rumbold has successfully implemented online learning in a number of organisations. Her advice to other organisations is:

• be consistent in learning delivery

• Advertise it widely

• Don’t just tell them once, have voice and draw a picture

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ViSiTwww.upskillpeople.com

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OR PHONE +44 (0) 8707 66 94 33

Upskill People is a pioneer in online learning for retail and hospitality. We’ve always been at the forefront of developing fully interactive and highly engaging courses so your employees learn quickly, retain new knowledge and implement skills, saving you time and money. With Upskill People you get online learning that works in the real worlds of retail and hospitality.

We have a comprehensive catalogue of ready to go courses that can be tailored to you as well as fully bespoke content. What’s more we continuously update our courses in line with legislation and also if they could just do with a refresh. That’s why you’re guaranteed the very best learning drawn from our experience of working with leading retail and hospitality businesses.

People don’t want to be trained in how to use an online training system, so the Upskill People learning platform is really easy to use. Seeing real time results and creating reports is super simple. You can quickly track course completion and prove compliance. With management fully informed they can make better decisions on where support and investment is needed. To check your levels of employee engagement our survey tools can be put to use as we’ve already got all the right information.

The learning platform also works with your other learning management or HR systems. That means existing content and training can be kept in one place for a truly blended learning approach.

With Upskill People you will have:

• Effective staff

• Informed management

• Delighted customers

And that means your bottom line benefits.

Upskill people have 100+readytogocourses. Whether off the shelf, tailored or fully bespoke our courses are specific to retail and hospitality and all have an assessment to pass. To see our full course catalogue, go towww.upskillpeople.com

We’ve achieved a saving of tens to hundreds of thousands of pounds.Tim Gassick Director Risk, Health & Safety

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A reduction in cost and an improvement in sales.Scott Taviner Head of Operation and Performance

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