After 22 successful years in business, alarm bells started ringing for the largest independent installer of protection systems in Scotland and the North of England. Pointer Alarms discovered its training left a lot to be desired.
The firm, with a staff of 180, expanded steadily since it started in 1972 and now has offices in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Leeds and Manchester. But training in 1994 tended to be on an ad hoc, reactive basis.
Pointer introduced vocational qualifications, but still wanted to make sure everyone within the company got the training they needed. ''We believe training and development is the way forward in achieving business objectives,'' said training manager Robert Calder.
''We reviewed our performance following expansion and found training to be a weakness. Levels of technical training were inconsistent and there was low emphasis on development. We decided to look at IIP as a means of improving the training we offered our staff.''
In 1994 Pointer committed to the IIP process and started the workshop programmes which would take the company training processes to IIP standards. It has not been easy. The company had to collate and identify its training and development systems before bringing them up to scratch.
Internal communications took up much of the company's time - with offices scattered across five cities it was a slow process to get them all working to the same standards. Fortunately the GDA advisor was there with help and guidance. Pointer was the company doing all the work - but it was GDA which pushed them to complete it.
Eventually, in 1996, Pointer received IIP accreditation - and discovered all the effort was worthwhile. ''We have a greater appreciation of the role training and development plays in achieving business objectives,'' said Calder.
''Training has been reconstructed to be more focused. Our staff has realised we're serious about its development, our people feel more valued as a result of the accreditation. They reacted not so much to the achievement of the award, it's more that they are thinking 'they must be serious about us'.
''We've found we get a positive reaction too from other, similar companies which have also achieved IIP status.
And it's a definite advantage in large tender bids when training and development is highlighted as a key issue. It's then that holding IIP really opens doors.''
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