Background
Headquartered in London, Kentro employs over 300 staff across the UK, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, the USA, Hong Kong, Malaysia and the USA.
It acts as a holding company for Nexus Underwriting, the largest independent specialty managing general agent (MGA) in the London market, and Xenia Broking, the leading credit insurance and surety distribution specialist.
Challenges
Kentro created a new strategy designed to cohesively address performance planning, reviews, and individual development experiences (PRIDE).
But their existing compliance training provider did not allow customisation and was hosted on a generic learning platform.
Registration of new learners and assignments of learning was manual, and the service and reporting options were limited. And it did not allow tracking of offline training or the recording of CPD.
With a limited budget and high costs for the existing supplier, there was little scope for improving the situation or successfully implementing the PRIDE strategy.
Solution
Kentro reviewed four potential suppliers, before deciding that Skillcast offered the most content and functionality, all the learning modules needed and was within their existing budget.
They also appreciated the ability to move to single-sign-on with a customised interface and customisable learning modules.
The introduction of Skillcast Learning Management System and Training 360 coincided with creating a new talent strategy, that extended significantly beyond the company’s former compliance-based learning agenda.
Training 360
Skillcast's Training 360 tool made it easy for Kentro to capture all offline learning in one place, even formal CPD hours.
- Integrating offline activities with training records - through a simple dropdown menu.
- Log CPD hours automatically - whenever e-learning is completed on Skillcast Compliance Portal.
- Enable employee logging - of their CPD activities with supporting evidence.
Outcomes
The capability of the system, to deliver company-specific branding and labels, made it possible to launch it as a tool for the delivery of the new talent strategy.
The Kentro PRIDE philosophy and language appeared consistently in our communications and the system tiles and tabs, making navigation and engagement more intuitive.
Impact of Training 360
- By automated assignments based on pre-set criteria, allocating new joiner onboarding learning paths became consistent and efficient. And no longer needed manual intervention by the People Experience team.
- In the first year, only mandatory compliance training activities were mainly available and delivered in Skillcast.
- Learning and development activities increased by 313%, following the introduction of an optional learning library late in the first year, and development events in the second year.
- By the end of the second year, around 18 topics were addressed in mandatory learning paths, and the optional learning library included almost 197 modules.
Impact of the CPD Tracking Tool
- After starting with three CPD schemes, we could respond as demand increased. We now have eight schemes to accommodate variations in professional bodies' expectations and regulators' expectations in different territories.
- Automation of tracking increased efficiency. Classification of CPD record types increased the accuracy of manual records added. E.g. in the first (part) year of CPD tracking deployment on Skillcast, a modest increase of 23% in the number of records was observed. In the second (full) year, records tracked increased by 268%.
- The number of hours tracked in the first year doubled the number tracked previously. In the second year, a further increase of 169% was observed.
Impact of the Events Management Module
- The manual effort required to manage learning events limited what the People Experience team could deliver. With the introduction of the Skillcast Events Management Module, the time required decreased significantly, enabling the team to increase the number of developmental events delivered by 275%.
- Over half of Kentro's employees participated in live learning and development events that year, which we estimate reflects an increase of over 100%. (Tracking before Skillcast was less reliable, so it’s difficult to be more precise.)
Impact of Compliance Registers
- Using the Skillcast Compliance Register functionality, alongside a revised professional education funding policy, resulted in a significant increase in applications and approvals for employees pursuing advanced education. In the first year, applications and approvals increased by 437%.
- Skillcast compliance registers functionality for performance tracking enabled performance records (e.g. achievements against objectives) to be tracked more frequently, and efficiently and contributed to more clear and consistent interim and annual performance review records.
Client Feedback
"Before working with Skillcast, we were impressed by the promises of quality service. But only once we started working with the Skillcast team did we realise how much that could mean. The team is exceptionally responsive, capable and committed to excellence. They will try new things, and the extremely customisable system means they’re often delivering things way beyond what we originally expected or had set out to achieve. Skillcast has been the ideal partner for our PRIDE journey!" Talent Development Business Partner, Kentro Capital
