Delivering a New Talent Strategy for Kentro Capital

When Kentro needed a platform and tools to help implement its new talent strategy, it chose Skillcast for advice and support.

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 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 learning assignments was manual. Service and reporting options were limited, and it did not allow offline training tracking or CPD recording.

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

After reviewing four potential suppliers, Kentro decided that Skillcast offered the most content and functionality, all the learning modules needed, and it was within their existing budget. An added bonus was 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.

• Integrated offline activities with training records through a simple dropdown menu.
• Logged CPD hours automatically whenever e-learning on Skillcast Compliance Portal was completed.
• Employees logged CPD activities with supporting evidence.
  
  

Outcomes

The system's capability to deliver company-specific branding and labels made it possible to launch it as a tool for delivering the new talent strategy.

The Kentro PRIDE philosophy and language appeared consistently in communications and the system tiles and tabs, making navigation and engagement more intuitive.

Impact of Training 360

• By automating assignments based on pre-set criteria and allocating new joiner onboarding, learning paths became consistent and efficient and no longer needed manual intervention by the People Experience team.
• Only mandatory compliance training activities were available and delivered in Skillcast for the first 12 months.
•  After introducing an optional learning library late in the first year and development events in the second year, learning and development activities increased by 313%.
• By the end of the second year, around 18 topics were addressed in mandatory learning paths, and the optional learning library included 197 modules.

Impact of the CPD Tracking Tool

• After starting with three CPD schemes, Kentro could respond as demand increased. They now have eight schemes to accommodate variations in professional bodies' 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 partial year of CPD tracking via Skillcast, the number of records increased by 23%. 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, they increased a further 169%.

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 needed fell 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, an estimated increase of over 100%. Before the introduction of the Skillcast tool, tracking was less reliable, so it is difficult to be more precise.

Impact of Compliance Registers

• There was a significant increase in applications and approvals for employees pursuing advanced education following the introduction of the Skillcast Compliance Register functionality, alongside a revised professional education funding policy. In the first year, applications and approvals grew by 437%.
• Skillcast compliance registers functionality for performance tracking enabled performance records (e.g. achievements against objectives) to be tracked more frequently and efficiently. The tool 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

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