Bernie Green, Operations and Technology Manager, KFC UK & Ireland recently presented at a Saba sponsored TrainingZone webinar, giving some insight into how exactly KFC implemented a new Learning Management System across 825 restaurants country-wide. Time and time again I hear customers asking for tips on exactly how an organisation should approach such a task, so I thought I would share Bernie’s top tips!
Challenge yourselves openly for your team
Define your project team and their roles. Typically an LMS implementation involves HR, training and learning however it often goes beyond that to IT and Finance, channel partners, franchisees. Ask yourself do you have the right people on the project team and are they delivering?
Define a communications strategy
Define a communication plan for the duration of your project and review it regularly to ensure it is delivering the right message. Communication between stakeholders should be two-way, open and honest. Use all media to communicate, so face to face meetings and workshops, pod casts, webinars, email newsletters, social media. Enable all parties concerned to talk about the project, discuss challenges and how to overcome them. Stakeholders need to feel they have a voice. Think about communications after the project implementation as well and how to keep the project teams engaged after the project launch.
Call out the strategy versus training
Understand who is responsible for each part of the project and who is leading it. At times certain roles may cross over so sometimes you need to partner together to get things done. Ensure there is accountability for key deliverables and timelines.
Drive engagement
Take time out to focus on engaging employees in the project, this is an important part. Have fun with the engagement - create a brand for your learning so that people have something to reference.
Robust support tools
Provide robust support for the various systems, so content, e-learning, IT. Ensure that channel partners know where to go when something doesn’t work. And that they know what support is provided.
Be prepared for setbacks
When launching a massive project there are likely to be setbacks so be prepared. There may be, resistance to change, technology issues, cost issues, or problems getting buy in etc.
Celebrate the milestones!!
Celebrate your achievements along the way so that stakeholders continue to engage and feel excited about the progress that has been made.
KFC won an award…and was named first place overall in the large organisations category at the Britain's Top Employer awards, and scored highly for Primary Benefits, Training and Development, Career Development and Company Culture…so these tips come from an organisation that has had some great success! To hear more of Bernie’s tips as it is difficult to put them all in one post…download the recording of the webinar.
