In 2008 Eversheds was looking for ways to increase efficiencies whilst still supporting busy lawyers and their teams. The organisation was already committed to doing things differently: it had introduced a new learning management system, rapid elearning tools and live online learning environments to help professional support lawyers create their own in-house programmes to build legal competency. But the recession meant that budgets and travel were dramatically reduced, which increased the priority for technology enhanced learning. It had to deliver results even faster.

Tim Drewitt, elearning specialist at Eversheds, was given the task of accelerating adoption. During the first two years a staggering 120 courses on legal knowledge were developed in-house. A further 120 webinars were also delivered - with a five-fold increase predicted for the subsequent year.

But of course, for learning innovation to really take hold, it's critical that learning resources are aligned to business need. Tim explains: "Many organisations start their journey with learning technologies focusing on the tools, but for us, our business goals set the direction and only then do we choose the methods and media to support those priorities."

 

For Eversheds, the key question behind the adoption of innovative learning approaches is: What does a good lawyer look like? During 2008/9, the organisation invested time in more than 100 interviews to identify what differentiates its highest performing people. It identified more than 350 elements which it translated into skills compasses and development frameworks to support high performance throughout the business. At a glance, staff can use these tools to consider their role and then identify the skills and support available, not only to help on a day to day basis in their current role but also to help them progress their career. Online resources were mapped to this framework to help busy lawyers identify and access the learning that they needed.

Online resources available for legal knowledge were integrated with generic content to support leadership development, including resources from online learning specialists LMMatters. As an immediate tactical solution to support staff, a team of HR managers and advisors mapped the 50+ courses to the elements of the skills compass and development frameworks.

Interactive versions of the development frameworks were then introduced on the Eversheds intranet site, and the supporting LMS was quietly rolled out underneath.

Tim explains: "Experience had shown that credibility is critical in supporting adoption. The resources from LMMatters provided that expertise within the Eversheds' leadership programme, but it was also critical to build an 'expert-driven' approach to our essential learning programmes." This has been achieved by blending online content with expert-led face-to-face and online sessions, alongside post-training follow-up support.

To encourage engagement, a new guide for all appraising managers was developed to raise awareness and encourage action. A hard copy was distributed to all managers but due to popular demand an e-brochure was also available for all employees via the intranet. The technology adoption was also reliant on the buy-in of the professional support lawyers - in-house lawyers who act as subject matter experts and business trainers.

Tim explains that these professional support lawyers were successfully engaged with a 'softly, softly' approach: "When we first introduced the new webinar and elearning development tools, I created a 30-page user guide but soon realised that no-one would read it as it would be too overwhelming. Instead we helped the professional support lawyers get started at a basic level so that they could see some results quickly, to inspire them to take the next step."

In terms of webinars, the trainers were first encouraged to deliver a basic slide presentation online; as they became more familiar they were taught how to introduce interactions through voting, chat windows, etc. Once presenters were comfortable they started to highlight when they were ready to move to the next step. It was only after 18 months that they wanted to have an in-house training session to take them to the next level.

In a similar way, this approach has also been used to implement rapid elearning tools. The professional support lawyers started out by simply narrating PowerPoint slides, later being coached on the use of different types of questions and interactions to help them deliver the learning more effectively. They are now sharing their ideas via team meetings and social media communities.

After three years, Eversheds innovative approach to learning is starting to make a real impact – more of the organisation is adopting new ways of learning than ever before and approximately 65% of formal learning programmes are now e-enabled in some way, almost doubling in the last year. Moving forward, Tim is looking at the ways to measure impact more effectively and is leading a project to measure transfer of learning back to the workplace.

A number of new approaches are being considered for the next stage, including mobile and social learning.

Tim explains: "Our lawyers are starting to question the 30 minute elearning programmes and are now asking for shorter modules that are not necessarily delivered at the desk. In the business we clock up tens of thousands of hours of travel and waiting time which can also be considered discretionary learning time. The business has already coined the phrase 'Train on the train'!"

More than 1,500 Blackberries and 300 iPads are already in use within the organisation which can be leveraged more effectively to achieve this. At the time of publishing, Eversheds has just concluded a pilot using one exemplar mobile learning module on one aspect of finance training, a series of podcasts on litigation law and videos from 50 Lessons.

What is particularly gratifying for Tim is that staff themselves are coming to ask for more - proof that the Eversheds approach is really delivering.