Training programme of the year

Winner

BiB Group

The QED (quality education and development) programme was set up to promote a higher level of service to our customers and brokers throughout the country by providing a programme of support for our staff to achieve professional qualifications and a stronger knowledge of their products.

For this programme to be selected and short-listed for a national award, and to be placed alongside Allianz Cornhill and Halifax - both companies many times the size of our own - is a great honour and shows that the efforts of our management team and our staff have been worthwhile.

Obviously to win is an even higher honour, we are absolutely delighted and would like to thank everyone involved in the development, promotion and participation of the programme.

We will continue with the QED programme indefinitely as the feedback from of our staff has been so positive and our staff turnover at an all-time low. The programme is set in such a way that we can constantly adjust it to meet the needs of the various departments within the BiB Group and will assist us tremendously as the FSA regulations come into force.

Highly commended

Allianz Cornhill

The company sees the relationship between Allianz Cornhill business developers and their broker customers as critical. The business developers need to be knowledgeable, professional and motivated - and their training should be as vigorous as that for core functions.

A recent review of the training for the 35-strong business development team revealed a variety of skill sets and differing levels of expertise, an absence of verifiable benchmarking and a short-term training strategy based on immediate needs.

Working with the Institute of Sales and Marketing Management, Allianz Cornhill introduced training for the Advanced Certificate of Sales and Marketing, to compliment past training and current strengths.

The implementation for the training programme was based on a combination of face-to-face tutorial sessions, distance learning and group support.

The year-long programme incorporated written assignments; video role-playing; formal presentation and a final written exam - all of which was evaluated by an external independent assessors accredited to the ISMM.

In achieving its objectives, the training programme is viewed by both AE Insurance Industry Benchmarking and the Institute of Sales and Marketing Management as being a major insurance industry initiative in sales force training.

Halifax General Insurance

Training colleagues was a central focus of internalising Halifax General Insurance's loss adjusting team. HGI wanted a training programme that was innovative and gave loss adjusters the support and direction they needed for attending to customers' needs. The challenge was to ensure all of the new colleagues were proficient in the technical, brand and customer skills required.

By involving outside trainers and developing an innovative programme we have delivered an improvement in real satisfaction with the service and an improved ability to pay genuine claims faster while boosting morale among colleagues.

"Our most significant result has been taking control of the claims process and focusing on the customer. We are then able to help the customer make decisions that are best for them to help resolve the claim. This personal claims service has significantly improved customer satisfaction," said Jim Pittman, head of Halifax claims at home division, Halifax General Insurance.

The excellent platform that the five-week induction training programme gives new team members has not only increased the desire for continued further learning (technical and non-technical) but also boosted morale.

This platform shall continue to evolve to meet future challenges, responding to requirements of our customers.