Blended Learning provides ISS with aditional sales

• Download as PDF-file

ISS in Denmark has gained significant results from an ambitious effort to develop the group’s many employees.

The training in ISS combines the best of traditional classroom training with the establishment of a comprehensive e-learning academy – a so-called Blended Learning process.

The target group is ISS’s 16,000 employees in Denmark. The results can be measured and are very significant.

The situation

Competent and motivated employees are the biggest assets of a company. At ISS Denmark the best salespeople are often the many service employees who are out performing duties for customers every single day.

The solution

In order to develop 900 service managers right now and about 16,000 Danish employees in the long term ISS invested in a training solution which combines the best of traditional courses with e-learning.

In co-operation with LADEGAARD A/S, ISS launched an integrated training process where all participants go through both a number of seminars and intensive follow-up on the Internet over a period of 6-7 months.

The first participants – the managers – train in additional sales to existing customers. This requires two modules – One in sales knowledge and one in knowledge about all the products in ISS’ integrated service system. A manager in the cleaning department must also have a keen eye for the customers’ needs for facility service and furthermore be able to sell it.

E-learning must not stand alone

E-learning is sometimes presented as an alternative to traditional courses. ISS has chosen to invest in a combination. The first part of the academy is a traditional two day classroom course as well as an introduction to e-learning. Then the managers work on their own via e-learning.

The combination of the two learning methods is important. E-learning must not stand alone. E-learning should be used a continuation in order to maintain focus long after the course. The employees at ISS have adopted the method with great enthusiasm because their new tools mean that they themselves can take responsibility for their own development.

Working with different learning methods in Blended Learning makes it possible to create personalized and dynamic learning on the Internet compared to training by cd-rom or something similar. At the same time the management in ISS is able to supervise the training. That means focus and significant results.

"Financially the investment has already been repaid manifold via additional sales. Moreover the entire level of knowledge about the business is growing in our organization. We have now established a motorway where the sales academy is the first by-way. We now have the structure and if we make the right by-ways with new courses, we suddenly have completely new ways of educating large groups of our employees with Blended Learning,"says Carsten Dahl, who is head of the training division in ISS Denmark.