Hampshire Trust Bank secures over 93% compliance with a highly accessible, user-friendly learning platform

Hampshire Trust Bank is a UK bank formed in 1977 focused on UK customers with centres of excellence in Asset Finance, Property Finance and Commercial Mortgages. They also provide competitive Savings accounts to individuals and businesses.

They are now a ‘new’ bank designed for a better-regulated age and more demanding service standards and yet an ‘old’ bank in terms of their return to the finest traditions of relationship banking.

The Challenges

Tighter compliance regulations are challenging organisations in a variety of ways and compliance risk has become one for the most significant concerns for executives in financial institutions. Regulations are continually developing and it is vital that staff keep up to date with the regulations which directly impact their role.

Hampshire Trust Bank has developed their own bespoke elearning courses to help ensure their staff are up to speed on regulations and remain compliant. They needed to source a Learning Management System to host the elearning and manage staff training and compliance.

When short-listing potential systems and providers, they identified the following key requirements:

• Staff management – the ability to integrate with corporate systems and automatically update new starter and leaver information.
• Managing compliance with an LMS– the ability to target staff with training relevant to their department/job role automatically. In addition, refresher periods for courses were required and they wanted the system to prompt both staff and their managers when compliance training is due for renewal.
• Flexible LMS reporting – the ability to create custom reports in both Excel and PDF formats that can be scheduled and emailed to HR and compliance teams daily/weekly.
• Rapid implementation – a high priority is placed on staff being compliant with regulations and so they wanted to go live with the system within four weeks.
• Elearning management – the ability to upload SCORM based elearning courses and manage access and learner attempts for courses with examination elements.
• LMS Customization and branding – to be able to brand the system with the organisations’ branding and develop a simple, user-friendly interface for learners. In addition, the system should be accessible from any device.

The open source learning management system, Totara Learn, was selected as being able to easily satisfy all of these requirements and Platinum Partner, Think Associates were selected to manage the implementation.

Think Associates have achieved the internationally recognised ISO 27001:2013 Information Security Management Standard and their data centres are located in the UK meaning they pass the strict security requirements dictated by the sector.  The ISO accreditation gave HTB confidence that Think Associates would proactively manage risks to the security of their company’s confidential information and that their data would be adequately protected against potential threats.

The Solution

Think Associates has implemented a compliance-led, streamlined and low maintenance Totara Learn to address their very specific requirements.

Rapid Implementation

HTB required a rapid LMS implementation; they needed to go live just four weeks after their initial implementation meeting to ensure they could evidence that all existing staff remained compliant.

Their Think Associates Project Manager worked in conjunction with their compliance team to configure and populate the system with their entire learning catalogue. Accountabilities and deliverables for each stage were transparent and effectively communicated across the project team.

Elearning Course Configuration

Think Associates configured all the courses in Totara Learn and rigorously tested these to ensure they fitted the client’s needs. Courses comprised of two pieces of elearning, the course content and the quiz; access to the quiz is only unlocked after the required learning has been undertaken. Quizzes only allow two attempts and passing the quiz unlocks a certificate for the learner to evidence their compliance.

Integration with Active Directory – ‘Hands Free’ Implementation

For most organisations integrating Totara Learn with their Active Directory is key to managing users in the system and ensuring that reports are in line with other corporate systems. New starters are automatically added and leavers are suspended through this link. At HTB the link with their Active Directory also automatically places staff within their department. Departments are set up to be automatically populated with the mandatory training requirements for staff to achieve compliance.

Reporting

Totara Learn is set up to email a completion report to the compliance team each day to give them an overview of all employees’ activity.

The compliance team also receives a second daily report which flags anyone who has failed two attempts at any of the elearning quizzes to ensure they are offered additional face-to-face training and support to achieve maximum compliance

The actions for the compliance team are streamlined and waiting for them every morning in their inbox, meaning they don’t even have to login to the system to export the data required for decision making. This minimises the work they have to do in terms of learning administration allowing them to more proactively manage compliance with real-time data.

The integration with Active Directory, defining compliance training requirements by audience and setting up custom scheduled reports have helped HTB to achieve their objective of implementing an effective, self-managing, ‘hands-free’ system.

Customisation and Branding

It was important to Hampshire Trust Bank that their Learning Management System reflected their corporate branding. Think Associates in-house designers were able to create a theme that achieved this.

A simplified interface enhanced the learner experience for staff, meaning no formal training needed to be provided on how to use the system.

“We used the LMS portal to meet our compliance training requirements for staff and have since utilised the platform to aid us with Induction and introductory material for new starters. From research, to implementation, the ongoing use of the LMS, Think Associates have been 100% supportive and speedy in their responses.”

The Results

Totara Learn has integrated seamlessly into Hampshire Trust Bank’s normal business practices, making the move to Totara Learn smooth and hassle free.

Hampshire Trust Bank benefits from having an ISO-compliant system with accessible elearning and a cohesive approach to on-boarding. Employees are clear on their compliance requirements owing to certifications, and the L&D team can spot employees requiring additional support, such as those who perform poorly on quizzes.

So far the results have been very impressive. 100% of Hampshire Trust Bank’s staff have logged in to the system. Scores in compliance average 93.5% and the lowest score is 91.2% proving the elearning content is effective. All new starters now do at least three pieces of elearning on their first day of employment, demonstrating the accessibility and user friendliness of the system.

The Future

Hampshire Trust Bank is already making plans for the future. They are developing a second wave of elearning courses and learners who complete elearning quizzes successfully will be directed towards other forms of learning, giving them a fully blended experience for more effective learning.

They intend to add a comprehensive induction course to the LMS including welcome materials, development resources and information about the organisation.

“Our ability to add interactive content really heightens the learner experience and feedback from staff has been extremely positive.”