Foundation & Friends of the
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

a training success story

Foundation & Friends (the Foundation) was originally formed in 1990 to provide support for the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Whilst the Foundation is constitutionally separate from Kew, for practical and strategic purposes, it is part of the Kew family and has close contacts with staff at all levels. The Foundation supports Kew through membership schemes and other fundraising programmes such as major capital projects, corporate membership, special appeals and legacies. There are around 70,000 individual Friends and many other supporters, including trusts and foundations, and corporate sponsors.

In late 2006, the Foundation made the decision to replace their existing database software with ESiT’s product thankQ. With a database of nearly 350,000 contacts managed by around forty staff, it was vital that training for the new system was accomplished quickly, effectively and with minimum disruption. The Foundation’s training approach makes essential reading for any organisation faced with a similar-sized project.

basics first

In a large organisation there are many important considerations before training even starts. Resources such as conference rooms and projectors need to be booked many weeks in advance and if there are a large number of people to train it is essential that departments are left with sufficient staff to function whilst training takes place.

make a plan

But the biggest concern at Foundation and Friends of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, who had nearly forty users to train, was getting everyone together in the right place at the right time. To achieve this, first of all Jean Waller (Database Manager) requested users to block out time in their calendars, not for specific training sessions at this stage, but just to ensure their availability. Jean and Nilesha Mistry (ESiT Training Manager) then began the intricate task of compiling a training plan. They felt that short sessions of an hour and a half would be easier on both users and trainers, with multiple sessions to accommodate smaller groups. The initial plan took each software module and the expected number of users to be trained, and from this estimated the amount of sessions that would be required.

win hearts and minds

To ensure that everyone affected by the software changes felt comfortable, the Foundation had followed a programme of staff involvement and consultation from the outset. A Steering Group was formed, including staff from all areas of the organisation. Once the training plan had been drafted, it was presented to the Steering Group for discussion and agreement. This gave everyone the opportunity to raise issues on any point of the training. The plan was then ratified at every stage as it evolved into a final schedule.

“Initial input from the Steering Committee on each department’s training requirements was essential to ensure all users’ needs were understood. Nilesha’s approach in working with us to plan the training sessions in a flexible and creative manner ensured the success of the training programme and a high level of staff satisfaction.”

Database Manager

use resources wisely

The concept of Key Users was one of the most important aspects of the training plan. Around a dozen staff, representing each business area, were involved in the early stages of training, testing and documentation.

The Key Users were trained first, over a five day period, prior to performing User Acceptance Testing. They then returned to their departments to conduct workshops with the twenty plus standard users, where they consolidated their new skills as well as passing them on to their colleagues. The main aim of this was to ensure that when they received their training from ESiT, the standard users would already be familiar with how to log into the software and navigate around the system. This not only saved valuable training time but also ensured that all users were both comfortable with their new system and working at the same level of competence.

Another vital task for the Key Users was to talk to their colleagues about the new software from a business point of view. They developed procedure notes to explain how the system would handle each department’s functions and fostered a mood of anticipation of the improvements the software would bring. A Key User then sat in on every standard user training session to field any questions about business processes as well as any site specific IT questions, for example networking or printing.

refine the training process

The Foundation’s careful preparation meant that ESiT’s trainers were able to plan both their own time and the phasing of training sessions with much more accuracy. The Key User sessions gave the trainers an extremely valuable insight not only into the underlying functions of each department but also how they interconnect. Further refinement of the training plan for standard users followed on from this. With the Foundation’s help, the ESiT trainers weeded out any duplication of training as well as identifying any elements which would be unnecessary for standard users.

follow through

With its training complete, the Foundation is now in an excellent position as the system ‘goes live’. The careful planning and close involvement of staff has paid off - the users are all positive and believe the system will work for them. But the process doesn’t stop there. Selected managers are now receiving advanced training in report writing and administration and thought is already being given to devising a plan for training new staff.

Kew (PDF - 47KB)