A strong unity – encouraging superiors and an enthusiastic personnel
Lacking your own personal computer does not prevent the use of e-learning. If the benefits can be justified and the will is there, realization is purely a matter of organization. The majority of Itella Contract Logistics’ personnel is made up of warehouse staff who do not have their own computers at workplace. Despite of this, e-learning is one of the tools used in Itella for competence development and works excellently, from the point of view of the company as well as its staff.
The first online training by Itella Contract Logistics and Prewise, Logistics – A Strong Unity, was created to support a situation of change in Itella’s business operations in which more than one subsidiary joined under Itella Logistic’s name and corporate image. The goal of the online training was to transmit a uniform message to the entire staff at the integration phase of Contract Logistics and to make the integration’s practical effects on their work visible to the personnel.
Not having your own computer is not a problem
The target group for Contract Logistics’ online training was quite challenging. About eight hundred people work in fifteen different units around Southern Finland. A majority of the target group were warehouse workers, who no more had their own computers in daily work use than corporate e-mail addresses.
- As far as warehouse workers are concerned, carrying out online training always requires some degree of special arrangements. The superiors of each unit had seen to the distribution of user IDs and made sure that the personnel had a workstation available with which to go through the training. Quite a lot of the implementation’s success therefore depends on the superiors, says Milla Suonoja, Manager of development and administration at Itella Logistics.
According to Suonoja, whether the course participant had a personal computer or not did not have a notable effect on the overall performance of the online training.
- There were no significant differences between warehouse and office workers. In fact I think that the warehouse workers were even a little more enthusiastic to take part in the online training than the office workers were. The warehouse workers’ superiors have also been more active in ensuring and reminding their staff to complete the training, says Suonoja.
The role of superiors is to encourage and motivate staff
How to get personnel to go through online training? At Itella Logistics, there was no need for special carrots. Superiors did a fine job in encouraging the personnel to complete the training.
- The most essential thing has been the fact that superiors understand the importance of training and encourage and motivate their own people to complete it. However, carrying out online training is facilitated by the fact that time the training takes place can be chosen freely. It can also be done when it’s a more quiet time of the day and other people can take over for you. We have also tried to make the training modules tight packages so that going through them would not prove to be impossible, says Suonoja.
The commitment and activity of superiors in situations of change has had an otherwise strong role at Itella as well.
- Change communication has, in addition to online training, largely rested on the shoulders of superiors, says Suonoja on carrying out changes.
Enquiring personnel was pleased to go through training
The online training received good feedback and achieved good results. According to Suonoja, the credit for this lies with Itella Logistic’s entire personnel, who are genuinely interested about the company’s affairs.
- I think the good feedback was affected by our integrated subsidiaries’ personnel’s awareness of the transition phase by the time of the first training module. The company’s name had changed and the organizational structures had gone through changes. The personnel wanted more information about what was happening and how this would be manifested in their day-to-day work. The interest concerning the change was already there and additional information was called for.
Content is crucial – even in e-learning
At the moment, Contract Logistics’ online training program is made up of three modules: Logistics –A strong unity, Contract Logistics – Let’s do it together, and the most recently launched Contract Logistics – Occupational health and safety, which is closely linked to Itella’s theme this year, occupational health and safety. Today, online training is used extensively at Itella.
- Superiors are now aware of how the practical implementation takes place. Giving credit, the machines used, reserving working time, and other practical arrangements are done even faster and more easily than before. Now that the personnel is aware of the practical side of the training process, they are more easily motivated to complete the training, says Suonoja on Itella’s personnel’s attitude toward online training.
- However, in the end a lot depends on the content of the training. We must be accountable for the content being a hundred percent relevant, adds Suonoja.
At Itella, online training has an established position as a tool for developing competence.
- We see e-learning as an excellent method of implementation when we want to reach the entire personnel, which is geographically dispersed. Of course we always think each training event through as a separate unit and decide on what is the best method of implementation in each case, says Suonoja.
For more information on Itella, go to www.itella.fi
Text: Enni Haapanen