The background

British Sugar, part of the Associated British Foods Group, is the UK’s leader producer of sugar, with an annual output of around 1.2 million tonnes from its 5 sites across East Anglia

The company has a diverse workforce of 1200 staff, with a significant proportion originally from Eastern European countries.

The challenge

We were approached by British Sugar’s L&D team in summer 2023 with a request to put forward a proposal to develop a new bespoke module on Conscious Inclusion for the entire workforce

On signature of contract, our first step was to run an e-learning design workshop for the L&D team at the company’s headquarters in Peterborough.

This was followed by a period of working very closely with the team and with an external Diversity, Equity and Inclusion specialist on preparation of the storyboard for the module.

The results

The L&D team had fantastic feedback on the module, with one employee commenting: I would also add there feels a real difference in the quality of this learning modules to others that I’ve completed – it feels much more polished and professional and definitely shows that we have invested in this module as we really see the value and importance of Inclusion and Diversity.

The lessons

Might a bespoke e-learning course be useful for your organisation? Book a call to find out how cost effective it can be.

The background

TMUK (Toyota Motor Manfacturing UK) operates 2 factories in UK, just outside Derby and in Deeside, with a total of 3500 staff and agency workers known as Members.

As well as being the world’s largest car manufacturer by volume, they’re also one of our original clients from our time as part of the University of Derby.

Over the course of our 15-year collaboration, TMUK have constantly pushed the boundaries in making their learner engagement process as easy as possible, removing any barriers to accessing development activities.

The challenge

For the latest phase of the collaboration in 2024, the initial focus was on how we could help get TMUK’s face-to-face offer online and scaled to reach larger numbers through our bespoke e-learning development capabilities.  But this quickly evolved into the launching a more efficient way of implementing the Annual Online Appraisal and Technical Skills Assessments to capture data on training gaps/needs.

The results

The collaboration established 15 years ago is still going strong and each year new or improved functionality is added to the learning platform.  We’ve recently rebuilt the Course Booking process to allow for all Team Leaders and Team Members to be booked onto training sessions, so the platform is now being accessed by approximately 3500 users – almost the entire workforce.

The future

“I appreciate their flexibility …creating a system which is both user friendly and meets the business needs.”

The background

Marked Improvement started out as an in-house e-learning team at the University of Derby over 20 years ago and, even though we’re now an independent business, we continue to work closely with the University across multiple projects

The Work Health Hub journey began in autumn 2023 when we were approached by the University’s workplace wellbeing team who had been delivering the major government-funded Mental Health Productivity Pilot (MHPP) scheme across the region.

The challenge

The MHPP was approaching the end of its period of funding and the team were looking at ways to continue their work supporting employers of all sizes in introducing workplace mental health and wellbeing programmes.

After lengthy discussions, the concept that emerged was of a online subscription-based platform which organisations could sign up to in order to access a variety of support services and resources.

The results

The best way to understand what the Hub is about is in the words of the inspirational Kate Wood who leads the team.

The Hub has had excellent feedback from member organisations,  including the premium members who have access to additional functionality such as the ability to promote their wellbeing services to other members.

Membership continues to grow, and the Hub has achieved what it set out to do, which is providing an income stream enabling the team to continue their workplace wellbeing support post-MHPP.

The future

“I couldn’t work with anyone else… true superstars!”

The background

The Pulvertaft Hand Centre is a leading international hand surgery centre located within the Royal Derby Hospital. The centre treats a wide range of conditions of the hand and wrist, as well as running postgraduate courses for doctors, nurses and therapists.

Marked Improvement have worked with the Pulvertaft since our early days, including the development of an e-learning course and platform on radiation protection for surgeons using portable X-ray equipment.

The challenge

A month into the first COVID lockdown in 2020, the Pulvertaft faced the issue of how to continue supporting patients in the context of the massive restrictions on everyday life.

They had an existing mobile app which had been developed 5 years previously, but this was now outdated and it only worked on iOS devices, thereby limiting availability.

The results

The primary aim here was to avoid unnecessary outpatient visits during lockdown, but as further exercises and other features focused on patient education were added, it became clear that the ‘PH Rehab’ platform would have benefits beyond COVID.

The Trust have used the platform as evidence of their environmental commitment, estimating that 12.7 tonnes of CO2e were saved during the first 3 months of implementation of PH Rehab and related measures as a result of the reduction in patient visits.

But, perhaps more importantly, while not all digital healthcare has been well received by patients, PH Rehab has had an exceptionally positive response from both patients and clinicians.

The future

The background

Leicester-based Showsec International, part of the Live Nation group, is the biggest name in the UK’s crowd management, venue and event security industry, covering live music and major sports events. Their distinctive yellow jackets can be seen at national and international venues such as Manchester City, Leicester City and the Manchester Arena.

With a huge workforce of event stewards that can exceed 10,000 at the busiest times of the year, the onboarding and ongoing CPD of staff is mission critical, and this is where Marked Improvement come in.

The challenge

Showsec stewards are responsible for event security and crowd control at some of the largest events in the country, so it is vital that managers and the central teams are able to verify that staff have undertaken the requisite training, ranging from venue familiarisation to the use of walkie-talkies.

The results

In collaboration with Showsec, we’ve developed new ‘Storyline Superpowers’ which enable more learner engagement data to be pulled out of the courses into the LMS reports than would ordinarily be possible. This is valuable in a number of ways, but particularly because it allows the L&D team to see where there are patterns of mistakes which can then be addressed by amending the training content.

Over the period in which we have been supporting Showsec there have been over 1 million course completions.

The future

If, like Showsec, you have a large workforce in a highly regulated industry, book a call to find out how we can help with training and compliance.

The background

Derby Homes is a 100% owned subsidiary of Derby City Council created in 2002 to manage and maintain the Council’s housing stock.

With a turnover of almost £60M a year, Derby Homes looks after more than 12,000 properties and has a wide range of training needs for its 700 staff.

The challenge

From the start, Derby Homes required an easy-to-use learning platform enabling them to assign online courses to staff based on their job roles.

Over time, additional requirements emerged, including the ability to record appraisals and 1-2-1 meetings between staff and line managers.

The results

Alongside our bespoke solutions, our catalogue of 3,000 courses has proved invaluable to the team, giving them access to a wide choice of courses on any given topic without the need to contact each publisher individually for a demo and quote.

The platform has enabled Derby Homes to source, distribute and track use of courses on diverse topics, from Asbestos Awareness to Unconscious Bias. As many of the association’s staff are tradespeople involved in the maintenance of housing stock, it was essential they could complete our courses on the go via their mobile devices. Our platform easily facilitates this.

Flexibility across devices has been a major benefit for Derby Homes, who were keen to ensure that their tradespeople enjoyed the same access to training as office-based staff.

The future

“Without the support of Marked Improvement, this wouldn’t have been possible.”