With over 45 years’ experience in the retail industry DFS has 107 stores across the UK, Ireland and The Netherlands, with their first store opening in Spain this year.
With no previous experience with e-learning, DFS wanted to utilise technological innovations by modernising their in-house classroom training to a blended approach and introducing a suite of interactive compliance e-learning modules. Prior to adopting e-learning and blended programmes, all of DFS’ face-to-face training took place in Doncaster, where their national training centre is located. With the high growth of stores across the UK, DFS was finding its learners were having difficulties when trying to take time away from their daily tasks in-store to travel to Doncaster for mandatory classroom training.
Taking action, DFS decided it was time to take a step into digital learning and create a blended programme using both face-to-face training and e-learning, saving both time and money for learners and the organisation. Due to the tightening of many ever-changing compliance laws, it was beneficial for DFS to convert its compliance classroom training into multi-device e-learning, ensuring it can keep material up-to-date with law.
These modules covered the following mandatory subjects, targeted at a specific range of learners:
- Manual Handling – for all staff to ensure they do not injure themselves when lifting
- Data Protection – for all staff to ensure both customer and staff information are handled following the correct policies
- Interest Free Credit – For Finance team members who approve credit and loans for DFS customers
After going out to tender with a high volume of suppliers, DFS selected Learning Pool as its chosen supplier due to their professional experience in e-learning. Caroline Gascoigne, National Qualifications Manager who was involved in the e-learning project explains:
“In our selection process of finding the right partner to work with, we met with many companies and from meeting with all of the staff at Learning Pool and seeing their previous work we were confident this would be the right fit.”