British Airways: A Case Study

Article in the UK
August 2003

E-learning can bring bottom line benefits – but not without some effort, as British Airways has proved three years after reorganising its training department, introducing a blend of classroom and e-learning programmes and finding the best e-learning vendors in the business.

E-learning earns its wings

According to Elaine Wilson, British Airways (BA)’s e-learning manager: “With a global workforce who work variable hours, are often on the move and differ greatly in culture and ways of working, providing consistent and successful training is a continuous challenge. E-learning presents the perfect solution by providing our staff with a fantastic range of courses to choose from and, more importantly, access whenever they choose. Not only is it highly cost-effective but we believe that self-directed learning – which this approach enables - is helping to increase motivation levels and develop our staff not just professionally but also personally.”

BA, the world’s largest international airline, transports some 48m passengers on 529,807 flights to 535 destinations in 160 countries each year. All of BA’s 49,000 or so employees around the world have access to BA’s 400 or so generic and custom-built e-learning programmes – and, through discovering the benefits of e-learning for themselves, these staff have produced some Ј3.6m in cost benefits for BA over the past three years.

Yet, like any manager in the training sphere, BA’s e-learning manger, Elaine Wilson, is quick to point out that, even with learning materials being delivered remotely, BA is still not able to meet 100 per cent of all its employees’ learning needs. She said: “Obviously, if we had more money, we could make the e-learning portfolio work even better!”

But, according to Wilson: “Now – after three years – we have achieved ‘proof of concept’ In other words, BA training staff accept e-learning as a valid learning delivery method which produces not just cost savings but also improved skills, which lead to cost benefits through operating more efficiently and effectively. Moreover, they are beginning to ‘take ownership’ of e-learning and value its contribution to their skill levels. They are coming to understand that delivering learning electronically is just as valid as delivering it any other way.”

BA’s employees gain access to e-learning materials via the company’s intranet, which is accessed through desktop computers as well as a number of open learning centres throughout the world. However, if this is not possible because of where the employee is in the world, the learning materials are available on CD-ROM.

“E-learning has enabled us to continue to deliver training materials that we wouldn’t have been able to deliver via ‘traditional’, classroom-based training methods in the light of BA’s leaner, more cost-conscious operating approach,” Wilson commented. “This is especially true of learning materials relating to ‘soft skills’.

“We are careful to tie in e-learning to real business needs,” Wilson said. “So we don’t promote e-learning per se – such as trying to get everyone to achieve the European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL). Rather, we wait for operational managers to tell us that their staff need to improve their skills and then suggest ways in which this could happen.

“Indeed, there are four business critical capabilities that BA has identified – commercial and business awareness; project and programme management; performance management and coaching, and industrial relations. So requests for learning materials – including e-learning materials – are couched in terms of meeting these needs.”

BA began using e-learning materials three years or so ago – although it had a longer pedigree in using technology based training materials, such as those on stand alone, multimedia CD-ROMs.

“Right from the start of our involvement with e-learning, we stated that e-learning is an effective learning delivery method but it is not a complete replacement for classroom-based training,” Wilson said.

“We said this for two reasons: first, because it’s true and second, because it enabled us to get ‘buy-in’ to the concept of e-learning from the rest of BA – especially from our instructor colleagues, who may otherwise have been apprehensive that e-learning was ineffective as a learning delivery method.

“We have developed a company policy – which works very well indeed,” she continued. “The policy is encapsulated in the slogan, ‘never train offline when online will meet the need’.

“For us, ‘offline’ means taking people away from their jobs to a classroom-based course,” Wilson said. “That involves not only the cost of taking that person away from their job but also the cost of getting someone to replace them – and paying that person overtime to do so. Moreover, taking people away from their jobs causes disruption to the smooth running of the business.

“E-learning has proved to be highly beneficial in helping us to minimise this disruption and the extra costs associated with classroom-based training.”

The road to achieving the successful integration of e-learning with other forms of learning delivery has not been easy and it has involved considerable organisational change. Historically, each business unit within BA operated its own training department, with management development and desktop IT training being the only streams to be run centrally. As a result of BA’s reorganisation in November 1999, the company’s ten or so separate training departments were merged into one.

Bringing the separate training departments together – and, as a consequence, their budgets – has also made it easier to carry out large-scale infrastructure projects. Most notably, it has allowed a unified approach to the rollout of e-learning.

“Consolidating our training activities into one department made us examine all aspects of BA’s operations to see which skills were applicable throughout the organisation and which areas of operation had their own, specific skills – and therefore training needs,” said Wilson.

“At the same time, we undertook a thorough review of all our suppliers – of which there were 400 – and narrowed these down to just 70,” she added. “And we introduced some standard procedures and processes into the training function to enable it to run coherently as a business.

“We now have standardised procedures for how any training project – be it classroom-based training or e-learning - is designed and developed,” she explained. “This has brought e-learning more into the mainstream of thought as far as the training department is concerned. Until then, e-learning was seen as the preserve of the ‘techies’ rather than a valid part of every trainer’s armoury.

“We now view any project as a piece of learning. The technology we use to deliver that learning is secondary,” she said and added: “BA’s policy is that if any learning materials already exist which meet 80 per cent or more of our needs, then we will licence or buy them.

“As far as e-learning is concerned, we buy these generic materials from NETg – which not only supplies generic e-learning products but also acts as a broker for BA, acquiring other generic programmes on BA’s behalf as required. This arrangement has worked well over the years,” she added.

BA’s generic e-learning programmes cover such topics as teambuilding, communications skills, negotiation, IT desktop and other IT skills.

“If the learning materials that we need do not exist already, then we need to create them,” she continued. “These materials are largely concerned with operational issues – the skills that our staff need in order to keep our aircraft flying.

“Obviously, we have some budget constraints, so these customised learning materials have to meet one or more of a set or ‘priorities’. This means that the learning materials are required in order for BA to comply with legal requirements; help it operate efficiently, effectively and profitably; achieve its goals as set out in its business plan, and achieve its internal standards.

“Many of the customised e-learning projects aim to meet mandatory requirements – such as handling dangerous goods; health and safety; aircraft loading; ground security, and handling disruptive passengers.”

After an extensive selection process, which concluded in September 2002, BA chose three companies to design and develop customised e-learning programmes: Tata Interactive Systems (TIS), Epic and Bourne Training. BA’s previous suppliers had been supplying BA’s needs for customised learning products for some five years. Wilson commented: “In that time, the market had developed and we felt that we needed to find the best current suppliers of customised e-learning products.

“Initially, we wanted to appoint only one supplier but, in the end, we found three that we felt were at the top of their profession.

“We had not worked with TIS before and we were initially concerned that, being based ‘offshore’, TIS may not have been able to produce exactly the programmes that we wanted,” she continued. “However, we now realise that these fears were completely groundless. From our experience of TIS, it has extremely efficient systems and processes that enable it to meet our requirements – and do it within demanding timescales. Moreover, TIS is driven by quality in every aspect of its business – which not only enables it to be highly competitive in terms of costs but also enables it to produce highly effective programmes in terms of learning outcomes.”

To date, TIS has produced an e-learning programme on health and safety and is working on programmes dealing with the handling of dangerous goods, information security and food hygiene and safety. In addition, BA is hoping to tap TIS’s technical expertise to develop ways to deliver e-learning content more efficiently via the Internet. As Wilson commented: “Rather than being merely a supplier, TIS has become one of our partners – offering us advice and guidance in several areas related to e-learning and its delivery.”

Turning to the other preferred suppliers of custom-built e-learning materials, Wilson commented; “Initially, we thought that each of these three suppliers had particular strengths but we have discovered that they are good ‘all rounders’, capable of handling any of the projects we offer them – so we now share out the e-learning projects among them almost on a ‘rotation’ basis.

“It is beneficial to select one or more ‘preferred suppliers’ because BA has learning needs and ways of operating that are specific to its business,” she added. “Over time, the preferred suppliers come to know – and, importantly, understand – our idiosyncrasies. In effect, they become a highly knowledgeable and skilful part of our team. Moreover, they give BA the benefit of being able to develop more projects and manage resources more effectively than if the entire e-learning development operation was conducted in-house.”

Although TIS, Epic and Bourne Training supply the design and development skills needed for each e-learning project, BA tends to supply much of the content for the programmes. Wilson also revealed that the preferred suppliers are also working with BA to help BA staff understand the e-learning development process. Wilson explained: “We have a number of design and development training managers whose background is in classroom-based training. Thanks to the help and advice we have received from our suppliers, these managers now understand the features and benefits of e-learning in the same way as they understand the characteristics of classroom-based training and are less fearful of managing an e-learning development project.”

By Bob Little