National Training Awards 2006

Customer first policy pays dividends for Bristol City Council

Nelson Training and Bristol City Council won a National Training Award and the City & Guilds Special Award for exceptional training collaboration at the awards ceremony held at the Thistle Hotel, Bristol on Thursday 26th October.

The awards were in recognition of the achievements made during the Council's Customer Excellence Programme which Nelson Training and Bristol City Council have collaborated on for the past three years.

The success of the programme has meant that the Council is receiving £384,000 of additional government funding after exceeding its customer service targets.

Left to right: Jon Mortimer, Alyson Veale (BCC), Nadine Smith (BCC), Viv Nelson, Lee Farley and Kevin Tillett at the National Training Awards ceremony.

Surveys in 2002 found that the council was inconsistent in its approach and response to customers in terms of speed, quality and efficiency, staff were not always customer-focused and customers with different or specific needs were not always dealt with.

"An Audit Commission inspection agreed that we needed a corporate approach to customer focus training, concentrating on the attitudes and behaviours required by the council to ensure consistent service delivery," said Lead Project Officer Nadine Smith.
"We needed to deliver a seamless joined up service, where all staff provided the same high standard of service, no matter how, where or when the customer accessed that service."

The council designed and developed a set of corporate customer focus service standards, which underpinned the entire training programme. Nelson Training was engaged to replace traditional lectures with activities and exercises that used actors rather than expecting staff to role-play. Training sessions were informal but tailored to each individual group and used humour as its main learning tool.

Over an 18-month period, ten per cent of the council's 16,573 -strong workforce attended training, and feedback was constantly used to modify and improve the sessions. Positive responses were received from 98 per cent of trainees, with 86 per cent saying it would cause them to work differently and apply the lessons they had learned.

"The importance of excellent customer service and staff's role within that is now understood," said Ms Smith. "Departments are now heading in the same direction and striving for the same goals. Departments now set aside funds for customer excellence, which has become an accepted and welcome part of Bristol City Council's culture. Other authorities have visited Bristol and have asked about using Bristol as their template."

National Training Awards

The National Training Awards are the UK's number one accolade for businesses, organisations and individuals who have achieved lasting excellence and success through training and learning.

The National Training Awards are universally recognised as being the number one in their field.

National Training Awards are celebrated at 3 levels:

Highly Commended: Awarded to entries that show great potential and have expressed a dedication to excellence through training.

Regional Training Awards: Awards are made to entries that are judged as demonstrating outstanding achievement in their region in England, or nation in the case of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

National Training Awards: National Training Awards are presented to those entries demonstrating exceptional achievement made through training and development, selected from across the UK.

Nelson Training and Bristol City Council not only achieved a National Training Award but also a special City & Guilds sponsored award for excellence in training collaboration.