Introduction

The Travelex Group is the world’s largest non-bank foreign exchange company. The company’s operations are extensive; Travelex has offices on all continents and employs more than 6,000 people worldwide. Many travelers are familiar with the company’s foreign exchange outlets in airports and ports around the world, the Retail operation, but Travelex also has a Global Business Payments division and provides outsourcing solutions to travel agents and other financial institutions.

Counting on Learning

One key reason for Travelex’s success has been its belief in the importance of developing its people - the company’s core asset. Money services businesses are a dynamic and fast growing industry. The company sees its investment in employee training as not only a smart way to ensure that its staff are well versed, both with respect to industry knowledge and the products that Travelex offers, but also as a way to provide a concrete demonstration of Travelex’s commitment to staff development.

Given the company’s belief in developing its people, Travelex saw the importance in offering a blended approach to learning. Both Travelex’s Retail business and Global Business Payments division have staff located geographically across the UK, so delivering induction and compliance training can often prove challenging and expensive. Working closely with NetDimensions UK partner Intellego, Travelex came up with a solution. Travelex UK Retail and Global Business Payments UK division began an online initiative with NetDimensions Enterprise Knowledge Platform (EKP) supporting 1,500 users.

A Gradual Roll Out

The way the training would be delivered represented a radically new paradigm for the company. Seeking a more effective way that would reduce the duration of classroom induction training and also the frequency of visits for compliance training, it was proposed that parts of the training would now be delivered securely online directly to the end user wherever and whenever most appropriate.

To ease the introduction of the new system to end users Travelex rolled the system out gradually. The first stage of the roll out targeted specific departments and offered relatively few functions with additional functionality being added successively. The new system, branded ‘The Academy’, was effectively communicated within the business divisions and the launch was skillfully deployed with introductory modules using animated characters to introduce new users to the system and help them navigate around it.

What it does

The knowledge management and performance support engine behind the Travelex system is EKP. This is used to distribute internally developed courseware content and off the shelf courses, deliver evaluations and assessments, provide reporting services for management and automate much of the training administration.

EKP is also used as a communications tool to send users targeted news updates and career development announcements. EKP has proved highly effective in serving as an online resource library, giving users easy access to up to date training and performance support materials on demand.

Classroom workshops are now managed via EKP and supported by online pre- and post-work which reinforces the transfer of learning into the workplace.

Immediate Savings

Benefits were realized shortly after the launch and Travelex has seen tangible results from the investment in training technology.

The most obvious savings have come from eliminating the need for users to travel for training courses, resulting in time, travel and accommodation cost savings as well as increased worker productivity. The induction process has been streamlined with much of the information being provided online before new recruits are brought together to discuss and put their learning into practice.

Management have seen the benefit of the new training programs in terms of cost savings and the advantages that the system provides by getting learners up to speed quickly. Learners are given an information resource that can be accessed any time anywhere and there are improved measures to assess learner performance and identify gaps in knowledge.

More knowledgeable workers are better workers

The system’s rich interactivity options have increased knowledge retention, a critically important factor in attaining higher customer service delivery.

Michelle Mack and Claire Sutherland from Travelex Global Business Payments commented, “since the implementation of EKP, new sales recruits go through a comprehensive induction program that combines the use of e-learning, classroom based training and field based sales visits. This is all managed and tracked via EKP and the introduction of different delivery methods has allowed us to identify knowledge and skill gaps immediately and new recruits have access to product and service knowledge at the click of a button. EKP has not eliminated the use of classroom based training but has allowed us to focus on practising skills and scenarios during limited face to face sessions, as the theory is covered in pre-work that is set online. We also use EKP to provide quick refresher modules that reinforce the learning two months after induction when recruits have had experience selling in the field. We have seen a marked increase in product and service knowledge retention and have now rolled this out to our more experienced sales people.”

In addition, managers in the business can now track:
1. Staff progress and certifications
2. Compliance training for their teams
3. Evaluation and financial return on training investment

A profound impact on Organizational culture

EKP has had a profound impact on the company’s culture. The system has changed the way that people at Travelex work, with a move towards employees taking more responsibility for their own learning and development.

With EKP new employee records can be uploaded directly into the system from reports that are pulled from the company’s in house human resource system. This allows Travelex Retail and Global Business Payments to effortlessly capture everyone in the business and as EKP is a browserbased system with no additional software installation requirements users can be up and running on The Academy site from Day 1.

EKP’s flexibility in supporting not just a different look and feel and different languages but also different administrator types was another plus for Travelex, as the system is used by two business streams with very different operating needs and system set up requirements. This flexibility contributes substantially to EKP’s ability to deliver training, assessments and reporting services globally and to remote operations. Travelex has become a firm believer in the benefits of EKP. With the system in place, the company has a state of the art platform to help orientate new hires quickly and efficiently, enhance in-service staff proficiency and roll out new training initiatives anywhere at any time, while also saving money. For more information on Travelex and what they do, please email academy.tgbp@travelex.com