Claxton Engineering – Engaging a global audience through e-learning

Claxton supply engineering and services to the oil industry across Europe, Asia and the Middle East. The company has developed a strategy of “growing our own”; offering all employees the best possible training and personal development to help them succeed with their chosen career path.

Tell us a little bit about what you’re trying to achieve with L&D

Our aim is to create a learning culture at all levels of the business by focusing on a range of supporting approaches including e-learning and video-based learning to enable us to be ahead of our competitors.

So using video and e-learning was a brand new initiative?

Yes, previously we didn’t have any online learning because of the challenges of getting the content out to a dispersed workforce. We’re based mainly in the UK but we have sites in Singapore, Dubai, Norway and Aberdeen and we really wanted something that would be accessible to everybody and give us some consistency across the business.

Were there particular behaviours that you wanted to help employees develop?

I think it’s everything that Video Arts deliver in the Workplace Essentials – how to communicate on the phone and with clients, negotiation and sales skills. Being able to understand other people better, even as a refresher for some people, makes a big difference.

You’ve got a very diverse workforce, was there any resistance to online learning?

That’s right, we’ve got people out on rigs that will be using it either on their tablet or their mobile phone. We’ve got people based in offices that might be from out of the industry that are using it, we’ve got engineers, designers, sales guys and then administration and management teams that are using it.

If you imagine…you’ve got a guy offshore who probably works 12 hour shifts through the night, installing 1000 ton pieces of equipment with a crane. He may not have even used his email this year and has been offshore for six weeks. It’s always going to be a challenge reaching him with a message about personal development.

And did the message get through?

Yes, it’s been amazing. I had people literally emailing me after the launch to say how much they appreciated it and how much they’ve got out of the learning already.

What’s made it so successful?

I think more than anything else having it as video-based learning makes it so engaging.

So you’ve had a good take-up?

And then there’s the accessibility of it all has made a really big difference. You know there’s only so far you can spread face-to-face training. By having something that people can access all the time is critical. We’ve got videos, workbooks, infographics… all these things create a better blended approach.

Plus, for the employees on the rigs, being able to download content using the Video Arts platform is great because they don’t always have a good Internet connection.

What’s your favourite video from Video Arts?

I really like the managing discipline video from the Management Essentials. I think the reason why this has gone down so well with people is that it is not stuffy boring content, it’s familiar faces, it really is funny and although there is a really important point it doesn’t take itself too seriously. The characters are extreme so people can laugh at them, but they’re still taking the point away with them.

So, what’s next?

We’ve already started putting our own content on our Video Arts platform so we plan to develop it into our portal for product training as well as soft-skills. And then starting to use some of the social learning functionality of the platform; that’s the next stage of the blended learning programme.

What the learners say…

“It’s shamazeballs!”

“These short training sessions fit around my guys workloads and refresh their skills when they need it.”

“Really good, the rest of the lads will like these.”

“I never expected finance to be that interesting! This side of finance was always baffling to me, but now I get it!”

“It gives [my team] increased confidence in tackling issues.”

“Having access to e-learning courses at work and home has made a huge difference to my role. Thank you.”