Success story:
Ingeus UK

Ingeus UK delivers services to help people improve their employment, skills, health and wellbeing. Ingeus’ mission is to ‘enable better lives’ and they work with the government and partners to drive social change and improve life chances.   

Since 1994, Ingeus has been delivering trusted and tailored solutions for customers and communities across the UK. In 2022, Ingeus supported more than 277,000 people with its services. 

Ingeus UK is part of APM Group, a global human services and healthcare organisation with a network of more than 14,000 people across 11 countries. 

The previous software couldn’t offer Ingeus the depth required to cater for the learning needs of different roles and sectors. The team would manually select ‘soft skills’ content from a catalogue, download it, and then manually add it to the learning management system (LMS). Ingeus needed more varied content to meet the needs of all employees’ diverse learning needs.  

“The eLearning materials that we previously used were no longer fit for purpose. They weren’t varied or in enough depth to support different roles and sectors with their learning and development needs. The content was outdated and wasn’t user-friendly, as well as requiring ample intervention,” says Rebecca Eastwood, Development & Digital Learning Lead at Ingeus UK. 

An internal feedback survey focussed on Ingeus’ learning culture highlighted that: 

• The previous learning content wasn’t fit for purpose or meeting the needs of employees, 
• The content available was too long, which subsequently highlighted the need for bite-sized learning, 
• The format of learning materials was limited, which wasn’t catering for different learning styles, 
• Employees were frustrated that the system couldn’t recommend relevant and topical learning content.  

Because of these challenges, Ingeus sought new software that would re-invigorate its learning culture by providing an array of learning resources and materials to meet the needs and learning preferences of its employees.    

Having used the career development platform whilst studying for a CIPD qualification, Rebecca was already familiar when Access Career Development was introduced to Ingeus. 

In readiness for the launch, Access People provided Ingeus with a communications plan to ensure maximum buy-in from the business. Regular meetings were conducted to understand the developments and progress, ultimately aligning both parties and managing expectations. 

“Having the continuous support and communication during implementation was invaluable. The team were reliable, thorough, and friendly, and it was because of this that we had such a successful launch,” says Rebecca. 

Access Career Development went live in 2018, providing all employees access to a continually expanding portfolio of 5,000+ online, interactive career development videos, tools, resources, and assessments – all of which is available on-demand. 

Ingeus introduce Access Career Development to new starters within the first two weeks of joining the business, as part of the induction process, to ensure employees are equipped with the learning and development resources they need to excel in their role. 

As of January 2023, the top trending eLearning titles were: 

• Unconscious bias at work, 
• Meditation, mindfulness, and mental health, 
• Mindset, 
• Self-awareness explained, 
• 6 digital skills you can teach yourself. 

“Since launching Access Career Development, we’ve experienced a positive shift in our learning culture. Employees are motivated and invested in taking ownership of their learning and development. The feedback has been incredibly positive, especially for the Pulse feature,” says Rebecca. 

The Career Pulse functionality provides employees with a list of recommended programmes of activity based on a quiz, so they don’t have to search through a catalogue to find relevant or topical eLearning content. You can retake the Pulse quiz to re-measure skills and competencies at any time to understand the confidence and learning gained, as well as identify other learning areas to focus and work on. 

Although predominantly Access Career Development is used by employees, the employability team at Ingeus realised how the platform could also provide learning and development support to their participants. The employability team are responsible for helping the unemployed – their programme participants – re-enter the world of work. 

“As Access Career Development is flexible, we’ve been able to roll out a version of the career development platform to the participants of our employment programme. The version is focused on employment, and the soft skills needed to re-enter employment, for example how to present yourself during an interview,” says Rebecca. 

For example, the Access Career Development platform provides support and advice to the participants from a variety of different backgrounds, such as: 

• Those who have been out of work for a significant amount of time,  
• Those looking to change into a different career field, and  
• Those individuals suffering from a mental health issue which they feel is hindering their ability to seek employment.  

“With the continuously growing and varied career development content available, there is plenty for our employees and participants to learn. And, when we showcase the platform externally, we can do so from a place of understanding and legitimacy as we all use it internally ourselves; so, we can speak about it confidently,” continues Rebecca.  

“We’ve experienced an increase in engagement since investing in Access Career Development. The career development platform is pioneering the way, and it’s also low maintenance and high yielding. We’re really pleased with our decision, and we would recommend the platform to any business looking to enhance its learning and development culture,” concludes Rebecca.  

The Access Group's HCM division, Access People, offer an unrivalled suite of solutions for businesses, including HR and Payroll, Absence Management, Workforce Management, Compliance, Recruitment, Talent, Learning, Employee Benefits and Engagement, Health & Safety, all of which are underpinned by the powerful Access Workspace platform. 

The Access Group is one of the leading providers of business management software to small and mid-sized organisations in the UK, Ireland, and Asia Pacific. We help over 100,000 customers across commercial and not-for-profit sectors become more productive and efficient.