Land Rover Academy turns to Freestyle to drive up HR standards

 

The background
Land Rover Jaguar Academy is responsible for the management and training of more than 9,000 people at 230 franchises and dealerships across the UK.

 

In 2004, The Land Rover Jaguar Academy embarked on an ambitious project to leverage the power of the Internet to achieve the highest possible standards in people management.

 

The client’s vision was to create a simple but innovative and unique system that would revolutionise the way managers access up to date people management information.

 

The project, known as People Solutions, was an unrivalled success. So successful, in fact that it earned the Academy the coveted ‘Excellence in HR through Technology’ award (Personnel Industry awards 2004). 

 

The challenge 

 In the days before People Solutions, Land Rover Jaguar Academy faced similar HR issues to other large enterprises. Detailed research showed that managers were spending a disproportionate amount of time dealing with people issues. Knowledge of employment legislation was inconsistent from manager to manager and there was an unacceptable amount of money being spent on expensive, outsourced legal advice.

 

The idea was to put everything online, in an easily updated, centralised portal that could be readily accessed by all dealer managers. It had to be as free from jargon as possible, simple and appealing to use, and rich in content.  The ability to be able to manage the site in-house was also key.

 

The long-term aim was not just to improve knowledge of employment legislation and reduce costs, but to fulfil a mission of attracting, retaining and motivating high quality people and being seen as the employer of choice.

 

The solution

Working in close partnership with the Academy’s own experts, Freestyle set about designing and building a bespoke solution that would fully meet the stated objectives. Regular review meetings were held throughout the development cycle and the site was exhaustively tested before going live.

 

The team decided to create nine key content areas, which would give the managers advice and information on every career stage from recruitment to retirement. These were supported by articles, FAQs and the latest news items, putting everything that a busy manager needs within instant reach.

 

A sophisticated yet easy to use Content Management System gave staff at the Academy full control over the content and the ability to update and maintain the site without the delay and expense of using 3rd parties.

 

Prior to launching the website, Freestyle created a two People Solutions-branded
CD ROMs that showcased the site and explained to the dealers how it would benefit their day-to-day management.