Microsoft CityNext: How Merseytravel lowered costs and improved service by digitising their training programs

Merseyside Passenger Transport Authority, known as Merseytravel, manages 3,000 transit employees across Liverpool and the Merseyside area. It has to comply with reams of health and safety laws and regulations, which means employee training is a vital and ongoing need. But Merseytravel’s training process relied heavily on hard copies of documents that were hard to share and update. The training process was inefficient, so many of the courses had to be handled by expensive outside trainers. What’s a smart Human Resources director to do?

Merseytravel needed to find a way to digitise their Human Resources department. The back end of the training process needed to be streamlined and automated so staff could spend more time on training and less on administration. That’s where Microsoft Dynamics CRM comes in.

Gap Consulting developed a Dynamics CRM solution to link Merseytravel’s HR and learning portal platforms. The solution stores and updates employee data and all learning records & requests. The Learning Team can now automate lots of little administrative tasks that were eating up time, such as e-mail alerts for confirmations, course information and cancellations.

“Our team typically runs 20 programmes, each with eight to 15 attendees. As there are only three of us, the challenge was managing this process and automating it, enabling us to free up staff time,” says Stephanie Hague, Head of Learning at Merseytravel. Using CRM, the Learning Team’s aim was to reduce its reliance on external trainers, by doubling the share of courses delivered using internal resources from 30% to 60%. The evaluation process helps managers to measure the return on investment.

The system also manages compliance alerts to ensure everyone stays up-to-date on their training.  At the front end are self-service portals which let employees access their own learning records. It highlights the refresher dates needed for mandatory courses. The system also allows the Learning Team to monitor training needs on the back end.

 “Microsoft Dynamics CRM has fundamentally changed the way we operate as a service area within Merseytravel. In the Learning Team we are able to be much more effective and efficient,” said Hague.

Learn more about the Merseytravel story and how Microsoft Dynamics CRM can digitise your organisation.