Home > News > April 2005 > 25-Apr-2005

In brief...

Standard Life selects WBT Systems Compliance Suite

Standard Life is to deploy WBT Systems Compliance Suite to help manage its compliance training and competence requirements across the organisation.

Andy Tucker, Standard Life's Learning Technologies Manager, said: "Regulatory training management is mission critical to Standard Life, so we need a partner that not only has proven technology but also a demonstrable understanding of our business. We were impressed by the consultative approach taken by WBT and their focus and specialisation on Financial Services and compliance management.”

The Suite will go live this year and will help track, train and manage certification for up to 9,000 employees including Standard Life's 3,800 customer service staff. In addition to regulatory training, the WBT product will become the standard training portal across Standard Life.

Conference highlights issues with recruitment and performance management of Board members

Senior managers were warned that organisations should review their criteria for recruiting and appraising Board directors at a conference on the dynamics and effectiveness of British Boardrooms, held last week at Roffey Park.

"Some organisations put more effort into recruiting graduates than Board members," said John Gilkes, Chief Executive of Roffey Park, who chaired the event. "The challenge is to develop a cohesive team at the top that is strong enough to withstand any domination from any one powerful individual."

The conference also highlighted that Boards should foster a culture of open debate, using resistance as an opportunity to learn.

"Board members have a duty to challenge each other constructively," said Gilkes. "Dissent on the Board is important otherwise overassertive individuals can dominate the proceedings. This culture of openness at Board level can then be cascaded down, resulting in a more effective and productive organisation."

Local BCS forum to discuss IT concerns and skills shortages

The British Computer Society, which has its headquarters in Swindon, has established a local branch of the Society to help the town's local IT and business community address career development, training, system and management implementation issues.

According to Anthony Hayes, Chairman of the new BCS branch, "Swindon is one of the nation's largest employers of skilled IT workers. Yet because of the break neck speed of computing technology's evolution, skills shortages are now reaching epidemic proportions.

"Quite simply, Swindon doesn't have enough qualified IT professionals to design, deliver and manage today's computer system technology. And it is this shortage, both here and nationwide, that is causing many of the IT failures that are grabbing the news headlines, creating public distrust and costing British business billions of pounds annually.

"Our forum is freely open to any IT professional, or any business which employs IT professionals. Here they can learn of the challenges currently facing the IT profession and what the BCS, as the nation's foremost IT professional body, is doing to address and raise standards for both employees and employers."

For further information, visit: www.swindonbcs.co.uk/docs/events.asp

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