HL Partnership Case Study
The goal for HL Partnership is to be the best home for mortgage brokers, protection specialists, equity release advisers and general insurance professionals, whatever their size or location. And, as is true for any home, it needs to be secure and welcoming.
This goal, being secure and welcoming, represents a major reason for using elearning in their training programme and why their preferred platform is Nimble.
Here’s why…
- Security is a significant factor in any organisation with responsibility for servicing 600 advisors and 300 firms. That’s a large network to train and ensure that everyone receives consistent messages about topics such as information security, financial conduct compliance and health and safety legislation.
- In the past, training had used a blended learning approach, but as the numbers of people who need training illustrate, a sustainable model of delivery led to elearning offering the solution – it offered a tailored welcome too.
- Elearning provides an individualised induction for brokers coming into the network. Each broker’s knowledge levels are assessed so that training is differentiated to suit each learner’s needs.
- The welcome process goes even further. Ongoing training and ITC knowledge compliance confirmation tests are addressed via elearning, which includes the advantage of recording results and maintaining a high level of accountability.
- Once welcomed, everyone becomes part of a company-wide culture of learning, where elearning is at its heart. Everyone receives a yearly planner which integrates self-study, compliance training, product knowledge and business development forums to help develop growth of all forms. It’s a system which is still being developed.
HL Partnership started its life in 2001 and is an Appointed Representative network with national coverage. It expanded three years later to become a Mortgage, Protection and General Insurance Network. It’s an industry filled with rigorous and ever-changing legislation. One factor that enabled their successful expansion in this challenging climate has been in the emphasis on networking.
We’ll let Jeff House, HL Partnership’s training manager, explain how networks are vital:
“Internal onboarding includes training in areas such as fire awareness training, manual handling training, data protection, preventing financial crime, DSE and cyber security. We include mortgage & protection advisers, protection advisers and GI advisers in this process. We link their missions to the course and their Regional Compliance Managers receive the results. When they visit us, we review not only the company, but the individual within that company’s, progress. That way we ensure we are FCA compliant and brokers and internal staff minimise their exposure to complaints and financial crime.”
Jeff maintains his elearning journey has been made easier by the level of support he’s received from Nimble. Over to Jeff again:
“Every contact I have had with the company has been very positive. The developers have helped us very much and If I need anything, I can phone them up and they will go away and do some research and then give appropriate actions. They’ve reviewed our new modules and offered feedback and design advice free of charge. They are encouraging, helpful and overall very positive in all aspects.”
The old saying, ‘Home is not a place, it’s the people’ is illustrated here in HL Partnership’s approach to training, and how it’s facilitated by elearning. It’s not just the safety and security of home we’re talking about. It’s not just the individualised welcome in their induction processes. It’s also in the learning culture, which is facilitated by an emphasis on networking that makes it a company that’s all about people. Elearning helps make that possible.