The Grey Matter Learning & Royal Star and Garter Case study
Background
Royal Star and Garter provide specialist nursing, dementia, and therapeutic care for individuals across three care homes in Solihull, Surbiton, and High Wycombe, providing award-winning care for veterans and their partners who live with disabilities or dementia. Across the three care homes and Head Office, Royal Star and Garter employ a total of 450 members of staff, providing care for 170 individuals. In 2017, Malcolm Brown joined the business as Learning & Development Manager. In the beginning, Malcolm was aware of Grey Matter Learning (GML) but identified that the business only utilised a fraction of the support available through GML.
The Challenge
Before working with GML, Malcolm identified some key pain points:
ROSTERING
Staff required time away from work for face-to-face training.
QUALITY OF TRAINING
A lot of providers offered training but didn’t have experts and contextual knowledge to back up their services.
COST
Taking staff away from work to complete training and securing cover for staff.
LEARNING STRUCTURE
Regimented style of learning wasn’t effective or flexible.
While the knock-on effects of those challenges didn’t cause anything tangible, leaders felt these obstacles devalued the purpose of training and impacted how staff felt about training. They also questioned whether the training provided staff with the understanding to apply learning to everyday situations. At the beginning of the partnership with GML, Malcolm had clear objectives of what he wanted to achieve through the relationship.
Malcolm Brown, Learning & Development Manager at Royal Star and Garter said: “I wanted staff to become accountable and responsible for their own learning and development. I also loved the idea of staff having the freedom to complete training flexibly without the need to leave the business.”
