Aiming to ensure readiness for a major transformation program, the Ministry of Defence (MOD) engaged CGI to conduct a training needs analysis and design effective training solutions for a key business unit. The training analysis would help staff prepare and focus training for their future ways of working, as well as enable the MOD business unit to successfully achieve its change ambitions in line with policy.
A business unit within the MOD was undergoing complex change and sought CGI’s business change and learning and development expertise to support its preparations. It needed to understand the current and future role requirements, skills and competencies of its personnel, and design effective training solutions to enable them to achieve the transformational objectives. It was essential that this exercise aligned with MOD policies.
Specifically, the client uses the Defence Systems Approach to Training (DSAT) methodology to ensure all training supports its organizational objectives and mitigates any associated risks. The DSAT has four stages: analysis, design, delivery, and assurance.
The benefits
Our expertise in business change and learning and development empowered the MOD business unit with:
- A comprehensive training needs analysis that complied with organizational policies.
- Increased readiness for upcoming organizational change and operating model design to enable transformation success.
- A breakdown of training objectives and solutions for each MOD role, providing opportunities to streamline delivery and enable time and cost savings.
- Knowledge transfer to empower internal training needs analysis in the future.
- Recommendations of future training needs to integrate innovative emerging technology solutions into the organization.
Increased readiness for upcoming organizational change and operating model design.
Opportunities to streamline training delivery—enabling time and cost savings.
To comply with the DSAT process, all MOD roles must have documented role statements. These provide detailed and accurate evidence of people’s responsibilities, enabling effective training design, resource planning and financial forecasts. Our business change experts were therefore engaged to conduct a detailed analysis of the roles, skills and responsibilities required to support the MOD business unit’s future operating model. The goal was to use this data to design and shape optimal training solutions to ensure successful change implementation, while also developing a thorough understanding of each role to comply with the DSAT. The MOD also wanted to better understand the knowledge and skills its people would need to develop in the future to effectively perform tasks with the introduction of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML).
Our team developed a holistic strategy for completing a training needs analysis (TNA) tailored to the MOD business unit’s goals. We gathered the initial essential insights through desk-side interviews, and meticulously analyzed the findings to identify training gaps and define clear training objectives. Then, by examining additional role-related insights beyond individual responsibilities, we were able to accurately determine the appropriate training solutions for each of the MOD business unit’s roles.
Our analysis of the role responsibilities highlighted where teams and individual roles had shared tasks, enabling us to design optimal training methods.
We identified where the MOD business unit could standardize the delivery of bespoke training for these common tasks—thereby, streamlining its processes. This would ensure the adoption of best practices, minimize the risk of errors across teams and enable significant time and cost savings in training delivery.
The proposed solutions considered future training requirements, such as the potential integration of AI and ML. We also advised on how to prepare and understand applications of emerging technologies while balancing the associated risks.
The TNA was crucial for informing leadership of the required training to enable their transformation success. Our approach ensured all documentation aligned with defense requirements and policies, and facilitated knowledge transfer so the MOD can complete any future TNAs internally for the business unit.
Based upon our evidence-based decision making, the MOD was empowered to minimize staff skill gaps and effectively allocate finances for the complex change process. The client redesigned its operating model accordingly and increased its readiness for the upcoming organizational change.
Having worked together to prepare its people for organizational change, the MOD business unit progressed with confidence in its ability to achieve the transformation objectives set out at the beginning of the program.
