Because it was vital that the look and feel of the portal was stimulating enough to attract and engage ITV's largely creative management community, the HR team ran focus groups with managers to ensure it gave them the information they required - from knowing how to respond to a request for paternity leave to checking the eligibility of work experience placements.
Before a company-wide launch, pilot projects were undertaken, such that when the full roll-out happened among 414 managers over six months last year the management community had immediate buy-in.
In the first eight months, the site received 4,245 visits, and HR was able to see which areas were accessed most to ensure the portal was constantly updated with what managers need. The toolkit has also contributed to the parallel roll-out of ITV's values - of creating an organisation that visibly encourages wider understanding of opportunities and guidance that should be offered to employees from the management population.
More than 90% of ITV's middle and senior management population have signed up to using the toolkit over the past six months.
HIGHLY COMMENDED - MCDONALD'S
McDonald's online portal, ourlounge.co.uk, gives all its 67,000 staff the ability to gain English and maths GCSE qualifications via e-learning. It also houses a nationally recognised qualification for its Crew Development Programme. The site already has 24,000 users and 3,000 students taking 1,863 maths courses and 1,946 English courses. So embedded has it become in staff communication that the staff handbook has now been moved to the site.
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