Aspire Management programme a success for DAC Beachcroft

DAC Beachcroft is an international law firm with circa 2,300 employees and locations across the UK, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and North America. It is segmented into full service commercial, transactional, claims, risk and advisory capabilities and works with clients in a select range of industry sectors, leading the market in health, insurance and real estate.

As DAC Beachcroft continued to grow it meant that it became increasingly crucial that the growing population of people managers, sometimes with little experience, were provided with the confidence and skills to maintain engaged, high performing teams. With this in mind DAC Beachcroft’s Learning and Development Team was looking to create a programme that would support managers and was flexible enough to keep pace with the changing demands of the business.

Karen Ramsay Head of Learning and Development was also looking for a training provider capable of doing something different. She found the perfect partner in Total Excellence Centre.

"We are proud to use the Aspire management programme as a marketing tool, a recruitment tool and an incentive in the promotion process. It really is the bedrock for everything relating to people management."

The Solution

A series of pilot sessions with David Mercer and Tom Courtney from Total Excellence Centre ensured they had a firm grasp of the activities, departments and skill sets of programme participants – for example, part of the business services group had created a number of new management positions, an ideal place to come in and understand how the firm worked.

Karen believes it was this willingness to understand DAC Beachcroft’s business that is the key to the programme’s ongoing success:

“It is vital that any external provider understands how we work, our culture and the language we use. In this case it would have a real impact on the credibility of the learning and development offered. The team from Total Excellence Centre didn’t just get it right they went a step further, completely getting under the skin of our business. Consequently they were able to create a programme that accurately met our requirements.”

Total Excellence Centre worked closely with the Learning and Development Team to create the Aspire Management programme that is now being introduced in DAC Beachcroft offices across the UK. A rolling programme, consisting of bespoke modules, of which Total Excellence Centre delivers parts 1 and 2 with other modules run in-house. Karen explains:

“We made it clear from the outset that the programme would need to map with the in-house learning we already offer our employees. David and Tom were completely flexible in their approach, tailoring the programme around our existing resources, encouraging collaboration between different areas of the business and asking for our input throughout.“

The Results

Total Excellence Centre has now been working with DAC Beachcroft for more than 18 months continually developing and refining the Aspire programme - which now has its own in-house branding. Total Excellence Centre has also delivered a number of other programmes, all of which contribute towards Continuing Professional Development requirements.

The Aspire programme is part of a cultural shift happening at DAC Beachcroft and as such employees are recommended – but not required - to join it. For those who do participate, the learning is embedded via dedicated hour-long coaching sessions for each participant.

Karen is confident the Aspire programme will help to reduce issues and improve team performance.

“We are proud to use the Aspire management programme as a marketing tool, a recruitment tool and an incentive in the promotion process. It really is the bedrock for everything relating to people management. I look forward to continuing to work with Total Excellence Centre on many of our learning requirements in the future.” Karen Ramsay, Head of Learning and Development at DAC Beachcroft