Management programmes are making an impression at DAC Beachcroft

DAC Beachcroft is an international law firm with more than 2,200 employees and locations across the world. It offers a full service commercial, transactional, claims, risk and advisory capability, providing a mix of legal, commercial and process skills to meet its clients’ needs.

Having experienced significant growth, DAC Beachcroft found it had a growing population of first time and junior managers. The business’s leaders wanted to create a management development programme that would provide them with the confidence and skills needed to maintain engaged, high performing teams and that was flexible enough to keep pace with the changing demands of the business.

The Solution

Total Excellence Centre worked closely with DAC Beachcroft’s Learning and Development Team to create the Aspire Management programme. A rolling programme, it consists of a series of bespoke modules, with Total Excellence Centre delivering parts 1 and 2 with other modules run in-house.

A series of pilot sessions run by David Mercer and Tom Courtney from Total Excellence Centre ensured a firm grasp of the activities, departments and skill sets of programme participants.

HR Business Partner at DAC Beachcroft, Michael Randall says: “The trainers from Total Excellence Centre know that ours is a fluid and competitive business and things change all the time. They make it a priority to understand the business context and the challenges and opportunities we face, so they can design and deliver training that is specific to our needs.”

The Results

The Aspire Management programme has now been running at DAC Beachcroft for 3 years. It has its own in- house branding and is highly regarded by managers and employees across the business.

Says Michael Randall: “It supports the development of our business, equips first time and junior managers to work through day-to-day workplace challenges and develops the skills necessary for strong leadership for the future. The result is a culture that is much more open, positive and that focuses on excellence.”

Employees are recommended, but not mandated, to participate in the Aspire Management programme. Those who do, value the learning they receive, which is embedded via dedicated hour-long coaching sessions.

“Our employees get a huge amount from it and in particular it really helps build their confidence, especially when they’re having those challenging conversations that have to happen in the workplace from time to time. I get extremely positive feedback from individual managers about how much they enjoy the training they received.” – Michael Randall, HR Business Partner.

Total Excellence Centre continually develops and refines the programme to meet the business’s evolving needs, recently launching a new module called ‘Managing Teams Through Change’. Delivered as a one day coaching session it equips managers with the skills, knowledge and confidence they need to manage change in a modern business environment.

The impressive results the Aspire Management programme has delivered have led to more projects in partnership with Total Excellence Centre. Most recently, Total Excellence Centre delivered a coaching skills training workshop for DAC Beachcroft’s senior partners. Designed to up-skill two groups, two half day sessions were delivered by trainer Tom Courtney.

Says Michael Randall: “The coaching sessions were incredibly well received by all participants and it’s a testament to Tom’s ability and his in-depth knowledge of our business that he was able to deliver the training in a way that engaged with every participant – despite the fact that they had varying degrees of coaching experience. The team at Total Excellence Centre always deliver first-rate training and I look forward to working with them on other projects in the future.”