Overview
Berry Street Victoria (BSV) has been protecting and caring for children and strengthening families since 1877. It is an independent, not for profit community organisation that has played a unique role in the Victorian community.
Today's organisation is built on the firm foundations of the past, meets the challenges of the present and will continue to change to meet future needs.
Berry Street helps children and young people by:
Providing care and assistance in healing.
Working with families and communities to enhance wellbeing.
Advocating for the resources, policies and programs to which they are entitled.
Applying its knowledge and evolving to meet new challenges.
The Business Problem
Berry has a dispersed workforce and a high percentage of its staff are in part time roles.
To add to the issues it has had to grapple with, there is a high cost to taking people out of their work zones and having them physically travel to the Melbourne head office for training. The problem is both time and the loss suffered when they are not doing their normal work.
As a widespread organisation, Berry Street needs to efficiently deliver and track employee training and to consolidate reporting.
In addition, moving more programs to e-learning would provide significant savings over its traditional classroom-based methods.
The Solution
Berry Street was aware of the value offered by the fact its various locations were electronically connected. Initially, they saw the possibility of using an online training system to manage their face to face training. Then, building on that, they began to understand they could use e-learning, that is adopt a blended approach to deliver training more effectively.
They now know that the potential of their training team can be fully realised. Previously, they had the materials but they couldn't effectively deliver them.
Berry Street is also planning to develop online meetings, track who's attended, and place the results into the LMS.
Next Steps
Berry Street's next step is to address the organizational goals through an induction program. Then they will move through some more specific content areas.
Ultimately, after a series of planned stages, they will integrate EKP to their HR system.
The Benefit
It is too early to assess the benefits yet, but Berry Street is expecting to deliver more training, more cost effectively and to minimize or make more efficient the time people are required to take out of their jobs. They are also expected to connect people and foster collaboration in the human services.