Posted: 1 March 2022

Lisa joined the Ashorne Hill learning and development team over six months ago. We checked back in with Lisa to find out how the last six months have been and the pressing interests of L&D professionals today.

Your name: Lisa Rubio
Your job title: Learning & Development Sales Executive

So, Lisa tell us a little bit about what you’ve been focusing on over the last six months.
Over the last 6 months I have been focusing on connecting with our existing clients and introducing myself to lots of new clients too. I’ve gained some great insights as to what they have been doing for training during the pandemic and what their plans are for the future. We have also been discussing the exciting new programmes and packages we have developed over the last two years.

We have accelerated development of our learning products. We could already see a shift towards digital learning modules before the pandemic and during the pandemic digital learning was all that a lot of businesses could offer their newly recruited graduates and new managers.

We’ve made sure our digital learning and virtual classrooms are engaging, interactive and valuable for learners, these have been hugely successful over this period, but we now see that clients are equally keen to get together for face-to-face training. In fact, that’s what makes Ashorne Hill learning and development so unique. We have the programmes, the trainers, the venue and the flexibility to support your people’s training needs.

What have you found most companies have been prioritising when it comes to their employee training and developing needs?
Most companies that I have spoken to are eager to re-introduce training and invest in their people, now that restrictions are beginning to ease.

We’ve had a lot of enquiries for graduate and management courses, but also team building and wellness, especially as many teams have been working from home during this period, there’s great value from bringing these teams back together and allowing them to reconnect in the right learning environment. What we’re also finding now, as we emerge out of the pandemic, is that businesses have very different needs, and their learners have different needs too.

All our programmes can be designed to suit your company/industry and individual team requirements.

Organisations that are, once more, investing in their people are the ones that are building on their success.

How has Ashorne Hill been evolving its product and services to meet these new needs?
The Ashorne Learning & Development Team have introduced some excellent new packages for face-to-face training, digital or a blended solution if that’s what the client needs. For some keeping their team safe, ensuring their managers can conveniently access valuable learning, means that digital modules are still hugely popular, with virtual classrooms to give new managers the opportunity to ask questions and meet fellow new managers. For others, they are keen for their cohorts to meet face-to-face again and network together – face-to-face for people starting out in their career helps their mental health and wellbeing knowing they have other likeminded team members to lean on.

Without giving too much away, have you had any big wins?
We’ve had some excellent wins and it’s great to see that previous clients from all industry sectors are eager to reconnect with us and use our trainers and learning facilities once again.

We have also gained new business along the way too, businesses that we have approached about both our core programmes and our new programmes. They are excited about taking a look at our excellent facilities and exploring how we can help them with their future training needs.

We are seeing a resurgence in training enquiries from medium sized businesses of 100 employees. Furthermore, those reduced their training provision during the pandemic are now keen to grow their people and use training as a key retention tool.

And finally, how have you been settling into the Ashorne team? What have you been doing as a team?

What’s not to love about Ashorne Hill? Set in a beautiful, listed manor house surrounded by tranquil Warwickshire countryside, Ashorne Hill has long been loved by its learners for providing a tranquil environment to learn and network in an idyllic setting. The Ashorne team have all been amazingly supportive and have ensured that I have settled in well and feel part of the Ashorne family.

I’ve also joined the Ashorne Wellbeing team. Whilst we are keen to help other companies develop, we are equally as keen to develop our own business and invest in our own team members.

At Ashorne Hill we also want to give back and support well deserved causes and charities, this year we are supporting The Guide Dogs for the Blind and Breast Cancer Research. We’re eager as a company to raise money and awareness for both for these excellent causes.