An Epic performance for ICI and GuinnessUDV.

Issued: September 24, 2001

Epic Group plc, the UK's leading e-learning company, has won two major contracts which support the growing trend of blue-chip companies implementing a 'Performance Management Process'.

Both ICI and GuinnessUDV have recently commissioned Epic to provide e-learning programmes to support their Performance Management process.

Said Andrea Miles, Account Director at Epic: "Performance Management is key to all businesses meeting their strategic aims and yet, is still often perceived as an HR process rather than a business process.

"With the influx of e-HR, companies are recognising that there is no time like the present to tackle how Performance Management is trained and managed within an organisation and are looking at how online technologies can support them in their quest."

Both ICI and GuinnessUDV face the challenge of having distributed workforces and recognise the benefits to be had in providing wider access to training for this important business process.

ICI is one of the world's leading and most international speciality products and paints companies. The e-learning programme will provide any-time learning on a fundamental business process, supporting and complementing the existing tutored workshops. The content of the training will be relevant to both appraisers and appraisees, reinforcing the belief that performance management is a process to be seen as an integral part of everyday working life. The training will be of 1-2 hours total duration (including off-line tasks and exercises) and delivered over the company intranet.

For GuinnessUDV, the largest drinks industry business, a set of supporting tools and information will be offered to their Global Supply teams, offering around 1 ½ hours of e-learning to underpin the current Performance Management programme. The main objectives of the programme are: to provide managers and employees with a single location for information and tools to: understand the business context for individual performance; support the setting of Key Result Areas and SMART objectives; facilitate performance review and action development planning.

The programmes are tailored in approach to the cultural and management needs of each of the organisations. The learning not only covers the 'what is' of Performance Management but also best practice in 'how to' manage performance and confirms the behavioural changes required for the process to be a success.

Andrea added: "We worked hard to ensure the tone and content for the programmes were pitched at an appropriate level and have already received very positive feedback from initial users."