News

30.05.06 - Learning at work

Staff at Magna Housing were busy last week taking part in a national ‘Learning at Work’ event.

The event has been organised as part of the national ‘Learning at Work Day’, (officially 25 May) organised by The Campaign for Learning, where employees are encouraged to learn something new at work.

Magna’s personnel department helped co-ordinate the event across the whole organisation and had so many people willing to provide sessions for their colleagues that they decided to change it to a full week of learning something new.

By taking part, Magna has also helped to respond to staff requests to help better understanding between departments to further improve services to customers.

Sessions have been running in all of the housing association’s offices, in Dorset, Devon and Somerset.

Many departments across the organisation opened their doors to colleagues to give a better insight into some of the work that they do. These included the building services team, who showed the life of a repairs order, the 24 hour Careline team, who talked about what happens when a customer calls and how they cope in emergencies and also the community lifeline team gave a demonstration. In addition the organisation’s I.T. department got in on the act giving information on anti-virus protection and internet security.
Even Magna’s directors got in on the act, each taking part in a job shadowing exercise to get back to the shop floor.

Work related subjects weren’t all that was on offer, however. Magna’s head of personnel, Ros Booton, said, “’Learning at Work’ is a good way of drawing attention to learning within the workplace. There’s been lots on offer including sessions that aren’t work related.”

Making learning even more fun for those taking part, sessions were also available on the benefits of pet therapy, learning sign language, reiki healing and even a talk on Islam.

Ros added, “Employees have really got into the swing of ‘learning at work’. It’s been a real success here and we’re glad we’ve taken part.”

Last updated 22.05.06