It’s been an exciting 12 months for Phoenix, culminating this month with the arrival of Lawrence White, our brand new permanent Senior Learning Consultant, who has come to us fresh from HSBC.

Lawrence was a high-flier at HSBC, filling a multitude of roles during an illustrious career with them, including 8 years within the bank’s Learning & Development Team.  He was also part of the HSBC ‘Talent Pool’, designated as one of the top 5% of managers in the business.

A proven leader, coach, and sales professional, he brings a great deal to our team, including TAP, MBTI, & Prism Profiling accreditation, not to mention a huge store of practical experience designing and delivering.

But it’s what Lawrence brings as a permanent member of the Phoenix team that I wanted to briefly reflect on in this post, as it is his full-time status that, from a client perspective, we believe will add the most significant value over time.

Until the 1^st November 2008, Phoenix operated with a familiar model in the training industry: aside from our MD, Bill Osmond, every one of our trainers was an Associate, i.e. they were freelancers with particular subject or industry specialisms, who we called on to fulfil work under our banner, as and when required.  This arrangement is ideal for a small training provider, as it enables you to punch far above your weight, bringing in delivery resource according to sales – and in truth the rationale is generally a financial one: why pay a salary for someone who might not be needed all the time?  Instead, bring people in when you need them and pay them a daily rate; and when you don’t have work, there is no overhead.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not putting down freelancers: many of Phoenix’s Associate Consultants have been working with us for more than a decade, and will continue to do so.  Moreover, these long-term collaborators have successfully aligned themselves very closely with what we call The Phoenix Way – our methods and philosophies of training, and our focus on the practical transfer of learning.  I salute the fantastic job they do as designers and deliverers.  Thank you guys!

However, even the most dedicated freelancer has to take off their ‘Phoenix hat’ at some point, and turn their attentions to their other non-Phoenix projects – and it was a realisation that as a company we wanted to consistently uphold The Phoenix Way, and give maximum attention to the pre-course and post-course elements of the learning cycle, that led us to a turning-point decision: to build a full-time team of Phoenix Trainers.

Thus in November 2008 we started with our first talent acquisition, Phoenix’s Head of Learning Martin le Comte.  Martin joined from Barclays Asset & Sales Finance, and had been runner-up in the Training Journal 2007 Training Professional of the Year Awards. Martin is an absolutely inspirational figure to everyone he works with: he has an infectious charisma and ability to carry participants with him on even the most difficult development journeys, and in a very short time he was proving the absolute wisdom of the full-time trainer model.  Client after client has fed back how much they appreciate his passion and commitment, and prove it by rebooking with us again and again.

Specifically what makes the difference with a full-time trainer is their ability to extend our engagement with clients without having to charge them on a measured time basis – it lets us truly operate with Covey’s Abundance Mentality.  For example:

• You want to meet us to discuss possible content?  That’s no problem.
• You’ve decided to use Phoenix, but feel that the participant buy-in would be enhanced if delegates had a chance to meet their trainer in advance of the course? No problem.
• You want to debrief the training with all stakeholders round the table?  It’s all part of the service.
• We’ve delivered a successful programme for managers, but they would benefit from a bit of impartial advice on dealing with specific issues from time to time?  No problem, our full-time trainers make sure everyone they train has their mobile number, and it’s not a problem to call or email at any time.  Genuinely.  Many of our participants use Martin or Bill or now Lawrence as informal coaches or mentors, long after the formal training events they may have attended.

In these and many other ways, having full-time trainers means that we can add value at every stage of the learning cycle, and it enables us to move training away from its traditional, transactional footing (you pay your money, the trainer delivers a course for a day), into a properly ongoing process of development in which we partner with clients.  They can then use us as and when they need us, in a variety of ways and on deeper and deeper levels, so as to help drive real change in their people, and ultimately their organisations.