An extension of my own company – flexible online training, tailored courses and shared values
About Salisbury Group
Salisbury Group was launched in 2013 with a landmark agreement to provide FM services to a national estate that hosted major government departments and FTSE-listed companies as tenants.
Since then, it has grown its contract base to include clients in sectors including universities and higher education, transport, local government, retail, recruitment, logistics and infrastructure. The company employs over 500 people in many different locations across the UK and Ireland. Almost half of its personnel are mobile, travelling around their respective regions to deliver facilities management and building maintenance services and reacting quickly to customer needs.
Salisbury Group was built to be different to the faceless organisations in the facilities management industry that often lack the human touch.
Jill Scott is the People and Organisational Development Director at Salisbury Group. She talks about how International Workplace operates as an extension of her own company.
Working with International Workplace
I've worked with International Workplace for several years now. We started our journey together by undertaking a series of IOSH training courses and then we took a view that it was better to outsource a lot of our compliance training rather than having somebody internal to do it. We were comfortable that International Workplace could supply the quality of courses that we needed.
A transition in course delivery: from face-to-face to virtual classroom
Like most people during the pandemic, we had to move away from what had been traditional face-to-face training to virtual classroom provision. We started with Legionella Awareness and Asbestos Awareness courses, and as well as changing the delivery method, International Workplace worked with us to tailor the content so the courses were relevant to our processes and procedures.
We will continue to deliver these courses and others via virtual classroom because the feedback that I have had from the participants has been great; Kate, one of the trainers, is very engaging. My learners have told me that three-and-a-half hours just seems to disappear! I think that’s the best feedback that you can get.
"As well as changing the delivery method, International Workplace worked with us to tailor the content so the courses were relevant to our processes and procedures."
Collaborating to develop a bespoke training course
Recently we had a specific need for a course on accident investigation. International Workplace’s trainer, Jamie, built a lot of the core components of the course then worked with our QSHE team to make it specific to our systems of work.
That's why we enjoy working with International Workplace because nothing is off the cards and the team are really accommodating and supportive to make those course changes for us. That's invaluable to an SME business when you don’t have an internal training delivery team.
Salisbury is growing very quickly, and we have been very fortunate to have won quite a lot of new contracts. This brings a demand for mandatory courses, which International Workplace deliver for us.
One of the things that I appreciate from International Workplace is its flexibility. If we need to move a training session, it's not surrounded by contractual obligations and cancellation fees. If it’s feasible to move it, that’s what happens, which is really helpful.
International Workplace feels like an extension of my own company because they have people with can do attitudes and nothing is ever a problem, values which we share.
