The Challenge
Northfield Borough Council's digital transformation team had done the hard work: procured a modern productivity suite, negotiated licensing, configured the environment, and communicated the rollout. Six months later, 69% of staff were not using the tools. They were printing documents that could be collaborated on digitally, emailing files that should be in shared drives, and attending meetings that could be replaced by asynchronous workflows.
The tools were fully functional. The problem was that staff had not been given a reason to change — only a directive.
What We Built
We designed a role-segmented programme rather than a generic one. Four departments — planning, housing, finance, and customer services — each received a tailored curriculum built around their actual workflows. Training was delivered in mixed formats: structured workshops for foundational concepts, and guided on-the-job tasks that applied learning to real work within 48 hours.
340Staff trained across four departmentsEach cohort had a designated department champion who received additional support and became the first point of contact for peer questions post-training. This reduced dependency on the IT team for ongoing support.
The Outcome
Tool adoption across the four departments reached 79% within the quarter following the programme. IT support tickets related to the new tools fell 58%. The planning department, which had the lowest baseline adoption (22%), ended the programme at 83%.
