Delphi, The Place to Learn is a complete learning and development resource combining online courses with training information and materials. Created for Wiley by Nelson Croom, Delphi grew out of an initial need for recruitment, selection, performance and development training for new managers. Delphi has since grown and adapted to meet the changing needs of the business over the last four years. It now provides employees with a suite of around 20 online courses in essential professional and management skills as well as the facility to submit a learning request; information on training department policies, processes and contacts; a directory of training activities and suppliers; details and advice for managers and staff on professional qualifications.

The background
Wiley is a global publisher of print and electronic products, specialising in scientific, technical, and medical books and journals; professional and consumer books and and other educational materials. Wiley has offices in the UK, Europe, USA, Canada, Asia and Australia and employs around 4,900 staff worldwide. In 2007 Wiley acquired Blackwell Publishing. The Blackwell publishing programme merged with Wiley to create Wiley-Blackwell. This combined business now publishes approximately 1,400 scholarly peer-reviewed journals as well as an extensive publishing list of books.

The problem
Blackwell Publishing started working with Nelson Croom in 2005. Originally Blackwell needed to provide training for a new annnual performance and development review (PDR) system as well as a new approach to recruitment and selection training. They wanted to provide a full resource for new managers, or those lacking confidence, but didn't want more experienced staff to have to sit through a whole course again. The resource also needed to provide refresher training on an as-needed basis. Blackwell needed a solution that enhanced classroom based training, ensuring that learners arrived at courses with a base level of knowledge so that they could focus classroom time on skills practice.

The solution

The resource launched with two existing online courses from the Nelson Croom Publishing Portfolio: Conducting Performance and Development Reviews and Recruitment and Selection. These courses were tailored for relevance to the Blackwell business, and blended with face-to-face workshops. The result was a rich and engaging learning experience designed to inform staff about Blackwell's processes, to change their behaviours and to raise skill levels.

The feedback from learners was universally positive and Blackwell extended the number of Publishing Portfolio courses available to its staff. The resource continued to develop into Blackwell Delphi. Delphi contained resources allowing learners to plan their own development and that of their team, analysing their needs, submitting learner requests online and reviewing a complete catalogue of courses (both online and face-to-face), resources and trainer profiles.

Following the acquisition of Blackwell Publishing in 2007, Wiley decided to roll out Delphi to the whole of the Wiley staff. The resource underwent a re-branding and changed its name to Delphi, The Place to Learn. The new gateway included information on Wiley HR and training processes as well as learning and development resources. Wiley also chose to include some further courses from the selection of publishing courses offered by Nelson Croom.

The results
The revitalised Delphi launched in Spring 2008 with launch events taking place across the UK sites. Members of the Wiley HR team were on hand to answer training and development questions and to demo the new resource to employees. Wiley continues to add to Delphi and aims for the resource to become the main resource employees look for learning and development information.