Blended Learning process enhances multinationals' intercultural competences.

GPI package wins favour with major multinationals with worldwide rollout.

Immense savings to be realised.

February 2010. The merits of online training versus face-to-face instruction are the subject of endless debate. "You can't beat reality," say the face-to-facers. "OK," say the onliners, "but look at the cost!" Yet the debate overlooks the possibility that you can combine the two and get the best of both worlds.

This is what Global Performance Improvement (GPi) is doing with a new 'blended learning' process that has been taken up enthusiastically by a number of major multinationals. When you have an employee mass that extends to many thousands, you have to find effective ways of improving human skills without incurring excessive costs and disrupting normal working life.

"Blended learning is more than eLearning," says Rhys Marc Photis, chief executive of GPi. "It combines the benefits of face-to-face with a range of virtual tools." Technical partner for the Blended Learning Programme is reflact AG, Germany.

The process, which is focused currently on developing intercultural competences in major organisations, starts with country-level, face-to-face workshops. This is followed by a series of country-specific online training (CSOT) modules. First, distribution of an eLibrary on selected countries and cultures to participants, followed by a web-based training (WBT) module and, finally, an eWorkshop hosted by an expert from the country/culture in question. Effectiveness of the process is evaluated with benchmark questionnaires completed by participants before and after the process.

T-Systems and others

Already several thousand employees at T-Systems, the global IT company, have taken advantage of the GPI blended learning process, and other multinationals are signing up. Their aim is to improve the intercultural competences of employees dealing with clients, suppliers and other stakeholders, and also to enhance the working relationships of people of different cultures within their own organisations. Feedback from the questionnaires and individual comments testify to the success of the GPI process in enhancing employee awareness, improving working relationships and increasing personal motivation.

"The web-based training offers you a more personalised understanding of interacting with another culture," says Alfred Leicht, former Vice President of GDU SAP Services at T-Systems. "These trainings will never replace face-to-face sessions. However they are a time- and cost-saving solution for a leading global organisation such as ours." Added to which, face-to-face training seriously disrupts normal working rhythms, an important consideration when operating efficiency is at a premium.

Besides the endorsement already received from these major corporations, the cost-effectiveness of the blended learning process is evident from the sums, says GPi's Rhys Marc Photis. "If you take an organisation with say 10,000 e-mail users and assume 10 per cent of time being saved through more effective communication and collaboration, then the blended learning process can save more than 10 million Euros per year. That's just in terms of investment of employee working time. It doesn't include travel and other expenses."

The blended learning process is designed to be flexible. You can roll it out to specific groups or to thousands of people worldwide, with minimal impact on the normal working life of companies, and limited travel and accommodation costs. It provides a self-paced, adaptable and interactive system of instruction, backed by access to information 24/7.  

GPi's blended learning process draws on the Confucian maxim: "I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand."

For further information, please contact Kerstin van Eckert: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or Karin Minke: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Tel: + 44 75 4004 9298 and/or +32 2 343 77 26.