A day in the life of Lorna Bevan, training & development director at the Oxford University Press, explains her success at producing a return on her training investment

Training Journal, March, 2007 by Lorna Bevan

Lorna Bevan, training & development director, Oxford University Press

Oxford University Press (OUP) is part of the University of Oxford and the largest university press in the world. We have more than 4,000 staff worldwide, of whom 1,500 are UK-based. There are four UK publishing divisions, each with its own publishing strategy. Each one faces different challenges and pressures in the markets it serves, and has its own unique culture and climate. This makes my job as training and development director hugely interesting and varied.

The diversity of publishing, coupled with OUP's preference for decentralised strategy and management, makes it difficult to attempt organisation-wide learning initiatives. This has led me to run my department of four very much like an in-house training and development consultancy, supporting the business where and when the need arises. Much of our time is spent running projects for specific divisions and departments, working to the client's brief with definable business outcomes in mind.

This morning one of my training advisers, Celia Clark, and I are giving a presentation at a divisional staff briefing. The MD has recently communicated the division's plan for the next few years and we want managers and staff to think about the skills and knowledge they'll need to develop. We'll be emphasising the need for staff to take responsibility for their own learning and that we're there to support them.

After that I've got a meeting with one of the divisional sales directors, to review some evaluation data we've been gathering to demonstrate ROI of a new global sales training programme. I'm looking forward to this meeting because the evidence we've had back so far from the regional sales managers, about the impact on sales results and staff motivation, is already looking great and it will be a rare treat to be able to demonstrate a concrete link between a training initiative and results.

Debbie Davis coordinates our in-house training courses and we are meeting to prioritise next year's training budget. We have a central budget for providing learning initiatives that are generic across the whole business. Divisions also have their own budgets for technical training and we advise them on how to spend often limited resources wisely. I must be one of the few heads of training in the country who feels comfortable with modest training budgets; in my experience people seem prepared to be more creative and put more personal time and effort into coming up with learning initiatives when they have a limited budget. The learners' own solutions are often more focused, relevant and effective than simply sending staff on generic, external courses.

I've got some time this afternoon to prepare for an awayday I'm facilitating for a management team next week. We're increasingly being asked to facilitate for teams who are looking for ways to work together more efficiently, or come up with new ideas or improve communication or working practices. It's a really enjoyable part of my job and keeps me in touch with the grass roots level.

My final job for the day will be to proof-read some course materials for management training I'm running in our New York office next month. It's a real privilege to work for the organisation that brings us the Oxford English Dictionary and that is synonymous with publishing quality and excellence, but it does mean I have to double check all my work for typos before I go to print.