L&Q is one of the UK’s leading housing associations and developers. Founded in 1963, it now houses approximately 250,000 people in more than 105,000 homes. These homes are located primarily across London, the South East, and North West of England.

As a regulated charitable housing association, all the money L&Q makes is reinvested into new and existing homes to create successful communities and provide services for its residents. L&Q believes everyone deserves a quality home that gives them the chance to live a better life.

The Challenge: Streamlining Compliance Training Across a Diverse Workforce

L&Q Group employs approximately 4,000 people who are responsible for a variety of tasks, including:

• Providing tenants with support services
• Building new homes
• Renovating and maintaining existing properties
• Selling new builds and pre-owned homes

In addition to property managers, leasing/letting officers, repairs teams, caretaking teams, and other crucial workers, L&Q Group has internal teams responsible for its executive functions, like HR and L&D management.

As a charitable housing organization, L&Q Group must maintain compliance with the regulations set forth by England’s Regulator of Social Housing. Failing to comply with these standards could potentially result in a downgrade from L&Q Group’s current status, which would have implications for its fundraising efforts and possibly lead to reputational risks.

To be compliant, every employee must complete varying degrees of compliance and safety training courses depending on their specific role. External parties, such as executive and resident board members, need to complete related compliance training as well.

L&Q Group previously managed compliance with manual processes like paper sign-in sheets for training workshops and physical spreadsheets to track employee completion rates. But with so many employees and a wide range of compliance tasks to manage—not to mention the potential consequences of being non-compliant—L&Q Group decided it was time to invest in a system that would simplify the process.

The Solution: A Highly Configurable LMS Capable of Managing Complex Compliance Requirements

With its diverse training and compliance requirements, L&Q Group needed a solution that could easily streamline content delivery and compliance training for its internal and external users. Its learners’ needs varied greatly depending on their roles across the organization. L&Q Group wanted a solution that could automate tasks wherever possible to maximize the software’s functionalities and ease the burden on its L&D department.

As this would be the organization’s first LMS, L&Q Group sought a vendor that would offer an excellent compliance-focused LMS while also providing guidance and support through the implementation process. The organization chose PeopleFluent Learning, a highly configurable system capable of handling the extensive regulatory requirements of the social housing industry. The PeopleFluent team worked closely with L&Q Group to ensure the system was configured to meet the housing association’s specific needs.

The Results: Improved Compliance Training Metrics

More than ten years have passed since L&Q Group signed its initial contract with PeopleFluent, and the two organizations have continued to strengthen their relationship. L&Q Group leverages PeopleFluent Learning to deliver training courses on a variety of essential topics, including data protection, employee conduct, unconscious bias recognition, housing management topics, and more. The organization also uses PeopleFluent Learning to manage compliance training and reporting for thousands of internal and external learners.

PeopleFluent Learning saves the housing association a significant amount of time. Its L&D department is now about half of its original size, but L&Q Group’s overall organization has continued to grow. Learning and Development Manager Letitia Matthews and IT Contract Manager Becci Donn estimate that their organization’s L&D department has experienced at least a 50% time savings as a direct result of implementing PeopleFluent Learning.

Leveraging PeopleFluent’s training software has also helped L&Q Group improve its training metrics. In 2023, the organization began using PeopleFluent Learning to run monthly reports on a new health and safety training initiative. The data showed a 3.5% increase in training completion rates for the program, which L&Q Group attributed in part to PeopleFluent Learning’s course deadlines and automatic reminders for learners to complete their training modules. The organization says it’s just one example of the steady increase to its compliance training metrics that it’s experienced since implementing PeopleFluent Learning.