Santander fought off tough competition from fellow finalists KFC UKI, Savills UK, Lloyds Banking Group, Omnicom Media Group and wagamama to win the award at a ceremony held at the Dorchester Hotel in London on Thursday 4 February 2016.

The People Development Programme of the Year Award is presented to an enterprise that has implemented a proactive People Development Programme for its employees – whether to a target group or enterprise-wide – that can show demonstrable business impact and performance improvement for the organisation.

Pearson TQ have been fantastic as a partner in designing, delivering, evaluating and enhancing the biggest part of this programme: they have worked with us as real and value-adding partners, with enthusiasm, flexibility and responsiveness to our needs. I am delighted with this result, for Santander UK, and for Pearson TQ.

Kosta Christofi, programme leader and Senior Learning Specialist, Management and Leadership Capability at Santander

Pearson TQ’s challenge was to develop a brand new Leadership Programme that was powerful, inspirational and game-changing for:

• learners
• the business
• Santander customers.

The success of the Programme would be measured through the people sentiment scores within employee surveys conducted in the business; specifically:

• I feel valued.
• I can achieve my career goals in Santander.
• I am part of a team with inspiring leaders.

Equally important measures of success would be what people were saying about the Programme in the business. Highlights of the accomplished entry include:

• 92% of learners would recommend the Programme to colleagues
• 96% of learners have tried new things as a result of the training
• 90% of learners’ Line Managers can see the learning being applied
• 91% of learners’ Line Managers have noticed improvements in leadership behaviour.

I couldn’t be more delighted for the team. This has been a true collaboration with shared aspirations for what the Programme could achieve. The anecdotal feedback is off the scale and, perhaps more importantly, we have been able to back this up with robust evidence and metrics to show what the impact has been on individuals and the business.

Anne Nash, Director of Pearson TQ Leadership and Development