Reports/Case studies

Focal Point Training and Consultancy Ltd was established in 2001 by Co Directors Stella Chandler and Tracy Powley. The company specialises in helping organisations, teams and individuals develop the skills and behaviours needed to be effective in today’s competitive working environment. This includes designing, delivering and evaluating learning events in a number of areas such as Management development, Sales skills and customer care skills, Personal  & Team development

From the company’s inception, Stella and Tracy were keen to run a “virtual” office, with each working from home. The role of a trainer requires frequent travel to client sites, so it was important to the directors to keep travelling to a minimum when they were not delivering an event. Design and preparation work can easily be done from home based offices, where the advantages are a quiet environment and few interruptions. There is the obvious financial benefit of keeping overheads down too.

The staff now all work in this way; many of them, working Mums, who really appreciate the flexibility that home working gives.

A home working challenge was the effective exchange of ideas and sharing of knowledge and experience that is so important to a learning organisation. To help this Stella, Tracy and Debbie schedule regular meetings, at least once a month, in order to catch up face to face and talk business issues through.

Stella and Tracy also have an “exchange of expectations” with everyone they work with, which involves each person discussing specifically what they expect of the other, in terms of behaviour and working practices, in order that the work gets done to the highest possible standard and equally important, people are comfortable with each other.  This has proved an invaluable way to keep communication open and honest and to have a shared of understanding of what each person’s responsibilities are.

 

 

The company has a database which allows shared access to client records and a diary so that up to date information is readily available.  

The Company have also just invested in a new VOIP phone system that, amongst other things, allows them to make conference calls and transfer calls between home-based offices. 

Stella and Tracy also both make use of travelling time on trains or when staying in hotels by working on their laptops, which also now have wireless access.  The recent costs of the phone system have been £300 set up plus £21 a month and the wireless access is only £30 per month.

Stella Chandler says “This has been a fascinating journey for us, particularly in terms of how other businesses and clients have changed their perception of what we do. When we first set up, many people would ask us when we were going to get an office, as if it was a measure of how successful we were. We never saw any compelling reasons for doing this and now, 7 years later, other people are seeing that our way of working makes so much sense. It makes far better use of our time, keeps costs down, uses less petrol and is flexible working at its best.”