Dorset Councils Digital Champions programme
So this week I want to focus on an area that Dorset Council excels in which is our Digital Champions programme. We are coming up to the end of Year 2 of our programme with 365Tribe and I am reflecting that the success really is down to the partnership we have and our goal to provide learning that will increase productivity and skills across the whole Council.
Today I spoke with Wokingham Council and this is when the penny dropped. They are also using 365Tribe but are not seeing the success we are achieving because they haven’t nurtured the programme and adapted it to their needs yet. After having the conversation today I could see I was really inspiring Wokingham with what they needed to do to move forward and make it a success. 365Tribe often refers customers to us and see us as their flagship.
We currently have 190 champions who have achieved 1758 Microsoft badges between them and have gained 9495 mentor points. Mentor points are awarded when champions support their colleagues to learn a new feature from the many Microsoft apps now on offer.
This year we have also added our own events to the programme to make it more relevant about how we work at Dorset Council. We ran sessions on tips for using DES which is SAP solution for recording time, requesting holiday, recording supervisions and much more. We did a session around how champions can help us improve services, how to use our transformation hub to submit ideas and why LinkedIn is such a great networking tool.
I have written a paper for our senior leadership team to approve funding so Dorset can continue partnering with 365Tribe for Year 3 and improve skills even further. We surveyed our champions and out of all that responded only 1 didn’t know whether they would continue for another year but it was only due to time. Skills have increased on average by 19% and we have data to show productivity savings and gains from out champions helping their teams.
A big thank you to all the hard work our champions put in and also to our Business Partners who encourage staff to sign up and take part. As always we are still looking for more to join us.
I love talking about the champions programme we have in Dorset so please get in touch if you would like more information.
Delia Carr
Lead Adoption Officer
delia.carr@dorsetcouncil.gov.uk
