The problem

LUHFT’s finance team needed to adapt their delivery method for finance training and awareness to accommodate and future proof a hybrid working approach adopted by the trust since the pandemic. We needed to move away from traditional classroom facilitation and PowerPoint presentations, otherwise, we would not have the opportunity to continue to engage our budget holders and finance staff effectively or provide quality finance training, by relying on traditional face to face classroom approaches which paused during the pandemic.

The challenge

• How might we maintain effective finance training that incorporates fun and encourages interaction with others? We needed to also ensure it was provided in an engaging way for our colleagues across the organisation and maintains suitability for a post-pandemic environment so that we continue to reach all relevant stakeholders and increase the financial awareness and knowledge by providing virtual training that can be accessed 24/7 via mobile and online technology.
• How might we develop something practical and engaging for a new generation so that we give an insight into what is little understood by some of the team and our non-finance colleagues, but an equally important task, which was the annual year-end process?

The outputs

• The tangible product that has come from our innovation is an established finance training app. The app includes leader boards and battle modes to encourage learning and social interaction.
• The app can be expanded and developed with further content for our organisation.
• It can also be shared with peer organisations (including education settings for accountancy students) for them to adapt and implement effective accessible finance training.

The outcomes

The benefits the team experienced as a result of the innovation were as follows:

• Established effective training mechanism with unlimited opportunity to be expanded and developed with further topics and content.
• A mobile and fully accessible training function which can be accessed by staff working remotely.
• Support and development provided to finance staff colleagues working remotely during year-end.
• Increased knowledge and confidence within the finance team and wider clinical teams of our annual accounts process leading to a commendation from our external auditors.
• Increased social interaction in times of isolation via battle modes, which encouraged wellbeing while working at home.