Ciphr acquires DEI specialist Marshalls

The deal will bolster Ciphr Group’s content offering, with new and existing customers of both brands benefiting from access to hundreds of courses and tailored workplace training opportunities for employees.
 
The acquisition builds on Ciphr’s strategy to acquire UK businesses that complement its core HCM offering, and expands its customer offering.

Founder David Marshall will continue to head up the business, joining Ciphr’s leadership and reporting to Sion Lewis.

Marshalls’ team of eight employees will join Ciphr with immediate effect. 
 
Joining forces with Ciphr gives Marshalls the scale to bring their diversity, inclusion, and unconscious bias training and consultancy to an even broader range of organisations.

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Sion Lewis, CEO of Ciphr, said: "Marshalls has a great reputation across the learning industry, and their passion for creating amazing content that is flexible and accessible to all is well-known.
 
“With the demand for online and blended workplace learning solutions stronger than ever, it’s really exciting news for this growing market. Together, Ciphr and Marshalls will be able to deliver an even better experience for our customers and their people.
 
“A strong learning and development offer has multiple positive benefits for UK businesses – impacting employee productivity, engagement, job satisfaction, morale and so much more. Well-designed, customisable training and content, such as interactive learning activities and engaging visual learning journeys, can support and enhance an individual’s employee experience and help them become more effective in their jobs. 

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"Ultimately, people are an organisation’s greatest asset, and good employee training – including, importantly, management and leadership training – is not just integral to a successful learning and development strategy, but it is business-critical to running a successful organisation.”
 
David Marshall, who founded Marshalls in 2002, said: “We are really excited to become part of the Ciphr Group. With Ciphr’s resources and our shared vision for continued growth, our skilled in-house team and strong network of external subject matter experts will be able to generate so much more content and resources for our customers. This will enable them to rely on one partner for all their learning technology requirements.

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“While Marshalls will retain its focus on diversity, as part of Ciphr we’re looking forward to building a completely new, and regularly updated, online learning library.”
 
Stephen Roberts, partner at ECI, said: “We’re delighted to welcome Marshalls to the Ciphr Group. 

The addition of Marshalls’ strong D&I expertise will be hugely relevant and valuable to Ciphr’s existing customer base, and further adds to its impressive suite of HR solutions. We look forward to working with Sion and David to maximise on the growth opportunity in this space.”

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