This award recognises the growing importance of quantifying the value of
human capital in organisations. Entrants demonstrated how human capital
management has contributed to the success of the enterprise. Judges looked for
evidence that organisations have taken into account both hard financial
measures and other indicators of employee value.
Category judge
Nick Starritt is an HR consultant with more than 27 years experience in
international HR and management. Until recently, Starritt was head of HR for
BP. He played a key role in the series of major mergers and acquisitions at BP
and developed the groundbreaking outsourcing deal with Exult, which created a
new model of web-enabled, international HR delivery. Starritt was previously
head of financial services of a European joint venture between BP and Mobil
Oil, which covered 26 countries. He is a consultant on HR strategy and is a non-executive
director of RebusHR.
BskyB
Sky Achievers
About the company
BSkyB introduced satellite broadcasting in the UK in 1989, covering
sports, entertainment and news, now watched by more than 10 million households
in the UK and Ireland. It employs 11,000 staff
The challenge
To improve the employer brand and the performance of its 6,000
staff in its Scottish contact centre
What the company did
– Changed the emphasis from quantity to quality of calls
– Introduced a performance management process that included a
formal appraisal, a call handling standard and it linked the annual pay
increase to staff performance
Benefits and achievements
– Improved the quality of customer service
– Improved performance from staff involved in performance
management
– Employee satisfaction increased
– Reduction in staff turnover
Nick Starritt says: "The
Sky Achievers programme helps the business to better understand the link
between the responsiveness of call centre employees and the satisfaction of
BSkyB customers. In leading this initiative, the HR function sought to shift
the focus from quantity of calls handled, to more qualitative responses. By tracking
employee performance and attitudes among 6,000 call centre employees over time,
and linking these to customer feedback, BSkyB can show how improved business
results have occurred. The programme has reduced turnover, improved morale and
generated more positive feedback from customers. When it is rolled out to the
remainder of the UK organisation, BSkyB will have a significant and consistent
way of influencing the productivity of the workforce, the attitudes of its
customers and the results of the business."
The team
No. in HR team 6, more than 400 in HR
Staff responsible for 11,000
Kim Lardge Director of HR Sky services
Yvonne Jennings Head of customer service
Carmel Teusner Head of learning and organisational development
Gail McDonald Head of customer experience
Douglas Boe Head of HR operations
Carol Reid Outsource training manager
Nationwide
HR planning team
About the company
Based in Swindon, Nationwide is the largest building society in
the world employing 16,000 people in the UK. Owned by its members, it is run by
an executive team overseen by an elected board of directors
The challenge
To find if employee commitment drives loyalty, satisfaction and
commitment and, in turn, improves quality of service which can be linked to
profits
What the company did
– Introduced a database of employee, customer satisfaction and
HR and business performance data
– Benchmarked HR indicators against other organisations
– Analysis found that: personal loans, products, mortgage and
insurance sales increased from between 2.1 and 6 per cent and is correlated to
satisfaction with pay and improved retention
Benefits and achievements
– Showed a direct link between HR indicators and business
performance
– Older staff increase customer satisfaction levels
– Regular feedback on employee performance all improve business
performance
– Staff turnover down 1 per cent
– Employee satisfaction with training and pay is 3 and 1 per
cent up respectively on benchmarking group
Nick Starritt says:
"Nationwide’s approach to people practice has been driven by the
development of a new mathematical tool that revealed the link between employee
commitment, customer satisfaction and business performance. This HR-led
initiative has influenced the direction and priority of its thinking about
managing people, and has given branch managers a clearer sense of what drives
sales and financial performance. Longer term data will inevitably increase the
depth of insight and value of this important tool to Nationwide."
The team
No. in team 5, 285 in HR
Staff responsible for 16,000
John Whitehouse Head of group
training and development
Tony Houchen Senior manager personnel planning and systems
Rachel Tolhurst Communications manager
Tony Howell Personnel planning manager
Sarah Moore Personnel analyst
B & Q
Employee engagement
About the company
B&Q has about 350 stores in the UK, employing 33,000 staff.
In 1998, the company introduced a new HR strategy to put people and measurement
at the centre of the business strategy
The challenge
Increase productivity and profit by measuring the link between
employee engagement and customer loyalty
What the company did
– Introduced twice-yearly customer and staff reports
– Decentralised HR and business decisions to a local level
– Developed an employee/customer satisfaction-profit chain
Benefits and achievements
– Staff turnover reduced by 7 per cent to 28 per cent in two
years
– Turnover per employee increased from £87,000 in 1998 to
£106,000 this year
– More than doubled the number of ‘engaged’ employees in 12 months
– Proof that stores with higher employee engagement have higher
satisfaction scores: less staff absence, lower staff turnover, less shrinkage
and greater sales
Nick Starritt says:
"Running for more than three years, the B&Q Employee Engagement programme
focuses on the link between employee engagement, customer loyalty and business
performance. Each store manager receives reg-ular data on staff motivation
which is matched with similar data on customer satisfaction. This HR-led
initiative creates a consistent focus within stores on actions to improve
employee attitudes and skills and drive-up customer loyalty. It provides
managers with practical ways to create a more engaged workforce and has
increased sales and profits. It has shown what HR issues the company needs to
focus on. The Line has embraced the programme, which has also en-abled HR to
increase the contribution it makes to the success of the business."
The team
No. in team 6, 100 in HR
Staff responsible for 33,000
Mike Cutt HR director
Rob Barnett HR shared services policy controller
Garry Eccles Head of HR
Martyn Phillips HR controller of retail operations
Graham Bell Learning and development controller
Adrian Jones E-learning manager
Carol Roberts University development manager
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