This award recognises HR’s effort in working together with other functions
as a business partner to achieve strategic goals in a seamless way. Entrants
demonstrated projects where HR has integrated well and co-operated effectively
with IT, sales, marketing, finance, production or any other part of the
organisation.
Category judge
John Connolly is senior partner and chief executive at Deloitte & Touche
UK and has been on the UK Board of Partners continuously since 1983. Prior to
becoming CEO in 1999, he was managing partner, and earlier in his career, had a
number of roles including responsibility for the London and regional offices.
He has spent his whole professional career with the firm. John is also a member
of various global committees at Deloitte, the Globalisation Strategy and
Structure Group and Global HR Implementation Team. He is also a member of
Business in the Community Economic Regeneration Leadership Team.
Lloyds TSB Group
The team
No. in HR team 5, around 900 the group
Staff responsible for 80,000
Tony Hooper, Head of HR business
projects
Garrett Forkin, Senior manager Change Consultancy
Fay Crompton, Senior manager business projects
Jeremy Birkett, Head of HR
Dave Faulkes, Change management consultant
Andy Knight, Senior consultant
Mike Whittaker, Senior consultant
Alan Dixon, Change management consultant
HR
Business Projects, Change Consultancy
About the company
Lloyds TSB is a leading UK-based financial services groups,
whose businesses (including Scottish Widows and Cheltenham & Gloucester)
provide a comprehensive range of banking and financial services in the UK and
overseas. The group generated pre-tax profits in excess of £3.5bn for 2002.
The challenge
Lloyds TSB realised that failing to engage employees in
implementing change resulted in low levels of understanding and commitment,
which in turn led to slower delivery and reduced benefit delivery.
What the company did
– Provided integrated assessment, consultancy and
change delivery service
– Developed branded and enhanced People Side of Projects (PSoP)
to increase employee acceptance and commitment to change
– Set up dedicated change consultancy team using action-based
learning as a part of its approach to managing change
– Produced toolkits for managers and HR to improve quality of
project results
– Designed workshops to raise awareness of PSoP among HR and
business managers.
Benefits and achievements
– Won good coverage of the initiative in the company’s internal
Project Matters publication
– Experienced rising demand from HR business partners for
coaching in PSoP
– Adopted PSoP as a standard when reviewing change programmes
– Used it as a delivery framework for numerous high-profile
business change programmes
– Established hyperlinks between PSoP website and those owned
by Group Project Services and the University for Lloyds TSB
– Growing interest outside the group.
John Connolly says: "Lloyds
TSB recognised the commercial value of engaging people to ensure successful
change. It established an innovative team to focus on people in every change
management project. It effectively illustrates how, when the team is brought
into projects, there is greater alignment between the objectives and the
outcomes."
Ventura customer service management
The team
No. in HR team 5
Total number in HR 37
Staff responsible for 4,500
Bev Ewing, HR general
manager
Claire Blenkin, HR management information analyst
Tim Pearson, HR project manager
Caroline Falcon, HR services team leader
Karen Jenkinson, HR payroll
Jill Hoggard, Operations manager
Vicky Thornton, Operational team manager
Debbie Guest, Planning team leader
Peter Bindon, IT Project leader
HR Services
About the company
Ventura is part of the NEXT Group of companies and is one of
the leading providers of outsourced customer management in the UK. With more
than 30 years’ experience, it has a wide range of clients across many business
sectors. Its workforce of more than 4,500 generated a turnover last year of
£100m.
The challenge
To introduce an initiative in four months that would improve
attendance management and streamline the process to reduce its above-average
levels of absenteeism as well as deliver cost savings and greater efficiencies.
What the company did
– Set up a project team made up of staff from HR, operations management,
legal, IT, operational planning, payroll, operational training and management
development
– Devised employee attendance policy and provided a toolkit for
managing attendance
– Automated, via a bespoke system, the attendance management
process and developed facility to track absence
– Introduced prize draw to raise awareness and recognise full
attendance
– Supported roll-out with training and communication plan which
included management workshops.
Benefits and achievements
– Since February this year, absence levels have fallen by 18
per cent and continues to fall
– Saving in lost hours equates to £300,000 plus £20,000 from
redundant full-time payroll post
– Productivity is up and managers have complete control over
their staff attendance.
John Connolly says: "Call centres depend on a
reliable workforce, so attendance is critical. Ventura demonstrated how HR led
the process that identified the problem and proactively improved attendance
management. In four months a comprehensive policy was designed, communicated to
staff and implemented."
AXA Insurance
The team
No. in HR safety team 4
86 in HR company-wide
Staff responsible for 4,700
Tim Hubbard, HR project
manager
Chris Malings, HR business partner
Julie Bell, Underwriting quality and re-insurance manager
Lesley Fothergill, Head of reward and recognition
Sarah Goss, Reward adviser
Reward and Recognition
About the company
Axa Insurance is one of the world’s leading financial
protection groups, with 50 million customers. It is one of the UK’s leading
financial services providers, with revenues of £7.3bn and more than 10,000
employees.
The challenge
To develop and implement a new grading and pay structure to
enable business units to quickly respond to varying market pressures and to
attract, retain and motivate top-quality staff. Â
What the company did
– Set up a project team including reward advisors, business and
union representatives.
– Used external benchmarking, technical expertise and business
needs to develop a framework of job families and pay zones.
– Used seven organisation business leaders to deliver the
project with HR as the facilitator
– Engaged with the business through regular consultation with
senior managers, directors and unions.
– Launched the framework as an integral part of a company-wide
culture change initiative. Â
Benefits and achievements
– Added value by delivering a framework for managers to reward
their people on an individual basis and by providing market data on salary
spend, recruitment and retention.
– Managers now able to target salary more effectively and
monitor potential pay issues.
– HR has developed reward expertise and reduced the need for
external consultants.
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John Connolly says: "The
scheme was introduced to improve the firm’s ability to attract and retain
high-performing people, and increase the flexibility to respond to labour
market pressures. The HR team worked alongside business leaders on the reward
framework and the project enabled HR to become more embedded within the
business."
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phone Jacqui Winn on 020 8652 3304
