Senior managers at John Mowlem are being given training to improve their
overall understanding of the business after the construction firm diversified
into building services.
The company branched out following several acquisitions last year. The
training course was set up to ensure managers understand both sides of the
business.
Julie Wright, HR director at John Mowlem, believes the course will help the
two sides of the company work together.
She said: "The course has been really successful. It has encouraged
networking, helping to share and spread good practice across the whole group
and allowing individual departments benchmark against each other.
The training is a mixture of classroom-based learning and project work in
areas including business self-awareness, leadership, strategy making,
delivering strategies through business plans and practical skills.
In the final six months of the course managers take secondments into the
opposite area of the business to get an understanding of how the whole company
operates.
Wright said that one of the programme’s objectives is to encourage
cross-divisional movement at senior management level to create a real transfer
of knowledge between the different parts of the firm.
About 20 managers are in their second year on the programme, and another 20
are lined up to start the course next year.
