Standard
Life has doubled the size of its business since it changed its management style
to encourage its staff to become more involved.
Derek
Thomson, Standard Life’s personnel operations manager, told the Anuman 2001
conference that the company had realised there was a need for a change of
management style in the late 1980s.
Thomson
said the change was needed because Standard Life’s customers were unhappy and
its staff under-utilised.
In
response the financial services company implemented a total customer
satisfaction policy that concentrated on its customers needs by training and
developing its staff to realise their full potential.
In
1999 the change of style was formalised with the formation of Link, the staff
representative body and last year a partnership agreement was established.
There
are now four full-time employee representatives and 196 part-time national and
local representatives.
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Thomson
said, "Link has helped our staff make a greater contribution to the
organisation and made their contribution more professional.
"It
has helped develop mutual respect and created an appetite for people to want to
get involved in the business."
