Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

New economy needs to learn old tricks

by Personnel Today 3 Oct 2002
by Personnel Today 3 Oct 2002

Tried and trusted approaches such as the Investors in People
Standard have plenty to offer some of the new industries, says the managing
director of specialist manufacturer Pocklington Coach Works

Pocklington Coach Works employs around 90 people and has a turnover of just
under £6m, with approximately 50 per cent of its business exported to European
and US markets.

Back in the nineties, during the initial internet boom, Pocklington had
around 19 employees and was beginning to expand rapidly. But it was
experiencing a skills shortage. The sensible option was to train and develop
its own in-house team.

It contacted its local Business Link who introduced the concept of Investors
in People. It needed to manage rapid growth while ensuring the culture of the
business remained intact. The Investor in People Standard helped everyone in
the company concentrate on strategic goals, and provided it with a framework to
develop its people.

The Standard provides guidelines to help initiate and consolidate change – a
process that the few successful, surviving internet companies must have
experienced in order to sustain their growth. Those that did not allow time to
take stock at this stage, ultimately failed.

For Pocklington, the Investors in People Standard provided a flexible
framework of support. New media companies were successful at innovating, but,
perhaps, they lacked the experience to follow through.

Maybe older heads would have advised these organisations to look around for
real life stories of business success. Many business tools, ISO or the
Investors in People Standard, for example, have been largely left unexploited
by new media companies who have overlooked the basic tools for their
development.

The Standard helped address Pocklington’s skills shortage. Like many new
economy start-ups, its skills base was niche. It found the best way to recruit
people was to identify the correct attitude and train them to gain the required
skills. It used a combination of external and in-house training, and an
apprenticeship scheme implemented under its Investors in People programme.

Through improved communications and regular appraisals, Pocklington has been
able to identify leadership skills in people it would never have recognised
otherwise, simply by finding out more about its employees. It found that people
from the shop floor who blend into the background by day, were actually running
sports centres or were senior members in the Territorial Army during their
spare time: roles with transferable skills applicable to its working
environment.

In some ways it was like the dotcoms. In a traditionally hierarchical
industry, even Pocklington’s management structure was different – reverting to
a circular structure where information was passed around, not cascaded
downwards – keeping staff involved with decision-making.

Regardless of the industry, the key to success is the ability to step back
and take stock. Those who can do this, reap great success. Since going through
the Investors in People recognition process, Pocklington’s profits have
increased, productivity improved, and morale and commitment have been second to
none. For those new companies which add these traditional business and change
management tools to their ability to innovate, success will surely follow.

The results are plain to see. Its skills shortage is no longer a problem.
Some of its best employees come from its apprenticeship scheme providing it
with the expertise to run a successful business.

Through appraisals and communication it has unearthed a wealth of skills –
leadership among them – which it didn’t realise existed. And as internet
companies enter new, increasingly niche markets, the Investors in People
Standard will help identify, develop and train people with the skills and
expertise required.

What do you think?

Has the IIP standard helped develop your employees or can you manage without
it? Write to the editor Stephanie Sparrow at [email protected] or at
Reed Business Information, Quadrant House, The Quadrant, Sutton, Surrey SM2
5AS. If you are happy for your letter to be published on our letters page,
please mark it ‘for publication’.

Avatar
Personnel Today

previous post
Communications top training priority for employers
next post
Public sector staff miss out on private healthcare perk

You may also like

Five steps for organisations across the globe to...

8 Jun 2022

The Search for Talent: Six Major Employer Pitfalls

24 May 2022

Grants scheme set up to support women’s health...

16 May 2022

How music can help to ease anxiety at...

9 May 2022

OH will be key to navigating ‘second pandemic’...

14 Apr 2022

OH urged to be aware of abortion consultations...

8 Apr 2022

How coached eCBT is returning the workplace to...

8 Apr 2022

Why now is the time to plug the...

7 Apr 2022

Two-thirds of shift workers feel health affected by...

18 Mar 2022

TUC warns of April Covid risk assessment ‘confusion’

14 Mar 2022
  • NSPCC revamps its learning strategy with child wellbeing at its heart PROMOTED | The NSPCC’s mission is to prevent abuse and neglect...Read more
  • Diversity versus inclusion: Why the difference matters PROMOTED | It’s possible for an environment to be diverse, but not inclusive...Read more
  • Five steps for organisations across the globe to become more skills-driven PROMOTED | The shift in the world of work has been felt across the globe...Read more
  • The future of workforce development PROMOTED | Northumbria University and partners share insight...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2022

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2022 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+