Tyre company ATS Euromaster celebrated winning the Talent Management Award at this year’s Personnel Today Awards. Profiled below is their entry, along with those from the other employers who caught the judges’ attention.
Talent Management – the judges
Steven Toft – Crucible Consulting
Michael Jenkins – Roffey Park
Alan Warner – Albany OD
WINNER
ATS Euromaster
About the organisation
ATS Euromaster is a nationwide tyre company with 340 centres across the UK.
The challenge
Six years ago, the company was charged with reversing a long record of financial instability – at its lowest point the business recorded a loss of £27 million. In order to achieve long-term sustainable profitability, the business needed to invest in its people.
What the organisation did
- Forged solid partnerships between the leadership team and their direct reports, allowing the team to work cohesively and create a culture where constructive feedback is welcomed.
- Introduced a four box model (simplifying the traditional nine box model), allowing managers to have better conversations with their employees and enhance performance across the board.
- Targeted recruitment – the team has become better equipped to know what kind of roles and what kind of candidates people are looking for, ensuring that people are recruited with the skills and capabilities to enable the organisation to move forward.
- Introduced bespoke development programmes including: Horizon (a development programme for senior managers of the future); Legacy (aimed at people with high potential who have not yet had the opportunity to manage a team); and Next generation (designed for staff who are considered to be the next generation of front line managers).
Benefits and achievements
- Leadership team now reviews the company-wide talent pool for the whole business, helping to support people to achieve the roles they aim to fulfil.
- Internal promotions increased across all departments, with a number of senior positions filled from the talent pipeline.
- Bespoke, in-house development programmes encouraged people to behave in a more innovative way; re-energising employees and increasing employee motivation.
- Nine out of 10 employees currently believe that their job is challenging and interesting.
- Almost all (92%) staff are satisfied with their jobs.
- More than eight in 10 (85%) employees state that they know what to do in order to progress their career with the company.
Judges’ comments
“A clear, crisp and straightforward set of talent management solutions designed to address a critical business issue, well-defined and managed.”
RUNNERS UP
Dorchester Collection
About the organisation
Dorchester Collection (DC) is a hotel management company with a passion for excellence and innovation, honouring the individuality and heritage of its 10 iconic hotels.
The challenge
Dorchester Collection operates in a sector notorious for high levels of labour turnover – on average between 35% and 50%. Its people are targeted by other hotel and restaurant operators, and sometimes offered pay increases of 35% or more. Therefore, while the organisation believes in investing in the development of its talent, it is mindful that any talent strategy must also focus on retention.
What the organisation did
- Launched Talent+, with the simple, but vital, remit of selecting the right people for the right roles.
- Required all staff and candidates to complete talent online assessments in order to determine: who are top performers; who has the potential to execute a specific role; whether or not they are the right fit for the organisation’s culture; and what specific investment is required to help them grow.
- Aligned personal development plans to values within the talent management system “Your Future”, which enables employees to track their performance, goals and learning needs. It provides managers with real-time information and most importantly, identifies high performers who are at risk of leaving.
- Established the DC Academy to ensure consistent, continuous talent development in leadership and service.
- Ensured that the director of learning and talent regularly visits hotels.
- Made the talent management strategy part of the agenda for every general manager meeting and people and executive forums.
Benefits and achievements
- Saved £1.7 million in attrition by developing, engaging and retaining its people.
- Increased employee engagement to 92%.
- Stabilised labour turnover at 20.1% year-on-year.
- Promoted or transferred 15% (450) of employees within the group.
- Lowered the number of people leaving after 100 days from 20.8% to 13.7%.
- Increased career development engagement figures by 6.1% to 93.1%.
- Saw a continued improvement in guest engagement (54% are fully engaged, world-class is 50%) resulting in an additional £9.8 million revenue.
- Showed that almost all staff (95%) would recommend the company as a good place to work.
Judges’ comments
“Well thought-through and structured programme. An excellent example of how development can be used as a retention tool. There was a clear link to business benefits, eg turnover and guest satisfaction.”
Hilton Worldwide
About the organisation
Hilton Worldwide is one of the largest and fastest- growing hospitality companies in the world, with more than 4,440 hotels, resorts and timeshare properties comprising more than 730,000 rooms in 97 different countries and territories.
The challenge
Hilton Worldwide’s business goals are ambitious, as both its global and UK development plans continue to expand. The company has a strong focus on attracting, retaining and deploying the best people. It is therefore key that it invests effectively in the development of team members across all UK geographies, and all disciplines, to ensure that it has a developing and diverse talent pool to meet all future succession needs.
What the organisation did
- Developed a large variety of learning and development programmes to suit individual team member development, including: a selection of manager training programmes; the Finesse Finance Graduate Development Programme; the Business Development Aspire Programme; the HR Excellence Programme; the Food and Beverage programme, designed for potential team leaders in the food and beverage operation; the Top Gun programme, which provides a comprehensive training and mentoring plan for a high impact number of groups, conferences and events professionals; and the Top Talent programme, designed to accelerate career development of high performing team members at supervisory or management level who are demonstrating high potential to progress.
Benefits and achievements
- In addition to success rates in these programmes, and growing succession plans for the future, Hilton’s focus on these internal development programmes has had a measurable impact on Global Team Member Survey scores in the UK.
- Learning and development has increased overall by 5%.
- Those employees that state “My manager/department manager supports me in taking advantage of development and training opportunities” has increased by 3%.
- Those that state “I can achieve my career goals here” is up by 6%.
Judges’ comments
“A well-constructed, solid talent management architecture fit for an excellent global brand.”
Home Office
About the organisation
The Home Office (HO) is the Government department responsible for immigration, security, and law and order.
The challenge
In 2012, a newly formed talent team was tasked with developing a refreshed and integrated talent management solution that would allow the HO to identify and develop its high potential staff at junior/middle manager level and support its objective of increasing the numbers of under-represented groups in senior leader positions. After consultation with a range of stakeholders, the Aspiring Leaders programme was introduced in January 2013.
What the organisation did
- Took on two cohorts for the programme, with the selection process initially including sifting applications and an assessment day for successful candidates.
- Adapted the civil service resourcing online system to Aspiring Leaders, with fields that are only relevant to job applications.
- Worked closely with business and staff networks to understand some of the barriers that prevented BME, disabled and LGBT staff from applying for talent programmes.
- Promoted remote and flexible working and encouraged managers to see the benefits. As a result, placements which had previously only been available to London-based staff became available to a far wider group.
- Increased the number of applications from junior grades, with a much richer diversity mix.
- Promoted learning through experience, which gave individuals real and valuable development opportunities.
- Set up self-managed peer learning sets by region, to help individuals learn and share experiences.
- Gave aspiring leaders the opportunity to undertake three 12-month postings to gain a breadth of experience in different business areas through “managed moves”.
Benefits and achievements
- Programme has delivered a diverse representation reflecting HO staff and protected characteristics.
- Created meaningful and challenging opportunities for under-represented groups and removed a lot of the perceived barriers to progressions for junior staff.
- The HO will continue to embed processes that review diversity at each stage of the aspiring leader’s programme and ensure that it is looking at options to ensure there are equal job and learning and development opportunities for regional staff in remote areas.
Judges’ comments
“A challenging and stretching development programme. Developing future leaders, while increasing the participation of under-represented groups. Peer learning sets seemed particularly effective.”
Manchester City Council
About the organisation
Manchester City Council is the local government authority for Manchester, a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester. It is composed of 96 councillors, three for each of the 32 electoral wards of Manchester.
The challenge
The council needed to create an innovative approach that encouraged flexibility from its workforce in return for a commitment to supporting individual development and avoiding compulsory redundancies.
What the organisation did
- Formed “m people” in 2011, to manage the development and deployment of the workforce created in partnership with the trade unions.
- Created clear progression paths from entry-level jobs to senior positions, supported through a number of activities including the council’s nationally recognised apprenticeships scheme.
- Outlined the career pathway framework, consisting of eight pathways aligned to relevant job family groups. Each pathway sets out key qualifications and competencies that staff need to progress further up the organisation or to move horizontally between areas of work.
- Identified areas of the organisation with aging workforces and skills shortages to enable strategic interventions.
- Created an interactive web-based tool, which helps individuals identify roles or areas of the organisation which would be suited to their behaviours and skills.
- Improved flexibility of Manchester City Council’s workforce, which will further support a further reduction in external recruitment and the continued ability to avoid compulsory redundancies.
- Improved understanding of the existing skills bases of the workforce, combined with soft intelligence around future requirements and where staff will be needed, has helped to mitigate the impact of cuts by enabling movement of staff from areas of reduction to areas of growth.
Benefits and achievements
- Delivered £94 million in workforce savings, requiring a reduction in the workforce of more than one-third (around 3,400 FTE), achieved without compulsory redundancies.
- A further £11 million workforce savings and reduction of around 400FTE has been delivered to support the current budget.
- Programme has directly matched around 4,500 staff to new roles, supported 570 staff who have opted for a voluntary move and provided circa 9,000 places on support for change workshops.
- The rate of progression of those who joined the council through its apprenticeship scheme since 2011, with an average progression rate over Q1-3 for apprentices of 2.4%, compared with 0.78% for the wider workforce over the same period.
Judges’ comments
“Comprehensive and coherent career pathways programme implemented against a background of tough budget cuts.”
Mouchel Consulting
About the organisation
Mouchel Consulting is an international infrastructure engineering and environment business, offering a diverse range of services across the full lifecycle of essential infrastructure.
The challenge
Following a bank-funded rescue package for Mouchel in 2013, Mouchel Consulting experienced high staff turnover. Despite stabilising the business, staff raised that they were unclear on roles and responsibilities, which was driving low levels of accountability and they were uncertain of career development prospects. In addition, they felt that senior management needed to show more leadership and make difficult decisions. The challenge was therefore to deliver excellence by having the right people in the right roles with the right capability.
What the organisation did
- Outlined leadership capability across the business by working in partnership with a specialist consultant to develop a leadership assessment centre tailored to its needs.
- Analysed results to identify common training needs and relevant development opportunities were provided through Mouchel’s “leadership passport” modular training programme.
- Baselined project management (PM) capability by developing an in-house PM assessment in collaboration with PM subject matter experts.
- Set clear expectations across the Mouchel Consulting business through the implementation of the “Career Path” framework in June 2014.
- Gathered intelligence through quarterly “People Reviews”, which involve leading constructive and challenging discussions with the business leaders about their team members; considering their level of performance, potential, motivation, ambition and fit with values and goals.
- Identified key roles in the business and the next three successors coming through the talent pipeline, challenging the diversity of succession options, and recognising gaps where strategic recruitment may be needed to meet current and anticipated business needs.
- Strengthened leadership of the business with 28 director level appointments over the past two years; 12 of which have been in the business management Career Path.
- Accelerated recruitment in entry-level roles to encourage a diverse talent pipeline.
- Refreshed performance management/appraisal framework to encourage line managers and employees to discuss what high and low performance looks like when setting objectives.
Benefits and achievements
- All staff now have a clear idea of what the company expects of them and what they can expect in return. They can see what they need to commit to in order to progress and be successful within the company and the industry.
- Annual appraisals and performance reviews are far more efficient and productive, with a focus on clear, consistent and transparent objectives.
- Career Path places the responsibility for career development firmly in the hands of each individual, removing perceived and actual barriers to development and provides the means and mechanism for people to drive their own career.
- A significant improvement in staff retention, despite a very competitive market for talent; staff turnover has fallen to single figures in many divisions.
- Career Path has proved a success with existing staff and in attracting new people to the business. It has attracted a wider and more diverse range of staff, many of them at the start of their careers, as they can clearly see where they fit in and where their careers could take them.
Judges’ comments
“A well-executed initiative around career paths with a healthy dose of realism and pragmatism.”
Omnicom Media Group UK
About the organisation
Omnicom Media Group UK (OMG UK) is a key business within Omnicom Group Inc, one of the world’s leading marketing services holding companies. Across the group it manages a portfolio of more than 250 clients, including PepsiCo, easyJet and Virgin Media.
The challenge
Following an HR review in 2011, the company recognised that young talent who had been with the organisation for two to three years were at risk of leaving. OMG UK was one of the few media groups that had continued to recruit and develop graduates throughout the recession, but post-recession it found that competitors were aggressively targeting its talent. Therefore, business objectives were set to retain high potential junior account managers and develop and grow a pipeline of future leaders.
What the organisation did
- Launched “Springboard”, a seven-month modular programme for high-potential talent – an engaging and unique learning opportunity that moves young talent from being specialists within their agency to “t-shaped persons” with the breadth of knowledge and skills required for the next stage of their career.
- Consulted extensively with senior agency leadership, line managers and group HR business partners. This process ensured that the content matched learning requirements across all agencies and complemented existing programmes.
- Ensured that learners developed: self-awareness and team effectiveness; excellence in client work; and influencing skills, all aligned to business objectives.
Benefits and achievements
- Over three years, OMG UK has retained 26% more Springboard participants than average industry retention, equating to a cost saving of £108,417 in recruitment fees alone.
- Almost eight in 10 (78.6%) participants reported that they have strengthened their network following Springboard.
- Encouraged inter-agency transfer, as 7.9% of participants have transferred to another internal agency.
- More than eight in 10 participants (85.7%) said that they now work better in a team.
- More than nine in 10 participants (92.8%) reported an improved ability to influence others at work.
Judges’ comments
“Clear links to business benefits; reduced turnover and career development within the group. Good example of using development as a retention tool. Creative solution for a creative industry.”
Santander
About the organisation
Santander UK is a bank that is wholly owned by the Spanish Santander Group. The bank has around 20,000 employees in the UK, and 4.3 million customers for its 1|2|3 Current Account. In its latest financial results, it made £928 million in profit.
The challenge
Historically, talent management at Santander was conducted offline; which meant that any data captured from talent initiatives was manually inputted and stored. This system caused problems for a team based in different geographic locations across the UK. Santander formulated a plan to create a system for talent management built for the digital age. The vision was to have an online central content management system that would allow data to be stored, managed, reviewed and updated proactively.
What the organisation did
- Launched Developing Your Potential (DYP) in February 2014 with functions including: live chat support, talent talks, blogs and news, search functionality and a dedicated area for those “early in their career”.
- Introduced new initiatives on the back of DYP, such as a mentoring database, which matches people to roles based on algorithms of compatibility.
- Developed a customisable electronic version of the nine-box grid approach to talent management, which can produce results in Excel or PDF format.
- Talent review communities use the data on the system for talent committees that happen in various business areas.
- Created community sites, with Facebook-type functionality, allowing diverse groups across the company to connect and share experiences.
Benefits and achievements
- Santander has introduced an approach to talent that is transparent, social and collaborative.
- Since launching DYP, more than 1,000 employees have been “gridded”, meaning it’s easier to spot those with high potential.
- Employees can access data or communities on any device, and at their own pace. The user has been put at the centre of DYP and the ability to browse, select development and talent interventions is all in their control.
- DYP has helped to make the organisation commercially stronger as it is able to identify and nurture its top talent. This can be seen in assets such as; succession planning, talent review committees and the Future Leaders Programme.
Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance
Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday
Judges’ comments
“An innovative and highly contemporary initiative which has triggered a number of positive by-products and which will ensure longer term benefits to the organisation.”
