The Personnel Today HR Impact Award for 2023, sponsored by XpertHR, went to Burberry and The TCM Group for their work in encouraging a culture of speaking up so complaints and conflict can be resolved quickly.
The luxury brand conducted an audit of its team climate, systems and policies, upskilled HR and leaders in conflict management, and aligned investigations processes so they were globally consistent. We take a closer look at its entry and those of our other finalists.
WINNER
Burberry in partnership with The TCM Group
In 2022, as part of Burberry’s commitment to being an open, inclusive and caring employer, it began an initiative to encourage a culture of speaking up so conflicts and complaints could be resolved quickly. The team held the view that grievance procedures were flawed, tending to focus on formal procedures when an informal conversation could resolve an issue, and wanted to manage conflicts in a more human-centric way. Engagement surveys also showed that colleagues were positive about being able to speak up, but felt there could be improvements in the way conflict was managed.
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Working with the TCM Group, Burberry conducted an audit of its team climate, systems and policies, identifying a number of key areas for improvement: upskilling HR and leaders in conflict management; reviewing policies and steps to resolution; a need for a confidential whistleblowing helpline only used for the most serious issues; and alignment of investigations processes so they were globally consistent. The company established a Burberry Resolution Hub as a central online location where colleagues could find out more.
Feedback suggests that colleagues now feel more empowered to speak up, and there has been an increase in issues being resolved without the need for recourse to a formal procedure. The number of issues raised through the confidential whistleblowing line has also decreased. Sixty HR business partners and employee relations colleagues have attended resolution workshops globally and more are planned for the coming year.
Healthcare Homes Group
Healthcare Homes Group is a provider of residential, nursing and domiciliary care services across the south and east of England, with a workforce of around 3,500 employees. Most staff work on site, but across its domiciliary care service a number of employees are remote and do not have a fixed work location. After the pandemic, employee annual turnover was 54.5%, employee stability was low and the business was struggling to attract new people. Because demand for services was high, agency staff usage spiralled to record levels and service was impacted by low engagement, increased absence and signs of burnout.
The HR team wanted to identify creative and innovative ways to engage managers and employees. An employee survey sent out in 2018 only attracted a 38% response rate, so the company conducted a review of its communications and branding, identifying that greater engagement with management was needed. “Your Voice Matters” was created in conjunction with an external design agency, together with a communications strategy identifying key stakeholders and their needs and requirements. Incentives were offered for completing the new survey, including donations to charity for teams who achieved impressive response rates.
The survey launched in October 2023, achieving an overall response rate of 74%, almost double the previous response rate. A total of £5,000 was raised, split across three charities. Action plans are now in place across all areas of the business and progress is on track. Since survey launch, the business has seen around a 60% reduction in agency usage across the group, staff turnover has decreased by 21% since August 2022 and employee stability is increasing.
Macmillan in partnership with eArcu
Cancer support charity Macmillan began 2022 knowing it had a high volume of candidates, but wanting to ensure that every candidate had a clear understanding of what it meant to work there. If someone had a bad experience in the recruitment process, this could affect donations and sponsors in the future as they would stop advocating for the charity. It decided to review its end-to-end recruitment practices, create a new communications plan and engage with stakeholder groups to inform its future hiring processes.
In the first phase, the team asked for the experiences of successful and unsuccessful applicants from the past 12 months and spoke to recruiting managers about their own experiences and those of their professional networks. This revealed that hiring managers relied on the Macmillan brand to bring talent in and they felt they weren’t ‘required’ to provide a good candidate experience. In phase two, the focus was on providing hiring managers with extensive upskilling on how to be inclusive, accessible and engaging with candidates. It launched an inclusive recruitment process toolkit, workshops and training focused on inclusion. The toolkit has been viewed more than 3,400 times, and feedback from both candidates and internal teams on the new material has been positive.
Midlands Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust
More than 9,400 people work for MPFT, and the trust wanted to ensure its physical space reflected shifts in working practices and bring the workforce together as a wider community. Working with facilities and estate teams, HR came up with Project WOW (World of Work) to create an environment where colleagues could collaborate, thrive and grow. The team built 15 new spaces from previously fixed and dull rooms, allocating each a specific purpose such as coaching, a welcome zone, meeting rooms and a focus zone where employees are guaranteed a quiet space.
To support this, the project team developed its own booking app in-house, saving thousands in development fees. The whole initiative was designed to support MPFT in its flexible working policies and apply the latest thinking in design and execution, and a video ‘walkaround’ was produced to introduce colleagues across the organisation.
There will be significant savings over the next five years that can be reinvested into new space. One care group within the organisation has reduced its space occupation considerably, freeing up office space in clinical areas that can be used for clinical purposes. Latest staff survey results show MPFT as the highest rated within the Midlands.
MTR Elizabeth line
MTR Elizabeth line (MTREL) is the UK train operator of the Elizabeth line, which runs London Underground services between north-west London and the south-east of the capital. To open a new railway required a complex set of interlinking HR strategies while also continuing to deliver for Transport for London and other stakeholders such as Network Rail. Challenges included colleague engagement during delays to opening, meeting TfL targets, recruiting new employees and volunteers to support the opening, training colleagues and partners, and ensuring colleagues’ health and wellbeing was supported.
MTREL came up with a number of strategies to address these challenges, including an ‘adopt a station’ programme to engage senior leaders with activities in different stations; regular engagement surveys; town halls and other communication platforms; bringing all L&D under a single team; and an improved reward and recognition programme tied to the organisation’s key values. A number of new health and wellbeing initiatives were also launched, including a new workplace stress programme and a rebranded and relocated wellbeing centre.
Benefits to the organisation include more cohesive training, a new pay deal introduced without any industrial action, a ‘one team’ mentality so managers cascade information to their teams more consistently. Learning and development is streamlined through a new digital learning platform, complemented by a digital induction process, executive coaching and management development. In 2022, MTREL was one of only 13 organisations to win a gold standard award for its commitment to diversity and inclusion.
Skyscanner in partnership with Benefex
Travel search engine Skyscanner was founded in 2001 and now has more than 1,300 employees worldwide. The workforce is relatively young, with an average age of 34 and average length of service of three years. In 2017, the company noticed a rise in employees asking for salary advances, and it wanted a way to support employees. According to Benefex research, 65% of employees around the world believe financial wellbeing support from an employer is important.
With Benefex, Skyscanner introduced ‘Life Happens’, a financial benefit which means that any employee can apply for a loan for life events such as an unexpected bill, moving house or an emergency repair. They can repay over 12 months with zero interest. This benefit sits alongside a number of other support mechanisms, such as a global share purchase programme, financial education sessions, enhanced wellbeing allowances for those on parental or adoption leave and advance pay increases for those on lower incomes. To date, more than £1m has been loaned to employees.
Skyscanner has seen a decrease in attrition from 25% to 16.5%, an increase in employee engagement from 70% to 80% and attributes much of this to Life Happens and other financial initiatives. One colleague said the benefit had allowed her to freeze eggs, adding that “at a stressful time where it was a difficult decision to reach… an interest-free loan that was automatically paid off across 12 months through payroll helped enormously”.
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