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How to achieve and sustain outstanding levels of performance (2015)

Volume 4: Succeeding Through the Talent of People

Volume 4: Succeeding Through the Talent of PeopleReport for the British Quality Foundation (BQF) by Manchester Business School | 2015

Volume 4: Succeed Through the Talent of People

2 How to achieve and sustain outstanding levels of performance: MBS report for the BQF

Contents:

Page

1 Introduction 3

2 Succeeding Through the Talent of People in the Case Study Companies 5

2.1 Employer Branding 6

2.2 Employer Innovation 13

2.3 Employer Engagement 19

3 Appendices 27

3.1 The Literature Review 27

3.2 The Case Study Companies 29

3.3 Glossary 33

3.4 Reference List 38

3.5 Reference Notes 41

4 Acknowledgements 42

The BQF is extremely grateful to Circle Housing Wherry, Interserve Construction Limited, JPCS and Northumbrian Water and for sharing their excellent insights and information.

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1 IntroductionBetween 2012 and 2013 Manchester Business School conducted an extensive Excellence research project on behalf of the British Quality Foundation (BQF), the community for every business seeking insights, tools and experiences to improve itself. The purpose of the research was to provide insights into contemporary business excellence practices to further develop understanding of what it looks and feels like and how it benefits business. The research was published in 2013a and was well received by the UK business community. The BQF subsequently commissioned this research, conducted from 2014-2015.

The work in both projects focused on emerging areas of business excellence comprising new ideas, concepts and practices identified in extensive reviews of current practitioner and academic literature.

In some cases these practices can be small things, appearing almost inconsequential to some, but combined together and driven by an uncompromising and consistent strategy, their accumulation gives the organisations involved an edge, something for which every business should be searching and striving.

Four research themes were identified for investigation:

1. Leading with Vision, Inspiration and Integrity (Leadership)

2. Adding Value for Customers (Customer)

3. Succeeding Through the Talent of People (People)

4. Managing with Agility (Processes)

These themes are four of the eight Fundamental Concepts of Excellence within the EFQM Excellence Model. Extensive in-depth literature reviews were conducted in the 2013 research for each of the four themes and a number of key emerging or recently emerged contemporary topics were identified within each of them. These topics are areas that are experiencing significant research interest or where practitioners are making significant improvements.

Following identification of the topics, four organisations, two B2B and two with a significant B2C focus were selected (both in 2013 and for this research in 2014-2015), to determine how these organisations are achieving excellent business practices within the topics identified across the four themes.

For this research the B2B companies were:

• Interserve Construction Limited (the UK Construction Division of Interserve plc)

• JPCS (a specialist in waterproofing tarmac)

And the companies with a B2C focus were:

• Circle Housing Wherry (CHW) (a Registered Provider of Social Housing)

• Northumbrian Water Limited (NWL) (a utility)

a Burton, J., Rickards, T., Hough, A., Holden, C., Kitshoff, J. and Gleaves, R (2013) “How to achieve and sustain outstanding levels of performance. Volume 3: Leading with Vision, Inspiration and Integrity”, London: British Quality Foundation, 10th June (Available at: www.bqf.org.uk/research/excellence-2013, accessed 11th June, 2013).

http://www.bqf.org.uk/research/excellence-2013



The current 2014-2015 report highlights the techniques and processes that help these organisations to excel, with implications for business in the UK and globally. More information about the four companies can be found in the Appendix. This report was produced by Dr Jamie Burton, Head of the Marketing Group, Dawn Holmes, Visiting Academic and Cheryl Holden, PhD Scholar, all from the Manchester Business School.

This report builds on the expert content direction and contribution under the four themes provided for the 2013 report by:

• Customer: The MBS Customer Management Leadership Group (CMLG) team: Professor John Murphy, Dr Jamie Burton, Visiting Fellows Jan Kitshoff and Robin Gleaves

• Leadership: MBS Emeritus Professor Tudor Rickards

• People: MBS Professor David Holman

• Process: MBS Professors Ruth Boaden and Peter Kawalek

The BQF has undertaken this project to support UK businesses by providing them with access to leading edge insights and experiences from excellent companies.

The findings contained in this report provide examples of how the four individual companies strive to develop unique capabilities in the areas of the four research themes in order to achieve outstanding levels of performance. Sometimes the changes and improvements may appear minor but they are incremental and each contributes to the overall edge that the individual business is developing in their sector. By showcasing holistic examples of how these companies strive for excellence, we challenge other organisations to aspire to greater levels of achievement.

The BQF can provide companies with help and advice to improve their performance, particularly around the EFQM Excellence Model which, by streamlining operations and improving productivity and efficiency, improves business performance and profitability.

This, Volume 4, deals with Succeeding Through the Talent of People.

The findings from this 2014-2015 research have been published in five volumes:

1. Executive Summary

2. Leading with Vision, Inspiration and Integrity

3. Adding Value for Customers

4. Succeeding Through the Talent of People

5. Managing with Agility (Processes)



Research Theme Key Topics

Employer Branding Employer branding highlights

Case study material grouped by:• Employer of Choice• Attracting and retaining talent• Focus on work-life balance• Focus on training and career

development

• Using internal communications• Using employees as magnets for new

recruits/to spread word of mouth• Extending beyond employees• Reward and recognition through awards

Employer Innovations Employer innovation highlights

Case study material grouped by:• Procedural frameworks• Innovation implementation• Innovation sources/programmes• Collaboration tools

• Collaboration tools• Hiring for innovation• Employee involvement• Innovation training and methodologies

Employer Engagement Employer engagement highlights

Case study material grouped by:• Clear, two-way communication• Obtaining employee feedback• Tapping into employee knowledge• Career development• Extending the boundaries of work

• Recognition and reward• Employee wellbeing• Charitable work• Extending the definition of employee• Social events

2 Succeeding Through the Talent of People in the Case Study CompaniesThe theme of people, encompassing Human Resources (HR) practices, is fundamentally important to the successful functioning of any company. The literature review undertaken for the 2013 Report (included in the Appendices for reference) identified three contemporary research themes: Employer Branding, Employee Innovation and Employee Engagement. This report focuses on how the case study companies operate in each of these three areas.

Most of the topics identified in recent research could be observed to varying degrees in the four organisations as discussed below. Where no information is presented, it should not be assumed that the topic under discussion was not present in the organisation, but rather that the topic was not covered, or not covered in sufficient detail, during the interview process to provide substantive evidence.

The case study material, where available, is presented against the following subject headings (see table below):



2.1 Employer BrandingEmployer Branding encompasses an organisation’s effort to promote a clear image, internally and externally. These brand associations are linked to the attraction of better talent, brand loyalty of employees, better employee engagement and stability of employee attitudes, which in turn link to improvements in productivity and profitability.

2.1.1 Employer Branding Highlights

Employer Branding, or the use of a strong corporate cultural identity, is evident throughout the study companies. There are some differences in emphasis, but common themes and actions can be identified.

The case study companies all:

• have a strong focus on internal communication (as also described in the volume of this report dealing with Leadership) and on attracting new talent to the business

• have a desire to be, or felt they already are, the employer of choice in their region

• use the recruitment process to identify aptitude and attitude, and hire on this basis either alongside or above technical competencies

• view inductions and ongoing training as opportunities to reiterate and embed values and corporate culture

The other common themes (although not explicitly expressed by all companies) show that the organisations also:

• extend their remit of “employer of choice” to “client of choice” for sub-contractors and strategic partners

• offer flexibility and a focus on work-life balance as a method of attracting and retaining staff

• use company benefits and corporate culture rather than higher salaries to attract and retain staff



2.1.2 Circle Housing Wherry (CHW)

Employer of Choice:Circle, the parent group to which Wherry Housing belongs, has consciously set out to be an employer of choice, and this impacts on how the company operates. It is a factor in the large applicant numbers that CHW receives for vacancies – recent openings for three posts generated 147 applications, and some people repeatedly apply for positions because they want to work for CHW.

Attracting and retaining talent:Attracting staff for its Norwich based contact centre is very easy due to the large local talent pool working in other call centres in the region. CHW pays above average for entry level staff in order to attract the “right people” into the business, according to Managing Director Sue Stavers. She sees the contact centre as a pool of talent potential, full of people who can be brought on through the business if they have the desire to advance.

Attracting managers used to be more difficult, but Sue explains that this has become easier as the reputation of CHW has increased and as people have begun to understand the benefits of the Circle Group as an employer. “Circle Housing Wherry is comparatively innovative, so I think we attract people who want to be innovative” she says, adding that the recruitment process is also designed to bring out these traits.

CHW does see a skills shortage, not just in technical skills, but also in people skills. Job applicants are tested for aptitude and attitude as well as technical competencies, as the company only wants to recruit people who can fit in and who can self-manage. This is especially important for areas of the business where employees are out in the field. Becky Leonard, Surveying Manager, says it is difficult to find people who have both the technical skills required in the surveying team and good customer service skills. “It’s rare to find both” she says.

In order to help in finding the right fit, Sue Lake, Head of Customer Services, asks job applicants questions around community engagement.

She says that often people say that they would treat the customer “how I would want to be treated”, but actually NWL is looking for people who would treat customers how the customer would wish to be treated, a much more customer-centric approach. These questions are a part of a day long interview process, which Sue recommends as providing a far greater insight into someone’s personality than a half hour interview ever can. She also adds that it is quite an investment on the part of the candidate, and that in itself can filter out the candidates who are not as committed.

Potential interviewees are likely to know about the organisation’s ethos before they come for interview as many of the applicants either live in, or have family who live in, CHW housing.

Focus on work-life balance:Across the business there is a high degree of flexibility for staff, so that childcare or appointments can be easily managed. Provided the work is achieved and staff are accounted for, they are not micro-managed.

The company has recently received a bronze award from Investors in People, and Sue Stavers feels that flexibility played a big part in this. She herself works four day weeks, staying later on the days that she does work in order to get the work done, but having the flexibility of an extra day off each week. She feels that this flexibility is absolutely key for staff retention, and results in high levels of employee loyalty and discretionary effort.

“Our default position is to try and say yes to people when they ask for something,” she says. Sometimes people ask for an extreme which is impossible to accommodate, but the organisation always tries to provide flexibility, even when it involves additional work as with job sharing which requires the management of two people instead of just one.



2.1.3 Interserve Construction Limited

Attracting and retaining talent:Recruitment and training strategies, the nature of work and remuneration packages all have a part to play in being an employer of choice.

Ian Renhard, Managing Director of Interserve Construction says that the company frequently takes on students during a year out or as a holiday placement, as this gives them the opportunity to instil loyalty. Often, the company sponsors such students through their final year and then brings them into the business. He feels that this results in Interserve Construction recruiting better quality

graduates than the more traditional university career days’ recruitment route known as the Milk Round.

“Construction is about the people and we try and get the right quality of people into the business, with the right autonomy, the right behaviours and loyalty to actually do it the Interserve way”, Ian says.

Interserve Construction introduced flexible remuneration packages about six or seven years ago. The starting point is a competitive salary, and options are provided to buy or sell various benefits, such as fewer or extra holidays.

Using internal communications:Internal communication strategies are key to keeping a culture embedded and ensuring staff are well informed and engaged.

At CHW, there is an intranet site, Cirano, which houses all of the corporate information such as policies and procedures and group-wide updates. This is complemented by team talks, which are made up of corporate content and local issues. Staff do not have to go to their own team’s talk however, but can attend the one at the most appropriate time – so no-one is left out and everyone has the opportunity to listen and to ask questions or make suggestions. The talks are delivered by members of the Senior Management Team (SMT), often with two or more SMT members attending, to increase engagement.

There are also “buzz sessions” (team huddles - brief 5 minute chats as a group), emails and staff newsletters (which are generally used to consolidate messages rather than to introduce new content), and a regular set of cross-departmental and SMT meetings. Twice a year, all staff are bought together for companywide meetings, which are also used for reinforcing messages.

Major announcements will be given to all staff simultaneously, and if staff from the two office locations (Norwich and Cambridge) cannot be brought together in the Norwich head office, then a member of the SMT will travel to Cambridge to make the announcement at the same time.

Focus on training and career development:There are many opportunities within CHW, and those with skills and/or aptitude can advance through the company. As an example, Becky Leonard, Surveying Manager, started an internal recruitment and training drive to develop people in order that they can join the surveying team. Focusing on those in the customer contact centre means that Becky can access people with good customer service skills and then add technical training to provide the other competencies required.

Last year saw the implementation of compulsory training for all staff as part of a Customers at Heart programme. Focusing on communicating and dealing with customers, this training also extended the definition of “customer” to include other internal departments and colleagues.

Every member of staff has monthly one-to-ones with their manager, with an annual performance review acting as a wrap up. The performance review is scored and this is tied to a bonus rating.

Reward and recognition through awards:Many of the companies in the study run some form of award scheme, and the one at CHW seems particularly designed to underpin the organisation’s values. There are multiple recognition points throughout the business (such as Star of the Month) and a nominations scheme for the annual awards, which are split into categories for each of the values. The Award Ceremony is held in London, and gives staff the opportunity to meet the executive team. For some, there is also a monetary award.



There is also a portal for staff, My Interserve, which is managed at group level and which provides discounts and retail vouchers. Julie Bradley, Associate Director of HR, explains that the company also carries out salary and benefit benchmarking against other construction companies, to see if there is anything additional they should be offering.

There is also an emphasis on providing challenging and exciting work. Ian says it is important to recognise individual talent and create opportunities to stretch them to avoid losing people through limited opportunities. This seems to be much more important than salary alone.

The company also prides itself on a high rate of people returning to the business after leaving for whatever reason.

Focus on training:Interserve Construction has a strong training department and builds its own courses for much of its management training. Graduates are generally from technical disciplines (civil engineering, builders and quantity surveyors) and Interserve Construction layers management training on top of these skills.

Training emphasises the way that the company operates, and focuses on values, especially during induction. This is particularly relevant when senior managers are brought into the business (when there is a lack of internal talent) in order to maintain the corporate culture.

Graduates are recruited as a cohort of around 25 each year, and after induction (which includes teambuilding and outward bound sessions) will be brought back together as a group for further training throughout their careers. This helps to foster a sense of belonging, and builds a stronger team rising through management.

Management training is made up of three levels, basic management, effective management (managing effectively at an operational level) and achieving competitive advantage, which seeks to identify potential leaders and progress their skills from managing to leading.

Ian favours in-house development of talent. “They understand the business,” he says, “They have the loyalty, the brand awareness and the customer focus”. This is especially key for Interserve Construction, who relies heavily on repeat business. Staff work with the same people in the same sectors and industries and build long term relationships. “We were once described as the biggest small family firm out there – and part of that, I think, is the culture”, Ian adds.

Graduate entry is not the only entry route at Interserve Construction, with the business investigating different apprenticeship schemes and working with schools and colleges to identify a suitable offering for young people who do not want to go to university.

Extending beyond employees:The philosophy around employer of choice is also applied to external companies, with the business operating a strategy of preferred sub-contractors. Building a strong working relationship with these critical suppliers means that Interserve Construction can rely on them to deliver, even when there is an abundance of work elsewhere. Part of the offering to suppliers is that they are paid on time and at the agreed rate, without any money being held back.

This is helped by having an in-house division (Interserve Engineering) which provides key services for mechanical and electrical work (often 30 to 40% of a contract’s value). They do offer services to other construction businesses, but priority is given to Interserve Construction projects. This relationship is mutually beneficial, with Interserve Engineering knowing that it can rely on Interserve Construction for work, so it is able to retain staff in this volatile industry.



2.1.4 JPCS

Attracting and retaining talent:Attracting appropriate talent is a key task for Peter Shone, the Managing Director of JPCS. He is frequently on the lookout for new recruits at events, in meetings and through industry contacts. Local contacts and existing employees have proven to be useful sources for recruiting new staff. Peter says being known as a nice company to work for with family values helps and a ‘recommend a friend’ scheme encourages employees to help fill vacancies.

The company also uses its Twitter and Facebook feeds to advertise jobs, with full details available on the website. After struggling to recruit a HGV driver using traditional methods, this social media route resulted in 140 views and five applicants.

One of the key ways in which JPCS retains talent is by giving employees a large say in the way the company operates when it has a direct impact on the way they work. For example JPCS has developed specialised wagons based on employees’ suggestions to assist the road crews.

Recognising the value of employee engagement, JPCS is currently working with the crews on the surfacing side of the business (which fixes potholes and waterproofs tarmac) to develop improved slurry mixers – demonstrating to the operatives that their opinions are valued and in-turn improve their daily working practices by engineering with engineers.

Contributions are valued and processes and procedures are built from the bottom up rather than the top down. A key strategy in this is ensuring frequent communication and creating opportunities for the ground crews to say what is working and what is not. This regular interaction also helps off-site workers to feel connected and included.

According to the staff, one of the most attractive things about JPCS is that the crews are small gangs, working on their own, being autonomous and accountable in what they do.

The company administers an employee survey and exit interviews to stay abreast of employees’ requirements. Feedback from the latest survey suggested that the benefits package was not particularly good and as a result JPCS added the benefit of health cover for all staff through a third party scheme, Simplyhealth in addition to benefits such as an extra day’s holiday on the employee’s birthday, tickets to sporting events and an employee hardship fund.

Using employees as magnets for new recruits:The business is far more successful when it recruits local people or acquaintances of employees, who understand the company and the nature of the on-site role including the requirement to work away from home. Although it does recruit from further afield. “Local people are likely to know some of the existing employees, and understand more about what is involved in the job”.

Extending beyond employees:As with Interserve Construction, JPCS extends the remit of being employer of choice to its sub-contractors, building up loyal relationships over time.



2.1.5 Northumbrian Water (NWL)

Employer of Choice:Sarah Salter, Group HR Director says NWL is an employer of choice and has been for many years. “The employee survey results show that around 90% of people are proud to work for us”, she says. Whilst the reputation exists, the company is not complacent, and Sarah feels that there is always work to do on maintaining and growing the firm’s status.

Attracting and retaining talent:Recruitment of staff is not an issue for NWL, with job advertisements (which are all done via the company website or online) oversubscribed. The company also uses a talent bank for recruitment – maintaining a database of unsuccessful applicants who would make potential employees – and use this as a resource when new posts open up.

As with others in the study, NWL benchmarks salaries across the industry. The median of the benchmark is used to set spot salaries for its employees. A new recruit may earn 80% of the spot salary, whilst an experienced employee may earn up to 110%.

Sarah explains that NWL works hard to enhance the employee benefits scheme. The company produces a benefits guide so that all employees know what is available, even if they do not utilise the scheme to its full extent. As an example, the company offers a salary sacrifice car scheme, which allows employees (some of whom may not be eligible for credit on the open market) to lease a car. This scheme is backed by the company’s vehicle provider, at no cost to NWL, but provides a huge benefit for many staff.

Salary sacrifice is also used to fund pensions as it offers the most tax efficient method of doing this. There are also shopping vouchers, a holiday purchase scheme (so staff can “buy” extra days leave), childcare assistance and a wellbeing programme.

Sarah goes on to say,

“Why wouldn’t you do this? People put a value on extras like this, even if they choose not to participate, the fact that they get a booklet every year is something very tangible, they take it home, they show the family, the husband, the wife, you can get discounted cinema tickets, … It shows that we care and that they’re important to us”

Financial incentives are used in the business, depending on grade and level and there are specific rules around salary progression, performance, bonuses and honoraria. They are part of a formalised system with payments partially tied to individual performance and partially to the overall group performance.

Focus on work life balance:NWL is very conscious that work-life balance is a personal thing, and that it changes over time. It has several support programmes in place to help staff with life changes, for instance when they have young children or when a parent becomes ill and potentially more of a burden.

There are five on-site rehabilitation centres run by RehabWorks, with trained physiotherapists who treat people and get them back to work after an injury. This team also do preventative care, and offer phone support to those who are not close to the office, and as a follow up service.

NWL also offers confidential counselling services providing assistance with relationship difficulties, financial problems, bereavement counselling, and anything staff need help with.



Using employees to spread word of mouth:The reputation of the company is transmitted externally by the employees to customers, families and friends through their actions and via word of mouth. Sarah tells of an email she had received from an acquaintance who had been fishing on an NWL reservoir where the ranger had told him that NWL was a brilliant place to work. Explaining why, the ranger cited the fact that Sarah, as a Director, had been to the reservoir to conduct the health and safety talk for staff. Sarah says “I think our people are our brand ambassadors, so it’s really about engaging our people”.

Focus on training:Ian Donald, Customer Services Director until November 2014, explained how the vision and the values of the company are communicated through training. This starts with the induction process, but is reinforced by subsequent behavioural training such as the Our Way training programme, which aims to get staff thinking about themselves, about how they do things and how they present themselves to customers. This programme is for all employees, and there are other training courses for specific groups, such as the “Language of Service” training course, which specialises in verbal and written



2.2 Employer InnovationInnovation is a central element for any business. Creativity and innovation can lead to a stimulating working environment and business success through greater idea generation and recognition of opportunities. In the literature review conducted for the 2013 report (and included in the Appendices for reference), empowerment, company vision and commitment were identified as conditions positively related to creativity, which is the driver of employees’ innovative behaviour.

2.2.1 Employer Innovation Highlights

All of the case study organisations demonstrated a strong belief in engaging employees in innovation and improvement processes, with many common themes across them (in no particular order):

• Having an open culture is crucial if employees are to put forward suggestions

• The role of “expert” belongs to the person doing the job or closest to the issue

• Ownership of implementation is frequently given to the individual or team making the suggestion, backed up by management support

• In many cases, engagement is extended to include customers and other stakeholders

• Informal processes for generating and collecting ideas are being replaced by more formal structures, with training playing a key role in both generating and managing ideas

• Successful improvements are communicated and celebrated, and there is a belief that all suggestions should be acknowledged

• Reward is not a necessary driver for improvement suggestions, but recognition is widely used

• Procedural frameworks are not viewed as set in stone – they can be challenged and changed if an improvement is identified


Procedural frameworks:The Circle Group, which owns and operates CHW, has a “Circle Standard” in place. This is the procedural framework which governs how the business operates, and it includes detailed maps for all of the organisation’s processes. However, Becky Leonard, Surveying Manager, says that the teams know that these standards are not set in stone, and they can all be changed if someone identifies a better way.

Innovation implementation:In general, the person who identifies an improvement is given the task of implementing the change. At first, this did create a barrier for staff who might not want to take on extra work, but demonstrating initiative and

implementing change has now become part of the personal and career development process at CHW, and this has helped to overcome the hurdle. Others in the organisation are informed about the innovation taking place, and who will be responsible for it, and this also helps in providing support to the individual.

Where an individual comes up against an issue that prevents implementation (which could be a conflict in processes or a technical difficulty for instance) they can raise this with the SMT for resolution.



Innovation sources:The cross-fertilisation of ideas is encouraged, and staff who attend conferences and seminars often bring back ideas of best practice for discussion.

Being open plan helps with collaboration and the implementation of change, suggests Jodie Cunnington-Brock, Assistant Director of Housing Services, who values the input of the experts who are doing the job. As an example she cites the change to Fixed Term Tenancies (from the traditional lifetime tenancies previously used by councils). The initial proposal from the letting team on how the policy should be implemented was challenged by the admin team, as it was not supported by the IT system which manages the tenancy agreements. Further discussions between the two teams led to a suitable solution being found.

Jodie also explains how the organisation uses mobile whiteboards, on which anyone can scribble or comment. This can be done anonymously or not, entirely depending on the contributor. During team talks, each team discusses the content of its whiteboard, and develops an action plan for working through any issues raised. These are used for suggestions, gripes and comments, with the team leader taking responsibility for tracking all of the items to conclusion.

Feedback boxes are situated throughout the buildings which offer another route for staff to make suggestions or complaints. The information is tracked using a spreadsheet, and the suggestions and resolutions are communicated to staff in order to close the loop, demonstrating that ideas are considered and acted upon.

Hiring for innovation:An aptitude for innovation is one of the key things that Sue Lake, Head of Customer Services, looks for during recruitment. Short-listed candidates undergo a full day interview which features a lot of scenario based questions to draw out problem solving skills, and group-based activities to see how candidates interact and work together. One scenario given was to imagine what the group would do if one team member started to come in late for work every day, putting extra pressure on the rest of the team? Sue says there is no right or wrong answer, she is more interested in how the groups form their final conclusions and resolve differences of opinion.




Innovation Programmes:Interserve Plc has recently implemented a group innovation programme, of which Ian Renhard, Managing Director, is the executive sponsor. This programme means that someone is in place to provide focus and manage the innovation agenda for the group. Ian feels it is interesting how engaged people are about creating ideas, and how much more buy-in is obtained when people are delivering their own agenda rather than someone else’s.

In construction, the traditional process is that an architect provides the design and the constructor carries out the build. Within Interserve Construction, this process is much more interactive with the constructor providing parameters and ideas to the architect. Ian mentions an example of this from work they were doing in the custodial sector where Interserve Construction developed a modular solution for prison cells. The dimensions of the module were given to the architect as a design parameter and the prison was made up from this modular design. Ian feels that this is much more exciting than when an architect provides a drawing and there is no opportunity for input from the constructor.

He feels there is huge benefit in harnessing the ideas of the people who are at the point of application.

“If they can see the constraints and are bright enough to create solutions or widen the boundaries, why wouldn’t you take advantage of that?” he says.

Interserve Construction is encouraging employee innovation through several programmes.

• Ingenuity at Work training aims to take people out of their comfort zone and provides new challenges

• At group level, there is also a “Big Idea” fund, which provides monetary rewards for suggestions which are implemented

• An Innovation Team actively hunts out suggestions and ideas, and refines them so that they can be implemented

Collaboration Tools: There are many different ways in which employees can collaborate in Interserve Construction’s open culture:

• Yammer (a corporate intranet) is used to discuss improvement ideas and implementation

• Sharepoint (similarly a corporate intranet, but generally more structured) is also used, with dedicated areas (called Clicks) acting as discussion forums for each discipline

• A WiKi (a collaborative information sharing platform) is also used to capture best practice and share success stories and case studies

Richard Jones, Associate Director for Sustainable Business, says these methods of collaboration are effective. As an example, people are sharing best practice around achieving good scores under the assessment based Considerate Constructors Scheme. Sharing actions means that other sites can implement ideas improving scores across the business.

Collaboration is also used for problem solving, and Richard says that people often post problems and ask for solutions. Others in the organisation who have encountered and overcome similar problems pool their knowledge to find a solution.



2.2.4 JPCS

Innovation sources:At JPCS, innovation ideas are gathered from many sources, mostly informal. There is, however, a 24 hour hotline for anyone who wishes to report an incident, near miss or make a suggestion. The “Report It!” line is open to staff, customers and members of the public, and information gathered is automatically fed into JPCS’s audit system in real time with all proposals submitted to senior staff and the directors. This electronic system replaces a paper based reporting system and makes it much easier for staff out on site to feed information back to the head office, where all innovation opportunities are captured in the company’s Waste Wise programme, with project leads allocated to ensure momentum. The company was awarded runner up for an innovation award at the 2013 Road Surface Treatment Association (RSTA) Annual Health & Safety Awards.

This is supplemented by specific projects such as improving the slurry process as outlined in the previous section.

Examples of innovation in practice:The methodology of engaging employees in improvements has worked well in the past, and the company recently developed a new crew wagon for dealing with vehicle restraint system (crash barrier) repairs. As they are generally found on motorways and dual carriageways, repairing these restraint systems involves not only doing the repair but also managing the traffic around the work site. Previously, this would have involved two vehicles (one for traffic management and one for the repair work), but JPCS worked with the road teams to develop a wagon that could fulfil both functions, providing a much more efficient way of working. This new vehicle won an award for innovation. This made work easier for the team and they were proud of the effort they had put in to the redesign.

2.2.5 Northumbrian Water Limited (NWL)

Innovation sources:Team talks and roadshows have always provided fruitful opportunities for collecting suggestions at NWL, with employees being forthcoming when things are not working properly or could be improved. Some suggestions are about relatively small things, such as optimising water treatment processes, but others have a much larger impact, such as when the company discovered there was an IT problem which was slowing down all of the systems that staff used.

The company intranet also hosts a blog by Heidi Mottram, the Chief Executive. This is open for all staff to read, comment on and discuss. With new blogs being posted every four weeks, Heidi feels that this is fertile ground for employee engagement, and a great opportunity to promote and seek innovation.

Employee involvement:Heidi provides an example of when the company got it wrong. Just after she arrived in the business about four years ago, NWL introduced a mobile computer system to improve information and workflow for employees out in the field. The first round of feedback suggested that the system was difficult to use. Heidi says that at first it was difficult to distinguish between the system being wrong and the employees being resistant to change, but it became apparent through the feedback process that it was an issue with the system.

The company then went back to the drawing board and redeveloped the system, but with a high level of employee involvement, performed in a much more structured way. The system is currently rolling out across the organisation and “they’re loving it” says Heidi.



Innovation programmes:In recognition of the importance of innovation to the business, about two years ago NWL hired an Innovation Facilitator to encourage, structure and implement innovation, and communicate success to inspire others. The company intranet is used as one method of communication, creating positive stories about who is innovating, why they are doing it and how the company responds when innovation ideas come through. Around 50 or 60 case studies of successful innovation projects have now been posted, observed Mathew Grant, Head of Business Process Improvement.

Benchmarking and idea sharing provides another innovation process resource, with NWL visiting other companies (such as Siemens) to obtain ideas. Matthew feels that although the company is good at encouraging and implementing ideas, there is still scope for developing a broader innovation strategy across the business, something he feels Siemens do well.

Innovation training and methodologies:Training plays a large part in developing employee innovation at NWL. Matthew’s team, working with the Innovation Facilitator, is delivering training courses to team leaders focusing on Lean Techniques for business improvement, but also showing how leaders can engage their teams in the improvement process, encouraging them to provide solutions to the issues they raise. This ethos of capturing ideas from the ground up, from the people doing the job, runs right through the business. The courses start with the identification, categorisation and prioritisation of issues, followed by a creativity phase which looks at generating solutions and finally an action planning phase which teaches them how to draw up an implementation plan, as outlined below:

The team has recently developed an additional methodology to problem solving. The LITE approach (Leading Improvements Through Employees) also starts with Lean Techniques, but differs from the training courses in its scale. The LITE approach is applied to strategic problems, things which are causing multiple issues for customers or for the business, and involves a multi-disciplinary project team that is taken “off-line” (i.e. out of regular roles) for the duration of the project. The Business Process Improvement team offers support and coaching, but the project team is tasked with solving the issue. Team members consult with their colleagues throughout the process and often engage with customers in order to fully understand the issues and find a solution which works for everyone.

Matthew provided an example of how this approach had been used to shorten the timescale for resolving sewer flooding incidents, which could be up to two years in some complex cases. The investigative stage has now been reduced by almost 40 days, by providing the crews with their own CCTV equipment to remotely investigate the cause of blockages and problem areas. Previously, this work had been outsourced, which added both time and complexity to the process.

This is not the only method of process improvement though, and Matthew cites an example of how just one individual can also make a difference. One of the sewer team had an idea for reducing blockages in Confined Sewer Overflows (CSO). He thought that some form of wire mesh trap would catch the debris and prevent the blockages that can lead to flooding. He approached his manager, who supported the idea and secured some funding for prototyping and testing.

RESEARCH

• identify and categorise issues

CREATIVITY

• generate solutions

ACTION PLANNING

• draw up an implementation plan



The results were very positive and the company is rolling out his device, installing them at all the CSOs.

Similarly, one new employee (who was made redundant by his previous employer) has been sharing his existing knowledge of processes, feeding in examples of best practice and alternative methods. Sarah Salter, Group HR Director, was concerned about how this might be received by the rest of the team, but the team leader reassured her that it was actually really useful and the team was enjoying the fresh input.



2.3 Employer EngagementEmployee engagement has long been a recognised element of human resources management, but it is gaining increasing attention from practitioners and is now recognised as a central topic with significant impact for competitive advantage and business performance. In the literature review conducted for the 2013 study, a myriad of factors and drivers of employee engagement were identified. The literature demonstrated that approaches to employee engagement are multi-faceted, and will often depend upon the nature of the operation and the opportunities this provides for greater interaction.

2.3.1 Employer Engagement Highlights

Several of the companies in the study blur the lines between employee engagement and customer engagement, with huge overlaps and similarities being seen between the two. The engagement of employees with customers for mutual benefit makes the differentiation between employee engagement and customer engagement programmes even more difficult.

There is also some clouding around the definition of employees, with those companies working closely with sub-contractors often including them in employee engagement activities, sometimes without distinction. Some of the organisations also include employees’ families in activities.

Whilst there are a myriad of factors involved in employee engagement, some common themes did emerge from the study companies:

• Clear, two-way communication processes, using several channels and allowing for the dissemination of vision, values and ideas and the collection of feedback are present in all four organisations

• Other routes for obtaining feedback are also in place. All four organisations undertake staff surveys and most supplement this with additional feedback options

• Some of the organisations provide mechanisms which allow employees to share knowledge and best practice Organisations all use an appraisal process as the backbone of their employee development strategy, but the frequency and nature of the processes varied significantly

• Training and development opportunities exist in all four of the study organisations, with varying emphasis placed on formal qualifications, behavioural training and job related mandatory skills

• The use of secondments to other departments or to project teams is widespread as a development tool

• Recognition and reward schemes are in place at all of the companies, with an emphasis on peer nominations, and on small, frequent rewards for those who exemplify organisational values

• Acknowledgement and “thank you” messages form a key part of the recognition process

• Charitable work, especially where conducted as a team activity, is seen to have multiple benefits including personal development, team building, community engagement, delivery of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), and the promotion of positive wellbeing

• Staff health and wellbeing, and the promotion of positive work-life balance, was evidenced as important

for some of the organisations



2.3.2 Circle Housing Wherry

There are many opportunities for employee engagement at CHW with several routes for communication and feedback, and many different options for staff involvement. Engagement happens not only within the organisation, but also with customers on behalf of the organisation, with staff volunteering for roles and projects outside of their main duties which deliver high levels of community engagement and interaction.

Clear, two-way communication:Getting people together as a group is an important part of the communication process for CHW. Team meetings are frequent and are a way of soliciting feedback as well as providing information. Teams which are geographically dispersed are often bought together at an “away day”, which may be held less frequently but provides additional opportunities for peer to peer networking.

When changes are implemented, this two-way communication process is bolstered by the use of Change Champions – a network of employees who are trained to assist in change management, and who receive briefings on change ahead of the rest of the staff. This network provides opportunities for staff to voice anxieties or issues on a peer to peer basis and ask questions, rather than feeling that they have to confront management.

Obtaining employee feedback:As with other companies in this study, CHW conducts a staff survey. In this case, the survey is carried out at Group level, and covers all nine housing associations in the Circle Group. This is conducted every three years, and CHW supplements this with its own in-house survey in the interim period. Feedback is anonymous for both surveys.

Feedback boxes are located across the organisation’s offices and are used to provide the SMT with both positive and negative comments. These can be anonymous or attributed. Feedback from the boxes is gathered each month, and reviewed by the SMT. Appropriate items are fed into the staff group for action.

The staff group, called Wherry Voice is made up from a cross section of representatives from different departments and at various levels in the company and meets monthly to discuss ways to improve things for staff. Discussions may be based on the staff survey feedback, or may come from ad hoc suggestions via the feedback boxes. The management team also consults with the Wherry Voice group before implementing any widespread changes.

Further feedback is obtained through the appraisal process, which gives staff the ability to comment on how they feel they have been managed and treated over the preceding year.

Career Development:In an organisation that hires for aptitude and attitude above technical skills, there is a clear demand for training and development to ensure staff have the technical competencies required. According to Becky Leonard, Surveying Manager, this is always easier than trying to train someone who is not customer focused to deliver good customer support.

Sue Lake, Head of Customer Support, adds to this by explaining that after joining the company, new recruits will spend the first five or six weeks job shadowing – not just in the department that they will join, but across the whole company. This is extended to shadowing contractors and field operatives wherever possible. If people become interested in a particular area, they are encouraged to develop their skills in that part of the business. Sue says that having invested in training people within CHW, they do not want to lose them from the organisation, so would always prefer to transfer them internally to losing them completely. As an example, one of the apprentices expressed his passion for IT, and is now spending one day a week with the IT team, working on the service desk. “It is a juggling act” she says “between delivering the service and giving everyone the same opportunities.”



Away days and group meetings also provide opportunities for reiterating communication of processes or values, or for suppliers such as British Gypsum to introduce new products or innovations to relevant teams.

Project teams are widely used to innovate and drive change, and team members are recruited from across the organisation. Managers are expected to support their staff as they take up project team roles. Anyone who is not on a particular team can still participate in a project, providing technical or expert input as required.

Recognition and reward:There is a peer nominated recognition scheme in place, which awards “Star of the Month”.

Extending the definition of employee:Definitions of employee and customer engagement become blurred at CHW, where many initiatives involve using employees to engage with customers. As an example, in an effort to engage with the community and potential tenants, staff will volunteer in schools and listen to older children read. Or they may engage with young unemployed people and encourage them to undertake life skills courses or take up work placements.

Lisa Whatnall, Fundraising and Partnership Manager, explained how she needed some extra support to help run an energy saving project for tenants.

She asked her management colleagues to help with the recruitment of volunteers, and they each urged their own teams to assist. On other occasions she has just emailed staff and asked if anyone could spare a few hours. “I had five people come and help me, which made a real difference in terms of what we achieved for our residents” she says. “I think what they get out of it, especially if they’re office based, is they get to see who our real customers are in their own environment” she adds.

There is also a large resident involvement programme, with each member of staff assigned to one of eleven patches. Each manager is a Patch Champion and patch teams are made up of people from all the different departments. These teams work closely with the residents of the patch, helping to co-ordinate and deliver the requests of the residents wherever possible.

Residents who participate in programmes can earn points for their patch, which can then be spent on community projects. As an example, on one patch there was an area of wasteland which one resident offered to maintain if it could be cleared. The patch team co-ordinated the clear up effort, and the resident is now turning the area into a Japanese Garden.


Interserve Construction believes that if people are better engaged, they are more productive; they feel part of something; they feel more valued; they feel as if their voice counts. So for them, engaged employees bring increased productivity and company loyalty which leads to employees wanting to work hard to achieve the strategy.

“I’ve never worked in an organisation where team working is so strong” says Julie Bradley, Associate Director of HR, “and I think that that is what helps people to feel empowered.” She feels that a strong team work culture really helps people to be engaged and empowered.

Clear, two-way communication:A key factor in employee engagement is effective, two-way communication. Julie explains how major change, such as the brand re-launch, is handled. The company uses a cascade method, with each manager briefing their team leaders, who in turn brief their teams. In this particular case, they went through the brand and the values and obtained feedback. Based on the content, each team had to agree on three things they would do locally and three things that they would feed back to the centre. This approach was well received, according to Julie, because the teams felt engaged and consulted, and many of their suggestions were implemented.



Obtaining employee feedback:An annual perception survey within Interserve Construction measures employee engagement and satisfaction levels using an online survey based on the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) Excellence Model. This runs in addition to, and is different from, the Group Staff Survey which is also annual. To allow employees the greatest option for providing feedback, this survey contains a free text box for suggestions, gripes or issues. These are collated and then devolved back to the business units, who are expected to put plans in place to solve them. Response rate percentages are typically in the high 80s.

Tapping into employee knowledge:A company intranet hosts a range of options for employee knowledge sourcing, including a series of WiKi pages. Employees are encouraged to update the pages with the latest knowledge and best practice and to remove out of date content. WiKis are not moderated and content goes live immediately, but pages are owned by subject experts who are expected to review new content.

Career Development:One aspect of employee engagement is career development, which starts with the recruitment of staff into the business. Michele Curran, Head of Corporate Business Development for the UK, explains how Interserve Construction works with groups who find it difficult to get into employment. “We specifically target ex-offenders and NEETs (Not in Education, Employment or Training)” Michele says, adding that the company also works with the long term unemployed, through its Working Futures scheme and programmes with the Department for Work and Pensions.

For public sector projects, under the Social Values Act (2012) (which can be accessed here: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2012/3/enacted) the company is contractually obliged to put an employment and skills plan in place, which is also developed into a community benefits plan. This includes job opportunities such as work placements and apprenticeships and the social return on investment is measured using a standard model known as Local Multiplier 3 (LM3).

As part of its approach to diversity, Interserve Construction also looks at bringing more women into the construction sector, particularly in technical roles through the Women in Science and Engineering (WiSE) programme and engagement with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) in education.

Interserve Construction also has a structured graduate recruitment programme and extensive staff training and development, including formal qualifications from professional bodies. (This aspect is also covered in the volume of this report on Leadership, under section 2.6, Positive Leadership.)

Recognition and reward:There is a group-wide reward and recognition scheme based on ad hoc “thank you’s” and recognition of a job well done. The reward is a certificate, a pin badge and a £20 high street voucher. In addition, Interserve Construction launched a major award programme last year. This consists of divisional awards, split into around a dozen categories, for which managers can nominate staff. Winners of divisional awards are then put through to the group awards. Group awards carry significant prizes, such as the £5,000 team award and the £1,000 employee of the year award. Award categories include innovation and values.

Charitable work – using employee engagement to deliver CSR:All of Interserve Construction’s employees are allowed an additional two days leave to conduct charitable work. This forms part of a structured programme, and employees have to apply, stating the activity and the benefit in order to qualify. Often, groups of employees will band together to undertake an activity as a team as outlined below:

• The Board of Directors worked in one of Birmingham’s food banks

• The Board built a foundation for a summerhouse and redecorated the staff quarters in an autism centre

• The Birmingham based staff collected food and donations for a food bank, not only providing the charity with the biggest donation from a single source, but also with the donation focused on the items they sorely need but rarely get, such as milk and meat



2.3.4 JPCS

With a widespread, autonomous workforce, engagement can be more of an effort and several new initiatives have been put in place at JPCS to encourage better cohesion. During the period of implementation and take up, some activities (such as using the reporting line and attending forums) have been made either mandatory or part of an individual’s performance metric. Once processes become better established and accepted, and behaviours have become ingrained, these formal mandates are lifted, although compliance is still expected.

Clear, two-way communication:The company uses several methods of communication, including a staff newsletter (Connection), toolbox talks, emails and texts. Communication has been made much easier since the introduction of mobile devices for all operations staff. The recent employee survey revealed that operational staff preferred text communication and a weekly text covering all business updates is now sent on a weekly basis to each employee.

Obtaining employee feedback:Employee (and customer) feedback is sought through the company’s “Report It!” telephone helpline, as detailed earlier in this report. It is also mandatory for at least two operatives from each team to attend the bi-monthly health and safety forums. Before attendance was made mandatory, staff preferred to be out on site and so the forums were only attended by managers, which missed the point of their function. Now, however, all staff are much more engaged with them.

An annual staff survey is also used to capture other information around employee satisfaction.

Career development:In addition to inductions and new starter reviews, all staff have annual reviews. These help to highlight any training needs, which are added to the training matrix. The matrix helps the company to ensure that all training and permits are up to date, and that they have sufficient trained operatives for the forecasted work schedules.

As part of the appraisal process, each employee has a player profile which clearly defines their role and the part they play in helping JPCS achieve the overall goals of the organisation. This provides both a clear line of sight for objectives (which can then be assessed by managers and employees themselves using a traffic light system), and a common direction for all staff.

Recognition and reward:There is an employee of the month scheme, also known as the people award, which carries a £25 reward and direct recognition with a letter home from the Managing Director. All staff are encouraged to make nominations for the people award, which is judged monthly by a small panel. There are also nominations for best innovator, best sub-contractor and best supplier. Outstanding contributions are given an annual award, which is worth £50. The staff newsletter, Connection, also carries thank you notes from senior managers.

Ian Renhard, Managing Director, says that this does two things; it creates strong community links and it brings people together from across the business in a social environment. “It’s not often you’ll find our commercial director and finance director doing manual labour” Ian says.

This type of work also gives staff a sense of wellbeing, and many of the projects relate to the current building work projects that teams are undertaking. This is especially true when the company is building a new hospital or working on a hospice; the teams involved often focus their charitable time on fundraising.

The team that built The Christie Hospital in Manchester continues with the partnership it formed, and it has become the focus of its fundraising. Activities are varied and sometimes carried out with teams working together, as with last year’s fundraising. Regional offices put together a 165 strong team to cycle from London to Paris, raising £150,000 for regional projects in the process.

This is a Global scheme within the Interserve Group and includes activities worldwide, such as the building of a school in India.



The company recently introduced a Profit Pole scheme, which shares a portion of the profits with all employees as recognition for working efficiently, reducing waste and implementing improvements.

Extending the definition of employee:At JPCS, sub-contractors are often included in employee engagement activities and events. There is a high turnover of staff in the industry, and this inclusion of sub-contractors has helped to stabilise its network, promoting brand loyalty in a notoriously fickle sector.

Social Events:The benefits the business reaps from improvement and cost saving measures are shared with employees in the form of social events such as Christmas treats, nights out and days at the races – the last of which saw 200 people including staff, their partners and the sub-contractors enjoying the horseracing.


In a regulated industry, there is limited scope for driving profit or growth. However Sarah Salter, Group HR Director, still sees great benefit in adapting and applying the service profit chain model in order to drive customer delight, which is measured by Ofwat (the water industry regulator) in the form of service feedback.

Sarah has evolved the service profit chain model with research from Bath University to develop an NWL approach. This suggests that customer delight is driven by employee engagement which in turn is driven by rational and emotional commitment. The rational commitment is taken care of through the salary and benefits package that NWL offers, but the emotional

commitment is delivered through the underlying feeling portrayed to employees that the organisation cares about them. It is this feeling of care that translates into discretionary effort. As part of this, NWL has an engagement strategy with several pillars and associated action plans.

Clear, two-way communication:Communication is paramount to success at NWL, and there is a myriad of communication channels in place. This is also described in the volume of this report dealing with Leadership, in section 2.11, Discursive Leadership. The communication vehicles are summarised in the figure below:

Annual roadshow

• Delivered by Heidi and the leadership team

• 60 informal presentations

• Small groups (30-40) to include everyone in NWL

• 2 hours long, including break out sessions

Ad hoc chats

• Visibility of leaders in the business

• Leaders sit with various teams

• Informal discussions around any topic

• Encourages sharing of wider leadership responsibilities

Team talks

• Cascaded through the organisation every two months

• Run in parallel with team discussions

• Very people focused – emphasises employee engagement

• Encourages interdepartmental understanding

Heidi's blog

• Written fortnightly on wide range of topics

• Open for comments and feedback

• 20,000 - 25,000 hits as staff (of 3,000) view multiple times to read comments or post feedback

Customer call recordings

• Sampled by the regulator

• Listened to by the management team

• Reviewed quarterly by the management team

Customer site visits

• Carried out by staff and managers in commercial team

• Forges closer customer relationships



Obtaining employee feedback:NWL participates in the Sunday Times Best Companies to Work For scheme, which is a benchmarking study operated across many different sectors. NWL is ranked as a one star company under the scheme which bases its ranking on a detailed staff survey conducted in alternate years. In the interim years, NWL commissions its own electronic survey, which is administered confidentially by a third party.

The company is introducing employee pulse surveys, as employees in some departments felt that the annual surveys were too far apart, and sometimes out of touch with the feelings on the ground. At the time of the interviews for this study, two departments were running pulse surveys and the company was reviewing rolling them out to other departments.

Career Development:Like many companies, NWL aims to develop its staff, but does not always have opportunities to promote people to further their career development. One way in which this is mitigated is the use of secondments. Currently over 100 people are working in project teams or in other departments to develop skills and take on additional responsibilities.

Another development taking place at the time of the interviews for this study was the implementation of a new appraisal scheme, aimed at offering a clearer line of sight to business outcomes for each member of staff. The company direction and vision is communicated often through roadshows, team talks and through the balanced scorecard, but the organisation wants to help every member of staff understand how they contribute to the success of the business.

Employee Wellbeing:Employee wellbeing was identified as one of the key pillars for employee engagement, and with a high proportion of staff in very physical jobs, the health of the workforce clearly has a large impact on the organisation’s effectiveness.

Health and lifestyle assessments providing personal plans and advice are available at any time. The company also participates in National Health and Wellbeing Week,

focusing on a different theme (such as exercise, diet and personal relationships) each day and running activities around them.

Each year, the company has a walking challenge, encouraging staff to walk 10,000 steps a day (or to do the equivalent exercise). The competition is on the intranet, and is tracked daily by those taking part.

It is evident that employee wellbeing is important to the organisation, which also shows concern about the increasing pressure on people from the demands of today’s 24/7 society. This has prompted the introduction of a new theme, Live Well, Work Well, Be Well, which focuses on work-life balance. Those that have benefited from the scheme are encouraged to share their experiences, and employee generated Vox-Pops are shared via the intranet. These cameos include:

• Someone who agreed flexible working to accommodate picking up children as part of their childcare arrangement

• Someone who used the employee counselling scheme at a time of difficulty

• Someone who used the Rehab Works to help remedy a back problem affecting their life

• Someone who volunteers as a governor at a local school

• Someone who encourages others to relax a little and have a laugh at work, by taking part in charity activities

and social opportunities

Extending the boundaries of work:Mobile computing and connectivity have increased greatly, and NWL is not exceptional in rolling out mobile technology to its staff. However, these devices are also open for staff to use for email and the internet so that they can derive additional benefit from being connected. If staff want to use their devices to do online shopping or manage their personal affairs out of hours, then they are encouraged to do so.

One large advantage for many staff is the remote tracking of systems on unmanned plant. The operators on stand-by get improved quality of rest because they can check all of the monitored parameters before going to bed. This allows them to judge the likelihood of being called out and provides them with a better night’s sleep when all of the parameters are within normal ranges.



And whilst employees might check their emails in the evening when it suits them, they are not pressurised into it, or into replying, outside of office hours. This is something that Heidi Mottram, Chief Executive is keen to impress upon staff, as she may often send emails when she is working late, but she does not want anyone to feel that they have to be on alert and reply, just because she is the boss.

Recognition and reward:In order to embed the vision and values in the organisation, NWL holds annual, peer nominated ViVa (Vision and Values) Awards. In the first year, 2012, there were around 180 nominations, but this increased to 420 last year.

All nominees receive a card when they are nominated, and those that are shortlisted are invited to the ViVa party. The latest award ceremony was streamed live on the internet and via Facebook, so everyone could watch, even if they had not been invited. This allowed teams to support team members nominated for individual awards. There was also a hashtag so that colleagues and team leaders at home could tweet messages to those in the room.

Sarah Salter, Group HR Director, feels that this peer to peer recognition adds a huge extra dimension to this programme, bringing the company values to life throughout the organisation.

Extending the definition of employee:Getting employees to engage with an organisation is one thing, but this is also extended to the families of employees. NWL recently held an open day at one of the main offices. This allowed staff to bring their families to work, to show them their desks and explain more about what they actually did each day. The company put on entertainment and helped children understand how their parent’s work fits into what the organisation does. This type of activity had been carried out before, but only on water works, as the company did not think that an office location would be interesting for families to visit. This proved not to be the case, the event was very popular and similar events have been held in other office locations since.

Charitable work – using employee engagement to deliver CSR:For the last few years, NWL has successfully reached its target of involving at least 50% of employees in the charitable time giving programme Just an Hour. This scheme allows members of staff (usually as teams) to have an extra day’s leave, in order to do a community project, and supplies around 1,500 man days of community effort each year. Examples include a team of electricians carrying out an electrical refit for a community centre, teams from the office doing community litter picks or helping at local schools, and teams helping with dementia support activities at Beamish Museum, the living museum of the north.

Staff and members of the community are encouraged to provide suggestions for activities, which have included improving the drainage of a local football pitch requested by a staff member who coached a team there.

According to Graham Neave, Operations Director, the benefits are twofold; team building and providing something for the community. Sarah Salter, Group HR Director, adds that research shows doing something good for other people makes you feel great about yourself, and the company views this type of activity as a great way to gain personal development.



3 Appendices

3.1 The Literature ReviewThe following review of the Literature is reproduced from Volume 4 of the 2013 BQF research, on People:

Burton, J., Rickards, T., Hough, A., Holden, C., Kitshoff, J. and Gleaves, R (2013) “How to achieve and sustain outstanding levels of performance. Volume 4: Succeeding

Through the Talent of People”, London: British Quality Foundation, 10th June (Available at: www.bqf.org.uk/research/excellence-2013, accessed 11th June, 2013).

3.1.1 Succeeding through the Talent of People

The theme of people, encompassing Human Resources (HR) practices, is fundamentally important to the successful functioning of any company. Failure to manage talent effectively was identified as the third most significant risk faced by global organisations by Ernst & Young (2011), while investing in training to improve productivity was a key element in the second ranked business opportunity for firms1.

Three contemporary people-focused topics of research have been identified within the people theme. The three topic areas, in no particular order of importance, are: Employer Branding, Employee Innovation, and Employee Engagement. The case study data was analysed in order to identify examples of excellent practices within these three topics. Following an extensive literature review, the three are outlined briefly below.

3.1.2 Employer Branding

Employer branding encompasses an organisation’s effort to promote a clear image (internally and externally) of qualities and attributes that differentiate it, define its culture and make it a desirable company to work for. These brand associations are linked to attraction of better talent, brand loyalty of employees, better employee engagement and stability of employee attitude and thus improvements in productivity and profitability. The concept has gained particular significance since 2007, during the pre-recession period, when it started to be considered as the key to attracting and retaining talent. Employer branding embraces concepts such as employee value proposition, employer of choice and internal marketing, and implies a specific application of the concept of corporate branding.

Employer branding is considered by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) as an investment because it improves performance in retention, recruitment, engagement and bottom line results2. The improvement in performance can be linked to improved customer experience, because customer experiences and outcomes of their interaction with firms occur at the intersection of external and internal marketing processes and initiatives. The link between human resource management techniques to improve the employer brand/employee experience and organisational performance outcomes has been proven across a wide range of Human Resource Management (HRM) literature3.





3.1.3 Employer Innovation

Innovation is a central element for any business. Creativity and innovation can lead to a stimulating working environment and business success through greater idea generation and recognition of opportunities. Empowerment, company vision and commitment are identified as conditions positively related to creativity, which is the driver of employees’ innovative behaviour4. The conditions for creating effective employee engagement (see 0 below) are also those that can promote employee innovation and creativity. More recently there has been a developing focus on open source and crowdsourcing5,

rather than closed innovation. Firms are now exploring links with other companies, universities and communities with the assumption that the wider the source group involved, the more likely successful innovation will result. The concept of Open Innovation thus focuses on linking external expertise to internal capabilities (systems, processes and knowledge) and the creation of a suitable culture within which to manage employees so as to avoid their resistance to any potential innovation and to make them motivated and skilled facilitators of open source innovation opportunities.5

3.1.4 Employer Engagement

Engagement has been a recognised element of HRM since the mid-1990s, but it has gained more attention from practitioners since the turn of the millennium and is now recognised as a central topic with significant impact for competitive advantage and business performance.

The CIPD recognises it as a core competence for HR professionals and it was recently the focus of the UK Government’s MacLeod report6 which identified four broad drivers; leadership, engaging managers, employee voice and integrity. However, multiple models exist and 26 different drivers of engagement were identified by the Institute for Employment Studies (IES) Conference Board study in 20067. The most common of these were: trust and integrity, nature of the job, line-of-sight (clarity of linkage) between individual performance and company performance; career growth opportunities; pride in the company; relationships with co-workers and team members; employee development; and personal relationship with manager.

Further vital issues identified in the literature include: setting clear objectives; job meaningfulness; appropriateness and progression of work; giving employees a voice in the company (and listening to them); and keeping them informed8. A key progression of employee engagement is the shift to a focus on well-being and the impact of work on employees’ lives9. Finally, Towers-Watson puts forward the more comprehensive approach of ’Exponential Engagement’ including three elements: empowerment, teamwork and cooperation/leadership10.

Given the multiple definitions of engagement, whatever approach is taken by an organisation it is important that leaders and managers communicate it consistently.



3.2 The Case Study Companies


Circle Housing Wherry is one of nine housing associations that form the Circle Group. CHW looks after 6,000 tenants directly, and also shares responsibility for sheltered housing and supported housing schemes, in total managing 7,200 homes across 18 Local Authority Areas in Norfolk, Suffolk, Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire.

There are 9 people on the board (2 residents and 7 independent people) and a Governance Manager. The day to day operations are run by the Managing Director and a Senior Management Team.

Since merging to become part of Circle Housing, Circle Housing Wherry has developed a clear vision that goes beyond delivering decent homes and excellent services to creating safe attractive neighbourhoods with communities that work. It is proud to have retained a clear local identify whilst using its national profile to deliver improvements for residents.

Wherry Housing Association achieved certification in the EFQM Recognised for Excellence programme at 5-star level on its first application.

History of Circle Housing Wherry:Wherry Housing Association was formed following the transfer of 3,715 homes from Broadland District Council in 1990. It now owns and manages 7,200 homes across 18 Local Authority Areas in Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire and Hertfordshire.

In 1995 Wherry formed part of the Anglia Housing Group, the first group structure in the country, which then merged with Circle 33 Housing Trust to become Circle Anglia (now Circle Housing) in 2005, managing homes across Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire, Hertfordshire, Essex, London, Kent, Sussex, Surrey and beyond. Circle Housing Wherry is one of 9 housing associations in Circle Housing.

Since merging to become part of Circle Housing, Circle Housing Wherry has developed a clear vision that goes beyond delivering decent homes and excellent services to creating safe attractive neighbourhoods with communities that work. It is proud to have retained a clear local identify whilst using its national profile to deliver improvements for residents.

Key Contributors:• Jodie Cunnington-Brock, Assistant Director of

Housing Services

• Sue Lake, Head of Customer Services

• Becky Leonard, Surveying Manager for Wherry and Roddons

• Jared Myers, Head of Housing, Sustainable Communities

• Sue Stavers, Managing Director

• Lisa Whatnall, Fundraising and Partnership Manager

• Wendy White, Head of Customer Services,

Operations and Partnerships

http://www.circlegroup.org.uk/our-group/social-housing/Circle_Housing_Wherry






Interserve is one of the world’s foremost support services and construction companies. Interserve offer advice, design, construction, equipment, facilities management and frontline public services. It is headquartered in the UK,listed in the FTSE 250 index, has gross revenues of £3.4 billion and a workforce of over 80,000 people worldwide.

The group’s vision is to redefine the future for people and places. It lists four core values as:

• Everyone has a voice – so we listen and encourage openness. We value all views and opinions, we welcome discussion and we treat people as we, ourselves, would want to be treated – with respect and patience

• Take pride in what you do – Whatever the task in hand, everybody can and should take pride in a job well done – a job undertaken with care and done to the best of our abilities

• Do the right thing – Doing the right thing means not accepting ‘that will do’, and not walking by when you could make a positive difference. The right thing also means the safe thing and the sustainable thing

• Bring better to life – We are all about believing we can do better. Asking questions, thinking differently, seeking solutions and creating ideas to support our customers and adding value

Interserve Construction, which is headquartered in Birmingham, provides bespoke, turnkey construction services including financing, design, development, construction, after-care and facilities management. It has around 2,100 employees and operates throughout the UK mainland. The company has 13 discrete business units.

Major works include:

• Manchester’s Christie Hospital

• New headquarters for the West Yorkshire Police

• The Haymarket, Edinburgh

• The James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough

• Building of the A43 Corby Link Road

The company was named Contractor of the Year at the Construction News Awards in July 2014, with the company’s CEO, Adrian Ringrose, being given the Roll of Honour Award. The company was commended for its project delivery and innovation, whilst Adrian was recognised for his leadership and contribution in the UK Construction Industry, as well as his work promoting skills development and innovation within the sector.

Interserve Construction won the UK Excellence Award in 2012 and the BQF Gold Medal for Excellence in 2013.

Key Contributors:• Julie Bradley, Associate Director of HR

• Michele Curran, Head of Corporate Business Development (UK)

• Richard Jones, Associate Director for Sustainable Business

• Ian Renhard, Managing director of UK Construction

http://www.interserve.com/how-we-help/construction#.VQ70NvmsWmw





3.2.3 JPCS

JPCS is a nationwide contractor, delivering safe and sustainable civil engineering and maintenance services to the public and private sectors, across the highways, rail and energy markets. Creating sustainable energy and infrastructure over the last 20 years, JPCS maintains the UK’s roads and pavements as well as providing innovative ground engineering solutions and developing pioneering surface treatment products. It maintains highway assets using innovative methods, such as installing Groundscrews®, and developing exclusive surface treatment products, like the Rejuvo range. The company was set up by Peter Shone in 1993 when he was 25, and now services clients including Balfour Beatty, the Highways Agency, British Gas, Carillion, Eurovia and local authorities across the UK. JPCS has an annual turnover of around £10m.

JPCS was one of the first highway maintenance and civil engineering companies in the UK to gain Investors in People status and was awarded a 5 star EFQM Levels of Excellence rating in 2013, in addition to previous ratings and commendations.

The company’s vision is stated as “we create the difference to sustain the environment, with our clients, our team, and our suppliers”

• We create: we engineer, make, manufacture, construct, maintain and refurbish

• The difference: we provide best value and added value through understanding our clients’ needs and providing differentiation through innovative and efficient products and services

• To sustain the environment: we believe in positive environmental management and investing in communities through delivering supply chain and employment opportunities. We make places nicer, better and easier to live in

Awards and RecognitionThrough a commitment to excellence and customer satisfaction JPCS has achieved significant industry recognition for culture, safety focus, products, and services, including:

• CIHT North Western Branch Awards – Highly Commended for ‘Safety Project of the Year’ and Shortlisted for ‘Best Practice’ category

• British Quality Foundation – Jury Commendation for Innovation

• EFQM – Recognised for Excellence – 5 star rating

• Road Surface Treatments Association (RSTA) Health and Safety Award (Behavioural Safety) – Winner

• Road Surface Treatments Association (RSTA) Health and Safety Award (Innovations) – Runner-up

• Green Business of the Year (Cheshire Business Awards) – Highly Commended and Finalist

• British Quality Foundation – Jury Commendation for Leadership

• Investors in People – Accreditation

• Award for ‘speed of fixing’ and ‘quality of repairs’

• Highways Magazine Excellence Awards – shortlisted finalist

Key Contributors:• Rachel Boothman, Financial support

• Helen Castelli-Burke, Bid support

• Lisa Orme, People Support

• Rosie Shanks, Director

• Peter Shone, Director

http://www.jpcs.co.uk/

http://www.jpcs.co.uk/




Northumbrian Water Limited (NWL) provides water and waste water services in the North East of England, and water services in Essex and Suffolk (where it trades as Essex and Suffolk Water). It has about 4.5 million customers, covering both the domestic and commercial/industrial sectors.

NWL is part of the Northumbrian Water Group (NWG), who also supplies water services in Scotland, Ireland and Gibraltar. This report deals with NWL, not the wider group.

There are about 700 staff in the customer contact centre, who make up part of the 1,600 strong front line team. There are 3,000 staff in total, who are responsible for:

• 44 impounding reservoirs

• 57 water treatment works

• 344 water pumping stations

• 338 water service reservoirs

• 25,545 km water mains

• 418 sewage treatment works

• 765 sewage pumping stations

• 29,724 km sewers

The company operates in an industry regulated by the Water Services Regulation Authority (Ofwat), who set pricing and measure performance in relation to operating costs, capital programmes and financing as well as their general operations.

NWL’s mission is to be the national leader in the provision of sustainable water and waste water services. There is a strong set of values in place, as follows:

• Customer focused – We aim to exceed the expectations of our external and internal customers

• Results-driven – We take personal responsibility for achieving excellent business results

• Ethical – We are open and honest and meet our commitments with a responsible approach to the environment and our communities

• Creative – We continuously strive for innovative and better ways to deliver our business

• One team – We work together consistently, promoting co-operation and mutual support, to achieve our corporate objectives

Northumbrian Water has been awarded 5 stars in the EFQM Recognised for Excellence programme.

Key Contributors:• Ian Donald, Customer Services Director

• Matthew Grant, Head of Business Process Improvement

• Maxine Mayhew, Group Commercial Director

• Heidi Mottram, Chief Executive

• Graham Neave, Operations Director

• Sarah Salter, Group HR Director

https://www.nwl.co.uk/

https://www.nwl.co.uk/



3.3 GlossaryBalanced Scorecard: A conceptual framework to measure financial and non-financial performance. It considers financial metrics as the main indicators for company success, but supplements them with three additional measures: customer, internal processes and learning and growth (Kaplan and Norton, 1992)a.

B2B: Business-to-business.

B2C: Business-to-consumer.

Blogs: A blog (a portmanteau of the words web and log) is a personal journal published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete entries (“posts”) typically displayed in reverse chronological order so the most recent post appears first. Blogs are usually the work of a single individual, occasionally of a small group, and are often themed on a single subject. Blog can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

BPR: Business process re-engineering involves the analysis and (radical) re-design of workflows and processes within an organisation to achieve dramatic improvementb. It began as a private sector technique to help organisations fundamentally rethink how they do their work in order to dramatically improve customer service, cut operational costs, and become world-class competitors. A key stimulus for re-engineering has been the continuing development and deployment of sophisticated information systems and networks. Leading organisations are becoming bolder in using this technology to support innovative business processes, rather than refining current ways of doing work.

BQF: British Quality Foundation: www.bqf.org.uk.

CIPD: The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development: www.cipd.co.uk.

Considerate Constructors Scheme: According to the website, an independent organisation founded in 1997 by the construction industry to improve its image. The scheme is a voluntary code designed to encourage best practice beyond statutory measures. http://www.ccscheme.org.uk/.

Consumer behaviour: Is the study of when, why, how, and where people do or do not buy a product. It blends elements from psychology, sociology, social anthropology and economics. It attempts to understand the buyer decision making process, both individually and in groups. It studies characteristics of individual consumers such as demographics and behavioural variables in an attempt to understand people’s wants. It also tries to assess influences on the consumer from groups such as family, friends, reference groups, and society in general.

COSHH: The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002, is a piece of legislation which requires employers to protect employees and other persons from the hazards of substances used at work, through the means of risk assessments, control of exposure, health surveillance and incident planning.

Customer Effort Score (CES): Dixon et al. (2010) outline that CES is measured by asking a single question: “How much effort did you personally have to put forth to handle your request?” It is scored on a scale from 1 (very low effort) to 5 (very high effort). Subsequently the authors propose that CES is a greater metric and predictor of consumer behaviour than customer satisfaction (CSAT) and the Net Promoter Score (NPS).

CMLG: Customer Management Leadership Group. A non-competing customer management best practice benchmarking group chaired by Professor John Murphy, United Utilities Professor of Customer management at Manchester Business School. Dr Jamie Burton is the Research Director for the CMLG and Dawn Holmes provides consultancy support. More information on the group can be found at: https://research.mbs.ac.uk/customer-leadership/.


http://www.cipd.co.uk

http://www.ccscheme.org.uk/

https://research.mbs.ac.uk/customer-leadership/



CSR: Corporate Social Responsibilityc is a process that is concerned with treating the stakeholders of a company or institution ethically or in a responsible manner. ‘Ethically or responsible’ means treating key stakeholders in a manner deemed acceptable according to international norms. Social includes economic and environmental responsibility. Stakeholders exist both within a firm or institution and outside. The wider aim of social responsibility is to create higher and higher standards of sustainable living, while preserving the profitability of the corporation or the integrity of the institution, for peoples both within and outside these entities. CSR is a process to achieve sustainable development in societies.

Crowd Sourcing: Is a distributed problem-solving and production model. In the classic use of the term, problems are broadcast to an unknown group of solvers in the form of an open call for solutions. Users – also known as the crowd – typically form into online communities, and the crowd submits solutions. The crowd also sorts through the solutions, finding the best ones. These best solutions are then owned by the entity that broadcast the problem in the first place – the crowd sourcer – and the winning individuals in the crowd are sometimes rewarded. In some cases, this labour is well compensated, either monetarily, with prizes, or with recognition. In other cases, the only rewards may be kudos or intellectual satisfaction.

Customer-centric: Describing an organisation that is operated from its customers’ point of view, conceptualising value as ‘value in use’ by the customer, rather than the traditional view of value in exchange. For example, the organisation makes certain it can be easily contacted by its customers. It is about creating a positive consumer experience at every point of interaction but also pre- and post-interactions. A customer-centric approach can add value to a company by enabling it to differentiate itself from competitors who do not offer the same experience.

EFQM: Proprietors of the EFQM Excellence Model: www.efqm.org.

e-Listening: Is the process of listening and tracking conversations and opinions of customers about an organisation and then using it to address a specific problem or opportunity. It is also used to understand and track competitor activity and exposure.

Enterprise Application Integration (EAI): A computing term concerning the integration of business information systems, generally involving consolidation and integration of legacy applications with new platforms (Liu et al. 2008d).

Employer of Choice: “An employer of choice is one who inspires highly talented workers to join them and stay within them”. This definition comes from the book “How to become an Employer of Choice” by Herman & Gioiae.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP): Computer systems managing business information systems across whole organisations. These reach beyond organisational silos and outside the organisation to external touch points.

Employee Voice: Is the ability of employees to participate in the decisions related to their jobs, and the possibility to give their opinions about work-related issues. It is considered an important driver of employee engagement (Alfes et al., 2010f).

Exponential Engagement: According to Towers and Watson, fluctuating economic trends and environmental or organisational changes can make employees inefficient even if they are engaged. Therefore they propose the concept of “Exponential Engagement”, which includes three elements: empowerment, teamwork and cooperation, and leadership (Towers-Watson, 2011g).

eWOM: Electronic Word of Mouth, according to Hennig–Thurau et al.’s (2004, p.39) definition: “Any positive or negative statement made by potential, actual, or former customers about a product or company, which is made available to a multitude of people and institutions via the Internet”h.

Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG): Products which are sold quickly and generally at a low cost, including consumables, processed foods, soft drinks, over the counter medicines, toiletries and cleaning products. They are also known as Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG).

Geographical Information Systems (GIS): Software tools which enable the analysis and visualisation of map data, combining information (such as the location of pipes and sewers) with an appropriate map (such as a road layout or contour map).

http://www.efqm.org



Hashtag: Metadata or labels used to classify information on social media and prefixed by a hashtag symbol (#).

Intranet: A website or computer network designed to share information within an organisation.

IES Conference Board: According to the website, the Institute of Employment Studies (IES) was established in 1969 to be an independent, national centre of expertise on productivity, manpower planning and labour market change. Since that time it has expanded and diversified to become the UK’s leading independent centre for research and evidence-based consultancy in employment, labour market and human resource policy and practice. It is not-for-profit, its activities being funded through research and consultancy commissions, and from its corporate membership programme www.employment-studies.co.uk.

Lean: According to the Lean Enterprise Institute, (www.lean.org) the core idea is to maximise customer value while minimising waste. Simply, lean means creating more value for customers with fewer resources. A lean organisation understands customer value and focuses its key processes to continuously increase it. The ultimate goal is to provide perfect value to the customer through a perfect value creation process that has zero waste.

LinkedIn: A social media service aimed specifically at professional and business orientated networking. www.linkedin.com.

LM3: Local Multiplier 3 is a method of understanding the local economic impact of procurement contracts and regeneration schemes. It was initially developed by the new economics forum (nef) and takes into consideration how a source of income is spent and re-spent within a defined geographical area.

Micro Blogs: Blogging broadcasts. Micro blog content is usually smaller in actual and aggregate file size. Micro blogs “allow users to exchange small elements of content such as short sentences, individual images, or video linksi”.

Milk Round: The informal term used to describe annual university careers fairs used by many large companies with graduate programmes as a method of recruiting talent direct from universities.

MBS: Manchester Business School: www.mbs.ac.uk.

NBO: ‘Next Best Offer’: targeted offers to customers of products or services that they are likely to want and to buy. NBO’s can be created if organisations have a decent customer knowledge base that helps them understand customer wants, preferred product and service attributes and purchase context. The offers are made in real time by using complex analytical engines that track customer’s recent online movement and combine it past purchases and sites visited to identify a need even before the customer realises the need.

NEBOSH: (The National Examination Board in Occupational Safety and Health) www.nebosh.org.uk/About_Nebosh.

NEETS: A term used by government departments and the media to describe young people “Not in Education, Employment or Training”, originally introduced in 1999 in the UK and now used widely in other countries.

Net Promoter Score (NPS): A metric developed by Reichheld j (2003) to gauge customer loyalty measured using a single question: “How likely is it that you would recommend our company to a friend or colleague?” It is scored on a scale from 1 to 10; where customers are grouped into promoters (9-10 rating – extremely likely to recommend), passively satisfied (7-8 rating), and detractors (0-6 rating – extremely unlikely to recommend). To work out the NPS subtract the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters. Reichheld (2003) states that organisations with world class loyalty regularly receive a NPS greater than 75%. It is suggested that the NPS is a particularly prominent indicator of loyalty because if a customer recommends an organisation, they are putting their own reputation on the line; consequently, Reichheld (2003) asserts that a customer will only take that risk if they are intensely loyal to an organisation.

QR Codes: A form of 2D barcode developed by Denso Wave Incorporated in Japan in 1994 which can hold much larger amounts of data than standard barcodes. Often used to provide a quick method of accessing a specific web page to those with a suitable QR reader, freely available as an application for use on smartphones and other mobile devices. QR refers to Quick Response.

http://www.employment-studies.co.uk

http://www.mbs.ac.uk

http://www.nebosh.org.uk/About_Nebosh



Registered Provider: A provider of social housing registered with the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA), the government department responsible for regulating the social housing sector.

Science, Engineering, Technology and Maths (STEM): The group of subjects identified by the government as a priority for secondary and higher education in the UK, in order to fulfil the requirements of employers for these skills and boost the UK economy.

Service Incentive Mechanism (SIM): A tool used by the water industry regulator (Ofwat) to improve the service that water utilities provide by incentivising them to perform against a quantitative measure (based on the number of complaints and unwanted contacts a company receives) and a qualitative measure (derived from a customer experience survey). More information can be found on the regulator’s website: http://www.ofwat.gov.uk/regulating/tools/sim/.

Service Profit Chain Model: Developed by Harvard Business School in the 1990s establishes the links between profitability, customer loyalty and employee satisfaction, loyalty and productivity. Harvard Business Review published a full article on the model which is available at https://hbr.org/2008/07/putting-the- service-profit-chain-to-work.

Ofwat: The economic regulator of the water and sewerage sectors in England and Wales. Their role is to help the sector build trust and confidence with customers, the environment and wider society.

Servitization or Service Infusion: Servitizationk is a movement in which companies consciously drive their businesses into services to gain competitive ground (Vandermerwe & Rada, 1989).

Sharepoint: A collaboration and sharing platform provided by Microsoft. It provides a secure and structured way to share content within an organisation or network.

Simplyhealth: A healthcare company providing affordable healthcare to individuals and companies.

Six Sigma: Originally referred to the ability of manufacturing processes to produce a very high proportion of output within specification. Processes that operate with “six sigma quality” over the short term are assumed to produce long-term defect levels below 3.4 defects per million opportunities (DPMO). Six Sigma’s implicit goal is to improve all processes to that level of quality or better.

Social CRM: Is the use of social media services, techniques and technology to enable organisations to engage with their customers. As an emerging discipline, interpretations of Social CRM vary, but the most frequently quoted definition is from Paul Greenberg,l: “Social CRM is a philosophy and a business strategy, supported by a technology platform, business rules, workflow, processes and social characteristics, designed to engage the customer in a collaborative conversation in order to provide mutually beneficial value in a trusted and transparent business environment. It’s the company’s response to the customer’s ownership of the conversation.” Social CRM is often used as a synonym for Social Media Monitoring, where organisations watch services like Facebook, Twitter etc. for relevant mentions of their product and brand and react accordingly. However, this is too narrow an interpretation, as Social CRM also includes customer communities managed by the organisation themselves.

Social Values Act: The Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 requires public authorities to consider the improvement of the economic, social and environmental wellbeing of any area in which procurements or projects take place.

Telemetry: The transmission and reception of data relating to measured quantities obtained through the monitoring of remote devices, often used for remotely monitoring plant and equipment or tracking environmental measures.

Times 100 best companies: Since 2001, the Sunday Times has published an annual list of the best companies to work for. The results are based on a staff satisfaction surveym.

http://www.ofwat.gov.uk/regulating/tools/sim/

http://www.ofwat.gov.uk/regulating/tools/sim/

https://hbr.org/2008/07/putting-the-service-profit-chain-to-work

https://hbr.org/2008/07/putting-the-service-profit-chain-to-work



Toolbox Talks: Short and informal discussions generally focusing on a specific health and safety issue. They are conducted at the workplace or job site (rather than in a training room).

TPS: Toyota Production System business improvement model. According to Steven Spearn, there are four rules and, “The rules rigidly specify how every activity – from the shop floor to the executive suite, from installing seat bolts to reconfiguring a manufacturing plant – should be performed. “Deviations from the specifications become instantly visible, prompting people to respond immediately with real-time experiments to eradicate problems in their own work. Result? A disciplined yet flexible and creative community of scientists who continually push Toyota closer to its zero-defects, just-in-time, no-waste ideal.”

TQM: Total Quality Management is a management approach focusing on the improvement of products and processes.

Twitter: An online social networking/micro blogging service enabling users to send and read “tweets”: text-based posts of up to 140 characters. Tweets can be made publicly available or restricted to just a sender’s ‘followers’ (‘subscribers’ to their tweets). Tweets can be made via the Twitter website, compatible external applications (e.g. apps for Smartphones), or by Short Message Service (SMS).

Universal Credit: Universal Credit is a welfare benefit launched in the UK in 2013 to replace six means-tested benefits and tax credits, including Jobseeker’s Allowance, Housing Benefit, Working Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit, Employment and Support Allowance and Income Support. Currently, this scheme is still in its pilot phase, and full roll out across England is no longer certain, as there have been delays due to IT failures and widespread criticism of the scheme.

WiKi pages: A WiKi is an application, typically hosted on a web or intranet, which allows collaboration in building a database of information. It is a form of content management system, but is usually lacking in fixed structure, allowing content to be generated and amended freely. A WiKi page generally refers to one entry in such an application. WiKi is a Hawaiian word meaning “quick”.

WiSE: The campaign to encourage Women into Science and Engineering, established in 1984 as a collaboration between the Engineering Council and the Equal Opportunities Commission to highlight the career opportunities for girls and women in science and engineering.

Workers Education Authority: A charity founded in 1903 to provide adult education to those who want to improve their lives through the acquisition of new skills. http://www.wea.org.uk/

Yammer: A social networking platform for businesses, provided by Microsoft. It enables social networking and collaboration within an organisation or defined network.

YouTube: A website hosting user generated content in video format for private viewing or public sharing. It was founded in 2005 and is now owned by Google.

http://www.wea.org.uk/



3.4 Reference ListsSubstantial literature reviews were undertaken but only the references for the three selected topics for this theme are shown. The researchers also cross-checked the topics with a forthcoming CIPD publication shown below express their sincere gratitude to the authors for the opportunity.

Human Resource Management at Work, 5th edition, Mick Marchington and Adrian Wilkinson (with Lorrie Marchington for Chapters 9-11), Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, Published by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, 151 The Broadway, London, SW19.

3.4.1 Employer branding

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3 Birdi, et al. (2008); Patterson, et al (2004); Subramony (2009).

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http://features.thesundaytimes.co.uk/public/best100companies/live/template



4 AcknowledgementsJamie Burton, Dawn Holmes and Cheryl Holden acknowledge the work of the following co-researchers on the 2013 report: Kitshoff, J., Rickards, T., Kawalek, P., Boaden, R., Holman, D., Dougnac, P., Brooker, A., Hough, A., Daly, L., Gleaves, R., and Raghavan, R.

We would also like to thank Rebecca Ainley, Consultancy Director at Manchester Business School, for her support throughout this project.

Finally, we would like to thank all of the contributors from each of the case study companies, without whom this research could not have taken place:

Circle Housing Wherry:• Becky Leonard, Surveying Manager

for Wherry and Roddons

• Jodie Cunnington-Brock, Assistant Director of Housing Services

• Jared Myers, Head of Housing, Sustainable Communities

• Lisa Whatnall, Fundraising and Partnership Manager

• Sue Lake, Head of Customer Services

• Sue Stavers, Managing Director

• Wendy White, Head of Customer Services, Operations and Partnerships

Interserve Construction Limited:• Ian Renhard, Managing Director of UK Construction,

Interserve

• Julie Bradley, Associate Director of HR, Interserve Construction Ltd

• Michele Curran, Head of Corporate Business Development (UK)

• Richard Jones, Associate Director for Sustainable Business for Interserve Construction

JPCS:• Rachel Boothman, Financial support

• Helen Castelli-Burke, Bid support

• Lisa Orme, People support

• Rosie Shanks, Director

• Peter Shone, Director

Northumbrian Water (NWL):• Graham Neave, Operations Director

• Heidi Mottram, Chief Executive

• Ian Donald, Customer Services Director (until November 2014)

• Matthew Grant, Head of Business Process Improvement

• Maxine Mayhew, Group Commercial Director

• Sarah Salter, Group HR Director

The British Quality Foundation 32-34 Great Peter Street London SW1P 2QX United Kingdom

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