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The Benefit of Being an Investor in People
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The Challenge
From the start, the Company has aimed to provide quality and has always sought to apply a consultative approach to management. This helped to support rapid growth during the second half of the 1980s.However, when recession hit the building industry in the early 1990s, the Directors recognised that they had an opportunity to consolidate operations and prepare the company to take full advantage of the inevitable upturn in the market.
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As we hadn’t really got enough work to keep everyone busy, we asked ourselves what we could do to prepare for the upturn.
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Alan Naylor
Managing Director
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The Responce
In addition to consolidating the good practice, the Directors were looking for a way of demonstrating the excellence of the company to the world at large.After some searching, it was decided to work towards both IS09002 and Investors in People accreditation as these two standards were seen to be complementary and in line with Hamble Groups aims and values.
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We wanted to prove our excellence to the world. Part of our drive for the standards was definitely the marketing opportunity they would give us.
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Alan Naylor
Managing Director
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Early in 1993, Hamble Homes formally committed to Investors in People and started to plan the necessary improvements with the assistance of a consultant and financial support from Hampshire TEC.With regard to the management of permanent staff, the main focus was on formalising existing practice:
· An explicit mission statement was developed and communicated to all staff.
· Business planning was extended to include staff training, management style objectives and clearer short and long term performance targets.
· The appraisal system was improved and included in the IS09002 accredited system.
· Proper training records were introduced.
· Post-training interviews were held to identify resulting improvements in performance.
· Fortnightly staff meetings were instituted.
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In many ways, the Investors in People standard was not seen as a change so people were very comfortable with it.
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Alan Naylor
Managing Director
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Working with subcontractors posed somewhat different problems because of the looser nature of the relationship. Initially, a survey was run to understand the concerns of the subcontractors. As a result, several changes were made:
· An induction pack was developed to ensure that all subcontractors understood fully the quality of service that The Hamble Homes Group expect of them.
· A series of training seminars was run for subcontractors covering the company's goals, business planning, customer care and quality.
· Formal assessment and feedback on subcontractor performance was included in the IS09002 accredited system.
· To help foster personal relationships between the company and subcontractors, an annual 'Golf Day' was inaugurated
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Investors in People
From the start, the key benefit of Investors in People was seen to be the formalising of good practice. So, although the Directors also saw a potential benefit in recognition, they were content to put off assessment until all the changes were fully integrated into the company's working culture. In particular, the upgraded appraisal system was run for two full cycles before Hamble Homes started to prepare for assessment.
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Hamble Homes Group was recognised as an Investor in People by Hampshire TEC in March 1997. The staff are very proud of the award and of being part of the effort necessary to achieve it.
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People knew that our consultative approach was unusual in the industry. Getting recognition was important in convincing them both that it was the right way to run a company and that there are other companies that do it that way.
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Alan Naylor
Managing Director
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Benefits
The consultative approach to management together with its supporting systems has brought benefits to the permanent staff:
· increased skills which are useful both in work and in private life.
· less stressful working environment due to open and frank communications.
· greater fulfilment through more authority and sense of involvement in the business.
· pride m the quality of the company's customer service.
improved job security.
Subcontractors too have benefited:
· partnership contracts and timely payments in an industry with a poor record in this area.
· open communication and feedback.
· loyalty to subcontractors who give good quality service.
· more consistent workloads.
· relevant training and updating.
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Although subcontract labour is very flexible, it has traditionally not been involved in training However, our approach has resulted in very good relations with our subcontractors.
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Alan Naylor
Managing Director
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The approach is reflected in the quality of the business:
· Customer surveys show marked reductions in serious errors.
· Hamble Homes has never incurred a late penalty on any building contract.
· Staff and subcontractors are fully involved and take the initiative to present ideas and solve problems.
Subcontractors show comparatively strong customer care skills.
These improvements have all contributed to enhanced business performance. From 1995-1997:
· Turnover has tripled.
· Profits have more than tripled.
· Business growth has been achieved with Only 1½ People increase to permanent staff.
· Staff turnover is well below the industry average.
· Investors in People has given the company a competitive edge in attracting the best subcontractors.
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The Future
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In the future, we are looking to expand our operations into other areas. In particular, we would like to do more commercial work and more project management. The Private Funding Initiative may give us an opportunity to do this.
To maintain our momentum, we need to develop more marketing expertise and carry on developing the customer service and other skills of subcontractors. The latter is one of our biggest challenges because, when you are on site, it is hard to realise that things outside are changing fast, particularly as changes in basic building techniques occur much more slowly.
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Alan Naylor
Managing Director
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