Engaging Leadership – the role HR in supporting transformation

Annette Rowewww.baxipartnership.co.uk

annette.rowe@baxipartnership.co.uk07913681778

April 2012

Who are Baxi Partnership?

• an employee-owned company;

• specialists in mutual and employee ownership in both the private and public sectors;

• 12 years experience supporting over 35 organisations through full transition and working with dozens more;

• Cabinet Office mentors to three of the Government’s Mutual Pathfinders;

• part of a consortium of specialist providers who won the contract to deliver to the Cabinet Office’s re-launched Mutuals Information Service providing triage support to the Mutuals Support Programme;

• provide transition support to organisations looking to become mutual or employee owned through both the technical and cultural challenges involved;

• Over 12 years successful experience of employee and customer engagement programmes;

• support creation of mutual culture, driving strong, effective employee ownership that promotes high levels of motivation, employee engagement, innovation, productivity and overall performance;

• support access to capital through expert advice, our own capital investment fund and network of social investment partners.

Cultural challenges

Being an employee owner should feel different to working in a traditionally structured organisation in a number of ways, and there are challenges to both management and employees to make it work:

Two-step culture change – to a more commercial mindset and to thinking like an employee owner

Management leads on behalf of everyone in the organisation

Encourage participation without anarchy or paralysis

Foster a more innovative and entrepreneurial approach

Greater transparency is critical to drive a sense of ownership and a culture of informed innovation

Peer support and challenge and thinking like a single organisation to sustain a culture of continuous productivity

Employee representation and engagement mechanisms

Capturing the Spirit of Ownership

‘Can you achieve the benefits of employee

ownership and strengthen

transformation?’

Leadership in Transformation - responses to good management

Traditional• Manager• Systems• Centralised structure• Bureaucracy• Be efficient• Task centred• Rigid• Clear boundaries• Follow the rules• Do what you are told• Follow procedures

Traditional• Manager• Systems• Centralised structure• Bureaucracy• Be efficient• Task centred• Rigid• Clear boundaries• Follow the rules• Do what you are told• Follow procedures

Employee Ownership• Leader• Initiative• Decentralised autonomous units• Loose-Tight structure• Have fun• People centred• Flexible, adaptable• empowered, no blame culture• Find solutions• Make people's day• Go the extra mile

Employee Ownership• Leader• Initiative• Decentralised autonomous units• Loose-Tight structure• Have fun• People centred• Flexible, adaptable• empowered, no blame culture• Find solutions• Make people's day• Go the extra mile

What People Want from their Leaders

Of 1000 people surveyed the most common qualities people wanted in a leader were:

• Integrity• Honesty• Fairness• Vision• Humility• Trustworthiness

6

Source: ‘Inside Out – How to have authentic relationships with everyone in your life’ by Sarah Abell

Supporting and Embedding Transformation

• Clear direction clarifies purpose and engage employees

LeadershipLeadership

• Clear communication enables employees participation

CommunicationCommunication

• Aligned organisational development programmes enables strong leadership

Organisational DevelopmentOrganisational Development

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Leadership

• Defines a clear mission, vision, goals & strategies• Communicates the vision clearly and keeps it in front

of the employees• Role clarity is everything• Communicate with all layers• Moves away from assigning a task• Communicate success

Leadership Communication Development

Case study: Pathfinders

Official learnings: • Innovation and efficiency

• Customer engagement

• Staff engagement

• More responsive

• Passion & leadership

Hands on learnings: • The scale of the procurement challenge

• Lack of manager / commissioner understanding

• Sometimes leadership isn’t enough

• Need to bake in employee involvement early

• Need to be realistic about future tenders

Effective channels of internal communication

• What will staff need to know in order to do our jobs?• What will staff need to know in order to feel and act

as ‘owners’?• What would staff expect to know or hear about first

in order to feel part of the organisation?

Organisational Development• Job descriptions are aligned to organisational goals and explain

purpose of the role, skills needed and expected output of the role

• Career ladders are publicly available• Employee has a development plan

focused on increasing their knowledgeand aligned to organizational purpose

• Measurement of HR ROI is in place• Success is celebrated frequently

© 2011 Cultural Chemistry, LLC All right reserved

Leadership Communication Development

Recruitment and Selection - 4 Keys of Great Leaders

• Select for TALENT AND OWNERSHIP• Not simply experience, intelligence or determination

1. Select the Person

• Define the right OUTCOMES• Not the right steps2. Set Expectations

• Focus on STRENGTHS• Not on weaknesses

3. Motivate the Person

• Find the RIGHT FIT• Not simply the next rung on the ladder

4. Develop the Person

Induction

To Include? :• What you are about, • and responsibilities of being an employee,

customer/user service, • business performance and strategy, • who is who, • values and • how we do things. Staff get the right messages on what we are about and what is expected from first day

The art of performance management

Keep the routine SIMPLE

Meet FREQUENTLY: minimum once a quarter

Focus on the FUTURE

Ask employee to keep track of their OWN performance and learnings

Listening to Staff and Customers

• employee engagement• leadership performance in terms of

ownership and engagement ?• the core elements needed to attract, focus

and keep the most talented employees?• the impact of rewards? • customer engagement• Stakeholder loyalty and reputation

How do you measure?.....

Measuring strength of Work PlaceMeasuring strength of Work PlaceHow do you measure the core elements needed to attract, focus and keep the most talented employees?

“Business Units were measurably more productive when employees answered positively to engagement questions.”

GallupAnalysis of performance data from over 2,500 business units and over 105,000 employees

Case study: MyCSP

Presented by Cabinet Office as first of central Government spin outs. New organisation will have tripartite ownership split between employees, Government and yet tbc private sector JV partner.

Spin out process:

Employee buy-in:

Ownership model:

Not so much spun out as shoved out by Cabinet Office, who have driven the process including Crown Commercial Representative Stephen Kelly Chairing Shadow Board. Costs funded by Centre and new JV.

Though management claim they have consulted from the start, there is no doubt many employees felt this was being done to them. More effective engagement is taking place now, but there is still significant staff resentment at the process.

Learning and Development

People Development• Aligned with performance development

• Leadership Development• 1st Line Leadership• Team Development• Preparing Employees for a new way of doing

things• Performance Management• Foundation Training

Case study: Kensington & Chelsea Youth Services

Employee-led social enterprise. Wholly owned by employees. User involvement in governance arrangements. Still deciding final arrangements around Trust versus employee share scheme.

Spin out process:

Employee buy-in:

Ownership model:

Supported to go by Local Authority. Up front costs of transition paid for. Aim is for Authority to provide dowry contract for 5 years – still in negotiation. Aim to be live by September 2012.

Employees have been consulted significantly from the start. Held all staff vote to ensure a mandate exists. Shadow governance arrangements are already involving employees directly. Specialist support provided to support employees in driving new culture.

Reward and recognition

• Recognise

• Celebrate

• Involve

FUN

?

And finally……….

Cardiologist and Motorcycle Mechanic – a parable

'Try  doing it with the engine  running!'

Simple concept……..

• Needs:– Right Leadership – Right people– Skilled implementation– Inspired communication– Commitment to excellence– Desire to delight customers– Willingness to have fun

And all with the engine

running!!