Case Studies

Professional Services

Recruitment and Retention of key skills, knowledge and expertise is even more important during these current economic times.

Changing focus
After a period of downsizing and consolidation in many professional services businesses, the focus is changing to ensuring clarity on roles and responsibilities and effective performance management processes to encourage alignment with business strategy and objectives; ownership of personal development and strong engagement on a personal and professional level with the business.

Identifying the issues
We have been working with a professional services company who have experienced significant growth and who have ambitious plans to build on this growth. As they recruited new senior members to the management team, it became clear that the roles and responsibilities were not clearly defined and there was misalignment between what managers thought their responsibilities were and what they wanted them to be. Therefore there was a tendency for managers to do what they wanted to do rather than what the business needed them to do.

Assessing reviews
The review and feedback on performance was therefore ìconfusedî and lead to people feeling disappointed as they thought they had worked hard, done well but this was not necessarily recognised – which lead to frustration.

Finding clarity
Our first step was to clarify roles and responsibilities and to work with the senior team on core generic responsibilities; specific functional responsibilities and identify areas of potential overlap or gap.

Performance management tool
Then we worked with each of the teams to define role profiles and identify key competences for specific roles and generic competences for the company. Building on this work we created a performance management tool that assessed each individual on what they did (role profile); key competences (how they did what they did); objectives (specific outcomes they had been working on) and a development plan to achieve all of the above.

Sending out the information
This was briefed across the company and packs of information were accessible in hard copy and on the intranet for all employees. Reviews started with the senior team and this mechanism was used to cascade business related objectives through the company.

Outcomes included:

• Better understanding of roles and responsibilities of own role and that of peers and reports
• Agreed mechanism to give and receive feedback on personal performance
• Alignment of personal performance to business goals and objectives
• Development plans through the business that underpinned the business growth and development into new areas
• Management information to feed into succession planning and financial budgeting and planning.

It took a while and there was a lot of learning along the way. Senior managers had to lead the way and demonstrate that performance at all levels was important to the achievement of personal and company ambitions.

Oil & Gas offshore services

The Oil and Gas industry in the UK provides employment for 380,000 people and it is expected that the new discoveries and developments will continue for the next 25 years.

Specific employment requirements
There are a large number of SME companies who provide specialist services to the multi nationals who dominate in this sector. These companies have specific employment requirements which they have to meet to remain productive and to be a preferred supplier to the oil and gas giants – upon whom they depend.

Typically employees are:

• Away from home sometimes for quite extended periods of time with irregular working patterns and disrupted home lives
• Travel to and from distant foreign destinations
• Facing testing working conditions which have health and safety considerations
• Must meet the rules and regulations of the client
• Have specialist skills which have been developed over a period of time.

Our work with companies in this field has:

• Developed and consulted on key terms and conditions which allow for the nature of the work in particular how annual leave is managed
• Engaged in consultation framework to allow all employees to be represented on a works council – so that their views could be considered even when they are offshore
• Implemented specific policies which are required by clients, for example substance misuse policies which have to be consulted, implemented and monitored offshore and onshore
• Raised the awareness of training and development for all employees to ensure that there is a succession of key skills and recognition of expert skills through accreditation
• Supported with recruitment for short term and longer term contracts to enhance the profile of the shore based teams and the offshore technical teams. This has eased constraints on the supply of resources at critical points.

These employment related measures have clarified the relationship between technicians and management; has allowed views and opinions to be expressed constructively and for the business to have the confidence to pitch and deliver to the clients’ requirements.

IT/Software

New employment opportunities
In our experience this is a sector that is not shrinking but one which is actively recruiting for technical and business support professionals. The market has opened up and where previously the dearth of good candidates caused by above market rates paid by some employers to IT contractors, is now producing some interesting prospects for employers seeking to employ software developers.

Niche markets
We have worked closely with companies who operate in niche markets andare reliant on competent software developers who can transfer their technical skills to their particular application. The direct approach through advertisement, sifting and managing the selection process has delivered very successful candidates to the employer on a lesser cost than the agency route and saved much of the management time in identifying the right cultural fit as well as the technical expertise.

Seeing the process through
We have then followed through the recruitment process with confirming terms and conditions, employment related induction and review of probation period before permanent employment is confirmed between the two parties.

Not for Profit

Typically "not for profit" or third sector organisations operate in a niche market delivering services or support to a defined group of the community.

Providing experience
Those managing the organisation are usually attracted to the aims and objectives of the organisation and may have specialist skills and knowledge which is related to the delivery of the service. Therefore, in some cases, they may not have had a strong commercial or management experience which can present significant challenges when faced with difficult employment related issues. This is where we can help.

Complex issues
In one particular case we managed, a member of staff raised a grievance alleging unfair treatment on return to work after an extended absence. The issues surrounding the grievance were complex and would not go away. The executive director came to us, looking for a strategy to address the original grievance and the related issues; a support mechanism to manage any statutory processes which may be invoked and some additional resources at a very difficult time.

Rebuilding trust
We were able to investigate the original grievances informally to identify some of the critical issues, formulate a plan to address those, support the management team to execute the plan and provide the appropriate level of advice, administrative and management support for a successful outcome to be reached. It was a difficult and emotional process but uncovering key evidence allowed a restructure of a management team which eventually lead to the rebuilding of trust between service providers and service users.