CIPD WInners

THE WINNERS RECOGNISING AND REWARDING SUCCESS

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Contents 4

Awards overview

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Overall winner & Building HR capability

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Change management

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Employee engagement

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Excellence through technology

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Health & wellbeing

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Organisational learning

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Performance & reward

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SME HR initiative of the year

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Talent attraction & management

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Michael Kelly Outstanding Student Award

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Past winners

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Awards overview With an outstanding crop of entries across 10 categories – including four new for this year – the 2011 CIPD People Management Awards has, once again, proved to be a showcase of excellence across our profession. Our team of highly experienced and well-respected judges – industry experts and senior HR professionals from the public, private and not-for-profit sectors have had the toughest of tasks but they certainly lived up to the challenge during the selection process.

An overall Award went to the most outstanding winner, chosen by Hugh Hood, director of organisational development at headline sponsor BT, CIPD director of HR capability Stephanie Bird and People Management editor Rob MacLachlan.

“Within the categories was some great practice that can be inspiring to people and make a difference to their business. And that’s what it’s about.”

Ultimately, judges were singling out organisations that, as Hugh Hood put it, demonstrated “a passion for the profession to be more of a profession”.

“It’s not just about bringing the professional body to the fore,” he said. “It’s also about asking: what is best practice? Where have people really made a difference to their business in a planned, systematic way and then learned from it? It’s about showcasing, it’s about spreading innovation and best practice, and I had a real sense that entrants really had an appetite to do this.”

While, of course, there could be only one winner in each category, and one overall winner, this year’s shortlisted entries were of an extremely high calibre.

In the brand-new Change management category, judges commended “a strong list of finalists, all showing passion and commitment to their organisation’s strategy and future goals”, while the Employee engagement category saw a “very high standard of submissions” with all finalists demonstrating “grounded engagement strategies that linked in with business objectives”.

So, while the individual Awards recognise the cream of the crop, plenty of other success stories emerged during the judging process, as Hugh Hood notes: “Within the categories was some great practice that can be inspiring to people and make a difference to their business. And that’s what it’s about.”

HUGH HOOD, DIRECTOR OF ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, BT

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Shortlisted finalists Building HR capability

Organisational learning

Amey

McDonald’s Restaurants

Burberry

Mitchells & Butlers PLC

City University London

Olympic Delivery Authority

D Young & Co LLP

The Savoy, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts

Estée Lauder Companies

Trident Housing

VSO

Wm Morrison Supermarket PLC

Change management

Performance & reward

Broadway Homelessness & Support

Aviva UK Limited

Daisy Group PLC

Bhs

Everything Everywhere Ltd

BSkyB

Kier Building Maintenance

Centrica Energy

NHS Leeds, Leeds Community Health Care and Leeds City Council

HSBC Merchant Services

West Midlands Fire Service

Institution of Civil Engineers

Employee engagement

SME HR Initiative of the year

Centrica Storage Limited

Housing Solutions

DB Regio Tyne & Wear Ltd

People Puzzles Ltd and The Alternative

Hastings Direct

vineHR

McDonald’s Restaurants Screwfix Wm Morrison Supermarket PLC

Talent attraction & management British Gas InterContinental Hotels Group

Excellence through technology

Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council

BSkyB

Santander PLC

Cabot Financial (Europe) Ltd

Warwickshire County Council and Warwickshire Children and Voluntary Youth Services

Infosys Technologies Ltd KPMG with Globoforce

Michael Kelly Oustanding Student Award

The University of Sheffield

Megan Douglas - Lipsy

Unilever and Silverman Research

Jessica Haglington - Rolls-Royce PLC

Health & wellbeing American Express Amnesty International UK City University London

Anna Hobson - Bury Council Jo-Anne Tillie - John Lewis Partnership Rebecca Watson - Total HR Jo Wright - Britvic Soft Drinks PLC

Office Depot UK Ltd Police Service of Northern Ireland Yorkshire Ambulance Service

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BT is proud to be the headline sponsor of the CIPD People Management Awards 2011

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BT is one of the world’s leading providers of communications solutions and services operating in 170 countries. Its principal activities include the provision of networked IT services globally; local, national and international telecommunications services to our customers for use at home, at work and on the move; broadband and Internet products and services and converged fixed/mobile products and services. In 2010/11, BT’s revenues were £20 billion, delivering profits and free cash flow ahead of expectations for the year. Free cash flow nearly trebled compared with two years ago.

BT’s HR vision is ‘People experts at the heart of change’. BT’s HR model consists of: HR business partners, who drive and develop people solutions and change programmes working closely with senior line managers; centres of expertise with specialist teams that develop policy, process, solutions and services in key specialisms such as reward, diversity, talent, leadership, development, performance and employee relations; and HR transactional services, managed by a third party, enable BT’s in house HR professionals to focus on strategic, high value, activities.

In addition, BT has implemented global self serve channels which line managers and employees use. These include: BT People System: absence recording and recruitment and retrieval of employees’ personal data, for example, ‘Ask HR’: an online search facility providing answers to thousands of people-related topics and queries and ‘Peopleline’: a telephone enquiry service that BT employees may call. www.btplc.com

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OVERALL WINNER Amey

Amey is this year’s Overall Winner and winner of the Building HR capability category.

With dramatic and continued growth in employee numbers – largely through TUPE – Amey’s HR team had been forced to admit that its capability development had been neglected in favour of dealing with hereand-now issues. The function followed cumbersome, manual processes and had to get to grips with 4,000 job titles and an unknown number of people managers. It had little control over the large number of temporary agency workers employed, while its shared service centre had not been well received.

The team identified that in order to fulfil Amey’s aim of achieving revenue in excess of £2.5bn by 2015 – £1bn more than today – HR must become a key driver in the business. Its mission was clear: to transform into a strategic function that developed capability, worked collaboratively and was aligned to business priorities.

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An important step towards greater collaboration came from bringing together centres of excellence and shared service teams, along with increased interaction and movement across the business. A specialist bidding and TUPE team was established and the number of job titles cut to 450.

Communication with line managers was improved through, among other things, an intranet, regular updates and telephone support, and a self-service system was also rolled out. The HR team have seen improvements in their own working lives, too, with CIPD competencies mapped to roles, clear career paths and succession plans increasing promotions, and opportunities to be sponsored through the CIPD qualification.

The business results are, by any measure, extraordinary.

HR costs have been reduced by £1.6m per annum and organisational restructuring has saved £15m in overhead employee costs, while legal costs have been cut by 40 per cent per annum and temporary labour spend reduced by £0.7m in 2011. The good news doesn’t end there, though; last year Amey achieved a 5% increase in profit, despite client spend reductions and, as a lower cost organisation, it is able to pass on savings through reduced pricing for new work.

Judges commented that the “down-to-earth, gritty” entry exhibited “such good practice that was where the innovation was. The inspiration was there and the implementation was clear.” They praised the practicality and clarity of the career pathway, strategic framing, commercial focus and integration of services, noting that it would appeal to organisations in other sectors. Amey had, concluded the Judges, “completely redesigned the HR structure and philosophy in a go-ahead way which is commercially successful in an industry badly hit by the recession”.

“Amey had completely redesigned the HR structure and philosophy in a go-ahead way which is commercially successful in an industry badly hit by the recession” THE JUDGES

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Change management West Midlands Fire Service The service had become increasingly aware that it faced barriers to diversity: almost three-quarters of its staff are white male, with women and people from black and minority ethnic (BME) groups underrepresented. Nationally, only 3.1% of operational fire fighters are women, falling to just 1% for senior positions, with a similar rate among staff from ethnic minorities.

The organisation recognised that a ‘paradigm shift’ in employee culture was necessary in order to deliver better organisational outcomes – including in its relationships with groups within the wider community that it served – and improve recruitment and retention rates among women and BME groups.

Internally, the equality and diversity team was restructured so that it promoted core values and behaviours, rather than its previous negative role of ‘policing’ fairness and equality. Training was revamped and a programme of diversity events – including an International Women’s Day conference and a celebration of Black History Month – initiated.

Externally, extensive community engagement initiatives sought to raise awareness, especially within high-risk groups such as the Roma Gypsy community. These included education programmes, community events and innovative advertising methods.

Recruitment rates among women and black and minority ethnic groups have improved. In 2006 just 4% of recruits were women, but this increased to 20% in 2009, while over the same period recruitment from black and minority ethnic groups increased from 10.3% to 17.5%.

The Judges noted that the service’s approach “has involved not only their internal culture but very much engaging with the external stakeholders and local community needs”. The “targeted and innovative strategy”, based on a strong and clearly defined business case, had “ultimately saved lives”.

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Employee en ngagement DB Regio Tyne & Wear Ltd The creation last year of a brand-new company to manage the Tyne & Wear Metro light rail concession, coupled with the challenge of integrating a Tupe workforce of more than 500, prompted DB Regio Tyne & Wear to develop the ‘My Metro’ engagement programme – so called to help promote a sense of ownership.

A key strategy was to use internal facilitators without a training background to deliver the programme and empower their colleagues to contribute their ideas to the new business, while cross-department collaboration was also encouraged. ‘My Metro’ incorporated a one-day programme for all employees, while managers underwent a two-day programme that focused on developing core management skills.

While some participants were negative initially, this was often reversed through the participation process. The delivery team noted that “part of the joy was seeing someone begin the day being vocally cynical and by the end of the day leading the group presentations.”

The initial programme has developed further to include recognition and suggestion schemes and a newsletter, while internal facilitators are flourishing in expanded roles. Staff satisfaction levels have increased, with over 90 per cent agreeing that they support and contribute to the organisation’s vision, and retention and sickness rates have improved. ‘My Metro’ has also been incorporated into the induction programme, making the vision clear to employees right from the start of their career with DB Regio Tyne & Wear.

The entry, said the Judges, displayed an “impressive scale of success” considering the obstacles generated by Tupe; indeed, the organisation had “worked some sort of miracle”. There was “strong listening, transparency and honesty” as well as “complex and good stakeholder management”.

Judges were also impressed by the use of ‘home-grown’ facilitators: “The huge delivery challenge was met by putting engagement at the heart of everything they did.”

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Excellenc ce th hro ough technolog gy Unilever and Silverman Research Unilever has 1,800 international assignees (IAs): employees who move from their home country to work for the business in another country. Following negative reaction to its revamped compensation and support package for IAs, the multinational embarked on a policy review. In order to glean employees’ opinions, an innovative online research tool – Opinion Space – was developed by Unilever and specialist employee research company Silverman Research, using social media elements and the latest data visualisation technology. This enabled the company to ‘crowdsource’ for suggestions.

The use of IA ‘champions’ helped to ensure participant buy in, with a response rate of just over 50% – much higher than previous rates of around 20% and with significantly lower associated costs. As well as enabling participants to judge their position in relation to others, they could also interact with and rate the suggestions of their fellow IAs, and ‘let off steam’ in a reassuringly anonymous environment.

A key challenge was persuading senior leaders to ‘let go’ and accept that they could not control the comments of participants and that, ultimately, it was better to hear negativity internally rather than externally. In fact, not one inappropriate comment was reported.

Participants found the process engaging and valued having the opportunity to share their feelings and experiences. As a result of the findings, Unilever is planning and implementing policy changes.

The Judges were impressed with the level of innovation that “turned conventional wisdom on its head”. The technology harnessed “a new way of thinking and conceptualising that really represents the essence of diversity”.

The project was, concluded the judges, “groundbreaking and game changing – not just for the technology they used but for the profession”.

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Healtth & wellb bein ng Police Service of Northern Ireland In line with the chief constable’s vision of having the most personal, professional and protective police service in the world by 2012, the Police Service of Northern Ireland set about mirroring this external brand value in the way that its employees are treated.

Drawing on government policy, the service developed its ‘Wellbeing’ project, encouraging culture change by empowering line managers to manage the wellbeing of themselves and their team. Over 18 months, face-to-face training was delivered to 1,200 line managers to give them time, support and training to prepare them to take on new responsibilities.

The project also established effective partnerships with other organisations in Northern Ireland. Together with employers including the University of Ulster and Northern Bank, a best-practice hub was established, alongside a cancer support association with input from local partners.

Initiatives have been carried out at strategic, management and individual levels and include 24-hour employee telephone support, ‘health patrol’ lifestyle assessments and a cycle-to-work scheme which has enjoyed a 25 per cent uptake, with more than 2,000 bicycles issued. Almost 800 circuit, weight management and back care classes have been held, the wellbeing hub’s website has received nearly 13,000 hits, and staff can now enjoy rapid access to physiotherapy.

As a result of the project, which will run until next year, sickness absence in 2009-10 was the lowest of any public sector organisation in Northern Ireland.

Wellbeing is now embedded within the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

The entry had, noted the Judges, “clear alignment to organisation vision and values”. The strong stakeholder support and engagement was welcomed, as was the use of “comprehensive and impressive toolkits”. Judges also commended the clear cost-benefit measurement and benchmarking, as well as the way that the integrated approach incorporated leadership and management capability.

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Organisatio onal le earn ning Wm Morrison Supermarket PLC The company’s accelerated leadership programme formed part of its strategic vision, launched in 2010, to “become different and better than ever”.

Through the programme, senior managers had a two-pronged role to fulfil: to lead the supermarket forward and to prepare themselves to become future executive directors.

The entrepreneurial focus encouraged the managers to try out innovations in the very public setting of branches. These included exploring new shopfloor layouts and identifying new categories to satisfy customer demand; making Morrisons the destination of choice for fresh food through the creation of an exciting, sensory shopping experience; and trialling time-saving initiatives.

Since the initiative began, the supermarket has seen increased sales in fresh foods and the roll-out of the ‘garden centre’ concept to 30 branches; the liberation of 11% of space; and the roll-out of a range of other initiatives that are expected to save £20m in 2011-12. In terms of personal career progression, a number of key promotions have taken place, including a new group retail director (designate) who began his career with Morrisons in 1980 on the shopfloor – illustrating how talented people can journey from there to the ‘top floor’ – as well as several other participants moving to director level.

Judges were impressed with the way that a relatively small programme had “driven a disproportionately large scale of change and innovation in the business”. There was, they said, a “very clear and direct link between the development initiative and the critical need in the business to continue to drive its partially complete transformation.” They were impressed with the “focus on using real, business-critical experiments – big bets for the business – as a vehicle for developing its leaders”.

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Performanc ce and rew ward Institution Of Civil Engineers As part of its reward philosophy, the Institution set out to close its two pension schemes and establish a new one that was fairer to all employees, reduced costs and provided more benefits. The Institution’s defined benefit pension closed to new members in 2002, with subsequent new employees joining a trust-based defined contribution scheme. Many complained about the unfairness of the one pension scheme over the other – a situation exacerbated by the finding that a general lack of understanding was preventing around 40% of employees from joining.

In order to better inform staff of how the pension scheme operated, all employees received one-to-one, expert advice. Thanks to the education initiative, an astonishing 94% of staff report that their pension knowledge has improved. Almost 75% of employees are now in the pension – an increase of 25% – while the average employee contribution has increased and is well above the average for the not-for-profit sector.

While the implementation of the new scheme was not easy – involving the complicated business of closing the two existing pensions and establishing a new one – the results speak for themselves. Overall, significant savings were made. Pension contributions were reduced by 18 per cent, with further savings in employers’ national insurance, and administration costs are expected to fall by £100,000 per year.

Subsequent savings were ploughed into group income protection cover, life assurance and private medical insurance. Sixty-two per cent of members said that these benefits would have some impact if they were offered employment elsewhere, demonstrating their significant role as a retention tool.

The Institute had, said judges, “demonstrated creativity and a real understanding of what managing diversity and inclusion mean”. This was “a really good example of involving change management in a really difficult area, in a not-for-profit business and in difficult times”.

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SME HR in nitiattiv ve of the year vineHR The county area of Essex has one of the largest concentrations of local authorities in the UK, including one county council, two unitaries, districts and boroughs. Through its strategic HR partnership, local authorities worked collaboratively to deliver leadership and management development programmes, an e-learning platform, recruitment contracts, training and apprenticeship schemes, as well as achieving impressive savings through joint contracts for suppliers and services.

This was taken a step further this year with the creation of not-for-profit company vineHR, formed by the HR heads of all 15 local authorities in Essex.

Forming a company is an innovative model for delivering human resources in the public sector and has taken the authorities’ collaboration to a new level, providing a solid foundation for moving to shared services in HR and to deliver services more cost effectively.

Naturally, the formation of a company within the public sector has not been without its challenges. These have included resistance from other departments who have to adapt their ways of working, as well as the financial challenges of supporting the company in the current difficult economic environment. In addition, working within a dynamic political environment has meant careful negotiation with various interests.

The collaboration has developed the management and leadership skills of more than 200 managers, ensuring cohorts work together across the county sharing good practice, while savings of over £200,000 have been made on management development alone in the last 18 months, as well as £700,000 on other collaborative projects.

This was, said the Judges, “a great example of true innovation in HR” where “collaboration is clearly evident in creating an exciting future”. One judge went as far as to comment that the entry “blew my mind in terms of what HR can do when you pool resources and break down barriers”.

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Talent attrractio on & man nagement Warwickshire County Council and Warwickshire Children and Voluntary Youth Services In a joint initiative, the two organisations gained funding from the Children’s Workforce Development Council to create a two-year workforce development programme, to focus on the future needs of the sector, building capabilities and new approaches to workforce development, organisational development and youth work across the organisation.

Underpinned by the Department for Children, Schools and Families’ 10-year strategy, this included establishing a strategic approach to CPD delivery, integrating HR processes and protocols, developing career pathways, improving partnership working and promoting shared learning. Funding enabled the creation of 30 advanced apprenticeships in youth work, community safety and youth justice, while 25 practitioners undertook foundation degrees and graduates working towards post-graduate qualifications were sponsored.

A communications strategy was established, which included stakeholder briefings, workshops, adverts, recruitment and development days, ongoing articles and networking events to aid ongoing promotion, development and evaluation of the programme.

The ever-present threat of funding cuts – and their effect on staff morale – was overcome, and relationships across Warwickshire and neighbouring local authorities were strengthened. The programme also embedded an understanding of the benefits of integrated processes and protocols and created a thirst for learning and development.

Judges praised the programme’s role in improving morale and skills at an uncertain time; it was clearly linked to benefits for service users and was an “example of HR being at its proactive best”. The continual evaluation of strategy and evidence of key learning factors was also praised, as was the project’s commitment to “changing perceptions around the profession and focusing on values and vocation”.

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Michael Kelly y Outtstanding g Student Award Jessica Haglington Despite its desire to recruit internally, Rolls-Royce’s global supply chain, planning and control function had been struggling to find suitable candidates. This problem, coupled with employee survey results showing poor scores in learning and development, professional development, talent development and functional identity, led Jessica Haglington to establish the internal ‘My Future’ programme.

The series of one-day global talent events – replicable and scalable according to population size – examined personal barriers and motivators, as well as introducing participants to the career stories of high-profile employees. This was followed by a large-scale jobs fair, designed to showcase the diverse opportunities available in the function, which provided valuable networking opportunities with influential decisionmakers to discuss potential job openings. Following this, employees could attend a ‘Moving Forward’ event, a voluntary mutual assessment centre that aimed to examine the trainability gap between employees’ current experience and their desired future role.

As a result of the programme, there was an increased interest in job opportunities, generating a higher quality and quantity of applicants.

External recruitment was reduced and a stronger sense of functional identity was achieved. There was also a significantly greater uptake of educational opportunities, supporting the organisation’s aim to create a high-performance culture.

Jessica’s achievements are all the more impressive given the personal challenge she faced. During the pilot stage, knee surgery meant that she was housebound and unable to walk for eight weeks. Undeterred and committed to see through the tight timescales, she utilised remote technology to keep the programme on track.

The Judges commented that this “well-executed project with global reach” showed strong evidence of meeting business needs and was “a clear example of ‘insight-led HR”, with Jessica’s CIPD studies informing the project throughout. “The candidate is an outstanding example of an emergent HR professional,” they concluded.

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Previous Winners 2010

Nampak Plastics Europe Limited

2009

Pace PLC

2008

Kier Building Maintenance

2007

Network Rail

2006

BUPA Care Homes

2005

Kwik-Fit Financial Services

2004

Liverpool North Area Merseyside Police

2003

BMW Group Plant Oxford

2002

The Defence Aviation Repair Agency (DARA)

2001

Vertex 2000 Pindar Set

1999

Littlewoods

1998

MD Foods

1997

Heathrow Express

1996

Redland Bricks

Could you be an Award winner in 2012?

To receive details of how to enter or sponsor next year’s awards, please email: lindsay.mcclenaghan@redactive.co.uk

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