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that their people should feel fulfilled, whatever their role and that, even in the very largest of firms, everyone feels that they are contributing to its success. The bottom line is, everyone is important! It’s from this vantage point, that our Ignite programme kicked off. The company’s vision became linear and simple: Our organisation is a people business, that should be known for providing a critical, world class service to its customers. Therefore, we needed to be better organised and well equipped internally - both in terms of the quality of conversations that were taking place and for the potential disruption of digitisation. The quality of service would be the challenge, the opportunity and the personal reward for everyone, not just about the promise of a pay cheque. The aim was, to encourage and drive the personal development and growth of all employees with the mantra “more than a job, but a vocation”.
So, it was from this crucible of thought and belief that Ignite came into being and, two years on, it’s been at the centre of the planning strategy right from day one. The reason it’s been successful is that right from the start, we’ve ensured that this was a piece of collaborative working, in which all colleagues truly believed, were engaged in and acted upon. The foundations are our five core values: Customer First - put yourselves in the customer’s shoes: One Team - Regardless of geographical border, position or role, all employees work together: High Performing - the company celebrates internal success: Personally Accountable - Each individual owns the outcome and speaks up to improve the company: And Trust & Integrity - always do the right thing even if nobody can see. Such key values are little good if all they are is words. They must permeate everything employees do. This must also factors in how you conduct performance reviews; how you recruit employees and how you develop people. For instance, we have instituted an academy course for Service Excellence and Developing Leaders, which has proved to be truly effective and sustainable. So, by striving to put values at the heart of our operations, we have striven to ensure that both the business and its people are driven by values. In that sense the values are symbiotic.
But we haven’t just stopped and stood back to admire our handywork! On the success of Ignite - in particular the success of collaborative working, we have launched
a further initiative called RISE designed to engage our people and support the positive workplace culture across the organisation. Myself and my colleagues on the executive committee were truly impressed with the initiatives so far and it was agreed that to truly capitalise on the positives, we could see that committing to a significant investing in the company’s leadership is key, so the company has invested £1m in a bespoke UK Team Leader development programme. The programme is designed to improve the capabilities and coaching of all team leaders. We identified key influencers within each department and worked with them to identify which behaviours drive the right people and business outcomes. The programme is being rolled out to over 120 frontline managers in; Brighton, Bedworth and Nottingham, throughout all our call centre sites. These initiatives are underpinned by our cultural blueprint and marks an innovatively collaborative stage for the business, through the investment in our managers. Cumulatively, we are totally convinced that these initiatives
about the bottom line - profits do matter. But what we have found after surveying our people again is, far more said they felt engaged and that translated to productivity and ultimately success. That speaks volumes and puts the investment and effort into perfect focus.
It’s imperative that
organisations really do believe that their people should feel fulfilled, whatever their role and that, even in the very largest of firms, everyone feels that they are contributing to its success. The bottom line is,
everyone is important!
It was Blackrock’s Larry Fink who wrote about the role of purpose and how it is inextricably linked to profit and that’s what we are constantly working towards. If we can achieve this purpose, then together with Ignite and RISE, the company can achieve meaningful and long lasting positive cultural change. But it’s not just empty words. We're serious about overhauling its practices and strategy to achieve tangible and dramatic cultural change. Of course, with all new corporate strategies and initiatives, there is often a disconnect between the Board and those below Board level. This is not the case in our organisation; the CEO and Executive Board have been extraordinarily enthusiastic sponsors of Ignite and have ensured that there has been engagement at every level of the company. Management buy-in is fundamental and the Board took soundings from dozens of focus groups prior to Ignite’s and RISE’s execution, ensuring that the language eventually chosen resonated with all of D&G’s people. This wasn’t a case of top down; but a balanced relationship, which took time to craft, ensuring the intention behind that language was agreed upon. This was very much a co-creation. Ultimately, the Board’s support ensured that every team and initiative within the D&G family was looked at within the parameters of the company’s key values and that each element of the business aligned itself to the values programme.
•
will continue building and strengthening the company’s cultural and commercial aspirations. What’s most important in our mindset is an understanding that it’s not all about money. It would be disingenuous to suggest that D&G is not a business that cares
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DECEMBER 2019 | thehrdirector | 43
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