A recent survey revealed that the career expectations of Generation Y is markedly different to the Baby Boomer generation, on average, they will change jobs eight times before the age of forty. This makes planning and managing career development very difficult for employers and poses a number of challenges. Julia Edmonds, Managing Director at Lexington, discusses how Lexington approach the development of their people.
Henry Ford famously said, “The only thing worse than training your employees and having them leave is not training them and having them stay.” This is something that every business should take on board. Whilst we recognise that it cannot promote everyone, and it is inevitable that some employees will move on to roles outside the organisation, training and development is at the heart of our culture.
At Lexington we specialise in catering, andour business is all about the people, whom we rely on to reflect our brand and values but also to innovate and offer ideas. It’s they who will help deliver the best possible experience to our customers and therefore it is up to us to ensure they have access to the training and development they need to be the best that they can be. Our clients also value our approach to training and development – they can rely on our people to deliver outstanding food and service because they feel valued and inspired. By inspiring and engaging our people, we nurture their growth and empower them to achieve their potential. Since formation in 2002, Lexington has grown and we now have a team of over 650 people in and around London, a turnover of £31 million and a labour turnover of only nine percent. Developing people at all levels within the business has not only created great opportunities for ‘home grown’ talent to flourish but also create a sense of belonging, which in turn results in a more committed and loyal team. We have designed a training and development strategy to ensure everything we do is aligned with the needs of our people, whilst supporting our business objectives. This approach touches each stage of the employee journey, in terms of attracting the right people in the first place, people who are aligned to our values, making sure we do all we can to develop their skills, support their aspirations, and retain them as they progress throughout their career.
We offer extensive training and development, and our ethos is to primarily recruit for character and train for skill, wherever possible. We recognise that in order to attract top talent we need to be engaging with young people before they even enter the workplace, and work hard to get everyone across the business, including clients, to understand the importance of engaging and creating opportunities for young people. We do this in a variety of ways including: Apprenticeship programme; graduate programme; work placements (Internships); young enterprise competitions and work-related activities. We also do talks on careers in catering and hospitality and a Springboard Ambassadors programme. Our formal graduate and apprenticeship programmes are well recognised in the industry and supported with learning and professional qualifications by the likes of West London University and the Institute of Hospitality.
We offer a wide range of learning and development, from bespoke, bite-size training sessions and development centres to more personalised mentoring and job swaps, in addition to our formal graduate development programme and apprenticeship scheme. This training covers a wide spectrum of topics. Collaboration is paramount in the success of our business and very much a part of our learning culture we encourage our people to share their knowledge and learn from one another. We create forums to exchange ideas which encourage people to question, inspire, challenge and provoke each other. We rely on employees to support each other. It is this that encourages inspiration, supports growth and pushes us to make ourselves and our business better. We proritise time to make sure everyone, particularly managers, understand the importance of sharing information and supporting each other through learning, right from the very top down. Our approach to learning and development and commitment from managers ensures we support people in their current role while inspiring them to reach their full potential. Once people join us, we give them an amazing welcome and they then receive a thorough Induction Programme which encompasses our ‘Lexy’ values, culture, working together, impressions, customer service and getting along with co-workers. This ‘introduction to Lexington’ is a great way for employees to integrate with the whole business, see how others have progressed, and get a sense of what is required to develop. In addition to our in-house training, we also work closely in partnership with talent management specialists, Purple Cubed, to create and deliver our extensive ‘Training Tree’ – along with tailored training programmes we include mentoring, coaching and regular job-swaps to support people and demonstrate our commitment to their individual development.
We use their industry-leading talent management software called Talent Toolbox, across all Lexington sites, whereby every Lexy employee receives a thorough annual performance appraisal, alongside regular coffee chats with their Manager. The results of these appraisals enable us to look at the big picture and, not only understand what skills we have within the business, but also identify learning needs and aspirations. This way, we know that we’re investing in training and development that our people really want and need. Regularly reviewing employees' progress and finding out what their aspirations are makes sense. The data provided by the software also allows us to measure our peoples’ performance vs. potential and identify who is: aspiring; ready to take on a new job; overdue a move; at risk of leaving or not performing and needs to be managed more closely. This information enables us to succession plan effectively for the year ahead. As a result of development opportunities and careful planning the vast majority of our vacancies are filled by internal candidates creating new opportunities for our own people. It's important to be open about what it takes to progress, because not everyone will want to move up the ladder or have the skills required to do so. We also make it clear about what we expect from managers and leaders so that everyone across the business has the opportunity to assess whether they want to move up the career ladder or they have the skills and experience. As well as being very clear about our values and vision as a business, we have developed ten key core competencies, known as our ‘Leadership DNA’, which have recently been incorporated into the online annual appraisal for all managers. These are: Inspirational; Adaptable; Clear communicator; Bold; Get it right; Nurturing; Results driven; Challenging
Savvy and Creative. These provide direction for individuals who do want to progress within the organisation. Whilst employees may not excel in all of these ten areas, they know what is expected as a leader and we provide mentors/coaches who excel in certain areas to support others. This measurable framework enables managers to identify areas that they need to work on and there is support there to help them hone their skills in all aspects of their work, not just their technical ability. We are in the process of developing our Aspiring Leadership programme. Having this common language and common understanding about our perception of an ‘aspiring leader’ will continue to help establish expectations about how we conduct business, progress as leaders, and lead others.
Our approach to retention focuses specifically on employee development, communication and recognition. These areas are key to ensuring that employees feel a sense of belonging and loyalty to the organization, and this is reflected in our exceptionally low staff turnover rates. There continues to be much debate about whether there is any tangible return to employers from training, often revolving around the relationship between training, skills and productivity but we’ve experienced the benefit first-hand from training to up-skill and re-skill employees. We are bucking the trend when it comes to labour turnover. A report from People 1st – State of the Nation Report 2013 – shows the hospitality sector as a whole loses 20 percent of its total workforce each year due to poor staff retention, however Lexington loses just nine percent on average. Our low staff turnover alone demonstrates the value of our investment in training and development. But there are other measures that also show return on investment, including Employee engagement: Recently we received the three Star Accreditation from Best Companies and made it into The Sunday Times Top 100 Best Mid-sized Companies to Work For List 2014, in which Lexington was recognized for ‘extraordinary’ excellence in employee engagement. Of course all this leads to customer satisfaction and our Clients regularly provide positive feedback about our people, which is the very best feedback any business can hope for, especially in a service-driven industry. It is our people who we rely on to impress customers and drive business performance. Career development and planning must be at the core of what we do. I’d urge every employer to invest in the development of their people – with the right strategy, the return is certainly there.
