Case Study
Industry: Facilities Management
Company Size: 30 - 50
Challenge: Growth
We were engaged to support a family-run business in the Facilities Management sector as they scaled from 30 employees to 50 following successfully securing a number of high-profile contracts.
The Challenge:
The company had grown organically over a number of years and day-to-day management of the business had largely been passed to the second generation of the family.
Up to this point, there had been a focus on traditional management practices which tended to be informal and personality-based.
There was an acceptance that there needed to be a change as morale was low and there was many conflicts which was largely unaddressed until it escalated into a dispute which resulted in a number of people leaving the organisation under difficult circumstances.
There was little by way of formal HR structures and responsibility for operational human resources rested with the Finance Manager. In recent times a number of people had left the organisation and this had led to recruitment challenges.
Our Approach:
We decided that we needed to hold semi-structured interviews in the first instance with all members of management and other key roles so we could understand more about the organizational structure, its culture, and the level of competence within the management team. We also set up an online survey where team members included their views. The following areas were highlighted;
No clear roles and responsibilities
Irregular team meetings with no clear agenda and actions
Culture of distrust where conflict is not addressed openly
Low levels of people management competence
Our Solution:
Our appointment as an external HR Partner to support the management team including the Finance Manager who was responsible internally for HR and the CEO. This retained arrangement meant they could book in consultations when issues arose or advice was needed and regular quarterly review meetings could take place.
Management Team workshop, focus on building trust and having more open conversations to handle conflict positively. This was done using the Core Strengths SDI 2.0 psychometric tool to improve communications.
We designed a project where all role holders updated their job descriptions with their manager and this was then reviewed by the senior management team
People managers were upskilled through a combination of training delivered online and management coaching to ensure these skills were properly embedded into their roles
The Impact:
Having a trusted HR partner allowed the CEO and the senior management team to focus on running the business rather than getting bogged down with people issues which had become a major drag on time.
The team performed much better as they only met at scheduled times and reduced the amount of time they spent on communications outside of this except in cases of emergencies or for a scheduled check-in. There is now a clear agenda and action points following the management team meetings and clear decisions are taken and implemented.
Managers became much more skilled at holding regular one to one meetings with their direct reports. These lasted for 30 minutes and followed a rough outline so preparation could be done before and the meeting itself could be focused.