Talent Centric
PEOPLE-FOCUSED LEADERSHIP
business is going and their role in it. And
every other Friday, Bennett holds a ‘Big
Red Sofa’, broadcast live to the whole
company, inviting people to give honest
feedback. Members of the executive
team act as ‘sponsors’ for groups across
the organisation.
“I look after south London plumbers,”
explains Bennett. “We’ll socialise
ocasionally; it gives them a chance to tell
us what’s going on.”
Staff are encouraged to feed back
using social platforms; of the 3,000 UK
staff, 2,700 are active on Yammer, says
Bennett, while there’s an ‘engineers’
venting lounge’ where employees can
highlight what doesn’t work. HomeServe
also runs biannual engagement surveys.
“One showed staff didn’t feel there were
enough learning opportunities, so we
looked at that,” he says. “We’re growing
our own people, including apprentices.”
1
2 Have a clear strategy, goals and values that inspire your
people and are relevant to their work and aspirations.
3 B uild a culture of mutual support and trust where people
understand the value of their contribution, and are
encouraged to recognise a job well done.
4 Keep the conversation going; be engaged, be real and be
there for them.
I nvest time in talking with your people about strategy,
making it a two-way conversation and creating
joint ownership.
“Our people come first,
customers second and
shareholders third”
HomeServe’s latest survey showed
engagement at 82%, superseding the
aspiration to pass 80%; some 95% of
employees agreed they were clear what
HomeServe is trying to achieve.
Core behaviours
Enhancing engagement has involved
staff identifying five key behaviours – or
people promises – and modelling these
across the business .
While Bennett acknowledges that
identifying behaviours is the easy part,
compared with influencing them, he is
keen to make them part of the company’s
culture. “The performance review is
about demonstrating the behaviours –
we only promote or give pay rises based
on this.”
Meanwhile, Bennett is clear that his
own leadership style is characterised by
authenticity: “You can only lead in the
way that’s true to you or people will see
through it. I’m surrounded by people
who are much better at their job than I
could ever be, so trusting people to get
on is key.”
He recognises the need to build the
right talent and how this contributes
to the aim of becoming the top home
assistance company, with 3 million
customers by 2020. “It’s a real talent
game at the moment. That’s what will
get us to the top spot.”
Issue 1 - 2017
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