Case study summary: A case study demonstrating how PETA helped Corrigenda Ltd develop the management capabilities of its supervisors with a personalised programme.
Background:
What does the company do?
Corrigenda provides a national and regional Specialist Integrated Facilities Service to its clients, alongside asset management, energy management, capital projects, compliance and professional services. It strives to ensure optimal service through collaborative partnerships grounded in honesty, experience, and the delivery of bespoke services that guarantee best use of client time, energy, and money.
What was the issue that the company was facing?
In October 2021 Corrigenda identified a number of challenges for its supervisor community, recognising that there had been minimal soft skills training provided for them over a number of years. Many of the existing supervisors were relatively new to their roles and were short on people management knowledge, skills, behaviours and experience. It further identified that transition support was key if the supervisors were to deliver in their team management roles, develop as future managers in the business, and remain with Corrigenda to fulfil their potential.
Any programme should blend modular skills and behaviour training with internal business sessions and learning to application emphasis. The desired outcome of any training intervention was threefold around retaining potential, building confident and capable supervisors, and developing well managed high performing teams.
Action taken:
Outline the discussion process with the PETA training consultant to resolve the issue:
Having undertaken an important supervisor learning needs analysis activity where the emphasis was on knowledge about processes and policies, skills such as communication and problem solving, and behaviours in areas like communication and handling challenging conversations, Corrigenda collaborated with PETA with a view to identifying a structured development solution. The analysis outcomes were shared and discussed, and potential training programme content was defined around those gaps presenting themselves from the analysis. Several more meetings involving the Corrigenda Head of HR, PETA Training Consultant and potential programme facilitators took place to ensure the very best solution could be formed, always with the learning needs analysis outcomes at their core.
What was the agreed solution?
A programme was designed to reflect a blend of skills modules, internally delivered knowledge sessions, and learning to application exploration. The skills modules would be delivered progressively over a period of 12 months, interspersed with internal training sessions and group and individual reviews to maintain continuity and focus. Modules would include a range of critical areas including change management, communication, conflict and high-performance teams. A Mental Health First Aid module was also included, and the plan was to open the programme with a great opportunity for all to develop their self-awareness using a psychometric profiling tool.
Ultimately a programme focused on the above was delivered, and continuity was driven by the interspersed sessions between the modules to encourage reinforcement and application of learning, plan personal development activity, and increase awareness of business and HR processes/policies and best practice.
Arguably the most important element of the whole programme was a set of presentations delivered by each delegate in the presence of members of the senior leadership team. This was a great opportunity for individuals to reflect on their learning journey, share successes, and set out their plans to apply skills and behaviours.
Results:
What was the response to the course/s?
The programme was very well received by all, with a 100% response to the questions ‘Would you recommend this course to others?’ and ‘Would you recommend PETA to others?’ Corrigenda were delighted to be able to reflect on a range of positive feedback and are now looking at how individuals can be supported through mentoring to assist with their focus on learning to application. Already a further programme is being considered for a new cohort of supervisors.
Overall the programme was described by delegates as an engaging experience, knowledge expanding, fun, informative, and relevant. Every individual expressed how powerful they found the psychometric self-awareness tool to be, and felt really motivated about beginning to translate things like Transactional Analysis and GROW into their leadership roles.
What was the impact on the business?
As part of the initial learning needs analysis, Corrigenda set out to understand how confident each individual felt in those knowledge, skills and behaviour areas considered critical. This analysis of confidence levels confirmed a number of gaps highlighting an explicit need to address leadership and management behaviours through a focused programme of development.
At the mid-point of the programme confidence levels were analysed again, with a clear and positive uplift emerging. Critically, a further uplift was observed at programme completion and each supervisor was able to express how they planned to translate this increased confidence into positive leadership and management actions.
In the following chart, each block of vertical bars represents a critical area of knowledge, skill, or behaviour. Eight delegates completed the programme and an average of their 1-10 scale responses is shown:
From a business perspective, Corrigenda has expressed how important the programme has been in adding value and assisting efforts to retain its supervisor talent pool. The programme has created a solid foundation for future talent management and an increased appetite for learning and development amongst its supervisor community. The business now plans to focus on monitoring the impact of enhanced leadership and management behaviours following a programme that has achieved all that was hoped for at the outset.
How would you summarise the experience working with PETA?
The following quote was provided by Jo Holes, Head of HR at Corrigenda.
“I worked closely and in collaboration with PETA to deliver a Supervisor Development Programme during 2022. We worked together every step of the way to design and build a programme for supervisors over the course of 12 months to build knowledge, skills and confidence in people management skills. The programme has been a resounding success for us and has helped the delegates to grow in skill and confidence, to then be able to take on more responsibility which has resulted in promotions for a number of them. The programme met our aims and goals and has paved the way for future programmes.
“PETA have been a critical partner through the whole process and together we have delivered the programme. I have been impressed with the collaboration, support, help, challenge and advice they have provided all the way through. The delivery of the courses has received extremely positive feedback from all the delegates. Thank you Jeremy, Claire, Debbie, Andy and Sharon.”