Putting an organisation on the road to a new culture

The Pension Service was changing – from a regionally dispersed network of 540 offices to 28 contact centres, with a plan to reduce further over ten years.

Alasdair led a team tasked with helping leaders articulate the new culture for the future organisation and what tools were needed to bring it all alive.

This team ran a series of senior level interviews and workshops with employees at all levels and, from these, a new ‘target’ culture was defined. They used a quantitative survey to measure the extent to which the current working experience was consistent with the target; then advanced analytics were used to identify the key elements that would help achieve that target.

Over a three-year period the team then focused on helping the client to bring this to life. Two examples of what they achieved are:

1. Developing and implementing approaches to engage employees in the future organisation. This included the scripting and development of DVDs (‘Into our future’) that presented the desired ways of working five years out, and ‘Transformation Zones’ in Pension Centres, with a new look and feel, to enable employees to test new technology and provide feedback to the transformation team. They also took part in leadership and management conferences, and the design of a country-wide recognition event, ‘Thanks to You’, broadcast to all Pension Centres, with celebratory events hosted by board members in four locations.

2. Equipping the change makers in the Transformation Directorate: 250 people were responsible for driving the transformation and it was clear that they needed bespoke help and support to help them drive through the required changes. A ‘capability framework’ was developed, drawing on Professional Skills for Government and Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) competencies. The objective was when these people were successful, and therefore seeking their next challenge, they would be able to share what they had learned, how they had developed and therefore what they had to offer to a future employer – Civil Service or not. The support around this included self-assessment, personal development planning, coaching, ‘practice and build’ sessions and more.

The key to success in this programme was having a small core team, bringing in others with specific skills, as and when required, from external agencies and specialists through to other practice areas.

The transformation programme achieved the targets set by government, and prepared the organisation for its next major challenge, a merger.

The proof of success came from statistics that linked survey results to business measures such as engagement, absenteeism, productivity, customer take-up and satisfaction. For example, one DWP staff survey result, “My performance has improved as a result of skills I have developed in the last 12 months”, rose by 14% in the Transformation Directorate.