The client
A charitable trust which oversees the management, hire and maintenance of its local community space. The facility is managed on a day-to-day basis by a small team of employees and is overseen by a board of voluntary trustees.
The brief
The Managing Director (MD) recognised that the management team was not operating as effectively as it could have been and that this was having a negative impact on productivity and staff morale. Her assessment was that that these challenges were linked to a lack of clarity around role responsibilities and different working styles in the management team.
Henry & Harris Partnership was asked to partner with the management team to explore what was limiting their performance and identify changes that could increase their productivity and allow the team to develop and function as a high performing team.
The solution
Using our ‘Partner, Transform, Deliver’ approach, we worked closely with the MD and her team to look at their business from a fresh perspective. We began with a contracting conversation which ensured we created a safe environment for the team to voice their current concerns and challenges in a constructive way. We then provided a framework to help the team develop a strategy for working together more effectively.
We delivered a bespoke workshop to enable attendees to share their thoughts and feelings honestly with a positive focus on how they could collaborate more successfully. This included reviewing how they were currently working and identifying structures and processes that needed adapting.
We supported this with targeted mentoring for relevant team members and day-to-day HR support to help the trust implement the changes we had identified to improve its performance.
The arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic had the potential to seriously impact the trust’s ability to operate a viable business, and to undermine the positive changes we had instigated. It was therefore essential we worked in partnership with the CEO to provide strategic guidance to steer the trust through extremely challenging circumstances. With our support, they were able to implement furlough, reduced working hours and redundancy where appropriate to help maintain efficiency and keep the business operational.
The benefit
Our structured approach to identifying and solving the challenges within the management team has led to a significant improvement in performance and team development. A subsequent staff satisfaction survey found that employee morale significantly improved with employees feeling listened to, empowered and more efficient.
Through our close collaboration we enabled the trust to take proactive steps to navigate Covid-19 as effectively as possible, protecting this important community asset and ensuring it is in a position of strength for the future.
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