Case Study

Customer

Small Financial Services Company (30 people; part of a larger Group)

The MD wanted an up to date comprehensive assessment of the business and its culture without too much intrusion to normal operations and with the minimum of up front resource

We used our one day 'friendly' site visit process based upon the Excellence Model structure. We work hard to ensure that we establish a rapport with everyone on site and quickly allay any fears, so that what we are doing is seen as far removed from an 'audit' as possible. This style has been honed over a number of years and gives a pretty accurate picture of the business culture. (Although it is a 'third party' assessment, we will only do one when everyone is aware of our role.)
The client supplied a range of information about the business - business results, structure, products and services, customers, partners, and so on. This did not involve them in significant extra work
Our site visit plan included meetings with key people, focus groups with staff and time enough to 'take in the feel' of the business. This culminated in a day on-site working to our plan
We prepared a Feedback Report which included key themes, strengths and areas for improvement identified both from the site visit and the information reviewed in advance, then presented it back to the management team and helped with prioritisation of improvement actions

The Feedback Report was presented to the whole Management Team and acknowledged as an invaluable input to their plans for the business. It helped to show how well the organisation's activities were aligned to its objectives, as well as giving evidence of the culture
Team members took ownership of improvement projects which came out from the assessment
The staff fed back that the process itself was 'fun' and useful as team-building, so much so that rather than just work on the 3 or 4 key improvements, people took ownership of about a dozen activities! We don't usually suggest this number but the enthusiasm was great - and we do know that all have been delivered successfully now.
Our approach has helped to establish a culture whereby new ideas could be introduced and people could become involved
We also helped to set up a process for improvement team activity and for tracking progress

Preparatory work in refining the specific process to be followed
Analysing the up front information and results in order to produce the site visit plan
Conducting the one day site visit
Production of the Feedback Report, presenting to the Management Team and helping prioritisation