Case Studies

A top 100 public company in a very competitive industry sector. A key sales department responsible for £millions of revenue.

Headcount: 60+

Structure: Director of Sales, Assistant Director, 2x Sales Manager, 14x Team Leaders, 42+ staff.

Original Issue: Director called us in to 'teambuild' as performance had plummeted following a recent restructuring. The churn was very high.

Diagnosis: Meetings with team leaders as well as more senior management did not point to teambuilding as a solution to the performance shortfall.

Director gave permission for a more diagnostic approach to discover the true cause of the problems.

The problem was identified as one sales manager who was bullying the staff. Her style of management reduced Team Leader ownership of their job. Everyone tried to stay safe to avoid blame and ridicule.

This permeated through to front line staff who reduced their performance as Team Leaders looked around for other jobs.

Outcome

This individual was removed from the workplace.

Sales performance more than doubled and was sustained at this higher level as individuals could 'breathe out' and not hold back performance as they had been doing.

Sickness and absence fell.

Cost

The cost for this work was a small percentage of the overall gain.

The cost of recruitment and training fell as more staff were retained.

Several Team Leaders ceased looking for new jobs.

Two Team Leaders dropped stalled grievance cases being pursued through HR.

Sales figures dramatically improved and this was sustained well after the intervention.

A local authority call centre providing 'one stop' phone and walk-in services to residents in a large metropolitan city.

Headcount: 160+

Structure: Director, Head of Call Centre, 3x managers, 13x team managers, 150 staff.

Issue: Head of Call Centre accused of bullying and resigned. Director called us in to assist in taking the service forward effectively.

Diagnosis: The bullying culture was quite deep within the business and had spawned copy cat behaviours at lower levels so that many of the team managers were also bullying.

Our Task:
1. Make sure this never happened again
2. Install an effective culture
3. Improve performance

Outcome

Our task was achieved with tremendous enthusiasm from most Team Managers and staff.

Some team managers left/were moved as a result of the way they were now being managed.

Sickness and absence reduced.

Service levels improved.

Staff churn reduced by 80%