Cultural change

Background:
Personal Care / Beauty Industry, US Owned
900 employees across EMEA
Paternalistic/Autocratic
Absence high
Apathy high
Cash rich/successful business
Very little change over the past 15 years

Case for action:
Stable sales over 4 year period - profit stable but low
Overheads in excess of 27% of sales
Downsizing adopted to generate profit levels required by US parent company or training and travel budgets frozen
Significantly increased competition within product categories
Head Office attrition running at 47% reflecting low employee morale main reason for leaving was lack of career progression
New Regional President installed vision and strategic objectives to improve profit and market share growth
HR team devoted little or no time to development, focussing on recruitment and administration
Training budget held by departments and training needs identified ad hoc
No evaluation of training spend or benefits gained to the business

Diagnosis:
Informal discussions with directors, managers and employees
Employee attitude survey information
Focus groups Observing team meetings
Observing employee communication meetings
Reviewed HR deliverables
Reviewed current processes
Analysed benefit of training spend

Findings:
Blame culture
Risk averse
Everyone working within their comfort zone
"This is the way it has always been done"
No accountability
No ownership
Poor communication between departments
Employees not utilising their full potential
HR viewed as an administrative function
Senior Team did not have the skills to lead change
Meetings culture
Decision making was slow and avoided where possible

Approach:
Developed a leadership vision and objectives that proactively supported those of the organisation
Reviewed and integrated the leadership initiatives
Developing leadership at every level became the number 1 business priority
Implemented a simple 3 stage approach
Functional alignment and common working language Stage 1
Cross-functional transferable team membership skills Stage 2
Skills and behavioural development training Stage 3
Underpinned by major re-organisation, changes in responsibilities and job roles

Results:
Within 3 years: Sales per capita increased by 145%
Profit per capita rose 113%
Overheads reduced almost 30%
Employee satisfaction increased from 18% to 81% in 18 months
Volume increased from 50MM to 120MM with reduced headcount
Net profit margin increased from 8% to 14%
Attrition reduced five-fold in 2 years