How to build a profitable business based on Servant Leadership
‘Can the employee and employer serve each other for the greater good – while still being a profitable business?’, asked Simon Lawson in his Masters dissertation. And at Lawsons, a family business that supplies building materials to the London area, Simon has achieved that.
Louise Beardmore: Building Connected Service Through Engaged Employees
Building Connected Service Through Engaged Employees Louise Beardmore is passionate about people, her customers, colleagues and staff. Not only does Louise value people, but she also does everything she can to understand people. Louise recognises how workplaces have changed over the years and that the days of command and control are happily no more. She says: “People want to be respected, valued, heard. I am not going to do what you tell me to do. I want you to treat me like a human being. I think human resources is the worst name in the world for HR. Human resources, human remains. I am a human being. Don’t call me a human resource. Stop counting and make me count. I love that.” Louise talked at the 2017 Happy Workplaces Conference about the value of employee engagement: “Increase your employee engagement, improve your customer service.For me the correlation between employee engagement and customer service is huge.” In order to improve engagement Louise decided to work with David McLeod and Nita Clarke at Engage for Success where she learnt the four behaviours of highly engaged organisations: Clear strategic narrative, engaging line managers, employee voice and integrity. In this video, Louise explains what each of these behaviours looks like, how they were put into action at United Utilities and the astonishing results that came from investing in and engaging with the workforce. “In the last 12 months, taking over a customer service operation – I deal with about 85,000 customer interactions every single week. My employee engagement levels have gone up to 91% in the last year and my customer service is the most improved in the sector. We have reduced written complaints by 50%. I have done absolutely nothing to invest in that horror called technology. All I have done is invested in my people and empowered them to do some things that are different.” About the speaker: Louise Beardmore Louise spoke at the 2017 Happy Workplaces Conference held on 14th June 2017 at etc.venues Norton Folgate in London. Working for the United Utilities Group as Customer Services Director, Louise has held a number of senior positions at North West Water, Norweb Plc, Vertex and United Utilities, leading business in Operations, Customer Services and HR both here in the UK and internationally for a number of utility and retail brands. Prior to her current role, Louise was Head of Business Transformation for United Utilities, managing all aspects of transformation across the Group driving people, process and technology changes to improve service and drive efficiency. Louise is a huge advocate of the power of employee engagement to drive improved customer service and is a Non-Executive Director of Engage for Success as well as a Vice President of the Institute of Customer Service. You can connect with Louise on LinkedIn here and you can tweet to United Utilities @uugroupplc.
The Happy Manifesto: A ‘Pisstaker’s Charter’?
In this short video, Brendan O’Keefe of Epic CIC explains about some of the difficulties he had at Epic CIC when first implementing The Happy Manifesto principles of a culture based on autonomy, trust and freedom.
John Housego: On WL Gore and its Trust-Based Leadership
W.L.
Gore
is known for its innovation in technology and engineering – their most famous product being the waterproof, breathable Gore-Tex fabrics. But they have also been listed on Fortune magazine’s 100 Best Companies to Work For since 1984 due to their value and trust-based culture, comprised of small teams.
In this twenty minute video, John Housego explains what makes W.L. Gore’s award-winning culture so special.
Simon Perriton: How Just IT Helps People to Work at Their Best
Simon Perriton is a long-term friend of Happy, and his company Just IT has just ‘done the double’ – it’s just been in the
Sunday Times ‘Best Workplace’ lis
Simon explains in this talk (just shy of 13 minutes) how he has transformed his organisation into a happy workplace and increased profits over the last six years by helping his staff to work at their best.
Andy Copsey, COO, Handelsbanken: the UK’s Fastest Growing Bank
Andy Copsey is the Chief Operating Officer of Handelsbanken in the UK, where he has overseen the bank’s unprecedented growth following the financial sector crisis in 2008.
Julian Birkinshaw from London Business School: Bureaucracy, Meritocracy and Adhocracy
In this talk from the 2015 Beyond Budgeting Conference, Julian Birkinshaw approached the principle of Beyond Budgeting from a slightly different angle. The London Business School academic began by forecasting past the information age into what he grudgingly termed the ‘Agile age’. In the second half, Julian’s focus turned to the three models of organising – bureaucracy, meritocracy and adhocracy.
Jesper Krüger on Driving Performance at AP Moller Maersk
Jesper Krüger is Head of Group Performance and Analysis at AP Moller Maersk.
Jesper’s Performance and Analysis team is responsible for driving the company’s short-term and long-term planning cycles, and for analysing, tracking and challenging the performance of business units within the APMM Group against their strategic ambitions.
The team supports the Group and BU decision-making process by providing value-add analysis, financial management information, performance management reporting and financial planning.
Yvonne Agyei, Head of Benefits, Google
Yvonne Agyei, of Google, took time while at the recent Happy Workplaces conference to tell us about the benefits structure within Google, and how Google creates happy, healthy staff.
