“We planned an extensive programme of staff training which was received with great enthusiasm by our staff, and we were delighted to achieve Investors in People recognition in less than two years”

Company Background

The Benfield Group was established in 1933 by Ken Benfield, then an 18 yearold carpenter. The Group consists of four subsidiaries; Benfield Homes, Fletcher Homes (Shropshire) Limited, Benfield Construction and Cromwell Developments and employs around 80 people in total.

The Benfield Homes subsidiary holds the Investors in People Award and is proud of its heritage and aims to build homes to a consistently, exceptional quality.

It values the principles of customer satisfaction, employee development and the health and safety of its workforce very highly.

The Challenge: Employee Retention

Brian Lord, Managing Director of Benfield Homes, explains the justification for working towards the Standard: "I attended an Investors in People seminar which suggested undertaking a survey to look at our employee satisfaction ratings. We thought this would be a useful exercise and conducted a few surveys around the issue of communications, only to find that there were some gaping holes." He continues: "Perhaps the biggest single issue was that our people didn’t feel they were being engaged in terms of feedback on their performance or being recognised for their skills and talent. Individual managers had informal methods of assessing and coaching skills, but these didn’t apply consistently across the company. The initial survey clearly illustrated these points and made us realise that a formal structure was necessary to achieve consistency."

The company therefore decided to make a firm commitment to Investors in People. They planned an extensive programme of staff training which was received with great enthusiasm by the staff, and they were awarded the Investors in People Standard recognition in less than two years. One of the company’s first tasks had been to establish a formal appraisal system. This has helped in engaging people and making them feel part of a team.

Another improvement was to set up regular company wide and separate monthly team meetings. These have led to a change in the relationship between site and office staff. Prior to this, site managers felt disenfranchised because there had been insufficient communication between the two sides of the business. Since introducing fortnightly site meetings, involving everyone related to a project, site and office staff have built stronger ties and working relationships. Brian comments: “They now feel that they are getting the right level of support and the old ‘us and them’ attitudes have disappeared.”

The Results

Brian continues: "It was particularly difficult to get new members of staff to fit comfortably with our culture. Since achieving the Standard, we have focused on this area and through a combination of training, mentoring and a specially developed competency dictionary, we have found that people fit into the culture of our business much more readily and we retain far more staff."

He says: "The appraisal system has also benefited us unexpectedly by developing succession plans. The process not only gives them more confidence, but also makes them more valuable to the business in the longer term.” He adds: “Many of our staff who might have been overlooked in the past have gone on to develop in ways that have surprised us and them.

There are now clear succession plans for each area of the business and it is rare that someone has to be recruited externally for one of our more senior roles.” For example, one staff member who joined the company as a bricklayer is now a site manager with future potential for senior management. Recently the Benfield Group has scooped one of the most prestigious business awards in the region - the coveted Coventry Telegraph's Business of the Year Award 2006.

Brian has some advice for other companies thinking of working towards the Standard: "I cannot understand why more businesses don’t embrace the Investors in People Standard, especially given the current problems with staff recruitment in our industry.”

He continues: “It is vital to look inside your organisation to see the real talent that lies there. Too many people in the building industry are pre-occupied with doing everything themselves and not delegating to the very people that could make a good business into a great business.”

He finishes: “One quality you must have to succeed is to be a good listener. It’s all about two-way communication and really listening to the ideas and opinions of others, and encouraging people to contribute to the business."