A little history of Concorde – we are a design & build company set up in 1992 which has developed into a leading design, construction and furnishing business.
The company has flourished with our client list and the services we offer growing but as we grew so did our team, and employees were promoted into managerial positions.
Through 2017/2018 we increased our focus on company culture, bringing in perks and focussing on team building, “away days” and social events to improve morale and retention. We introduced an employee survey to understand what our teams wanted and needed. This identified areas for improvement including communication and leadership. At the start of 2019, following a restructure and a period of growth, it was obvious that major change was required for us to continue to develop & succeed.
During our Investors in People review we discussed this with our advisor and she recommended that, to set strong foundations, we create a leadership charter to act as a guide for our leaders.
So, we worked with our managerial team to develop our company values which to us are really about who we are and what type of business we want to be, and agree what they meant. This and our mission helped form our key skills and desired behaviours for our managers which would then filter down through the team.
For the team to fully understand our company values, we created a “visions and values” booklet which we launched to all team members in conjunction with an awards scheme that rewarded people for demonstrating and embodying the five values and these will now be an annual event.
Our MD played an integral part to show why this change was essential and what it meant to him and the business. The genuine passion he showed helped to communicate why the change is required, how leading by example is key and how this will develop consistency. We had great feedback, and this encouraged us to create other processes using the charter as a base.
The leadership charter, our values and the step change programme are key components of everyday life at Concorde BGW. Forming this cornerstone document and development programme has created ripples of change in other areas of the business. The high standard of the documents promote our value “pride” and have become a talking point with our clients.
Our appraisal process has been reworked and reviews have now been renamed CDR’s (Continuous Development Reviews) to demonstrate that these are not just an annual tick box exercise, we want our people to be learning and growing continuously.
At our Christmas party in 2019 we presented the first of our new annual awards which were very well received, and our MD again reiterated how important they are for the culture and wellbeing of the company. Our “Visions and Values” document will now be issued annually to the team within the company Christmas card to highlight our progression, achievements for the year and communicate clearly the objectives for the following year.
Following the success of the change and development implemented so far and using the momentum and increased desire for change we intend to continue reinforcing our values and applying them to different aspects of our business. They will begin to play a part in our recruitment & interview process, our team inductions and induction packs that are currently being updated as well as within a new mentoring & shadowing initiative which we are working on.
Investors in People celebrates the organisations and people that make work better. That’s why it means so much to us to not only be accredited by Investors in People but to also be shortlisted for the Learning & Development Award. As you can see, we put people at the heart of everything we do and we wouldn’t be where we are today without our wonderful team, clients and the support of friends and family.
