talent toolbox™ Story Construction

There has been a loss of confidence and sense of nervousness among employers in the construction industry that has left many businesses cutting back on spending and the Government has put many regeneration projects on hold. This has created huge challenges for the construction industry, as the sheer volume of work has reduced the working environment has naturally become much more competitive.

At Story Construction, profits were down by 3 million last year (2008/9). Despite this loss, founder and chief executive, Fred Story, decided to invest in a web-enabled talent management tool, Talent Toolbox. This tool was designed to transform their annual appraisal, which had historically been done very inconsistently, and generate very robust information. This would help them to gather feedback from employees, assess engagement, find out what employees thought and felt as well as monitor competencies and development areas.

After completing the appraisals Fred found that while the recession was partly to blame for the loss to date, some of it seemed to be down to lack of effectiveness in the business.  Every one in five jobs completed was deemed to be a ‘bad job’. These poorly executed jobs ended up costing as much as Story were making on the good jobs.

Fred says, “No-one was taking ownership for the jobs that were going wrong or losing the business money and structurally there was no real need for them to. Managers didn’t need to bother or worry themselves with the bad jobs because they weren’t being measured on them.”

Communication

It was also clear from the Story Talent Toolbox that many of the underlying problems boiled down to issues with communication.  Feedback showed people delivering on the ground didn’t believe in decisions that were being made by those at the top. This was either because they didn’t understand them or because some of the decisions that were being made, in practice were not the right ones. Fred comments: “Whilst lots of thought was put into the decisions being made, and those carrying out the delivery were being considered, on reflection we realised it was essential to involve the people who were doing the delivery in making the actual decision.”

The work with learnpurple and their award-winning Talent Toolbox product put Fred Story back in touch with the business, helping him refocus and identify structurally where business improvements could be made. Implementing regular formal appraisals and a system for staff to feedback on an ongoing basis has helped create an environment which enables more open discussions. People have really opened up and have the freedom and encouragement to talk about real issues, giving open and honest views. Not just managers saying what they need from staff, but staff can say what they need from their managers.

Restructuring

Once it was established where things could be improved, key areas being communication, and role and responsibility levels, Story was able to tackle the issues head on and restructure.A 20% profit share is now given to each unit.  They are now responsible for running their area as if it were their own business. Head office and Story provide support to the business units. Talent Toolbox helps to identify overall training needs, individual training needs, and allows people to manage their own development.

According to Fred everyone can run a business if they want to, but this requires risk which is something many people do not want or are not willing to take. Story is providing the job security but also offering individuals partial experience of running their own business, in terms of the decision making and profits. The impact

While it is early days, empowering the individual business units is already having a real impact on the business. Story says: “It’s not just the profit or monetary reward that drives employees. Real motivation comes from the fact employees are in control over their own destiny and know that they can make a difference to the business and not everything is controlled by those at the very top.”

Story Construction is showing a much higher level of morale now - despite the economic climate - than when times were good.  Fred puts this down to the improved communication and working structures. It comes back to having meaning and purpose at work according to Story.

He says, “Employees have a sense of pride about their work now and are fighting ‘like hell’ to succeed and get through these difficult times.”

In fact the recession has been somewhat of a rallying point for Story Construction and the threat to the business has helped people bond and triggered changes both in the business and individuals, with individuals showing less complacency and more willingness to pull together to make it work.

Fred Story is as excited now as he was when he started out in the business over 20 years ago and believes there are currently the best opportunities out there, both in terms of buying well-priced land but also attracting top talent into the business. Story is optimistic about the future and is forecasting profits to increase in the region of 70 per cent over the next year.