Teaching Personnel case study
Teaching Personnel (TP) is a teacher supply agency. The teacher supply industry is one viewed at best as a necessary evil by the education establishment, often attracting criticism from a sector that is on the whole philosophically opposed to the idea of commercialism. Teaching agencies generally have long been accused of profiteering from teacher shortages, and the view of their service as a “distress purchase”, issues of the quality of staff provided and vetting procedures do little to mitigate this view.
TP, is currently number five in its market. It is young, perceived as “pushy” – and very profitable. TP’s operation is guided by a sophisticated and powerful IT system, and manned by young (the average age is 24) enthusiastic consultants.
The company had ambitious growth targets following an MBO in August 2001 and these appeared to be threatened by a wave of negative media coverage that attacked specific companies and the industry as a whole. TP’s management and the Chairman in particular, felt that action needed to taken to rescue TP’s reputation – and this meant changes inside the company, as well as presenting a good face to the outside world.
Research
This was the first time since its founding that TP had been through an exercise of this kind and as a result, fe3 consulting was able to start with a relatively clean slate.
We began with a broad overview of the market and in-depth discussions with the CEO and Chairman of TP. This was to flush out a series of potential brand values that could be tested with employees, head teachers and supply teachers. In addition, the values, once agreed, would form the basis of a PR brief and a design brief that would lead the way for the external communication programme.
A very short survey was carried out among company employees to gather their views of the strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities for TP, and their views on what they felt the values were currently in the company. This was fed into the workshop to ensure discussion was “grounded” in reality.
Senior management workshop
Once a draft mission, vision, and values were pulled together, we took eight of TP’s senior management team, and put them through their paces, brainstorming, considering the competition and generating discussion on what working at TP was “about”. Fiona Eldridge, chairman of TP, comments:
“It was a fun, but exhausting session. People began to put forward their ideas as the session went on, growing in confidence. It was led very skilfully by fe3 consulting.”
The team came up with the following:
Vision – all the participants agreed that the vision statement should focus on the ultimate user of the TP service - the children – and reflect TP’s specific benefit of providing continuity of service. The vision statement agreed was:
Every child deserves a special teacher every day
The mission, discussed at length with Gavin Donnelly, the CEO, was agreed as:
To be the first choice for teachers,
schools and government by leading in teacher development, customer service and promoting the interests of our teachers.
Values – the group brainstormed core values exhibited by TP people and those attributes most valued by customers and teachers. The following list was agreed:
Rational (features of the service) |
Emotional (benefits for user or provider) |
|---|---|
Professionalism |
Professionalism |
Responsibility |
Care |
Expertise |
Enthusiasm |
Knowledge |
Commitment |
Proposition – or the umbrella promise of what TP will always deliver was agreed as:
Helps you maintain your highest standards.
Testing of the workshop outputs
Once the vision, mission, values and had been developed, it all had to be tested, with teachers, schools and employees. A questionnaire was developed and sent out at the end of January 2002.
The response rate from employees was excellent (65%), and was good from schools (30%). The response rate from supply teachers was poor (less than 15%) and therefore findings from this group were treated with caution.
Key findings from the research showed that TP’s relationship with its schools was overwhelming positive. In addition, schools felt that TP’s proposition was sustainable and achievable. The results also demonstrated that schools wanted an increased level of understanding about their specific school and their needs.
The survey also provided valuable information about the need to disseminate more information about TP’s capability to provide schools with teachers in the long term. It confirmed that the ability for TP to provide cover at very short notice was well understood.
When the survey results from the employees were analysed, a number of issues were highlighted, around communication, reward and recognition, feedback and market information.
Commenting on the research, Gavin Donnelly says:
“Some of the results we were expecting, and some – the external perceptions in particular – were a surprise. The fe3 consulting report and recommendations gave us evidence and confirmation of our views, as well as a new take on others.”fe3 consulting
Fiona Eldridge comments:
“The very process of asking people their views created a great deal of excitement and I think, it surprised the management to see how much our staff wanted to contribute to the success of the company.”
Recommendations
In all, fe3 consulting made 24 recommendations to ensure that TP closed any gaps between its stated values and its delivery. In addition to this, and reflecting our unique skill set, was to make some specific recommendations about the structure of the company to help the organisation to deliver its brand promise more easily to customers and also to raise morale within the ranks. This involved a review of the existing structure and job descriptions, and key to the success of the re-organisation was the appointment of a new general manager and revision of the current branch structure.
Gavin Donnelly says:
“The appointment of the General Manager has been pivotal to the changes and to the success of TP.”
The rest of our wide-ranging recommendations considered the following areas:
Results
Almost all the recommendations made by fe3 consulting were implemented. The review of employees’ terms and conditions and the restructure has immediate impact, demonstrating to employees that their views had been heard. It is to TP’s credit that the changes were introduced so quickly. Indeed, some of the our recommendations were pre-empted by TP itself as the initial feedback from the research highlighted areas needing most – and most immediate – attention.
However, TP didn’t stop simply at the recommendations made by fe3 consulting. Initially an interim General Manager, and now properly in post, John McCarthy began to make changes over and above the recommendations in fe3 consulting’s final report including encouraging employees to personalise their spaces, as well as significant bonuses and prizes for exceptional performance – all designed to encourage enthusiasm for roles and commitment to the organisation.
In addition, TP’s employees now know how they are doing and have personal development plans. Each week, employees have a one to one meeting with their immediate line manager, reviewing targets and identifying potential issues. They also know what is expected of them – TP’s values and proposition are plastered across the walls of its Welwyn Garden City headquarters and every employee has a job description and properly constructed goals. These measures are designed to encourage responsibility and professionalism.
The training of new consultants includes significantly more time talking about the education environment, what schools expect and how to ensure that teachers are vetted properly. This is supported by the visits of senior consultants to schools and also by the Local Education Consultants, a group of mostly retired head teachers who are effectively TP’s force on the ground. These activities talk to the values of care, knowledge and expertise.
The company is now committed to achieving IIP.
The change, says Gavin Donnelly, has been significant.
“There’s a huge difference, but it’s not been a gradual migration. The internal re-shuffling was done quickly and the impact was immediate. The improvement in training has benefited us in all areas – from staff commitment to making consultant calls to schools a more useful and productive dialogue – our different approach has engendered a different response on the part of the schools AND the staff.
Additionally, I now feel we offer more of a career than a stepping stone and this is reflected in the exit interviews, where people are leaving for positive, rather than negative reasons. The impact on internal morale of the changes as a whole has been phenomenal.”
Fiona Eldridge comments:
“Perhaps what was most useful, beyond any of the recommendations made by fe3 consulting, was the changes wrought in senior management to think differently about issues. Their approach and their challenging opened a door for us to find our own solutions in a way that wasn’t there before.”
TP is considering re-testing external and internal perceptions of the organisation and the new corporate identity when the changes have had time to “bed down”.