In November 2010, Sarah O’Connor was appointed Chief HR Officer at Fisher & Paykel Finance.  Having worked in senior roles within the business for over 6 years, heading up functions such as Process Improvement, Procurement and Support Services and experienced the transactional nature of HR, Sarah was determined to lift the bar and make an impact.

Today, just 16 months later, Fisher & Paykel Finance is transforming not only their culture and results, but the mindsets of Leaders in the business and how they think about Human Resources.  Sarah and her team talked us through their journey including key projects around wellness, values and people manager development that have underpinned this remarkable transformation.

 

Their results include:

  • Turnover – tracking at 40% down year on year
  • Absenteeism – tracking at 25% down year on year
  • Engagement – 11% increase in engagement, 20% increase in participation rates in 12 months
  • Understanding expectations – from 91% to 100% - increase of 9%
  • Daily opportunities to perform – from 77% to 88.5% - increase of 11.5%
  • Receiving regular recognition for good performance- from 48.4% to 74% - increase of 25.6%
  • Encouraging development – from 64.8% to 76% - increase of 11.2%
  • Regular coaching conversations – from 78.7% to 85.4% - increase of 6.7%
  • Opportunities for personal development and growth – from 68% to 84.4% - increase of 16.4%

They also won the 2011 HRINZ Wellness Award and have been featured in the 2012 February issue of Employment Today.

It has been Blacksmith’s privilege and pleasure to work with Sarah and her team on this transformation journey.  We invited them along to a Blacksmith Session to share their story with our community of collaborators, clients and connections including some of the sharpest HR/L&D minds in the country!  Below are the outputs of the group’s conversational debrief after their presentation:

Critical Success Factors

  • leadership alignment and support
  • common company vision
  • measurement
  • connection of initiatives
  • internal communication and branding
  • individual alignment with organisational values
  • selling not telling e.g. workshops
  • a longterm strategy and commitment
  • consistency and connection through Management Matters
  • shifting perception and reputation of the HR team
  • ownership by Champions – not just the Exec and HR

Shared Values

  • FACTS
    • the values program was given its own internal brand identity
    • offered lots of involvement and consultation with FPF people
    • keeping up the momentum
    • created a personal connection
    • engaged an external partner (Blacksmith) to come in and talk with Executive at the beginning
    • the process broke down internal silos
  • INSIGHTS
    • different people have differing ‘takes’ on values
    • have to create room for variance
    • leadership and managers walk the talk
    • people really do care about values
    • business strategy needs to underpin values
    • recognised the value of making a personal connection to the values
    • need to take ownership of values

Wellbeing

  • FACTS
    • based the program on health risk assessment
    • needs based
    • benchmarked across the organisation
    • measurement was linked to engagement and values
    • health plan took a holistic and demonstrated serious about people
    • on-site cafe transformation (menu, quantities of fats etc)
    • people out in the field included
    • health screening checks used
    • harnessed the power of the team and contagious energy
  • INSIGHTS
    • opportunity to brand the initiative
    • brand was linked to internal values brand
    • must have a communication strategy
    • managers able to use tools picked up in Management Matters program for successfully coaching people on wellbeing issues, not just about ‘on the job’ performance
    • holistic approach meant measures weren’t always ‘hard’
    • empowering employees works!
    • telling stories gets people on board

Management Matters

  • FACTS
    • survey before and after to benchmark internally and track shifts
    • engagement survey data valuable in assessing opportunities and issues
    • impact on personal development/life, not just about the person at work
    • had Exec buy-in!
    • the value of HR in the business changed
  • INSIGHTS
    • created a learning experience that wasn’t just about ticking the box
    • manager engagement around theme (topic) selection – “not just HR telling us what to do”
    • feeding manager feedback into theme selection
    • development potential in managers leading from the front of the room – peer lead
    • flexibility in focus with pick and mix theme management
    • great opportunity to break down silos and connect managers
    • truly transformational for managers and leaders at all levels

If you’d like to learn more about the Fisher & Paykel Finance journey CALL Paul Leacock on +64 (0)9 974 3917.

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