VA Consultants worked in partnership with the Travis Perkins Group between 2015-2018 to deliver an inspirational, high impact Senior Manager Development Programme. Travis Perkins Group is a national retailer which consists of 21 industry leading brands, 2,000 outlets and more than 28,000 employees in the UK and Ireland.

The strategy of the business involved improving its appeal to customers, expending its branch network, utilising the group’s reach to improve efficiency, and capitalising on the most rewarding investment opportunities throughout the portfolio – Travis Perkins, Wickes, Tool Station and Keyline.

A top priority within the people strategy was employee development, with an identified need to increase leadership capacity within the senior manager population around innovation and creativity, enabling performance in others, and the ability to drive commercial and culture change within the organisation.

VA partnered with the Group Leadership Development function to design a 6-month, multi-modular programme designed to play a fundamental role in developing outstanding leadership capacity, improving engagement, reducing attrition and building a more cohesive approach to utilising the strength across the group. The programme’s core building blocks were leadership self-awareness, coaching and managing performance, leading change, innovation, creating high performance teams and resilience.

The programme was then marketed by the central Group Leadership Development function; demand for the programme was driven by its perceived relevance to individual businesses and its ability to deliver a real return on investment at business unit level. It was delivered 3 times a year and its reputation was so strong that demand for places significantly outstripped supply. The CEO described it as the ‘Crown Jewels’ of development programmes within the organisation and it delivered extraordinary results.

The Result

• 62 participants completed the programme between 2016-18.
• 50 have been promoted or are in roles of more responsibility within the group, with only 2 leaving the business.
• The programme has significantly increased engagement levels with a key group of talent across the group, created better connections across the group and reduced attrition so specialist skills and knowledge have remained in the business.

With the sponsorship of the executive team, an element of the programme involved working on a live business project. Beyond just the outcome of the project, success was judged on how well the project teams operated, how they demonstrate creativity and innovation in their thinking, the actions they implemented and how they engaged with the business around their recommendations.

As well as value to the business the feedback from the participants has also been outstanding:

“So far this course has been life changing.”

 “I definitely feel that I benefited from the experience, and through discussions with the group was able to challenge what I want to achieve in the next 12 months.”

 “Very engaging and thought provoking. Always leave with promoted consciousness of new ideas.”

 “Sensational content – thought provoking and inspiring, and at this stage, layering on previous modules.”

 “Helping us how to understand change has been as eye opener and something I will need in my career.”

 

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