Case Study

Introduction

British Glass is the representative body for the UK industry, British Glass communicates the glass sector’s values and interests to secure a thriving and sustainable future. Glass Technology Services is a trusted and independent technical glass support provider, offering tailored services, knowledge, and guidance across a wide range of sectors. Central services, such as finance, HR and operations management, span adaptively across both businesses, and the businesses share a collective mission, vision and set of core values.

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They are based in Sheffield and employ ~ 60 people. 

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The business approached OneSource HR with a recognition that for continued commercial growth and success, there was a requirement to evaluate their corporate culture and align this through strategic people and culture direction, with business goals. The business engaged our services for this strategic people and culture support. 

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The problem

Through comprehensive discovery based on a combined expertise of theory and practise, our consultant concluded that the business was experiencing a range of issues that stemmed from a misalignment of their core values with the company's business goals. Some of the key challenges they faced were:

1. Productivity, performance & profit: A lack of connection to core values, led to a lack of clarity and engagement with business norms and expectations for commercial success, resulting in productivity and performance barriers, ultimately impacting performance.

2. Teamwork & collaboration: Different departments within the organisation had developed their own, often conflicting, sets of values and priorities, creating a fragmented company culture that hindered teamwork and collaboration.

3. Vulnerability to external factors: A culture that does not promote behaviours linked to its business goals, such as risk-taking and innovation, can hinder a company's ability to adapt to changing market conditions or explore new opportunities. This was leaving the business vulnerable to competitive and external forces, which required more agility and innovation to react.

4. Leadership and employee disconnection: If business goals and company culture are not aligned, mutual frustrations between parties with varying priorities can feel disconnected, resulting in a lack of trust and communication between leaders and employees, ultimately inhibiting performance, productivity, and profitability.

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The solution

OneSource HR took a strategic approach to address these challenges and implement core values & behaviours to be embedded throughout the employment lifecycle, to better align culture with the company’s strategic objectives. We developed a multi-phase solution to ensure a successful and sustainable transformation.

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Phase 1 discovery

• Conducted extensive qualitative research with employees at all levels, through a variety of mediums to understand their perspective and understanding of business goals, priorities, and aspirations, and how these translated to business builders and enablers in action and behaviour.

• Researched industry best practices and analysed competitors' core values, producing a competitive matrix to inform how the businesses operations and culture measured up, leading into a clear overview of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

• Used our unique variation of the competing values framework with the leadership team, to align their vision with the desired changes.

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Phase 2 core value development

• Summarised our discovery findings in a simple recommendations report, formulating recommendations to reflect a genuine and authentic and true culture of the organisation. Ensured avoidance of creating values that are merely aspirational but not reflective of current practices or the desired culture. This created buy in with the leadership team to draft a set of new core values that reflected the company's vision and aspirations.

• Ensured the developed core values were authentic, relevant, memorable, and easy to understand.

• Involved a diverse range of stakeholders, across all levels and departments in the business, to ensure the values were representative of the entire business, and to ensure buy-in and commitment for long term sustainability.

• Ensured that the core values would translate into specific behaviours and actions, through defining what each value means in practical terms and providing examples of how they would manifest in day-to-day activities bespoke to the business.

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Phase 3 implementation & impact review

• Integrated the core values into the employee lifecycle and across HR policy and process in the organisation.

• Created an internal communication plan and interactive and engaging workshops to introduce the new core values to all employees.

• Developed further training programs and workshops to help employees at all levels integrate these values into their daily work and embed them as a powerful guide for decision making.

• Continually guided business leaders over a sustained period in using the core values to inform decisions making during challenging or crisis situations, ensuring that ethical behaviour and authentic culture was prioritised.

• Monitored progress, collected feedback, and made adjustments as necessary.

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If you're facing similar challenges, consider the benefits of reevaluating your core values and cultural strategy, to improve productivity, performance, and profit in your business. We can help.