The Client
A family-owned car dealership and vehicle rental business has several branches in Worcestershire along with a self-storage business.
The company had been bought a few years previously and the owners wanted to take it forward to increase sales and profitability in a demanding and competitive market.
The Challenge
The business needed to become more productive and improve its customer service ratings so that the turnover increased and they generated more repeat business.
But not all the employees were fully aware of how they could play a part to contribute to this. There had been an appraisal process put in by the previous owners, but this had not been used for many years.
Many of the employees had never been given any formal feedback on their performance or had the opportunity to pass comment back to their managers.
The Solution
Helen designed an appraisal process centred on the firm’s core values including customer care and teamwork. It also tied in to the company’s strategic goals so that everyone’s objectives were all contributing towards them.
She ran courses for the managers to help them understand how it would help them manage their staff. She also ran separate courses for all the employees so that they could see how they could participate in the success of the business and how it could help them with their own development.
The Results
The business now has a straightforward process to assess its employees against the things it considers of importance and can set objectives that will contribute to the overall success of the company.
By bringing everyone together for the training sessions, they were all able to see that appraisal discussions are not something to be feared but that it is about having a structure to enable two-way discussions about what the business needs and how it can harness the employees’ abilities.
