Clients / Case study
Creating leaders of the future at Jardine Motors
How do you develop a sustainable and best in class talent programme that develops leaders for both today and the future?
The brief
Jardine Motors Group (JMG) is one of the largest motor dealerships in the UK, with 20 brands ranging from Aston Martin to Audi and specialises in premium and luxury brands. As a key player in the UK motor industry and traditionally a tough margin-focussed environment, JMG is facing many challenges in the current turbulent and complex world of work, with more market competition, increasing pressure on sales, changing customer demands and disruption in their traditional marketplace.
The arrival of Neil Williamson as MD heralded a shift from a heavily target/sales focus to a strategy of 'people first', leading to a better customer experience with the introduction of new values, behaviours and mission statement. This required a change in the way their leaders managed their people and business.
Clare Martin joined the board as Group HRD. She brought a focus on succession and talent planning and was looking for a fresh approach to developing their future leaders. She contacted The Art of Work, as experts in the changing world of work with a reputation for providing challenging and innovative talent development.
The challenges
JMG wanted to create a talent programme that would develop a sustained cadre of future leaders who have the ability to drive the business forward, deliver high performance and results and assume senior leadership positions in the future. Specifically, they wanted to:
- Aid progression for those on the programme, resulting in a minimum of 30% achieving promotion within 12 months of programme completion
- Increase staff engagement and retention by reducing staff attrition to 20% in all dealerships managed by programme attendees over the duration of the programme
- Increase the number of women in senior positions in this predominantly male environment, ensuring there were a minimum of 30% women attending the programme, successfully completing and demonstrating progression
- Identify and retain key leadership talent through the programme, ensuring a minimum of 80% of attendees stay within the JMG group following programme completion
- Provide opportunities to achieve a recognised leadership qualification for those who had 'risen through the ranks' at JMG, with at least 60% achieving an ILM qualification through the programme
- Improve business performance through manufacturer scorecard and internal audit results, and by implementing innovative solutions to current challenges (targets to be set within each dealership)
The solutions
From the outset we worked firmly in partnership with JMG, taking the lead on overall programme design and delivery with JMG providing the ILM support, along with co-delivering the more operationally specific programme elements and providing mentoring and peer learning support. JMG also developed a robust application process linked to the JMG values. The programme is open to all managers who want to apply. Piloted in 2016, the first full programme ran from January - December 2017 and continues to run today
Using our 4-stage methodology to ensure the resulting programme would meet the needs of the business and generate tangible results;
Discovery - Undertaking interviews with senior leaders and stakeholders, as well as some of the potential programme participants, to understand the needs of the learners and the shift required for the organisation.
Design - Using a blended solution fit for today's modern learner, we introduced a range of new technology and learning mediums to the programme design, balanced with the need to meet the ILM requirements and JMG's existing experience of more traditional face-to-face learning. This included Strengthscope Leader 360 feedback.
Delivery - To be delivered across a 12 month period, we identified a lead practitioner who combined a depth of knowledge in leadership knowledge and skills, with strong commercial experience to be able to translate the learning to the operational realities faced by participants. Key learning topics focused on:
- Strengths leadership
- Creating leadership capacity
- Compelling communication
- Strategic planning
- Creating high performing teams
- The coaching manager
- Delivering operational excellence
- Customer experience and insight
- Leading complexity and change
- Delivering innovation
- Creating personal impact.
- Evaluation - We measured both return on investment and return on expectations, scheduling an 'Impact Day' 3 months after the final programme module, to evaluate the effectiveness of the programme, reinforce learning and provide an opportunity to celebrate success, with each participant presenting their 'personal return on investment'.
The results
From the outset, in an industry driven by numbers, it was important to demonstrate both return on investment and return on expectations. Highlights from the programme so far include:
- Progression: 40% promotions across all cohorts since completing the programme.
- Diversity: With no women included in the initial cohort, there are now 30% women participants across all programmes.
- Talent retention: Most participants who completed the programme have remained with JMG for a further 3 years.
- Professional development: To date, 79% of participants have completed an ILM level 5 qualification.
The 2021 cohort from our Leaders of the Future (LOTF) programme, recently delivered their mid-point reviews to the SMT, evaluating their interim results of the demanding 18-month programme. The participants spoke openly and honestly about how they can work on both their strengths and weaknesses to improve their leadership capability. Many have made changes to their leadership style as a result. As well as being able to demonstrate significant improvements to business targets, many were also able to show the difference this has made to their teams. Demand for the programme remains high and the 2022 cohort will soon commence with a refreshed level 5 apprenticeship programme.
As a measure of the success of this programme, ‘Leaders of the Future' won the Training Journal Bronze Award for Best Talent and Development programme in 2018. Most recently Jardine were awarded The Learning and Performance Award for 'Learning Culture of the Year' which included mention of this extremely successful programme.
