Workplace literacy enhances family focus of Stevenson Group

In this case study, Stevenson Group's Chief Executive, Mark Franklin, talks about his personal involvement and observations of Stepping Up Together.

"My philosophy in life is people are your most important resource. When you help people understand themselves, you get a better outcome at work. That’s what Stepping Up Together is all about."

• Overview
• Assessing our needs
• Implementing a response
• Measuring the outcome
• Improving for the future
• Top tips
• Employees tell their story
• 2011 Skills Highway Award success
• Case study snapshot available
• Any questions?

Overview

This year Stevenson Group (Stevenson) ran a 5-day workplace literacy programme called Stepping Up Together for 53 frontline workers.

Stevenson is a 100-year-old family-owned business that provides a range of services and products to the construction, engineering and infrastructure sectors.

The chief executive and the executive team played a major role in developing the learning, making sure it focused on the basics, as well as Stevenson’s values and future direction as a company.

The programme encouraged employees to develop a wide range of skills from self-awareness and awareness of the organisation, to better communication and improved paperwork.

Stevenson Group Chief Executive Mark Franklin says he’s extremely pleased with the results and attributes it to working closely with a good quality training provider. Stevenson’s provider was The Learning Wave.

Mark says teamwork and communication have improved. Participants are more confident, they question more and relate better to their colleagues.

The company is now looking at rolling out the programme across the organisation, as well as developing a second phase.

Who is Stevenson Group?

Stevenson Group (Stevenson) is a 100% family-owned company with approximately 500 staff based in Auckland, the Waikato, Taupo and the South Island.

The historic century-old firm provides a wide range of services and products, including aggregates and concrete-based building products for the construction industry, and quarry and mining management and engineering services for the roading sector.

How did they run their training?

Stevenson ran a one-off, 5-day programme called Stepping Up Together for 53 frontline workers.

What did they expect to gain?

Stevenson wanted a lot from their programme.

They wanted frontline workers to improve their reading, writing, maths and communication, as well as their problem-solving and critical thinking skills.

They also wanted people to reflect on themselves and develop more self-awareness.

Finally, Stepping Up Together participants needed to come away from learning with a good understanding of the company’s values and direction.

What were their key outcomes?

Assessment data collected from The Learning Wave shows the programme succeeded on all counts.

It lifted average writing, reading and maths scores. It shows attendees rated the programme as successful in improving their problem-solving and critical thinking skills and self-awareness. They rated working with their colleagues and the teamwork highly.

Assessing our needs

Starting out

Stevenson Group (Stevenson) is a large, well-established family company. Our strategy for the future is about remaining a family business, with family values and working together as a family.

This has always been the company’s focus. But we recently lost our way a bit and now it’s time to get back to basics.

First and foremost, we felt it vital that any workplace literacy programme should help us deliver on our strategy and articulate our company values.

We had a couple of other important aims, too.

We wanted to give our frontline people something extra – above and beyond technical training specifically related to being a better engineer or a better machine operator.

By that I mean we wanted to boost their foundation skills, that is, their reading, writing, maths and communication by using their problem-solving and critical thinking skills.

We wanted the learning to address some ingrained issues within the company.

We wanted it to break down silos or barriers between different areas of our company. We wanted our frontline people to communicate across their areas and divisions more and we wanted them to engage more positively and constructively with one another.

Improving the bottom line

We could quickly see literacy training had the potential to positively influence our bottom line.

All our people need to know the basics well. They need the ability to communicate confidently with each other, work as part of a team and keep their mates safe on the job.

They also need the skills to deal with the necessary paperwork and instructions required for their role.

With these things sorted, they can contribute to improving productivity, adapt to changes in the workplace, avoid potentially dangerous situations and learn new skills and practices more easily.

Implementing a response

Getting help

The Learning Wave developed the Stepping Up Together programme – they’ve been excellent.

They worked extremely closely with me and my HR Manager. I’ve been involved in everything from the programme design and development through to implementation and follow-up.

My involvement has been important both from our company’s perspective and The Learning Wave’s too.

It’s meant Stepping Up Together became the course we wanted and needed it to be. It also meant it got widespread buy-in from all managers and all tiers of the company and continues to do so.

Engaging a good learning provider, I believe, is very important. You need people who are going to take the time to get to know you and your business and give you the opportunity to get involved.

Spreading the word

To let people know about the programme, we worked with The Learning Wave to develop a very effective briefing pack for managers.

The pack gave managers an overview of Stepping Up Together and helped them talk about the programme at team meetings and in one-on-one sessions with likely participants.

It was the managers’ job to select participants, so they needed to understand the programme and its aims.

We positioned Stepping Up Together posters around the workplace - in lunchrooms and elsewhere - to help get the staff interested in attending the programme.

Once we knew who we wanted to attend, I sent out personalised invitations with more information about the programme and a schedule of the times and dates.

I wanted our people to know I valued and supported the programme and that I wanted them to do it.

Making it work

The Stepping Up Together programme delivered to the participants is ultimately an organisational change programme with the literacy and numeracy aspect embedded in it.

Getting there took a lot of thought and discussion at the senior management level between myself, the executive team and The Learning Wave.

My management team decided to use the programme to focus on everything from problem-solving and critical thinking skills through to reading, writing and maths to self-awareness, physical health and relationships. Workplace literacy became a natural outcome of this focus.

We could see all these things constitute literacy in today’s world. It enabled our learning provider to run with our viewpoint. To us, all these things are fundamental to life. You need all of them to live and work well and for companies to succeed.

Developing a training model

Stepping Up Together was a 5-day programme run over several months for frontline workers delivered by two facilitators.

Everyone was paid to attend training in company time.

We ran days 1 and 2 together, then had a month-long break for people to use what they’d learned in the workplace.

Days 3, 4 and 5 followed with a month-long break in between each day. We eventually finished up with an on-site graduation ceremony.

We had 53 people attend. There were quarry supervisors, machine operators, apprentices, engineers, dispatchers and truck drivers.

Day 1 looked at everyone’s role and the expectations around each role. It looked at the problems people faced and what people could think, say and do to resolve those problems and succeed. It was strongly focused on behaviour and communication.

Day 2 focused more on teamwork, company values and the big picture – although again reading, writing and maths exercises were embedded in it.

Days 3 to 5 covered problem-solving skills, communication styles and so on. For a lot of our employees, the problem-solving exercises tended to revolve around identifying hazards before they occur, completing documentation related to hazards and emergencies.

Mostly people worked in groups of 5 to 10 throughout the programme.

I was involved from the start, opening the programme and celebrating their success at their graduation ceremony. Our business managers took part in a feedback session with their business teams on day 4.

Measuring the outcome

Reflecting on the data

The data shows the programme succeeded on all counts.

We know the programme lifted average writing, reading and maths scores.

We also found out employees felt it improved their problem-solving and critical thinking skills and self-awareness. They rated working with their colleagues and the teamwork highly too.

Measuring the value of a programme like Stepping Up Together is extremely important.

I believe, as chief executive, I have to rely on my knowledge and experience of business and people to accurately evaluate a programme like this one. I have to exercise my professional judgement to measure its impact.

My observations of behavioural changes are an important measure of the programme – sometimes more so than, say, data about someone’s writing ability.

This means I needed to get out and see what went on. I had to talk to everybody involved in the programme – all 53 participants – and their managers and the divisional leaders.

I had to talk to everybody to make sure we could measure the impact of Stepping Up Together and we don’t lose the chance to learn as much as we can from the programme.

I needed to do these things so that when I talk to my board, I can tell them about the changes I’ve seen in people’s attitudes, the improved relationships that have come about and how this is translating in the workplace and improving productivity.

Listening to our people

We’ve had a lot of positive anecdotal feedback from Stepping Up Together graduates. People have phoned me to say they’ve noticed changes in the way they and their colleagues are communicating now.

They’re also telling me they want to see their colleagues go through the programme too. They want everyone in the organisation to have the same level of self-awareness and awareness about communication and to use the same language and approach as they do.

Their feedback undoubtedly shows me our people are getting along better. There are more harmonious relationships in the workplace – we definitely see this sort of programme as part of a process of continuous improvement.

Improving for the future

Embedding change

Right now we’re looking at what comes next. We’ve learned a lot, now what?

Should we make it part of business as usual? Or should we develop a second phase, building on what we’ve achieved so far?

This is what we’re looking at now. We know we need to continue with this work. But we’ve yet to decide what form the next step should take.

Making it sustainable

It’s clear the programme has had an immediate and sustainable impact on people as individuals – and this will have an impact on our business in the long term.

It’s helped many to grow, to think more freely, to question and to relate and work better with their colleagues.

But what’s the impact on productivity? Breaking down barriers – whether they relate to communication, relationships or basic maths skills – improves performance. That is the point.

Taking stock

My philosophy in life is people are your most important resource.

When you help people understand themselves, you get a better outcome at work. That’s what Stepping Up Together is all about.

Top tips

1. Roll up your sleeves and get involved – CEO involvement will mean your programme is effective from day one and receives widespread support.
2. See workplace literacy as more than reading, writing and maths to get the most out of it.
3. Take time to develop a strong working relationship with your learning provider for a programme tailored to suit your needs.
4. Understand literacy learning is good for all companies – regardless of the industry you’re in.
5. Go out into the workplace and observe the impact of learning. Ask your people what difference it’s made. Talk to their managers to find out.

Employees tell their story

We talk to four Stepping Up graduates who explain how workplace literacy training has helped them.

Employee case studies

2011 Skills Highway Award success

Stevenson Group was highly commended in our 2011 Skills Highway Award.

2011 Skills Highway Award

Case study snapshot available

Share Stevenson's experience of literacy training with your colleagues and employees.

Download or request copies of Stevenson's case study snapshot. This 2-page snapshot summarises their training programme, the benefits for their business and the return on their investment.

Case study snapshots

Any questions?

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