Employee Engagement Toolkit
Case Study: Brother UK Ltd, 2017 - 2023
Client Requirement
To develop a framework with which the Brother UK Management team could interact and engage with colleagues, and one which could evolve with their business, giving measurable and reportable results, incorporating existing processes but with the flexibility to include new ideas.
The issues
Brother UK have always had a comprehensive suite of tools for managing employee engagement but it was heavily reliant on the manual administration of paperwork, which was both inefficient and resource heavy, and with a large percentage of the workforce based externally, resulted in frustrations and missing data.
BUK had tried using electronic forms, but they still required a lot of manual intervention, and didn’t offer the solution to their problem, which was to give them something simple and efficient to manage employee activities, including appraisals, learning & development, and incentive schemes.
As part of their Investors in People Platinum accreditation, they also needed to consider how to provide continuous improvement in their employee engagement activities, without creating further administrative burden, and which could show tangible links to business performance.
Our Solution
Railston & Co proposed an entirely new approach to the way that Brother UK manage employee engagement. We removed the need for multiple versions of forms with an online toolkit, accessible via iPad and Web App.
This enabled us to streamline the process, enabling the employee and the manager to carry out and record all of the relevant activity, and making approvals much quicker and simpler.
Records are now collected and saved centrally in the cloud instead of being buried in Word and Excel documents, and each Manager and Employee is also provided with a dashboard, giving them visibility of progress, clarity on outstanding tasks, and guiding them through the processes with the use of notifications.
We also provided a comprehensive Content Management System (CMS) so that all this information can be reviewed in real time, and then turned into reports in a few seconds. This CMS is an important management tool as it allows Brother UK to centrally manage company objectives, job specifications, allocate tasks, and then communicate them out consistently across all the teams within the business.
The result - A New On-Line Toolkit
The new toolkit has delivered the operational efficiencies that Brother UK required in order to manage its employee engagement activities, but more than that we have helped to identify a long term project that will put employees at the heart of the business, giving them the ability to manage development and performance, and ensure that it is aligned with the organisation.
We have also provided a platform for additional developments to ensure that the toolkit remains relevant and can be adapted to the changing needs of Brother UK.
WHAT OUR CLIENT SAID
The client story...
“As an Investors In People Platinum employer, Brother UK is used to process improvement, and has always had comprehensive systems in place to manage employee engagement. However, sometimes those ongoing and incremental continuous improvements are not enough, and it needs new ideas to breathe life into a process, and revolutionise the way a business sees it… simply put, we needed a vision for the future…
“We started by taking Railston & Co through our existing manual processes to give an understanding of the complexities and the importance of Employee Engagement to our business. They quickly grasped the concept and were able to see how improvements could be made, but more importantly how we could develop a toolkit that would be more resource efficient, yet still provide us with the comprehensive reporting that we need.
“In addition to this, they were able to identify some additional functionality we had not previously considered, which gave us further insight into the management of our employees, and would give us a 360 degree view of staff performance, something which is essential in a business that is continuously evolving.
“The introduction of a centralised CMS has been a breakthrough in this project, as it allows me to ensure that we have consistency of messaging across the company, so we know we are all working to common objectives, and can determine the development needs of an individual or team, and how they can make a difference.
“Railston & Co were also able to provide me with insight into future developments for the toolkit, through research into other organisations, and by having a sound understanding of business, but most importantly by taking the time to understand the Brother UK organisational culture and where we see ourselves in 5 years’ time – many suppliers would have simply concentrated on what we could achieve now, but by thinking ahead we have made this toolkit an important element in our business growth strategy.
“The key throughout this project has been working with a team who are collaborative in their approach, bringing fresh ideas, but ensuring that the needs of the business are considered throughout – this is a long term project for Brother UK, and improvements and changes cannot be carried out overnight – employees need time to adapt and Railston & Co have recognised this and been able to suggest an appropriate roadmap for the project, keeping it moving and providing the tools in the background to make the transition to the new processes as simple and stress free as possible for all involved. They have displayed excellent project management skills throughout, and communicated well with the internal project team, dealing with any queries or issues promptly and professionally.
“As part of our Investors in People (IIP) Platinum status, we actively engage in the IIP Champions process, and within this we commit to sharing best practices with other businesses and have no hesitation in recommending this approach to others as a way of ensuring that employee engagement makes an important contribution to business success.
Louise Marshall,
Brother UK Ltd
Louise Marshall
Infrastructure & Shared Services Director
Brother UK Ltd