case study CULTURE, VISION & VALUES
www.thehrdirector.com
radio activity
Communicorp UK is home to; Capital, Heart, Smooth Radio and XS Manchester which combined have 22.6 million adult listening hours each week1
. B
uilding a business from scratch in ten years became a corporate ambition to, ‘do it in nine’. What felt like an
impossible goal to the outside world to us was an inevitable dream, fuelled by a shared purpose, committed and passionate leadership and a people-driven culture centred on core values and behaviours. The starting point for Communicorp UK was the creation of a powerful vision, mission, values and goal (VMCG). Our vision - to be radio people who make a difference (MAD) - was about creating an organisation with a heartbeat. Our mission is to do ideas, relationships and results better than anyone else - was based on what we know to be the drivers of success in our industry. Our values of bravery, integrity and passion were rooted in building a strong culture where people could be proud to live them and deliver their best work. The most important thing about all of these is that the leadership team wrote every word.
ARTICLE BY GRACE HANNAH
DIRECTOR OF PEOPLE COMMUNICORP UK
We’re only two years into our journey, but with a ten year business plan and an ambitious ten year profit goal to go with it, we’ve had big dreams from the start.
VMVG in place, one of the first things we did was to connect each person to our vision and values through a bespoke, inspiring performance management approach. ‘Personal Best’ was born. Connecting employee performance and behaviour to our values and our mission, the measures are simple; how well people live our values and deliver on our mission. It’s bold, it’s brave (and linked to pay), and it’s about not only what has been achieved but how it has been achieved, in line with our values and desirable behaviours. Our people are the heart of our business and we’ve always seen it as our job, as a leadership team, to keep that heart pumping. In 2015, we brought in external culture experts, The Culture Builders, to develop the leadership’s understanding and perspectives on the Communicorp UK culture and critically, to translate it into everyday action. The first of three leadership development sessions focused on examining the three pillars of the Communicorp culture - what we believe, how we behave and the tools we use2
. We realised
where we needed to focus was the behaviours of our people. As part of our cultural blueprint, one brave decision we took as a result of our first leadership development session was to empower
FOR FURTHER INFO
www.communicorpuk.com www.theculturebuilders.com
people to create their own culture. Reinforcing our vision to Make a Difference, we gave each individual in the company £250 of MAD money to use as they wished. We saw everything from charity donations, to team nights out, to random acts of Twitter kindness when stations spotted it was a listener’s birthday. You could feel the groundswell as people felt valued and empowered to create their own culture, which could be slightly different by station but that was always based on our VMVG.
One of the most powerful things we did was MAD awards at our Christmas conference. A Pride of Britain approach to publicly rewarding those who had gone over and above for colleagues and customers, the auditorium was in tears. Creating a personal and emotional connection between our people and our vision, we walked away from that conference with a lump in our throat knowing that we’d created something special. In line with our vision, we want people to feel pumped the minute they walk through the door and our induction process reflects this - bespoke, super slick and involving senior personnel. When you’re that aggressive about your ‘way’, it’s not for everyone and that’s fine. We view this as a healthy churn that helps us to find, keep and grow the right kind of people.
1. Source: RAJAR/Ipsos-MORI/RSMB six months ended March 2016 within the Communicorp UK TSA (All Adults 15+) 2. The Culture Builders 2012
26 thehrdirector SEPTEMBER 2016
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