Budget's journey to introducing a relevant values programme into the business

Cheryl Clifford, Non-Executive Director, Budget Insurance Group

If a company has clear values, culture and organisational goals, it will not only attract talented people to the organization but it will also be in a better position to retain them. Retaining talented, skilled professionals and managers is something most organizations are striving towards.

THERE ARE SOME FACTS about the Budget Group and then there is life within it. To start with the facts: Budget Group Limited is a UK insurance intermediary with two customer channels:

• Contact centers in Peterborough, Coventry and Sunderland, UK and Cape Town, South Africa.
• Retail network – 90 branches throughout the UK.

Budget currently has an employee base of approximately 2,000 people and is the twelfth largest insurance intermediary in the UK and the fourth largest in personal lines. Budget’s mission is to be the first choice provider of quality financial services which are accessible, easy to understand and easy to use.

Starting Point

At Budget our starting point for the introduction of a values programme was to look at the organization and compare this to where we want it to be in a few years. Budget is an empathetic company, but this doesn’t mean it is a soft one. In a contact center environment people are the differentiator so the emotional bond between employer and employee is important. Board level discussions took place over a number of months until a clear plan was developed. The CEO was very supportive of the initiative as the business benefits were clear.

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Benefits for employees and the business

Culture and Values Programmes are not soft options. They are about:

• Trust and respect. This is about creating a mutuality of trust and respect between employer and employee. This eliminates or lessens cynicism or negativity that can otherwise easily develop.
• Performance and stretch. In many aspects of life people resist meeting their maximum potential. This is about being comfortable with a company stretching you to reach your potential.
• Happiness. When are you at your most productive? When you’re most happy. But words like happiness and fun have slipped down the priority list for many organizations. It’s about accepting that, in a work context, happiness can lead to productivity.
• A clear future. This isn’t about guaranteeing future employment but more about clarity. For example, communicating to employees and providing a clear vision that in an environment of trust and respect, the employer will be honest with employees and not avoid difficult messages.
• Flexibility and wellbeing. Don’t approach this from a legislative angle. The workforce is constantly evolving and will demand more options. It’s about integrating flexibility into the work context – when people have choice and freedom they operate at their best.

Taking the pulse

We started by assessing where we were. Simply telling employees that the company is aiming towards this programme would not have been enough. We worked with Mosaic Business Dynamics, a team of business psychologists, to develop our strategy and approach.

We developed an employee questionnaire which was branded “Pulse” as we were “taking the pulse” of the company. Benchmark data enabled us to position ourselves against where we wanted to be.

Values as organizational DNA

We used the PULSE data to inform the re-launch of our values into the business. Values are part of the DNA of any organization and help to create the emotional bond between employer and employee. Generally, human beings connect at an emotional level. Managing people’s needs in a workplace setting is difficult but values can help create a sense of belonging. They present a picture of an organization and employees can decide whether they want to be a part of it. Values create identity and belonging and can help transform an employees view of leadership.

We felt that our values had become out of touch with employees – they weren’t relevant or contemporary. The average age of the employee base had come down as more people joined the contact center. Fifty-six percent of our workforce are now 30 years of age and under. When the original values were put together the organization was much smaller – it was based in one building in Peterborough. As we’ve grown, the company’s dynamics have changed and we needed to move forward and modernize by creating values that employees can relate to.

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Creating “Just be...”

We synthesized the old with the new around the theme of “Just be,” and created the following:

• Old: Innovation.
  New: Just be creative. Let’s aim to do things better or differently today and tomorrow to achieve success.
• Old: Integrity.
  New: Just be genuine. Let’s aim for the highest standards when dealing with our customers and colleagues.
• Old: Teamwork.
  New: Just be united. Let’s pool our individual talents and work together towards success.
• Old: Recognition.
  New: Just be encouraging. Let’s recognize and celebrate individual and team success.
• Old: Service.
  New: Just be someone who makes a difference. Let’s aim to achieve the very best in everything that we do.
• New: Just be happy. Oh, and let’s not forget to have some fun and enjoyment along the way!

These have been integrated into the recruitment process and we are in the process of further integrating them into the employee lifecycle via a new performance appraisal process.

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Launching new values

The launch of the values was a radical departure from anything we had done before. A themed day was held on the day of launch around juggling which encouraged employees to juggle all the new values in their day-to-day working life. On the launch day jugglers were brought into the business to teach employees how to juggle and juggling balls, mouse mats, posters and coasters were left on each employee’s desk for their arrival at work. There was a fantastic buzz around the business, which everybody contributed to – the Operating Board even took part in a juggling competition for charity.

Each value is themed around a character and promoted internally for two months. The full launch of all six will take a year. Team members known as “Culture Vultures” worked with their teams to help people understand and participate.

The first value we launched was “Just be creative.” We worked with creative consultants that helped us turn our concepts into tangible things that people can see and feel. For example, as part of the launch of “Just be creative,” Budget employees were given the chance to win a day out worth UK£500 for submitting their “bright idea, brainwave or radical thought.” The launch was supported by a host of materials including e-mails, posters and stickers.

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The road ahead

There is still much work for Budget to do. Values need constant reinforcement through communication and positive behaviour. We don't claim to be perfect but we continue to work hard to achieve a stretching, fair and commercially successful environment with a strong employment brand.

BUDGET INSURANCE

The Budget Group has its head offices in Peterborough and offices throughout the UK. The original company Budget Insurance Company Ltd began trading in 1992 selling household and car insurance and underwriting its own risk. In 1997 Budget Intermediary Services was established and could sell both its own and other insurance companies policies.