Management Development
Whilst talent management and organisational design might hit the headlines, there are great examples of HR really making a difference to ordinary, everyday business. At Dairy Crest there is a remarkable illustration of successful HR that's literally everyday - daily doorstep milk delivery.
The context of this fascinating example is a market that was in decline for years - increasingly consumers have been buying milk at supermarkets. Perhaps the end of the traditional milkman was in sight? But, at Dairy Crest fresh thinking and new technology is beginning to transform door-to-door delivery.
The company's Milk and More initiative enables consumers to change their daily order online, and order much more than just milk. A range of dairy and grocery products (even pet food) can be ordered as late as 10 pm for delivery before 8 am the next day. For customers that's terrific service, and Milk and More is producing impressive sales growth.
For Dairy Crest's people Milk and More means lots of change. And, not just the very visible changes to technology and processes, but also to how people think. Milk and More means thinking about customers and performance very differently. Traditional metrics, such as litres of milk delivered and number of customers, no longer dominate people's thinking about performance. New measures, such as customer service and sales mix, matter too. Delivery men and women have to think differently about their jobs, and inevitably their managers have to think differently about leadership, change and themselves.
To foster fresh thinking Dairy Crest has new, clear business values. Not always the comfortable, popular values you might expect, but ones with explicit links to business targets and an overall strategic goal. And, for Depot Managers there are workshop modules, project work, and an innovative buddy system.
But, what is it that really changes managers' hearts and minds? What causes leaders to stop and question the assumptions and methods developed over many years? One of Dairy Crest's answers is 360 Feedback.
360 Feedback is explained to Depot Managers on their first workshop module. On-line questionnaires are completed in the following two or three weeks, with some questionnaires for managers completed by the doorstep delivery people reporting to them. Not every Depot has great Internet access, so some (perhaps many) questionnaires are completed from home.
One-to-one feedback takes place before the second workshop. It takes about two hours, and covers 10 key competencies pitched at Depot Manager level. (Dairy Crest's 360 Feedback website offers a choice of questionnaires pitched at different levels.)
In the next few months we hope to report on the success of Dairy Crest's project, and look at its impact on people and performance. In the meantime, the project leader, for Depot Manager Development, David Mather, says 360 Feedback has gone really well. Somewhat traditional, task focused Depot Managers have enjoyed their 360 Feedback. And, David has been surprised by how smoothly 360 Feedback has run despite modest Internet resources and skills.
More information
If you are interested in Milk and More, please see www.milkandmore.co.uk.
And, for an introduction to Dairy Crest see www.dairycrest.co.uk.
Acknowledgement: We'd like to thank Dairy Crest's David Mather and Mark Gaden for their contributions to this short case study.