Blackpool Council
Blackpool Council asked Barkers Resourcing to undertake a discrete project to define corporate values at the Council which every employee could understand and believe in and which the community they represent could measure the Council against.
Four key stages of delivery
Information gathering based on a combination of desk based research and meetings with key stakeholders.
Definition of corporate values and mapping to competency framework; taking information from staff surveys, recent internal and external reviews and strategic organisation documents, together with evidence collected related to your culture and aspirations from stakeholders, we defined and agreed the corporate values. Mapping those to the competency framework allows those values to be cascaded throughout the organisation - having defined the behaviours required to achieve the values we can then allow measurement of individuals against the values.
Launch and communication programme. Having established and agreed the values, they then needed to be launched with full communication to the organisation. We recommended both soft and hard routes to communication; using both champion and stakeholder groups to spread the message as well as more traditional routes.
Evaluating the effectiveness - revisiting after a suitable period of time has elapsed, six months post-launch, with full written review including recommendations.
Outcome
Values were mapped to the existing performance management competencies framework providing a clear definition of behaviours required by all staff across the organisation.
The framework clearly demonstrates the aspirations of the Council, the behaviours required and the values that shape the future. It will underpin leadership and management training as well as all recruitment and retention planning for the Council.
Corporate Values clearly need to evolve as the organisation evolves and we have built and delivered a model which anticipates changes to the organisation — effectively allowing this model to flex and evolve as the organisation reacts and moves ahead.