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Foster Yeoman case study

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Foster Yeoman

"The company will get a ten fold return on investment because many of the skills will be passed on and the junior managers will learn how to coach, appraise and delegate. You have left us with people who are open."

Rory Graham, director for health, safety and training

Foster Yeoman

A powerful management development programme which helped to transform personal and organisational effectiveness.

Foster Yeoman is a family-owned quarrying business with over 700 employees, a £200 million turnover and an annual production of 10 million tonnes of dry-stone aggregate. When the company went through a period of significant change, it found that its staff were ill-equipped to deal with it - and needed help.

Opportunity

To equip the management team to undertake and cope with change and create a critical mass of influence to enable new skills to be disseminated through the organisation.
To develop managerial skills to the extent that internal promotion into managerial roles became more feasible and the company could be confident of retaining the experience of its many long serving employees.
To reduce the cost of staff turnover, particularly in the first two years of employment.

Action taken by True North

Working closely with the managers, True North:

carried out a detailed needs analysis.
designed and created two distinctive programmes for management development.
implemented a programme for quarry managers which was designed to build confidence and competence in core managerial skills such as: delegation, time management, planning, communication, performance management, decision-making and motivation and provide a consistent 'tool box' of management methodologies within the business.
implemented a programme for senior managers and directors, which was focused on self-confidence, self-awareness, relationship-building and communication.

Results

Foster Yeoman has significantly improved succession planning and internal promotion opportunities. Staff are able to confidently deal with and promote change in the business.

Quarry managers have achieved a better work/life balance, delegating to others who relish taking on more responsibility. They are working more effectively as a team and as leaders of teams.

The company is more confident of retaining the existing experience, knowledge and family culture which is core to its future success. Many managers and directors have changed their attitude towards personal development and are now actively promoting its value.