Cultivating Business Success With Investors In People Through Lantra
Landscaping contractors Tony Benger Landscaping is delighted to have been awarded Investors in People accreditation by Lantra this month.
Located in Devon, the company provides high quality residential and commercial landscaping solutions to clients across south west England. Business manager Julian Stanley worked with a Lantra Investors in People specialist to examine key areas for business improvement and identify priority areas.
“We chose Investors in People because the standards and principles were very closely aligned with our own vision of developing the business” Julian says. “We searched for an Investors in People Centre and felt Lantra would understand our business sector and intentions best of all.”
In the turbulent economic climate, the company felt that rather than chasing sales, altering the way they work to become more efficient, being focussed and organised should be a primary aim. Management wanted to focus on improving business performance; measured by growth in turnover and increased profits. Equally, they were keen to bring about benefits for staff, such as improved communication, involvement, training, job satisfaction and career progression.
Julian stresses how the Investors in People plan incorporated the company’s “Vision, core values, aims and strategies, along with a shift in emphasis to staff engagement principles”, something which he felt was critical to success. “A year forward, we have been assessed and accredited. It’s really heartening to see significant progress” he states. Benefits have been numerous and Julian is thrilled with how the company is evolving and developing. “‘We have set up improved mechanisms to plan, deliver and measure performance. We have designed and are now delivering our own skills training programme and have established forums for staff consultation to provide feedback, suggestions and recommendations. We’ve been open about our performance and demonstrated clearly that the views of our people make a real difference to the way we operate.”
Continuous improvement is key and the company is determined to maintain the systems and changes that have already proven successful. The Investors in People framework has acted as a catalyst for even more staff involvement and consultation in areas such as developing the business plan, marketing, improving resources and succession planning. “What our people say will be the driving factor” concludes Julian.
June Williams, the Lantra specialist who worked with the company says: “Tony Benger Landscaping is a forward thinking company who used the Investors in People framework to empower their workforce, deliver high quality services and improve their bottom line; enabling them to increase profits during the recession by reducing the cost of sales. They viewed it as a development opportunity which gave them an objective view of performance and acknowledged good practice.”
Lantra’s team of specialists are supporting land based and environmental organisations across England to develop and achieve their businesses objectives using the proven Investors in People framework. The framework is flexible, practical and tailored to the needs of the individual organisation. It can benefit organisations of all types, irrespective of the number of employees.
For further details of how Lantra can support your business to grow, visit www.lantra.co.uk/iip.