Wednesday 31 March 2010

THE ART OF ENGAGEMENT

Earlier this week it was my privilege to collect The Hanleys award from Britains Best Companies , an accreditation for our overall comitment to staff engagement in our business. This is our 2nd consecutive year of being given a First Class rating and we are very proud to be amongst this elite.
However the customary photo-opportunity was not set up in the usual venue of a London hotel but was instead held at a special day of experiencing The Art of Engagement at a purpose-built centre in Milton Keynes where myself and 3 colleagues were able to participate in a series of development exercises on the 8 factors of workplace engagement; Leadership, Fair Deal, My Manager, My Company, My Team, Wellbeing, Persoanl Growth, and Giving Something Back. The huge warehouse space was split into zones and each had a focus on the very best practices associated with these key topics.
It was a refreshing start to the working week, and a slightly surreal experience. More crucially for me , the chance to be around other business people from different sectors of the economy is always an opportunity to re-establish my perspective on how The Hanley is doing.Too often we get a bit insular and compare ourselves to other building societies or other financial services firms. We should work hard to bear comparison with great customer-service providers in other markets, as that is how we really want to be judged.
The Art of Engagement declares that " Success is determined by the strength of relationships within your organisation. Quality conversations create quality relationships,and great relationships drive effective organisations that deliver results". Sounds very compelling to me.

Tuesday 16 March 2010

FUNDING CHALLENGE

I was stunned to read in the weekend press that the BBC is taking 125 staff to cover the World Cup in South Africa in June. This is 5 times the number in Fabio Capello's squad and they're actually trying to win the tournament not just film it! Now I realise the BBC is not reknowned for being frugal but surely even by it's own standards of ostentation this is over the top. The BBC has a source of funding (the licence fee) which is a throwback to the early days of TV where a distinctive public-service channel was pioneering , but in a 21st century media where customer choice prevails it is bizarre that a tax (the licence fee) is paid automatically to the BBC while other channels must seek competitive sources of funding.(eg. subscriptions or advertising revenue).
Having read the article I started to think about sources of funding in our business and our reliance on savers.We see this as a real strength because it means that we fund our mortgages solely from money we attract from savers rather than money we borrow on the wholesale market.This enables us to plan better and to minimise our exposure to external risks. However the way that savers do business with us as a building society hasn't changed in decades. Passbook accounts and fixed term bonds remain very popular because they are simple and tangible, but I can't help but admit that some aspects of our savings offering merit updating. I am not contemplating current accounts or ATM- based banking as that's not where we choose to do business but I do believe that a 21st century mutual has to be alert to the needs and behaviours of emerging markets in our core areas of savings and mortgages. It seems to me that for instance a first time buyer loan linked to a web-based savings plan is a progressive way to attract retail funding in an era of customer choice,but we would want to retain the beneficial characteristics of our passbook acounts,namely simplicity and transparency. Watch this space!