Perfect Circle : case study : The Logistics Company – Developing consultation processes


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The Logistics Company – Developing consultation processes
The Challenge
The senior management of a logistics company with 400+ employees had previously consulted with staff through an employee forum. The forum had been a productive body for a number of years but had lost momentum and no longer provided an effective link between management and the workforce. Of concern among the workforce was the forum’s apparent inability to effect change while senior management were not confident that the forum consulted widely enough. In addition, the communication process that supported the work of the forum had become unclear and at times ineffectual.

The Solution
A three-phase programme of discovery, development and implementation. As well as consulting with existing forum reps and the senior management team, the first phase of the programme included a series of workshops for staff to find out what was and was not working with the current forum, what form of representation people wanted and how any consultation process should work.

As a result of the review a new consultation process was developed that met both the needs of the business and the workforce and clearly defined the exact remit of the forum. This included:

To provide senior management with a means of consulting with the workforce on a range of business issues
To gather the views of employees and discuss them with senior management
To gain clarity around business decisions and provide staff with the opportunity to influence these decisions
To review policies and procedures
To ensure the business did what it had to do and what it said it would do
To provide effective two-way communication between staff and senior management.

The new consultation process also established a clear set of procedures for dealing with workforce issues, ensured all areas of the business had sufficient representation and provided a new, well-defined communications process so that key messages are communicated by the correct people and in a timely manner.

The Outcome
Involving senior management, forum reps and employees in developing the new consultation process has resulted in greater participation with the forum from all areas of the business. Recent successes for the forum range from a less protracted round of pay negotiations, to staff input into the development of a new checking out procedure, to the resolution of on-going issues involving vending machines!

Communication between all parties has also improved with all employees hearing the outputs of forum meetings within an agreed time scale and managers having formal and direct lines of communication with forum representatives, as well as more active, informal processes.

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