Yell
The importance of recognition in creating an atmosphere where people genuinely feel valued has never been underestimated at Yell
Organisation Size: 3800
Sector: Publishing and New Media
Organisation Location: National
“Yell has been working with the Investors in People Standard since 1997, not because it’s a ‘nice to have’ but because it delivers real benefits for our organisation.”
John Condron, Chief Executive
Comments
First achieved the Standard in 1997; Gained recognition against the Profile tool in 2005; Achieved recognition against the Leadership and Management model in 2005; Awarded Champion status in 2005
The Organisation
From a single classified directory in Brighton in 1966, Yell has grown to become a leading international directories business operating in the classified advertising markets in the UK and the US.
Yell employs a team of approximately 11,500 people - 3,800 in the UK and 7,700 in the US. Around 7,800 of these people are in sales roles.
In the UK, the Group’s products and services include Yellow Pages and Business Pages printed directories,Yell.com online products and services and the Yellow Pages 118 24 7 directory enquiries service.
Strong and consistent revenue growth has been achieved through organic growth in existing markets, the development and launch of new products and services, and, internationally, through the acquisition of other directory companies. Around 96 per cent of Yell Group revenues come from selling advertising in printed classified directories, mainly to small and medium-sized enterprises.
The Challenge
Yell began a company-wide quality improvement programme in the mid-1980s with the aim of improving customer satisfaction by reducing errors, improving levels of service and delivering greater value for money. The senior team focused on providing clear direction and developing a distinctive and compelling quality culture that ensured people throughout the company could identify and act on opportunities to improve the way they worked.
At key stages since then, Yell has selected and committed to using best practice frameworks to review progress, including assessment against the EFQM Excellence Model and specific International Standards.
In 1996 the Investors in People Standard was chosen by the senior team as a means of reviewing and further improving links between the desired quality culture and the leadership and people management practices. They also saw an opportunity to align people management and development more closely with business strategy and ensure that training and development activities clearly supported business, team and individual objectives.
“The pursuit of business excellence is seen as a strategic leadership issue in Yell,” says Sharon Scobell, Quality & Standards Manager. “The principles of excellence, such as providing clear purpose, developing and involving people, and continuous learning and improvement have been integral to our corporate strategy and values for over 20 years, and are now well embedded in our culture.”
Continuous improvement is a company-wide responsibility shared by everyone at Yell. It is one of Yell’s values and is a core competency against which all Yell people are assessed in their annual performance review.
“Our culture promotes ‘constructive dissatisfaction’ which means we are always looking for ways to challenge ourselves to get better at what we do. That’s why we conducted our most recent assessment against the new Profile framework,” adds Philip Barr, Head of Human Resources.
The Strategy
Typically, preparation for an Investors in People assessment at Yell involves an internal review against the Standard using a cross-functional team sponsored by the executive group.
Sharon says: “No-one knows the business better than the people within Yell. Conducting a ‘self-assessment’ helps us to flush out all sorts of improvement opportunities. It also helps build internal understanding and relationships, which makes it much easier to get buy-in and enthusiasm for subsequent action planning and improvement activities.”
Areas for improvement resulting from this internal review, together with those identified by the Investors in People Assessors, are formally reviewed following the assessment.
“We take every ‘area for improvement’ that is raised and review it to look for useful and appropriate improvement action,” explains Sharon. “This includes taking into account other evaluation results, such as the results from our annual ‘Yell Tell’ survey, matching with related objectives or activities, and evaluating opportunities in light of our strategic priorities. Improvement actions are then agreed at a senior level and incorporated into team or individual objectives.”
The reviews have brought about a number of direct actions such as the launch of an initiative called the Harmony Programme - a comprehensive review of all human resources policies in 2001. Other initiatives included the introduction of ‘Yell leave’ for people with caring responsibilities as well as the implementation of the Employee Advisory Service (EAR) – a counselling service designed to support Yell’s work-life balance philosophy.
The effectiveness of training and development has been greatly improved.
“We have got much smarter at tailoring development interventions to meet business, team and individual needs,” says Philip. “For example the Customer Services team at Yell developed the Impact Programme to assess and develop the leadership and management skills of their entire management team – particularly coaching skills.”
“Coaching skills have significantly improved and front line managers in our customer service area now spend 80 per cent of their time coaching – which has had a positive and lasting impact on levels of customer service.”
Yell also uses its assessments to review and continuously improve its approach to reward and recognition.
“The importance of recognition in creating an atmosphere where people genuinely feel valued has never been underestimated at Yell,” says Philip. “We have had a defined approach and clear guidelines on recognition for over ten years. All managers have funds allocated specifically for recognition activities and they are expected to use them.”
Over the years improvements have included the introduction of Yell ‘thank you’ cards to reinforce spontaneous recognition, and the Yell Gold Awards for Excellence. Now in their seventh year, the Gold Awards are linked directly to Yell’s values and are the company’s most prestigious form of recognition. Anyone can nominate or be nominated, via an on-line system, and nominations are judged by regional teams led by the most senior manager. Regional and functional winners are role models for their colleagues and are publicly applauded at annual business reviews. All winners and their guests attend special celebration events hosted by the Yell CEO, John Condron and his senior team.
“The Gold Awards programme has been really successful in providing widespread recognition,” explains Philip. “Every nominee’s name appears on the Gold Awards website and every nomination is reviewed by the individual’s line manager and then by local senior managers on the judging panel. There are lots of opportunities for people’s achievements to be appreciated - winners even have a special Gold Award icon attached to their outgoing email which continues the recognition of their achievement throughout the following year.”
The Result
Over the years Yell has won a very impressive array of awards. In addition to awards for products and advertising campaigns and Investors in People recognition, Yell received the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in 2002 and has won prizes for ‘Leadership & Constancy of Purpose’ and ‘People Development & Involvement’ in the European Quality Awards. In 1999 Yell won the European Quality Award; it won again in 2004 – the only company ever to win twice. In March 2004, Yell was ranked 93rd in the Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to work for. A year later, it was ranked 22nd in the same survey.
Internal measures of people satisfaction, such as those in the annual ‘Tell Yell’ employee survey are outstanding. The independent research company which runs the survey has confirmed that Yell outperforms high-performing company norms across all criteria.
Philip says: “We are very proud of the excellent response rates we achieve which are consistently in excess of 90 per cent. This gives us great confidence in the accuracy of the results and in the relevance of improvement plans based upon them.”
The survey is a key consultation tool for Yell. Feedback is sought on a wide range of issues and the results are segmented at corporate, department and team levels. Every team leader is responsible for feeding back the team results and developing improvement action plans with their team to address local issues.
“Each year a wide variety of improvement initiatives are identified as a result of feedback from Yell people,” adds Sharon. “We believe the high response rates are directly attributable to the fact that people see real action as a result of their participation.”
Further confirmation of their performance came in October 2005 when Yell achieved Investors in People recognition using the Profile tool, which gives organisations a score from 1 to 4 against the ten indicators of the Standard. Yell’s results were outstanding, with five indicators at Level Four and Five at Level Three.
Not surprisingly, in November 2005 Yell was one of a handful of organisations to be chosen as an Investors in People Champion in recognition of both its commitment to people development and the success that its approach has brought.
Yell continues to work with the Standard as it provides a platform for continuous improvement in the area of people management as well as identifying best practice in people development.
Chief Executive John Condron recognises the benefits Investors in People has brought the company: “Yell has been working with the Investors in People Standard since 1997, not because it’s a ‘nice to have’ but because it delivers real benefits for our organisation. Our focus on business excellence and the use of quality frameworks, such as that promoted by Investors in People, has helped Yell to grow its revenue and customer base in an increasingly competitive environment.”
These improvements include prize-winning Leadership & Management skills, award-winning communication of its corporate strategy, vision and values and best practice sharing internally and externally. Yell has also been named the Thames Valley Employer of Choice and has been awarded Consumer Superbrand status.
“All of us in Yell are justifiably proud of the company we have built and the results we have achieved,” adds John Condron. “Continuing to work with quality frameworks and standards like Investors in People will help secure the future for us all.”