news archive

November 2005

Halcrow successful in keeping IIP status

Halcrow has received its initial feedback from the investors in people assessors.

The overall result showed that Halcrow is successful in retaining the investors in people recognition and in most areas significantly exceeded the required standards.

Two of the three auditors have assessed Halcrow over the last five years for IIP and reported that the company has made "enormous improvements" in that time.

The assessors stated that the new standard is much harder and that many companies are trying to get reassessment on the old standard before it expires at the end of this year. They went further to indicate that Halcrow was one of only a handful of companies using the full benchmarking ('Profile') assessment approach which was even more rigorous and applauded this fact.

The assessors interviewed a representative cross section of about 140 people in Halcrow offices in London, Swindon, Peterborough, Leeds, Edinburgh and Worcester.

The assessors identified the company's strengths as its focus and clarity on its values and its open management style.

Special comment was made about Halcrow's internal communications with staff and singled out the internal magazine 'Connections' as "an exemplar of its type".

They commented that people at Halcrow are positive and strongly motivated towards organisational and personal development and noted a high level of morale from those employees interviewed and identified high levels of employee involvement and empowerment.

Reward and recognition is of particular importance, and Halcrow exceeded in this area with special mention going to its supportive and empowering culture, particularly work/life balance measures such as flexible working and Choices (the flexible benefits scheme) and the array of benchmarking it does to ensure the competitiveness of salaries and overall benefits package.

The main area identified for significant improvement was a greater need for clarity for managers on what's expected of them in their role as leaders, managers and developers of people.

The assessors said that Halcrow had a very strong approach to corporate social responsibility but it lacked strategic linkage and appropriate key performance indicators.

They said that Halcrow 'was a wonderful organisation to be a part of' and said they had "excellent cooperation and support" throughout their time with Halcrow

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