The latest Circle meeting saw colleagues raising issues from stock availability to talent programmes with Managing Director Stephen Ewer and HR Director Mike Kelly.
Held at Hull, the session covered topics put forward by people from Finance, HR, Marketing, Customer Support and Sales.
It was attended by Ann-Marie Tennison, Shani Kenny, Melissa Wilson, Ashley Smith, Steve Hemmerman, Michelle Sorrenson and Karen Gollagher, along with Stephen, Mike and Marketing Projects Manager Mat Croshaw.
Stephen said: “This was our second meeting and again there was a lot of good discussion and questioning about how we are performing and how we do things as a business.
"It was a very enjoyable session and I certainly learned a lot from talking to the colleagues who were present.
“I’d like to thank everyone who attended and encourage people across the UK business to put their names forward for future Circle meetings."
The meeting began with Stephen giving a performance update on last year and this year so far, where there are opportunities this year and how we are positioning ourselves in the market.
There were discussions around stock availability and examples of issues this has caused, as well as assurances the company is committed to addressing this.
Questions were asked about the intentions of Ideal Standard International’s owners, Anchorage Capital, with Stephen saying that, while it isn’t possible to know exactly what the future holds, they are “absolutely committed” to the business and have invested at record levels that support our capital programmes aimed at improving productivity and new product developments.
The Business Process Mapping project was raised, as well as the need for a new CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system. A CRM proposal has been submitted at group level and the decision on this will be announced when it is made. Changes made as a result of the Business Process Mapping will depend on the outcome of the CRM proposal.
The Reward Strategy was also brought up and it was confirmed that the salary benchmarking exercise had shown that we compared well across most teams with attention required for some administration roles.
It was likely the adjustments to address this would take place when the findings of the Business Process Mapping exercise were implemented, which is planned to happen in the next few months.
Efforts to reduce the staff attrition rate and retain colleagues within their first year were discussed, with Stephen saying new ways of “onboarding” people were being looked at, as well as increasing internal promotions.
Related to this, there will be another emerging talent programme this year, with details to follow.
Estates improvements will continue, with funding in place for a steady investment programme. This will include overhauling some of the bathrooms at Armitage, with orders to be placed in the next few weeks.
Circle meetings have been introduced as a forum for enabling colleagues across the business to talk to senior managers about working for Ideal Standard and to ask them questions about issues which matter to them.
They are part of a continued drive to improve internal communications with the aim of helping people across the business to understand what is important within other teams and how we are performing overall.
Other elements of this drive include the reinstatement of the monthly communications call and the introduction of The Bubble newsletter.
Circle meetings will now take place every two months. If you would like to be involved in a future meeting, register your interest by emailing idealnewsuk@idealstandard.com