1. Organisational Challenge

HCD Group is a multi-disciplined consultancy services company to the construction industry. The group has won multiple awards and works on many prestigious building contracts.

Although the headcount of the business is under 200 they use a large number of subcontracted professionals so a high proportion of their own staff have management and leadership responsibilities. The organisation is head-quartered in Cardiff with eight satellite offices across the UK and staff and teams working on projects nationally.

The group identified two key organisational challenges:

  1. They were growing well and winning prestigious contracts but finding it very difficult to attract and retain good talent
  2. Their managers were over-stretched with their own ‘day jobs’ leaving too little contact time to efficiently organise staff and subcontractors

2. Choosing Impellus

“The board and I agreed a number of important factors which we needed to find in a supplier,” says Liza Rabaiotti, HR Manager at HCD Group. “These were derived from the results that we wanted to achieve as well as the consideration that whilst our Managers wanted development, there was a certain amount of scepticism about the relevance of management training courses”.

The requirements identified for management training company were:

  • Management training which focused on improving core direct management skills in the workplace
  • Training for three distinct levels of management
  • National coverage
  • Consistent high quality
  • Enjoyable for managers – including those who may initially be sceptical
  • Joined-up at each level
  • Reward managers with a nationally-recognised Award

It was also noted that with an accredited management team there would be a further advantage to the company when tendering for construction contracts.

3. Results Achieved

“The first things we noticed with managers returning from Impellus training courses were the positivity and the feeling of responsibility they took on,” says Gareth Cole, Group Director.

“Impellus is now a part of the normal development of all of our managers and foremen wherever they are in the UK. Having used other management training providers previously, Impellus is of a much better quality and it’s far easier to track results”.

“We’ve seen improvements in the average service of key personnel as well as their productivity levels which have given us a clear advantage and return on our training budget”.

Gareth Cole, Director