The Organisation Kelray Building Maintenance Ltd is a small business based in Merthyr Tydfil. It was founded in 1993 by Carl Raynes and incorporated in 1998. In 2007, Carl is now the Managing Director of a business employing 13 people, which turned over £750,000 in its last accounting year.
However just four years earlier, the business was heavily in debt, staff turnover was high and turnover was 20% of the 2007 figure. The impressive change in this business’s fortunes is acknowledged by Carl to be based on two things - gaining control of the finances and adopting the Investors in People standard. As a result of these actions, the business is now debt free with a loyal team of staff and increasing turnover. The Challenge During the first 10 years of trading the business developed and gained a substantial customer base across the public and private sector, with industrial, commercial and domestic clients. However, Carl freely admits that while he was a master at plastering, he was not a business man. The finances were looked at once a year by an external accountant, and Carl was regularly surprised to find that despite hard work and a seemingly full order book, the business frequently made a loss and debts started to mount. In addition, the team he used were not working to his vision and standard, and staff turnover was high - the worst being 23 leavers in the year 2002/03.
At this point, Carl contacted a business advisor though Business Eye, the Welsh business information and advice service. The adviser helped Kelray to take control of the finances: understanding monthly turnover requirements; budgeting; and controlling cash flow.
Getting the finances right was only half the story however, as in order to meet the clearly defined new monthly targets for turnover and costs and to build the business, the team needed to be right, and the way they were managed needed to be right too. Carl needed to ensure he had a team that had the skills to do the work, and with loyalty and commitment to the company and its values. On a personal level, Carl needed to be confident that he was able to manage that team to get the best out of each individual and meet the targets he had set. A letter from CITB about Investors in People, advising businesses to “Get Ready to Lead Your Company to the Next Division”, and indicating the availability of grant assistance, caught Carl’s eye. While initially the grant money was a major incentive to sign up, Carl was hooked from his first meeting with his Investors in People Adviser, Pam Tanner, after being shown how he could turn his business around. The Strategy The Investors in People standard gave Kelray the framework for getting the work processes right. Before working towards the Standard, there was little discipline and while many of the right things were being done, such as planning, risk assessments and training needs assessments, they were not being done systematically or in a recognisable form. There was little formal or systematic recording of processes and activities, with either no written record, or notes on the backs of envelopes and cigarette packets! This meant that there was little attention to the output and no confidence that everything was being done as expected. Investors in People helped the company to go from a state of knee-jerk reactions to every event to being focussed on what everyone has to do at the appropriate time and being able to improve continually.
In the past, the team were given short term orders rather than given the full picture on projects, so did not have the vision of what they were working towards. Carl has adapted his management style, acknowledging that he used to be very despotic, giving out orders rather than allocating work and being prepared to discuss it. Now he aims to “inspire and not hassle” his team, he has created a real team ethic in the company, with improved and regular communications, no “us and them culture”, and workers controlling the quality of their own and their team mates’ work.
The team he has built has been together for nearly two years, and Carl describes the change - “Now we have a tidy team - the old team didn’t care about Kelray”. The team works together well and they have intense pride in their work, ensuring that the quality promise made in the Kelray literature is kept. “One call solves all for total property care - the only second call would be to ask us to do the next job!”
Kelray have been accused of having standards that are too high, because when people join them from other, often larger, companies, the team expectations of each new individual are that they meet the Kelray standard immediately. Carl found that surprising when it was explained to him, but says it is not necessarily the standard that he sets, it is the standards set by the team that are high. The team have such pride in the Kelray vision and way, and demand that excellence from everyone associated with the company - workers, management and sub-contractors. The Results Carl feels that with the help of Investors in People, Kelray has moved from reacting to events to being focussed on their planned business. The company is continually improving its client base by reducing reliance on one or two key clients and having a more diversified range of contracts, including regular routine maintenance work as well as a number of one off projects. As Carl says, as a result of working with Investors in People he now feels that he is managing the business and not being managed by it.
With this active control of the business, Kelray has been able to take on more business without having to expand the workforce too rapidly and has been able to demonstrate that it can work quicker and to a better standard than its competitors. This has lead to winning a number of significant value contracts, occasionally where other contractors have disappointed the client, and Carl is confident that 2007/08 will match 2006/07 for turnover and performance. Benefits and Impact of IiP Implementation Kelray first committed to attaining the standard in September 2004. They were recognised in November 2005 and are currently working towards re-recognition against the new standard in October 2008. The table above shows how turnover and profitability have improved since their involvement with the Investors in People Standard started.
Following a exceptional year, Carl plans to consolidate the growth of the business and focus on quality and image. Kelray has invested in uniforms and certified training for the team, has redesigned its stationary, is developing a welcome pack for clients and is upgrading its fleet of vehicles. The quality and customer service offered by Kelray enables them to charge a premium for their services, which is now passed on to the team in improved pay and conditions, bonuses and profit share, and is reflected in the loyalty and pride of the staff and the reduction in staff turnover.
The Investors in People standard has given Carl the skills, discipline and confidence to grow Kelray into the business he wants - a business that is “successful, ethical and nice”.
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"As a result of working with Investors in People I am now managing the business rather than the business managing me"
Carl Raynes, Managing Director
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