Delivering Major Change

When a university had to move thousands of its staff members to a new pay-grade structure, there was a pressing need for skilful and sensitive communication. VOX helped managers across the institution rise to the challenge.

Challenge

A leading university had to move its 5,500 members of staff from nine pay-grade structures to one in order to achieve fairness and satisfy equal pay legislation. Every job, from professor to gardener, had to be defined afresh, evaluated by reliable and consistent means and located within a new pay structure.

Hundreds of managers in academic and administrative departments faced the prospect of dealing over many months with staff who knew their pay might be frozen or cut. There were widespread suspicions about motives, processes and likely outcomes, and a huge communication challenge both for the HR professionals and for managers across the institution. How should managers deal with the business of informing individuals about the results of this massive exercise for them personally? Emotions would be running high and there was a risk that bad news on pay would lead to unrest and a serious dip in performance.

Solution

The university’s HR chief called on VOX to deliver a series of three-hour sessions over three days for 500 managers. These were the objectives:

To highlight what the face-to-face communication challenges would be
To explore communication techniques that would help and ones that would hinder
To show managers how they might deal with the tough conversations ahead
To engage managers in the whole process and unite them behind common goals
To give them the skills and courage to tackle difficult issues honestly and effectively

A team of VOX coaches – all seasoned performers – brought a variety of possible scenarios to life through drama and involved the audiences in analysing and learning lessons from them. There were no lectures, homilies or PowerPoint presentations, just genuine engagement leading to real learning.

Results

As ever with VOX, these sessions were novel and lively. The feedback from HR was that they made a substantial difference to managers’ ability to take this daunting responsibility on board and see the process through to a successful conclusion.

It had become clear that simply sending managers written material and pointing them at guidance on a special website was not enough: essential messages had to be conveyed to them in much more imaginative, interactive and memorable ways. That’s where VOX came in.

What our clients say

I have been pleased to work with VOX Coaching since 2007 … Pete Bailie and his colleagues work very professionally and have engaged wholeheartedly in meeting our needs and designing material to our briefs.

Researcher Development Officer

[The] interpretation of the brief, tailoring of content and varied delivery made for a productive and enjoyable event … I wouldn’t hesitate to use Pete or VOX again.

Director for Careers and Employability

… an inspiring coach who makes an enduring difference to the way people communicate, lead and manage.

Communications and Marketing Director

Participants find the sessions great fun, and at the same time are amazed at how blind they might have been to their own and others’ behaviours, be it in a meeting, or relationships with junior or senior colleagues.

Assistant Director, Researchers and Research Culture

On the day of the interview I was barely nervous (which is very unusual for me), very confident and performed very well…in fact I would say ended up enjoying it. They have awarded me a fellowship, so it must have worked!

One Health Policy Lead and Statistics Adviser Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

I had a fantastic experience with VOX Coaching … in preparation for interviews for large grants from research councils. In simple words, without [their] help, it would have been very challenging to perform well at the interview.

EPSRC Research Fellow & Professor of Coatings and Surface Engineering University of Nottingham

I attended a one-day group session … in preparation for a funding interview. Pete has a great understanding of the academic funding landscape, which helped demystify the process for me and my fellow attendees. I would highly recommend.

Lecturer in flight dynamics and control University of Bristol

Transformational, inspiring and fun … Liberating that inner voice, being able to ‘read’ body language and vary styles of communication are the secrets this course unlocked for me.

Marketing Officer UWE

… the single best presentation & communication skills trainer I have ever worked with. Deeply knowledgeable, personable, adaptable, and infectiously enthusiastic about his subject.

Associate Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship University of Bristol

Six months after my last coaching session with Pete I am still applying what I learnt. Pete is a creative coach with an inspiring array of tools and experience to call upon when coaching clients. Our sessions were focussed, creative and challenging, helping me to target those areas of my professional life I want to develop further.

Head of Corporate Programme Office NHS

Other case sudies

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Pitch Perfect

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Turning to a Trusted Adviser

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Winning Through

How can you do yourself justice when you’re being interviewed for your own job? This was the question facing people in a local authority service area that was undergoing reorganisation. VOX helped them find answers and grow in confidence.