Julie Leo and Nicola Scofield present the results of a project to strengthen organisational capability at Social Care Wales
Housing associations are accustomed to change and challenge. With many legislative impacts facing the sector – as discussed in this edition of WHQ – as well as increased expectations, decreased funding, and several mergers proceeding, it feels as if the pace of change is accelerating.
Never has it been more important to ensure that your most valuable resource, your colleagues, are equipped to face any future demands on your organisation. At Altair we work with many organisations to ensure understanding of future demands on staff, recognise potential skills gaps and identify the best approach to strengthening the organisation’s capability.
In this article we share details of a recent project we undertook with Social Care Wales to improve its organisational capability. Keen to get a more detailed understanding of existing skill levels and gaps within its organisation, Social Care Wales commissioned Altair to carry out an extensive analysis based against six identified learning priorities. The results of this analysis would enable it to implement a programme of training and learning that supported improving organisational capability, therefore enabling Social Care Wales to meet the outcomes set out in their strategic plan.
Defining roles and responsibilities for success
During this project, we researched the gap between the required and existing skill levels across a workforce of almost 300 people. When undertaking a review, it is key for us to work collaboratively and in partnership with the client. It was therefore important to clearly set out key roles and responsibilities from both the Altair and Social Care Wales teams. This included key outputs, milestones and reporting requirements, alongside a detailed project plan.
A project board was established which included a project lead from Social Care Wales, other key stakeholders, and the project lead from Altair. We also worked with Social Care Wales to develop a communication plan to ensure that all team members, leaders and key stakeholders were kept informed and updated about the project throughout. The project was delivered fully bilingually.
Overcoming broad strategies and a growing workforce
Although learning priorities had been identified within Social Care Wales’ learning and development strategy, they were set out in broad terms. The initial stage of the project involved us drawing out, at a more detailed level, the specific skills and experience required within each of the learning priorities, and how these were relevant and should be applied to specific roles. We did this by utilising our expertise and experience, as well as working closely with subject matter experts within Social Care Wales and holding focus groups. A key output from this initial stage was a matrix of each job role showing the required skill level for each of the six learning priorities.
From self-assessment to strategic recommendations
Our next task was to carry out a survey of all staff. The survey was a self-assessment, which was then moderated by leaders. One of the key measures of the project was to achieve an 80 per cent survey return to ensure that we had robust baseline data. The results were then combined to identify the required skill level against the assessed skill level at an individual, job role, team and organisation level.
Finally, we developed recommendations to address the identified skill gaps and an implementation plan, which included costs and benefits, ensuring any identified learning intervention delivered value for money for Social Care Wales. Our recommendations incorporated external sources of support that could be accessed, including opportunities for Social Care Wales to collaborate with other Welsh public sector organisations and highlighting where funding was available to support the learning intervention. Recommendations also included use of blended learning, ensuring there was equity in the opportunity to access the learning.
Delivering on KPIs: what we accomplished
The KPIs for the project are below and all were achieved or exceeded:
- 80 per cent of self-assessment surveys to be completed within initial tranche.
- 70 per cent of recommended training and development will come from experience, experiment and reflection.
- 20 per cent of training and development to come from working with others.
- 10 per cent of training and development solutions to come from formal interventions and planned learning solutions.
One of the key successes of the project was the establishment of a Project Partnership Group (for this project it was called the Skills Gap Advisory Group). The group was a diverse team of Social Care Wales staff, who met regularly to provide feedback at particular stages of the work, shape and share communications. The group used reflective practice to share what was going well and what could be improved and acted as a critical friend to the project team.
Get In touch
For more information on how Altair can help your organisation please contact: Julie Leo, director, at julie.leo@altairltd.co.uk, Nicola Scofield, senior HR consultant, at nicola.scofield@altairltd.co.uk