Leadership Development Begins at All Levels at G4S Plc
G4S, the international security solutions group, has built up a high profile reputation for the provision of security solutions across the world. Its unrivalled geographic footprint and first hand experience of the key security issues facing businesses and individuals in a broad range of markets means that it is uniquely placed to advise on identifying and managing risks.
The vast organization of over 500,000 workers wanted to proactively develop its next generation of leaders. Prior to the creation of G4S, formed by the 2004 merger of Securicor and Group 4 Falck, high potential leaders had been identified but no programs were in place to fill the inevitable gaps in their experience, attitude, skills and knowledge.
G4S set a top organizational goal: to have high performing management in place throughout the organisation. This goal required a strategic approach to talent development.
Following a successful relationship between Harvard Business Publishing and G4S in the implementation of the Global Leadership Programme for G4S’s top executives, G4S implemented Harvard ManageMentor™ for 5,000 users.
Three Portals for Three Cohorts
The G4S Group HR team and Harvard Business Publishing created a new suite of portals:
One for Leadership and Senior Management; one for Management; and one for Support Roles.
Each portal offers Harvard ManageMentor™ and other learning programs in the context of the company’s competency framework. Although the competency framework stays the same in structure between levels of seniority, the level of understanding varies. Each level, therefore, is presented with a different view of the materials.
For example the strategy competency for the Leadership level is described as “Shaping the Market Environment” whereas for the support role, the description is “Understanding the Organisational Environment.”
Because some people want online learning, whereas others just want articles, there is a choice of routes in the search and browsing options. A typical route in would involve visiting via the G4S intranet, then selecting a course or article based on a specific competency.
"G4S is a pragmatic, autonomous & independent organisation where people like to be in control. Learning is no exception here. I’ve found that, being pragmatic, our people always go for tips and tools and are turned off by lengthy online courses. So this is how we have presented the content."
-- Mike Alsop, Head of Executive Development at G4S Plc
Maximizing Usage
The G4S Group HR team has found that the best way to encourage people to learn is through influence and evangelism, particularly by offering the material as reference information to support everyday work. Their marketing efforts aim to increase usage of the portals and their related programs.
For example, internal communications bulletins sent to the top 300 managers include timely or topical messages, such as:
- “Need to carry out an appraisal? Haven’t done one for years? Try working through the Assessing Performance topic”
- “Don’t know very much about budgeting? Never had to prepare a budget? Try exploring the Budgeting topic”
- “Want to know more about implementing strategy at a local level? Try reading this article from the HBSP Article Library”
Future Plans
Success of these programs has paved the way to expanded usage. G4S will be offering individual development workbooks to a wider group of functional managers including Service Managers, Section Managers and Branch Managers, who will have access to refresher courses & pre-course training material via the portals and a new comprehensive development toolkit on the G4S intranet.
In total, G4S’s strategic approach to leadership development is improving organizational capacity across its geographies, its markets, and its business units.