Personal and professional development matters. Organisations that prioritise employee development programmes see higher rates of engagement, promotion and retention – leading to increased workplace happiness, performance and ultimately profitability. When employees have opportunities to grow, individuals and organisations benefit.
Find out how we partnered with Cornwall Council to empower employees to drive their development through their Personal and Professional Growth programme (PPG).
- Situation:Following a period of transformation, Cornwall Council wanted to invest in employee development by helping people to unlock their strengths and recognise their full potential.
- Challenge:The volume of organisational change posed a challenge for many people, and meant the organisation needed a first-rate training programme supporting personal growth and resilience alongside professional development.
- Solution:In partnership with the client, VTT delivered three of five workshops within a wider development programme to help employees develop key skills around mindset, motivation and productivity.
- Result:Outstanding feedback from participants following delivery of the programme, with strong evidence they have continued to build on their learning and use their new skills to drive their personal and professional development at Cornwall Council.
Situation
With 87 local Councillors representing the 550,000+ residents, Cornwall Council’s mission is to ensure they are a place where everyone can start well, live well and age well. They have a diverse range of workers including administrators, librarians, council officers, health and social workers, refuse collectors and many more, delivering services to every community across the county.
Cornwall Council recognises that employee development is key to delivering their mission and had previously run in-person development programmes with great success. Following a period of organisational transformation, including changes to their in-person vs. virtual working patterns, Senior HR Advisor (Learning and Development) Vikki Forrest set out to create a new programme to meet the needs of Cornwall Council employees and helping them drive their development in this new working environment.
Challenge
The volume of organisational change, on top of the shift from office life to remote work and back again, was tricky to adapt to. Part of the challenge of this programme was to minimise unease and stress among employees and build their resilience alongside their personal and professional development.
We partnered with Cornwall Council to design and deliver a new, virtual PPG programme. With a focus on self-discovery and unlocking individual strengths, this programme was designed to encourage personal growth alongside professional development. The aim was to help participants at any level find strategies to set and achieve their personal and professional goals and stay resilient through changes to their working environment.
Solution
The PPG programme was attended by cohorts of 10 colleagues on a fortnightly basis. Participants also met with an in-house coach throughout the programme to compliment and support their individual employee development journeys and help them to achieve their personal and professional goals. The cohort began by completing a self-evaluation, which they repeated at the end of the programme to identify progress.
All participants joined 5 workshops as part of this programme – a Start-Up and Close-Down session run by Cornwall Council’s internal team, and 3 workshops focusing on different areas of personal and professional development designed and delivered by VTT:
- Developing Your Growth Mindset – understanding the power of curiosity and learning to boost personal and professional growth by adopting a positive mindset toward failure, challenge and feedback.
- Finding Your Inner Motivation – uncovering strengths, both realised and unrealised, and learning how to leverage these within and beyond the workplace.
- From Hot Mess to Success – discovering strategies to boost time management, productivity and making the connection to motivation and confidence at work.
Our trainers guided participants through their journey, helping them to improve their confidence, unlock their strengths, and feel empowered to pursue their goals – while keeping the sessions engaging, interactive and fun! Participants also committed their own time outside of the workshops to reading additional materials and putting their learning into practice by implementing their new skills at work.
The remaining 2 workshops were delivered internally, with the first kicking off the programme and the second a final workshop which focussed on encouraging participants to reflect on their journey. Importantly, all participants spent time planning their next steps to encourage further commitment to action beyond the programme.
Results
The PPG programme has been incredibly well-received. Self-evaluation scores from the last 5 cohorts show positive changes in all 3 areas assessed, with improvements made across 88% of measures. Overall, participants saw an increase of 15% in growth mindset, 13% in confidence and productivity and 9% in motivation.
Alumni have also reported a greater focus on internal progression. Internal straw polls indicate that 40% of participants have received a promotion, job change or additional responsibilities that they directly attribute to programme.
Furthermore, the programme has ignited a hunger for learning, within and beyond the PPG cohorts. Alumni have actively requested more training, and Cornwall Council’s in-house coaches asked to participate in the training programme themselves, having seen the benefits first hand and wanting to similarly enhance their own skills.
Overall, the programme has been a great success, empowering participants to own their personal and professional growth and driving employee development at Cornwall Council.
