Business Services/BPR

Delivering The Goods

Interim executives work hard and show great commitment and dedication, but getting up at 5am to deliver the post might seem to some to be beyond the call of duty. However, ‘management by cycling about’ is all part of learning what it’s like to be a postal worker at Guernsey Post, and Penny Garnett didn’t baulk at the prospect of rising at dawn as part of her immersion in the business she joined as interim Human Resources Director last September.

In fact, compared to the challenges set by Chief Executive Gordon Steele, who had joined just nine months earlier, the early starts were a breeze.

The business had been in slow and painful transition from a civil service approach and culture to a more commercial operation since 2001.

“It was highly unionised and had a poor track record of industrial relations, which had traditionally been managed by the HR Director,” recalls Steele. “I decided to split the role and bring in someone to manage the industrial relations side of things, and someone else to reinvigorate what had been an old-fashioned personnel department and turn it into a professional HR function. I needed experienced experts, and I needed them fast.”

A step change was required. Not only had the local postal regulator ordered the company to become more efficient to avoid having to put up the price of stamps, but the beneficial tax regime that has attracted a raft of blue-chip companies, including HMV, to Guernsey, is also under review.

“Currently businesses don’t have to pay VAT on packages that cost £18 or less to post, but there are strong UK based lobby groups that want to see that reduced,” explains Garnett. “Around 60% of our turnover comes from bulk mail, and we could lose it at a stroke.”

Steele’s proposed strategy to counter such threats was to diversify into new revenue streams, to increase efficiency through reducing costs and to develop people and capability in the organisation in order to achieve that.

“So a big part of my remit was to strengthen the bench,” says Garnett.

A new Sales and Marketing Director – a key role in the new, more commercial organisation – has just joined the company, and the person Steele appointed to handle industrial relations – another interim, who has spent 33 years with Royal Mail – will become the permanent HR Director when Garnett hangs up her cycle clips after six months in the role.

But Garnett has also improved the bench strength further down the management hierarchy. A "huge believer” in secondment as a development opportunity, she seconded the customer service supervisor into the role of HR Manager when the permanent incumbent went off on maternity leave. “We have helped her develop in the role, and she now wants to stay in HR, which is great,” says Garnett. “It has also created an opportunity to develop the person who has backfilled her role too.”

In addition to seconding people to different roles, Garnett says she is “really proud” of creating a culture at Guernsey Post of advertising jobs internally and training and developing people in their new posts. For example, one employee was recently promoted to the role of health and safety officer, despite having no relevant experience. “We are paying for his development,” she says.

Such initiatives are helping to restore morale among managers, but a programme to communicate the need for change – another important aspect of Garnett’s remit – is designed to restore trust and co-operation among the entire workforce.

“There are two unions on site – the Communication Workers Union (CWU), which represents the vast majority of our employees, and the Communication Managers Association (CMA), which represents management grades. The relationship between the unions and the people has traditionally been so strong that the management has been almost sidelined,” says Garnett. “We have just organised a sort of ‘town hall meeting’ as a way to open direct dialogue and help break down the historic barriers between management and staff.”

Yet she is most pleased with the work she has done to support Steele in getting the directors working together as a more cohesive team. She sits on the board and routinely leads executive meetings, allowing Steele to play more of a chairman’s role.

Steele says: “Penny will challenge and question and push for change, allowing me to sit back and observe the dynamics of the team and steer conversations in a particular direction. As such she has provided a real step change in the executive function.”

Garnett has, says Steele, “exceeded all our expectations of what we thought we might achieve by bringing in an interim HR Director.”

He explains: “She has provided clear leadership to the HR department, giving the team a new belief in itself and restoring the organisation’s confidence in HR by demonstrating what a proper professional HR function can achieve. And she has played a major role in helping to dispel some of the internal and union politics that were so damaging and threatened our prospects of becoming the kind of commercial operation that we need to be if we are to survive in an era of growing competition. There is a lot more trust and openness now.

Overall, I would say her main contribution has been to provide a much-needed injection of energy.”

The Company

With 304 staff, Guernsey Post is one of Guernsey’s largest employers and processes over 70 million items of post every year. The company delivers post throughout the Bailiwick of Guernsey, which includes the islands of Alderney, Herm and Sark, as well as Guernsey itself. It provides a full range of postal services through its 13 branches, along with a growing portfolio of financial services products.

Guernsey Post is the Bailiwick’s agent for a full range of Royal Mail services, including Royal Mail Special Delivery, as well as FedEx, Data Post and Parcel Force, and provides valuable business support for finance houses and businesses on the island with services such as timed delivery and collection.

Guernsey Post’s Guernsey and Alderney stamps are collected worldwide and are renowned for their design and quality. It prints 12 issues of stamps annually.

The Interim

Penny Garnett has been an interim executive for just over a year, and her role at Guernsey Post is her third assignment. At Morgan Stanley she managed a change programme related to the bank’s decision to spin off its credit card business to Discover Financial Services in the US, a business that was subsequently rebranded as Goldfish Card Services in the UK. And at electronics and technology company Thales she worked on a project to substantially reduce the cost base in the UK.

Before that her multi-sector blue-chip career path encompassed senior commercial and HR roles in organisations including Marks & Spencer, American Express, Aon, First Choice Holidays and Walt Disney. Most of her roles involved international experience. She also did a two-year stint at Sussex Police Authority, performing the role of Chief Inspector, Personnel and Training as a civilian.

“I love variety in my life,” she says.

The Client

“In the past I have worked with and for interim executives, and for the past ten years I have employed them in four different companies where I have led rapid large-scale change. I am keenly aware of the value they bring to an organisation, whether you use them on a purely project basis or to fill or backfill a specific role.

But whatever the task, personal fit with me and the culture of the organisation is very important. Impact Executives understands this very well, which is why I have a long term relationship with them. They always field three very good, but often quite different candidates, allowing me to assess the skills and personality fit with the team they will be working with.

Even if I require a specific functional specialism, I tend to look for general management experience in interims, because I want them to challenge me and make a real strategic input. As well as being a fresh pair of eyes, they have lots of experience of different business situations, and if you don’t tap into that you are not exploiting their full potential in your organisation.”
Gordon Steele, Chief Executive, Guernsey Post