The challenge
Named one of ‘Britain’s Most Admired Companies’, Halma is a global group of independent businesses, who all have one thing in common: they are on a mission to do good in the world. From water safety to therapeutic solutions, genuine positive impact is at the heart of Halma, and this is reflected in its highly supportive and rewarding culture. However, given that most of their businesses are SMEs, it became clear that there was a gap in readiness when moving talent to higher level roles.
Organisation
Halma plc
Industry
Manufacturing
Organisation size
8,000+
Solution
Talent development
Most of their high potentials weren’t getting the level of experience, practice or exposure needed to make the jump from senior leader to board member. It was clear that this was a gap in readiness, rather than talent. Halma was finding that the people who were ‘natural successors’ to senior roles, no matter how talented or bright, were simply not comfortable with the change. The challenge therefore was to create an opportunity for them to learn the skills, develop the confidence, and practise the broader strategic mindset needed for an organisation of this sort.
The brief
Halma saw this as their chance to create a centralised talent programme for high potentials across the organisation. They were ready to start seriously investing in their future leadership, and wanted a programme that would have genuine impact. That’s when we came in; we were brought in to close this gap in readiness.
They also wanted to answer the question: what does it mean to show up as a part of the Halma Group? Because of this, it was critical that we collaborated in our design for the programme, meaning that we had to place huge amounts of trust in each other’s expertise. We trusted them in knowing how their business would work best, and they trusted that we knew what we were doing when it came to equipping leaders.
The solution
The solution was built in close partnership with Halma. The focus: helping high-potential leaders develop the confidence, experience and strategic capability needed to step into larger leadership roles across the Group.
Delivered over four months, the programme combined a series of career accelerator and high-performance leadership masterclasses, senior leader roundtables and business simulations. Together, these elements gave participants the opportunity not only to develop new skills, but built their exposure to senior leaders, and allowed them to put their learning into practise.
For Halma, it was also important that the programme reflected the significance of the investment being made in their future leaders. Every aspect of the experience was designed to feel purposeful, stretching and high quality, signalling to participants that they had been identified as individuals with the potential to play a significant role in the future success of the Group.
The impact
By the time the second cohort for this programme started running, over half of the first cohort had received a promotion.
97% of the delegates gave a score of 10/10.
Amongst delegate feedback, we heard multiple times that the programme ‘clearly stands apart from normal training’, and that the ‘sense of community is fantastic’. This in particular is something we are immensely proud of – the level of active communication, group support, and bonding across the programme has been unparalleled. We like to think that this is due to the perfect meeting of Halma’s wonderfully supportive culture and our deeply personal approach.
“Why change a winning formula?”
Halma stakeholder
When asked what changes they may want to make for future cohorts, the response was simply: “Why change a winning formula?”.
Have you got high potential talent within your organisation? Find out more about our talent development solutions.