News
- Growing together
- 6/30/2010
Growing together
Jo Pickles | Wed, 30 Jun 2010Bellville Rodair International has an open-door work environment, encouraging employees and managers to talk
Bellville Rodair International (BRI) has worked to foster an informal employee development scheme to ensure it retains the very best people the forwarding industry has to offer.
The scheme has, ultimately, served to strengthen the business during its 28-year history. By recruiting people who have a desire to grow with the company, it ensures business levels increase in line with this dedicated workforce.
In 2009, we like many companies scaled back the recruitment programme implemented during previous years, limiting it to filling positions essential to the smooth running of the business. Unsurprisingly, we found a marketplace flooded with highly experienced personnel - unfortunate casualties of the global recession.
However, the sheer volume of applications received for each post advertised did make the selection process more time consuming. Unable to rely on organic growth in last year’s increasingly slow market, we looked to recruit those with strong sales backgrounds capable of attracting much-needed new business during competitive times.
We felt it necessary to hold back on spending on external training until we felt there was greater stability in the marketplace. Learning and development is extremely important for us, however, and we have continued to train and develop employees internally by identifying experts within a field already employed at BRI. Many employees have more than 20 years experience in freight forwarding, which counts for a lot. The importance of re-visiting standard operating procedures is never overlooked or underestimated.
In addition, we continued to provide developmental experience by offering employees the opportunity to lead projects with support from senior team members and therefore developing together with our customers.
In 2009, we ran a global exercise to re-connect our employees with our company values and philosophy: Building Reliability. The pillars include awareness, imagination, communication, accuracy, enjoyment. We believe that as long as employees stick to these core values, our customers will remain satisfied.
Employee turnover has always remained low and this did not change during 2009, which we put down to our “open door” working environment. Our employees can talk to managers and directors at any time, either to raise concerns or suggest new ways of working. Our low employee turnover is a marker for the excellent relations that we foster with our employees and our lack of employment-related issues is a strong illustration of our approach to employee development and opportunity. I think maybe our value of enjoyment also has something to do with it!
The achievement of our objectives as a business is measured, along with profit, by assessing the success of individuals in their role. If they are successful, we are successful. Our London office had its best year ever in 2009, this was only possible through development, support, trust and determination of our employees. We also opened two new offices - during times when other companies are closing offices – again a sign of our committed and determined employees.
At the end of last year, we introduced a new appraisal process which focuses managers on team development, creating a stronger link between our values / individual’s objectives and training needs, providing a focus to both managers and employees on a long term development. Our values are our strategy for the business. Our company’s success depends on our employee development – the two go hand-in-hand. It really is a two way street at BRI.
Jo Pickles is HR Manager for Europe at Bellville Rodair International
http://www.ifw-net.com/freightpubs/ifw/people/growing-together/20017788680.htm