Case study: Aylesbury Vale District Council

The challenge• How to ensure an organisation movedto a more commercial culture

• How to select the highest quality stafffor a new organisation structure

The Solution• Advising and agreeing on the bestassessment approach to achieve theright outcome

• Understanding how effective andineffective behaviours were displayedacross all levels and the mostappropriate way to assess these

• Designing and delivering appropriateemployee behavioural assessmentsfor different groups

Why iESE ?• iESE has experience of transformingLocal Authorities

• iESE shares its knowledge andlearning from other projects

• iESE has experience of designingassessments against a behaviourframework

• iESE has the capacity and knowledgeto deliver assessments for smallgroups through to large organisations

Results• More than 400 staff assessmentswere successfully carried out

• AVDC staff were trained to carry outthe assessor role

• AVDC restructured its organisationand succeeded in changing itsculture.

Aylesbury Vale District Council (AVDC)

When AVDC was undergoing an organisational restructure,

which included all roles being restructured and a reduction in

the number of staff, it also wanted to develop a more

commercial culture. To do this, it needed to ensure staff with

the right behaviours were selected for the new organisation.

As a result, more than 400 employees needed to engage with

a behaviours-led approach to see whether they suited the

new commercial-focused culture.

Before AVDC embarked on this task, iESE advised on a

number of aspects of the approach to ensure it was ready to

undertake the programme of change, such as HR and legal

implications, timescales and costs.

Behaviour framework

AVDC had already developed a behaviour framework

internally, which consisted of the commercially-minded

behaviours it wanted staff to possess and demonstrate, each

with eight corresponding statements. AVDC needed help with

developing and delivering the assessments staff would

undertake and approached iESE to understand what support

they could offer.

Getting the assessments right meant looking in detail at how

AVDC grouped their job roles together and working out what

evidence of behaviours you would expect to see at each

level. For example, customer service and insight could be

displayed by one job role through being courteous and

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Staff behaviouralassessments key to changing Council culture

Case study: Aylesbury Vale District Council

friendly, however at another level this would be more

focussed on strategic understanding and thinking about

customer needs and demands in the future.

iESE designed and then delivered the assessment centres

and was on-hand as an independent adviser throughout,

dealing with areas such as reasonable adjustments, team

support and quality monitoring.

A fair process

Alan Evans, Commercial AVDC Programme Sponsor, said:

"If someone had a concern over their assessment for any

reason, and it was felt appropriate to involve iESE, the iESE

consultant would make sure these were resolved quickly.

iESE understood the impact of the assessments on

someone’s life, and therefore the need to ensure everyone

had been treated fairly and responses managed quickly. We

all had to remember that the outcome of the assessment

could mean the difference between continuing in a job at

AVDC or not."

In addition, Dr Andrew Larner, Chief Executive at iESE sat on

the Commercial AVDC Programme board. His role was to

provide external thought leadership and challenge, ensuring

the board remained strategic and fulfilled their governance

requirements. iESE shared its experience with helping other

Local Authorities to transform throughout the process.

Once the initial 300 assessments with current staff had been

completed, iESE supported AVDC to train 26 internal

assessors to carry out future staff assessments and to enable

group assessments for the recycling and waste crews to be

completed internally.

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“iESE were able to bring in some

lessons learnt from other Local

Authorities going through a similar

assessment process and that

certainly helped us.”

“Dr Andrew Larner joined the

Commercial AVDC Programme

Board. He helped ensure we were

not too operational and insular

looking. One of the particular areas

of support was around the wider

knowledge Andrew brought to the

board and therefore his ability to

challenge our ideas and plans.”

Alan Evans,

Commercial AVDC

Programme

Sponsor,

Aylesbury Vale

District Council

(AVDC)

‘Getting the assessments rightmeant looking in detail at howAVDC grouped their job rolestogether and working out whatevidence of behaviours you wouldexpect to see at each level.’

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