The team led a restructure, fitting for the organisation, creating a thriving place to work and meeting with unprecedented satisfaction scores from staff.
Since its move to the public sector in 2010, the team structured itself to optimise its support, based on a business-partnering principle, working closely throughout the organisation and with the senior management to ensure HR was a strategic influencer. This ensured its effectiveness and efficiency, allowing the team to constantly investigate new ways to optimise and add value.
Over the past year, the team has improved its already award-winning apprenticeship scheme, taking control of the modules apprentices work on, so they are aligned with business goals from their first day.
It has evolved the graduate programme to feed graduate recruits into a talent pipeline early on, as part of a wider succession planning agenda, and it developed a 'talent board', made up of leaders from throughout the business to select the business, technical or leadership routes for graduates.
The HR team developed mentoring schemes, increased e-learning courses and focused on health and wellbeing to the extent that 95% of employees agree Tube Lines makes the health of its workforce a top priority.
The rail sector is notorious for high levels of industrial action, but through transparent and honest communications with employees Tube Lines has avoided the majority of any strike action (with only one strike in the past decade), an achievement the panel of judges in the HR Excellent Awards felt was a huge achievement.
Despite a restructure resulting in a head-count reduction of 250 jobs since 2010, the HR team has managed a process resulting in only two compulsory redundancies.
Staff engagement levels have remained high: 81% of employees are satisfied with Tube Lines as an employer and 79% are proud to work for the organisation, in spite of the inevitable unsettling nature of a change programme.
And despite a change in chief executive, the HR team has consistently delivered top-level support throughout the organisation, keeping the ethos of a private sector commercial function, while operating in an austere public sector climate.
Our judges applauded the innovative and successful strategy of a team that could be thought to be punching above its weight. The panel felt this was a 'classic' example of great HR in a tough environment.
Finalist
• Thames Valley Police
