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Fosterplus is a fostering and adoption agency that works in close partnership with Local Authorities for the sole benefit of children or young people, looked after or accommodated, whose most immediate need is for a place of safety with highly motivated, trained and intensely supported Foster Carers.
In early 2003, Fosterplus was searching for a way to express their business growth plans in a cohesive, comprehensive and logical manner. The two Directors of the company Paul Snell and Deborah Ferguson knew that the business could grow but needed a strong strategic plan in place to facilitate this growth and to communicate their plan to their employees. From the start, it was clear that a paper-based system was not going to deliver this need in a way that would involve the employees of the business and get them to buy into the process of change. Fosterplus decided to utilise a new and dynamic business growth solution, known as ValueMapping™.
ValueMapping™ was a new system that could visually and interactively depict the future strategy of the business in such a way that all employees could see not only the direction the business was going in but also how they could impact the growth plan. This approach was a radical departure from how the business had operated up until this point but the Directors took steps to manage risk, involving the management team in all the workshop sessions and communicating what was happening throughout Fosterplus.
In the first instance, all the stakeholders of the business were identified. The senior team considered what each stakeholder group required from the business and importantly, what the business required in return. Initially, selected stakeholder groups were asked their opinions of the business and how they thought it could improve or what additional services they would like to see. The results of this exercise were very encouraging and were communicated throughout the organisation. This process helped the management team realise just how wide their influence was in the communities they operated in and helped highlight areas that would need to be considered and dealt with when formulating their strategy for growing and developing the business.
Cultivating Commitment
From the start, Paul and Deborah understood the importance of employees 'buying in' to the new system. Anticipating resistance, emphasis was placed on the way the system would help people do their jobs better and give their actions direct relevance to the direction the business was moving in, rather than being a ‘big brother’ monitor. Once the system was in place, a culture of communication was established to help employees understand and buy into the project.
Creating A Culture To Fit The Project
The system introduced significant changes for employees - particularly the Social Workers who now had a firmer plan to work to and a stronger reporting mechanism than had been present previously. The Fosterplus culture was already very good but monitoring and encouragement was needed to support these changes in business focus. Core to the development and continuation of the Fosterplus culture was increasing communication and understanding between management and staff. Employees were supported and well informed. A positive company culture was central to the national rollout of the plan.
Empowering & Supporting People
The project was designed entirely in-house but was facilitated by consultants from Business Excellence (International) Ltd, a specialist Strategic Management organisation. Although these consultants facilitated the project, the whole Fosterplus management team was given considerable freedom to inject their own methods, ideas and objectives. Children, foster carers/adopters, and local authorities, were all viewed as customers, and each had their place in the overall growth plan. External IT programmers were on hand to quickly fix any system problems, which had a positive effect on user confidence.
Support From Management
Paul and Deborah recognised they would have to act as champions of the cause and fortunately, already had a style of thorough communication with all employees. They gained support from the staff by carefully managing their expectations. Reaction to the system was monitored through regular meetings and feedback sessions. As the programme had clear business benefits attached to each small part of the process, rather than having to take strategic decisions on major investment programmes, the management team only ever had to make smaller-scale tactical decisions.
Expectations were managed only as much as would be needed to justify the project. "We know where we want to be in five years' time," says Deborah, "but now we know how to get there and will drip feed improvements along the way."
Focusing On Customer Needs
Fosterplus were also facing a growing threat to their business in the form of increased competition. By addressing issues from the customer’s perspective, it was able to make the service easier to use and impose a structure that left the customer not just secure in the knowledge that the best child care was being delivered but that this could be demonstrated. The net effect has been to increase the number of successful fostering and adoption placements the company can make and ensure a more structured, rapid and best-fit response to a Local Authority’s childcare needs. By being able to better target resources and effort into areas that generate the best return, Fosterplus has improved its bottom line, and by improving service it has helped to ensure growth despite increased competition.
Moving Forward
Ultimately, Fosterplus has been able to depict its future development in a way that all employees can see, understand and comment on. Everyone knows how his/her actions help the company achieve its short, medium and long-term growth strategy.
Summing up their programme, Paul commented, “It (ValueMapping™) takes the business plan into a visual and more tangible dimension. It is clear, focused and relevant to us without using fashionable 'management speak' and allows us to see how the business plan is deliverable. The ideas and concepts are accessible to the whole staff group [from directors to cleaners] and has brought the management team together through team building and ownership of the business objectives”.
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