With the 2015 MCA Awards just around the corner, we take a closer look at some of the shortlisted projects. The 2015 People category, sponsored by Atkins, is hotly contested between four firms. Each project demonstrates the successful delivery of people-related change.
Arup with Heathrow
The new Heathrow “Terminal 2: The Queen’s Terminal” is a major development for one of the world’s busiest airports. A new global hub for Star Alliance, it will eventually serve 20 million passengers annually and be the place of work for 24,000 people across 160 organisations. A smooth, untroubled opening for T2 was critical.
Heathrow partnered with Arup to deliver the most in-depth and ambitious six-month familiarisation programme ever devised for an airport opening.
T2 opened on 4 June 2014 with no glitches, no employees wondering where they were, and passengers astonished this was the terminal’s first day of operation.
Elixirr with Morrisons
Elixirr worked in partnership with Morrisons to design, develop and implement a Learning Academy for colleagues plus a bespoke, mandatory training curriculum for their Commercial buying teams. The project was a response to recognising a clear need to invest in capability development to boost engagement and cross-functional working identified by data collected by Morrisons. From paper-based training materials and traditional classrooms in 2013 to the new Academy and blended curriculum just a year later, Morrisons has been on a truly transformational journey.
Grant Thornton with Kodak Alaris
Amid fundamental shifts in the photographic market, Eastman Kodak – the owner of the iconic Kodak brand – filed for bankruptcy protection in the US. The company’s largest creditor, the Kodak Pension Plan (KPP), needed to ensure financial stability for its members. As KPP’s advisers, Grant Thornton helped the scheme acquire two global Kodak divisions in a pioneering transaction that preserved thousands of jobs. It is one of the most innovative and unusual deals ever consummated during a cross-border insolvency, the deal secured long-term revenues to underpin the pension scheme’s obligations and allowed Kodak to emerge from Chapter 11 on a solvent basis.
PwC with Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
Changing the brand and increasing the uptake of Apprenticeships is a key priority for the UK government, with over 15% of people aged 16-24 not in employment, education or training. PwC’s innovative work, as part of government’s Employer Ownership Pilot initiative, has provided employers with the purchasing power and practical support needed to recruit new Professional and Business Apprentices. We’ve now created over 1,250 Apprenticeships across more than 250 different employers (80% of which are SMEs and many are taking Apprentices for the first time) and their contribution to the UK economy has a net present value of almost £50m.
PwC with Ministry of Defence
PwC were engaged by MOD Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S), who are responsible for procuring and supporting equipment for the Armed Forces (Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force) in March 2012 to transform and accelerate the recruitment process within DE&S, and support the organisation to recruit an original target of 1000 people into very specialist roles including Engineering, Commercial, Finance, Project and Programme Management, logistics and IT functions. To date, over 1500 new staff have joined the organisation and we have reduced the time to hire from an average of 6 – 9 months to under 15 weeks.