Schaeffler Has Been Awarded By CBI

UK-based bearings manufacturer Schaeffler (UK) has been awarded the coveted 'Education, Skills and Leadership' Award by the Confederation of British Industry's (CBI) Human Capital Awards, for its outstanding achievements in people management practice. Schaeffler (UK) beat the likes of McDonalds, ARM, Baxi Heating UK and the Serco Group to win the award. Schaeffler (UK) received the award at a ceremony on 19th October 2006 at London's Hilton Park Lane, which was followed by a gala dinner and keynote speech by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, the Rt Hon John Hutton MP. The Education, Skills and Leadership Award recognises education, leadership development and skills-based initiatives that lead directly to business success. This includes HR programmes and initiatives launched as a result of business challenges. Back in 2003, faced with the migration of jobs to Eastern Europe, Schaeffler (UK)'s manufacturing plant in Llanelli, South Wales, embarked on a culture change programme with the vision of becoming Schaeffler Group's production location of choice, with conviction that 'the rate of Learning must be greater than the rate of change'. In 2004, the planned transfer of production from Llanelli was postponed indefinitely and more recently production has been transferred into the South Wales site from a sister plant in Germany. The culture change programme, led by Plant Director Roger Evans, involved senior management personally interviewing each employee at the plant. This, coupled with other change management initiatives, resulted in significant productivity improvements, followed by a huge appetite for learning from the workforce. Commenting on Schaeffler (UK)'s acheivements, the panel of judges said that 'it was really inspiring to hear about a manufacturing business that had faith in its people, and the lesson to be taken from Schaeffler is to invest in your people in difficult times'. Kate Hartigan, Managing Director at Schaeffler (UK) commented: 'At Llanelli, we manufacture INA brand precision components, predominantly for major automotive OEMs'. 'The global nature of our marketplace, our customers and our competitors creates new challenges, to which we must respond rapidly and effectively if we are to survive'. 'This is recognised by our workforce, who have embraced the challenge to learn new skills and become more flexible in meeting the world class performance levels demanded by us; our reward is to see this resulting in new production investment for the plant being committed by the group for the first time in several years'. The new Human Capital Awards programme is the first to recognise the direct effect that excellence in people management can have on a company's bottom line results. The awards were therefore developed to recognise British companies and their outstanding performance in this discipline. Between five and six companies were shortlisted in each of the eight categories. Judging was by a panel of experts, which included Susan Anderson, Director of the CBI; Albert Ellis, CEO of Harvey Nash; Keith Bradford, Senior VP HR Global Operations GlaxoSmithKline; Lord Leitch of Oakley, Chairman Leitch Review on Skills; Professor David Metcalf, Commissioner, Low Pay Commision; and Angie Risley, Group Human Resources Director at the Whitbread Group. Susan Anderson, CBI Director of Human Resources Policy commented: 'Many congratulations to the winners'. 'Each one has demonstrated that excellent people management really delivers better bottom line performance'. 'We cannot match the low labour costs of our Indian and Chinese competitors and as we seek to develop ever more innovative products and services, the value of a skilled and motivated workforce is more important than ever'. 'Our shortlisted companies know that their people, and the skills they possess, are key to raising company performance and competitiveness'. Other winners at the awards ceremony included Arriva, for its 'Innovative Ways of Working'; Nationwide Building Society won the 'Service' Award; BMW (UK) Manufacturing was awarded the 'Managing Change' Award; Genset received the 'Growing Business' Award; Royal Bank of Scotland won the 'Global Achievement' Award; 'The People's Organisation' Award was given to KPMG; and Philip Williams of Nationwide Building Society was awarded the 'People's Champion' Award.