Ardent Financial Planning Case Study

Welcome to the captivating case study of Ardent Financial Planning, where the power of our employee engagement surveys truly came to light. Through the process of conducting an employee engagement survey with our Pro-Development team, the company not only gained valuable insights across departments but also discovered the potential loss of a team member. This revelation prompted proactive measures that led to successfully retaining that valuable team member. This remarkable experience highlights the immense value of employee engagement initiatives and their ability to drive positive outcomes. Delighted to share the transformative impact and the remarkable insights that unfolded during this journey.

At Ardent we have always been very proud that our ‘Values’ are not only delivered to our clients, but also, with our staff. This was reflected in our first Employee Engagement process we undertook with Pro – Development in January 2021, where we achieved a score of 91%. This was the highest score that Pro – Development had ever seen, so really started to appreciate how well we scored.

Even though we were very proud of all the areas that we scored well in, and even though we did not come out disengaged, the following appeared in our lowest actively engaged areas:

• My review/appraisal helped me to identify and plan ways of improving my performance.
• I have opportunities to be able to grow and develop in my role.

So, along with Michelle and her team, the ‘Ardent Action Plan’ was created and put into place.

We set to work at reviewing the current ‘Ardent Structure’ and revised it so that we showed clearer progression paths for those who wanted to progress, as well as giving clear salary bandings within the roles. We also made our job descriptions clearer, so staff could see and understand the expectations of their roles. We then enrolled those staff who wanted to progress onto an apprenticeship program, enabling them to work towards being fully qualified, with the aim of moving up to the newly created position of Client Relationship Manager, and this April 2023, after achieving fully qualified status, two staff were promoted to CRM.

With time, investment, and the help of Pro Development, we then looked at our performance management process. They took us through a step-by-step process of; understanding how to get the best interaction between the employee and manager, making the employee responsible for preparing for the review, writing their objectives, and telling us what they felt had gone well, and where they had developed.

This for us was mind blowing, as the performance reviews had never been so interactive before. We went from the employee speaking very little during the review, to them doing 80% of the talking for over an hour. And it was in this process we established the potential loss of a team member, which enabled us to be proactive, resulting in us retaining that team member. And it’s here the value of the ‘Employee Engagement’ really came into its own.

We are not one to rest on our laurels, so we decided to engage in the process again in September 2022. We were confident that we were still performing well as an Employer but didn’t expect to gain the level of result that we had done previously. We were wrong. For the second time, we achieved 91%, which to do this once was excellent, but to do a second time EXCEPTIONAL!

Once again, we took pride in the areas that showed very strongly engaged, but having seen such positive results from our last experience, we wanted to work on the ‘less engaged areas’ as we had done previously, which were:

• Health and Wellbeing
• Feeling valued and recognised (and rewarded fairly)

A second ‘Ardent Action Plan’ was put into place and work began with the Pro – Development team. We re-evaluated all salary bands against a job market that had changed drastically over the Covid period. We were not as competitive as we thought, so we revised our budget for the year to bring salaries up to the level of where they should be. In addition to this, we also revised our benefits package, and put into place an ‘Employee Rewards Package’ document, which included new things such as ‘Celebrating the teams’ achievements’, ‘Cycle to work scheme’, ‘Stuck not sick days’, as well as ‘Volunteering days’ where we have signed up with ‘York Cares’ to be part of the City’s voluntary programme.

Wellbeing was something else that we had not really done before, and we now have a ‘Well Being Policy’ in place using an app via ‘Aviva’ which offers medical assistance, mental health support, nutrition advice etc. In addition to this we completed a day’s training with York Minds on ‘Health and Wellbeing’.

We love this work at Pro-Development. Supporting leaders and teams to engage, motivate, attract, and retain key talent is what drives us each day. We know that there’s room for improvements within many organisations in our region and we’re here to help. If you’re wondering how to engage your team, increase productivity, and keep hold of key people, it’s most certainly time to meet us for a brew. Drop us an email and we can book in a date to talk it through.