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Pia reaches Achieving Level of Chwarae Teg’s Exemplar Employer Award

Pia is delighted to announce that we have reached Achieving Level of Chwarae Teg's Exemplar Employer award. Chwarae Teg has written a case study on how Pia achieved it...

A case study on Gwasg Pia Cyfyngedig
Pia was experiencing steady growth, utilising a flat structure for managing staff and needed to devolve responsibility from one key manager to create a new layer of team leaders. To do this a complete company restructure was required with creation of new roles, review of existing roles, to ensure the best talent was in place for each role. 

Working relations were not as good as they had been during previous periods, so joining the Agile Nation Business Programme allowed Pia to take a snapshot of key business areas, the results of which were to form the basis on areas to focus throughout the restructure with support from the Chwarae Teg Business Team.

All employees were invited to take part in an anonymous Business culture survey which was analysed by the Business Team, who also undertook a review of the current working practices, making recommendations which were summarised within an Equality and Diversity Strategy and Action Plan.

The aim of the Strategy was to raise awareness of Equality & Diversity to improve Working Relations, tighten up on Recruitment and Selection and raise to awareness of Community & Environmental matters. As the action plan progressed, Performance Management and Learning & Development were added.

The objectives of the action plan:
Business Diversity – review policies, train staff in Equality & Diversity.
Recruitment & Selection – review policies, empower managers, inform staff of the policy and create/review job descriptions.
Community & Environment – review policies, appoint a community champion.
Performance Management – train and support the new layer of team leaders/managers with best practice in this area.
Learning & Development – to upskill new and potential managers with ILM training.

The Business Team assisted in the implementation of the Action Plan and provided Pia with an Updated Action Plan which included a review of activities carried out, impacts assessment, a second repeat Business culture survey and review of key baseline data areas.

The Business also worked with an external HR Consultant to provide internal support for the existing ManagerThe results of the second Business culture survey has allowed Pia to see the positive results of its journey through the Agile Nation Business Programme. Pia has achieved sufficient responses and weighted scores to obtain the right to apply for the Chwarae Teg Exemplar Employer Award - Achieving level.

Key personnel involved:
- Sharon Williams, Director/Manager, Gwasg Pia Cyfyngedig

- Helen Hare, Bob Hicks & Margaret Jones, Business team members, AN2 Business Programme 

Actions Completed

Business Diversity – Policies were reviewed and all staff received training. Business culture second survey revealed+17% in answers in this area. Working relations improved with second survey revealing +23%.

Recruitment & Selection – Toolkit created for managers, which allows consistency in recruitment matters, all staff are aware of the process, all staff have a new job descriptions. Business culture second survey revealed +34% in answers in this area.

Community & Environment – Policies were reviewed, champion appointed, community actions regularly takingplace. All staff aware of commitment to green matters and working towards “small workplace health awards”.

Performance Management – All new and existing managers trained on site with a bespoke workshop, which supports devolvement of management structure and to maintain high standards of performance.

Pia also overhauled all policies and developed a new staff handbook which has been rolled out to all staff. The restructure has now been embedded and another 10 roles have been created. All roles are filled which will form the foundation for future business growth. “The support from Chwarae Teg has enabled us to be supported during our restructure, empowering colleagues to ensure Pia meets our customers’ extremely high expectations.” Sharon Williams, Pia Director.