Alex Begg Case Study
Alex Begg Group Limited produces scarves, knitwear and home furnishings for luxury brand customers across the world. They also manufacture products under their own brand, Begg x Co. They have two manufacturing sites, a weaving mill in Ayr and a knitting mill in Hawick.
The Challenge
Alex Begg is an exciting blend between the old and new: with old methods and new technology, a long-standing existing team, and new people joining continually. Employee engagement is always a key priority for the People & Culture team, and when the team approached Connect Three, they had a plan to refresh skills and communication within the business.
The team was already receiving great feedback internally, with very positive Employee Net Promoter Scores and a determined focus to improve any negative areas highlighted by their people.
“There is always the opportunity to improve, and our communication and engagement remain ongoing priorities.” Alex Begg Impact Report 2023
The Solution
We created two levels of programmes:
- Team Leaders & Champions
- Leaders & People Managers
It was important for these programmes to talk to each other and have a natural progression between them in order to develop consistent behaviours across all levels within the company.
The organisation had a strong set of values and a comprehensive business plan in place, known as Making a Material Difference, but they needed to ensure that this knowledge was embedded throughout the company. They were keen to see people relating what they accomplished each day back to their values, and understanding how the company’s vision and values impacted their roles.
Finally, the team wanted a realignment and refresh of leadership skills, seeking to fill any gaps in their people’s skillsets in order to improve employee experience across the whole company.
Since Insights Discovery was already a big part of the Alex Begg culture, we wove the Insights colour energies, practices and styles into every workshop we created to deepen people’s awareness and practical understanding of the programme. Hybrid working and communication were also key themes within the workshops as the team is based in multiple locations.
The workshops were held face-to-face, in order to bring together people from the business’s different physical locations and provide the opportunity for peer-to-peer networking. Our workshop topics for the programme included:
Team Leaders & Champions
- Diversity & Inclusion
- Teamwork & Contribution
- Managing Performance
- Coaching & Delegation
- Role of a Team Leader
- Courageous Conversations
- And Communication.
Leaders & People Managers
- Leading Culture & Values
- Planning for Peak
- Leadership Effectiveness
- The Story So Far
- Perfecting Meetings
- Coaching & Delegation
- Developing Capability
- Courageous Conflict
The Impact
We carried out surveys before and after the programme. Participants were asked to score their confidence in their roles on a scale of 1 to 5 before and after they attended the sessions and received coaching. Before the programme Leaders & Managers averaged a score of 3.5 in confidence. This rose to 4.9 at the end. For Team Leaders the initial average score of 4.0 rose to 4.9 by the end of the events.
At the conclusion of the programme, we held a Final Reflections and Celebration at the Hawick site. It was well attended by members of the senior leadership team, who universally spoke of how impressed they were by the programme. In the video below, they told us of how they could see their people living out the company’s values, and how impressed they were by the impact and practical insights of the programme.
After the workshops, our team offered optional one-to-one coaching to all of the attendees, and 100% of people chose to take the offer in order to continue their impact.