Endorsed & Development Programmes Deliver for DHL

03 May 2007

At DHL we employ 40,000 people in the UK. That figure covers first line managers right up to executive management level. There is a hands-on environment in DHL, but the ‘Theory X’ style of management is quite prevalent within our industry. What we’ve encouraged our managers to do is move away from theory and into a more coaching style of management. That’s been our strategy in the last four years within the retail sector.

From a training needs point of view, it’s at first line manager level that we’ve used ILM. The DHL Effective Manager Programme is designed to help every junior manager and duty manager within the business understand nine key management behaviours. It was put together by us in partnership with Ashorne Hill. We contacted ILM because we wanted our course recognised in the marketplace as something that had added value.

External recognition from ILM has been a really important thing for us. We regard ILM as being the biggest and most prestigious management development body in the UK, so it’s great to have that association. When our managers go though the endorsed programme, they get a qualification that is recognised outside DHL.

Working with ILM has definitely led to tangible benefits within DHL. We won a National Training Award for the Effective Manager Programme, and our employee survey, entitled ‘tell us how it is’, has seen significant improvements year on year since 2003. Confidence in management, morale and a sense of recognition has all risen by about 50% since the programme began.

In terms of harder measures, the two obvious ones are absenteeism and staff turnover. Absenteeism is down by around 50% in centres where the ILM endorsed programmes are in place. Staff turnover is down by around 75%. Those are critical figures, particularly within the logistics industry, where people can move from one job into another quite easily. Skills are very transferable between companies.

The Effective Manager programme was piloted in our consumer and food retail division – about 20,000 staff. Over the next 12 and 18 months we’ll be widening that out to the rest of the retail sector – particularly to managers in fashion and home. ILM will play a major part in that.

I would definitely recommend ILM endorsement to other employers. We regard ILM as the market leader for management qualifications in the UK. ILM is certainly a very professional body to be part of.