As part of its ongoing commitment to developservices, Severn Trent Water undertook a customer service department restructure to enhance customer experience. 

A newly-formed customer services management team within Severn Trent Water comprised leaders with a range of experience in different areas of the utility. They all shared the same goals; to increase net promotor scores and customer satisfaction whilst effectively managing the large teams under their charge.

As a new team, cohesion and alignment were key factors in realising these objectives, as were leadership skills, resilience and big-picture thinking.

Laughology devised a series of bespoke, immersive sessions with managers which helped them gain a greater understanding of resilience and increased emotional capital and engagement throughout the team.  Our management and leadership modules were combined with individual coaching session to accelerate learning.

The sessions encouraged fresh thinking and interaction. Participants built bonds and developed a wider understanding of various roles and how they affect customer experience. Working together, they developed the core skills needed to effectively lead their teams and so enhance the company’s customer service proposition.

Laughology then worked with the team to develop an interactive show-case event during which they presented their vision to the wider workforce.  Using the skills they had acquired during the process the managers developed new lines of communication and encouraged feedback from all areas of the business which was used to develop further strategy. 

As a result of Laughology’s programme participants were able to deliver a new programme to the rest of the customer service department.

Severn Trent Water’s net promoting scores improved. The process contributed to customer satisfaction levels of 4.36 out of five, engagement levels increased as did positive relationships with management.  

When you are one of the nation’s biggest banks employing some of the world’s best talent, you need to look at training and development in a fresh and innovative way. Which is why Nat West chose Laughology as a partner.

Nat West employs some of the most high-achieving individuals in the global banking sector. The company is serious about training and retaining its star players.

Its career development programme is one of the best in the business and it wanted to keep it fresh with new, relevant, effective and inventive elements.

Nat West invited several training and development companies to tender for the opportunity to enhance its already successful internal training and talent retention programme. The bank was specifically looking for a partner to deliver confidence-building and motivation techniques in an effective and unique way.

We devised a bespoke programme of sessions designed to build participants’ emotional intelligence, using humour as a leadership mind-set.

We recognise that people learn more effectively in an emotive state. They are more likely to retain information, remember it and recall it if the learning experience is positive.

This theory is backed by rigorous scientific evidence and we used this knowledge in the programme we developed. We employed techniques of stand-up comedy and improvisation to engage participants and help them enhance confidence and presentation skills. The programme was delivered in a series of sessions over a two-year period.

 

There was a higher rate of promotion within the group which undertook the training, along with a higher rate of staff who made lateral movements within the organisation, rather than leave it.

HSBC wanted and complement its highly successful training and development programme with an engaging, science-based module addressing the subject of unconscious bias.

HSBC’s Balance programme helped promote awareness and understanding of the benefits of balanced workplaces.

The bank wanted to make participation within this programme as diverse as possible and required a series of entertaining and informative keynote talks to attract participants and stimulate conversations around the subject of unconscious bias.

At Laughology, we make the complex simple and fun. Our unique delivery style ensures maximum attention, engagement and retention. Which is why HSBC chose us as the perfect partner to complement and enhance their global diversity programme.

Initially, we consulted with the lead team in the programme and analysed existing provision to gain understandingof where leaders and participants felt there were gaps.
Armed with this data we developed a series of bespoke, sector-specific sessions which concentrated on the psychology and neuro-science of unconscious bias. The sessions drew heavily on current scientific research. The aim was to create deeper awareness of the social and behavioural reasons behind the causes of bias.

A series of six sessions were delivered at HSBC’s London headquarters and after each, evaluation and feedback was used to enhance subsequent sessions. Each was delivered in an enjoyable format with tangible deliverables and quick wins, such as strategies for thinking differently and recognising situations where bias could affect decisions.

Nearly 90 percent of attendees reported the experience as very good or excellent with 87 percent reporting that the subject matter was well evidenced and relevant to their work. This created an increase in reported general conversations about bias and its effects.

After the second event the reports were so positive the bank decided to live webcast subsequent presentations so anyone within the organisation could participate and benefit.