Thames Water and nPower workers brush up on leadership skills

Citation

(2006), "Thames Water and nPower workers brush up on leadership skills", Industrial and Commercial Training, Vol. 38 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/ict.2006.03738aab.007

Thames Water and nPower workers brush up on leadership skills

Employees at nPower and Thames Water, part of the RWE Group, have been given an opportunity to enhance their management and leadership skills, through a partnership with the Chartered Management Institute.

The alliance follows completion of a pilot programme that involved a group of 16 managers undertaking a 12-month development programme.

The agreement enables managers throughout the RWE Group UK to benefit from a series of tailored training programmes, created to complement current in-house development initiatives. Under the broad theme of service management, candidates will develop self-management and information-handling skills.

Each tailored programme has also been designed to encourage participants to draw on personal work-based experience so that the skills they learn can be applied to practical workplace issues. Candidates will be assessed through a series of work-based assignments and success will lead to the award of NVQ levels 3, 4 and 5.

Richard Newcombe, RWE UK head of training and development, said: “In a service environment, good management is about meeting customer needs and ensuring information is handled sensitively and swiftly. By providing our managers with the chance to obtain a professional qualification that has been mapped to the national standards, RWE is demonstrating its commitment to these customer values and ensuring that they form a part of our continuing professional development.”

The programme has been designed for managers across all levels at RWE UK to ensure that managers develop new skills that enhance the way they lead their teams to meet customer needs and expectations. It comes in the wake of research suggesting that management and leadership development work best when they are linked to business strategy and have senior-level endorsement.

Tricia Williamson, director of management development at the Chartered Management Institute, said: “With competition fierce in the service industry, organizations must ensure that managers receive appropriate opportunities to develop the skills that will enhance individual and company performance. By developing existing and aspiring managers on an ongoing basis, organizations improve their retention potential and create a motivated, productive team.”