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Testimonials

The training and development programs have had a real impact on the business, helping us to rapidly improve vehicle reliability as well as reduce costs.

Geoff Parsons
Engineering Director, FirstGroup

DPL’s coaching has helped myself and a number of my Key Executives to develop their leadership skills and performance and to prepare and support them as they have taken on bigger roles in the IBM Global Software business.

Graham Spittle
IBM Vice President

We recognise that DPL has a unique set of skills and experiences that work successfully for us - particularly because they provide an objective view to support and challenge us from outside the Organisation.

Iain McGonigal
IBM Greenock Executive

Developing People have helped our managers to take greater responsibility and improve their confidence and performance. This has enabled a number of them to take on broader and more senior roles within the business.

Jamie Cuthbert
MD Geodis UK

Developing People were very professional and well organised. They provided an objective and challenging view point and helped the Anaesthesia and Surgery team to come up with a clear plan on how we could work more effectively together and deliver our challenging cost improvement programme.

Karen Morrey - Divisional General Manager
Anaesthesia & Surgery
University Hospital of North Staffordshire

The Leadership Event was very successful for us. Developing People took us outside of our usual environment and challenged us as a team which was very beneficial as it helped us to improve how we work together.

Krissie Davies
Operations Director Manpower

The work that Developing People did was a critical activity for us, and their skills, experience and advice were excellent, and ensured that all involved felt positive about the process and outcomes.

Peter Walters
CEO, First Wessex

The programme has made a huge difference in their (the racecourse MD’s) self perception. Their confidence has increased, they are more positive, they seem to be able to handle difficult relationships in a much better way.

Lynne Bulmer - Group HR Manager
Jockey Club Racecourses

The course went down very well with the participants. The training was packed with useful tools and techniques. It’s important because it impacts directly on the way in which you interact with other people.

Sarah Price - Central Training Trainer
Admiral Group plc

The Staff Grade & Associate Specialist (SAS) doctors who undertook the sessions arranged by Developing People were unanimous in their appreciation of the courses.  They were professional, well-managed and timely. All courses involved a lot of interaction between candidates. This promoted communicating amongst ourselves more effectively, and self-reflection to allow for changes to our own practice that will hopefully result in all of us delivering better patient care. In addition, this self-reflection and changes to our own practice will result in improved job satisfaction for ourselves.

Dr Angelique Barkhuizen
Wolverhampton Hospitals NHS Trust

The leadership programme was an instant success, challenging a key group to think of the future and act confidently and without direction from above. Developing People’s ability to understand our culture and act within it, whilst pushing its boundaries, has been impressive.

Managing Director, EMAP Elan

Developing People are our preferred HR partner and have helped us to successfully manage a number of recruitment, organisational, people and performance related projects. They provide provided us with expert independent HR advice and guidance that has added real value to our business.

Nick Cahn
MD, CPI Card Group

Developing People worked closely with us to deliver interventions that met our needs and expectations. They were very professional and provided an excellent service.

Claire Bradshaw
Staff Development, Loughborough University

You worked with us to understand the training needs and what we wanted to up skill the managers on as a result we managed to deliver a pan EU training offer that was well received by all.

Jo Palmer
HR Manager, KAO Brands Europe

Developing People took time to understand our requirements, and tailored their services to meet our needs. We were very pleased with the services they provided.

Anna Boyce
HR Director, IFS School of Finance

I have been impressed by the service delivered, which has been both flexible and professional.

David Edwards, HR Manager
AgustaWestland

Developing People were appointed in 2008 to carry out a development centre for our Executive and Senior Management, totalling approximately 25 employees. They had already worked with the Group previously and as a consequence understood the business, which meant they were able to develop innovative mechanisms to measure competence and skills.

Developing People worked with the Executive team first, assessing and training so that Executives could be actively involved in the Senior Manager programme which added value to the programme. They were also able to support the development of competencies which allowed us to measure at comparable levels across both teams.

The programme itself was well run with clear instructions and communications. It consisted of a combination of online activities, group work, presentations and interviews, and whilst some employees were outside of their comfort zones and had reservations about the activity, this was eliminated when it came to delivering the feedback, as thanks to the programme we were able to obtain well rounded views of individuals with excellent evidence to back up the feedback provided.

The work that Developing People did was a critical activity for us and their skills, experience and advice was excellent and ensured that all involved felt positive about the process and outcomes. We had plans to roll this out further across the Group with Developing People supporting us but due to conflicting priorities, we were unable to. We are considering reinstating in 2010. I recommend that Developing People are provided with the opportunity to demonstrate how they can deliver development centre work as they are highly skilled in this area.

Troy Henshall, Group Corporate Services Director
First Wessex

In writing this testimonial, I feel that it is useful for the reader to have some understanding of the circumstances in which the organisation worked with Developing People.

Sparsholt College is a merged college bringing together two very culturally diverse colleges just over two years ago. The first two years were spent ensuring that systems were in place for the effective running of the College and although management training had been put in place there was now a need to examine our culture and in turn put in place organisational and individual development activity to ensure delivery of the strategic aims and values of the College.

As the Director of Human Resources and Organisational Development, I am responsible for ensuring that our Leadership and Management development programme is delivered in the College. It was recognised by the Strategic Leadership Team (SLT) that there was a need to start this work with the Senior Leadership Team and that it would be valuable to engage in an independant facilitator to work with us on this project. After research and meeting with several providers, Developing People were engaged to work with us on this journey.

The values, knowledge, skill and experience of Dave Marchant and his team were key factors for this decision. Importantly, the personal style and approach of Mr Marchant were compatible with many of the managers he would be working with.

He quickly understood the issues facing the College and put together a proposal for delivery of the culture change programme. We are now eight months into this development activity and I have supplied some quotes from members of SLT and the middle manager team that gives an indivation of how the interventions and support given by Developing People have been received in the College.

Thank you very much for your work to date and in particular our All Managers Away Day. I think the day went very well indeed and particularly because you and Linda very carefully facilitated the day so that it felt like our College, doing it to ourselves, if you know what I mean! - Principal

Both Dave Marchant and Linda Carter have provided individual coaching to managers within the organisation and the feedback and outcomes of this activity are equally positive. Indeed we have entered into a partnership bid with Developing People for funding to upgrade our internal coaching capacity and work with other partners to increase awareness of and use coaching as a vehicle for change.

Caroline Cox, Director of HR and Organisation Development
Sparsholt College

Chichester College commissioned a set of management development centres from Developing People Ltd in 2008. By April the first one was in place and by the end of the year 60 managers, the whole of the management team, had attended one of them.

The format was that each manager completed a 360 appraisal prior to the two day centre and then took part in various observed activities. The activities were devised by Developing People, who also trained in-house observers to work with them.
Prior to identifying Developing People, the College had struggled to find a company able to work flexibly with it to deliver these development centres. Led by David Marchant, Developing People were able to identify the ingredients for a very successful programme at a reasonable price.

The outcome of the Management Development Centres was the mapping of individual strengths and weaknesses against a set of management competencies drawn up by Chichester College. From this each manager was encouraged to draw up an individual Management Development Plan to enable him or her to improve management styles and practices. The success of this has been measured through the annual staff survey. The improvement in the number of staff who believe they are well managed is 20% from 2006 to 2009. Other outcomes have been the growth of confidence among the management team which has led to improved success rates and significant innovation in building new business and delivering teaching and learning.

The College has continued to deliver shorter development centres for aspiring managers. The expertise of Developing People has enabled these successes.

Mrs S J Legrave
Chief Operating Officer