It has taken years of preparation to make London 2012 an outstanding and memorable event. Many of those involved have relied upon the principles of Investors in People to plan for every contingency. Here we feature two key organisations which are cherishing these weeks of Olympics and Paralympics.
Visa Europe – continued business success with Investors in People
For the past 26 years, Visa has been proud to be a global sponsor of the Olympic Games. And since 2002, it has also backed the Paralympics. London 2012 will be Visa’s 14th Olympic and 6th Paralympic Games. That is quite a record for supporting any event and demonstrates and extraordinary level of loyalty and commitment.
Visa Europe has had truly “Olympic ambitions” about its policy for employee engagement and development. In a challenging economic climate, the company’s Executive Management Committee has demonstrated a powerful commitment to the success of its people and a desire to continually improve and grow.
“As a business we believed that Investors in People would provide a framework to ensure Visa Europe’s continued business success” says Derrick Ahlfeldt, Senior Vice President of HRM at Visa Europe. “In 2009, we achieved the Investors in People Standard. Many businesses, seeing this as a tremendous achievement, may have rested on their laurels. But we pressed onwards and were awarded Gold at the end of May 2012. This was a tremendous achievement for Visa Europe. It makes me very proud to be part of an organisation that has people development at the heart of what we do.
“We recognise the benefits of Investors in People in driving a healthy environment for our employees. This has been proven to boost productively and performance” Focussing on health and wellbeing with Investors in People will give you an amazing return on investment, from improving employee engagement and productivity to enabling your workforce to be ready to embrace change.
Otto Bock – world-class technical support at the Paralympics
Otto Bock is a family-owned German based multinational operating in 44 countries around Europe and the rest of the globe.
It is now one of the world’s most successful suppliers of innovative products for people with restricted mobility. With high quality, cutting edge products and services, Otto Bock has been a keen pro bono supporter of the Paralympics movement for the past 24 years. The company’s mission, in a nutshell, is to help people gain, or regain, their freedom to move.
“There are lots of business management tools out there but Investors in People was the right tool for us.” Says Phil Yates, Otto Bock UK’s Managing Director. “We have fully embraced the Investors in People culture. It has become the benchmark we rely upon.”
Otto Bock started to use Investors in People as a framework for business transformation at a time when the company in the UK was expanding rapidly through acquisitions. The challenge was to bring coherence to diverse groups and break down silos. For Otto Bock, Investors in People has:
- Provided all employees with a clear sense of strategic direction of the business and their role within that;
- Enabled senior management to identify gaps in performance;
- Supported continuous improvement;
- Clarified and defined roles, especially those of managers;
- Stimulated the use of vocational qualifications for career development;
- Brought cohesion to the organisation
For the full article please click here to read our e-zine “People Business”. If you wish to see more information on how Visa Europe has worked with Investors in People click here. Or to find out about Otto Bock’s journey with IiP click here.
If you’re interested in how Investors in People can help you, why not speak to one of our team and find out more
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