How Lloyds Banking Group transformed performance for 70,000 colleagues
Building a coaching culture fit for the future at Lloyds
employees engaged
less time documenting performance and more time coaching and developing their teams.
of participants feel they get more praise and recognition
About Lloyds Banking Group
Lloyds Banking Group is a leading UK-based financial services group. They provide a wide range of banking and financial services, focused primarily on retail and commercial customers.
Challenge
Breaking free from legacy reviews to unlock growth
A central part of Lloyds’ strategic three-year plan was to transform the Group for success in a digital world. In order to deliver this transformation, Lloyds’ CEO, António Horta-Osório, recognised that equipping their 70,000 colleagues to perform at their best would be critical.
They have a uniquely diverse workforce who are a fundamental competitive advantage, so for colleagues to be at their best, bringing their whole self to work, they needed to offer an inclusive, growth-led culture.
Lloyds had a traditional approach to performance management based on ratings and annual reviews. It was unpopular and lacked transparency – only 20% of colleagues believed it was a positive experience and just 26% believed it improved performance. They were spending two million hours a year documenting performance reviews, rather than coaching and learning.
Recognising that this was not fit for the new world, Lloyds adopted a new approach to performance management which largely removed ratings and replaced the old annual review with more informal, quarterly check-ins.
The leaders recognised that changing the process would have a very limited impact if they didn’t also change how people thought and behaved. Above all, the challenge was to change the performance culture. After a formal review of all the alternatives in the market, Lloyds’ leaders chose MindGym to be their partner for this vital strategic priority.
Solution
A high-impact learning journey for 70,000 colleagues
The behavioural programme was built around MindGym’s six conditions for high performance. These were applied in the regular ‘Check-ins’ which were a key part of the new approach. These are effective only if they are adult-to-adult conversations which help people take responsibility for their performance and build the capability and confidence bit by bit.
To enable the shift, MindGym developed a blended learning solution that involved all 70,000 people throughout the UK in immersive, instructor-led bootcamps (delivered face-to-face and virtually for 500–1,000 participants at a time), 80,000 eLearning sessions and digital toolkits and other resources for team huddles.
This ‘tapas style’ approach was successful, as it was accessible and flexible, which suited the competing business challenges. This saved time and money and provided legacy training which can be revisited at any time for new and existing colleagues, ensuring that every colleague understands the new approach and can develop the behaviours to engage in it.
Throughout 2019 we delivered four staggered releases, providing time to digest smaller changes regularly and respond to the needs of colleagues and the business. Delivering 250,000+ hours of training is one of the largest transformation programmes in Lloyds’ history – involving changes to systems, processes and human behaviour. Each release addressed a particular part of the performance management life cycle:
- Release 1: Six Conditions to Be Your Best, objectives and feedback
- Release 2: Check-ins (regular conversations between manager and direct report)
- Release 3: Checkpoint (manager support forums)
- Release 4: Reward and Recognition
MindGym worked closely with Lloyds’ communications agency to pique participants’ interest at every release, developing a compelling visual identity and enticing communications.
Results
Less paperwork, more performance
The new approach means that managers now spend 60% less time documenting performance and correspondingly more time coaching and developing their teams. 89% of colleagues believe the changes created a positive experience compared to only 20% in 2018.
The quality of the Check-ins has had a very positive impact. Of colleagues who’ve had 3+ Check-ins:
- 80% know how they’re performing, compared to 35% who’ve only had one or fewer
- 72% believe the Group’s commitment to learning is making a difference, compared to 46% who’ve only had one or fewer
- 90% feel listened to by their manager, compared to 73% who’ve only had one or fewer
We’ve seen a positive relation to colleagues, health and wellbeing too:
- 95% agree their manager cares about their wellbeing
- 85% feel they get more praise and recognition
