Developing talent and communications philosophy with Morrisons

19 November 2009 | Projects, Strategic | No Comments

Morrisons' Talent guide forms part of our consultancy work with their HR department

We’ve worked with Morrisons for more than three years now. In that time The Workshop has created internal marketing campaigns, promotional materials and digital products. We’ve provided design, copywriting and technical services – the whole caboodle!

This autumn, we’ve been providing communications consultancy, helping the company’s directors and company communications team reach out and speak to employees across the UK.

Making the most of Talent

Morrisons’ Talent guide outlines the company’s vision for developing employees’ skills and helping them to build a career in the organisation. The idea is that with talent and determination, staff can work their way up ‘from shop floor to top floor’.

Tiina Carr, one of our directors, is working alongside Morrisons’ Director of Human Resources to look at the philosophy behind their values, leadership, talent and performance. The result will be a set of guides that lie at the heart of Morrisons’ new HR philosophy and can be used by the company’s top 1000 senior managers.

The Talent guide ties in with the new Morrisons Academy, which develops staff and helps them to gain a nationally recognised qualification for carrying out their day-to-day work. It’s an enterprising initiative that’s caught the eye of Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, amongst others.

The Workshop on TV

Norman Pickavance, Morrisons’ Director of HR, also appeared on a special edition of ITV’s Tonight programme, ‘Make me an apprentice’, a couple of weeks ago to talk about Morrisons and their work on The Academy. It was great to see some of the communications we’d designed for The Academy scheme being beamed into households across the UK!

‘Make me an apprentice’ also featured Norman talking about Morrisons’ commitment to the government’s Backing Young Britain campaign, which encourages businesses to support young people into employment by offering work experience, apprenticeships and other opportunities. We were pleased twice over as The Workshop also developed the Backing Young Britain website just a couple of months ago.