80% said that they loved working at the firm, with 79% admitting that they would not leave if offered another job tomorrow. “I take that as a tick in the box in itself,” says Mr Ledden. “But now we want to improve on that.”


So, how has Volvo achieved this remarkable result, and what is it about the company that fosters such high levels of loyalty, in a business that has not perhaps been top of the list for school leavers? It is worth considering that almost one third of the company has worked at Volvo for more than 15 years, with 30 years of service not uncommon, while staff turnover rates are currently just 5%. “We’ve got a lot of experience within the company. But we’ve got newcomers coming through as well, including apprentices, who benefit from that experience through training and mentoring,” says Mr Ledden.


Indeed, training has been at the core of Volvo’s internal investment for some time, despite the worst economic downturn in a lifetime. Volvo has also recently invested in upgrades to seven of its eight UK customer service centres and opened a new site in Horsham. “When the downturn started we said that we would spend the time preparing for the upturn,” says Mr Ledden. ”We’ve spent more on training in the last three years, than the previous 10 years, we invest in our people to demonstrate our belief in them. Last year we launched a mentoring programme and this year we will be concentrating on developing that.”


Volvo has also introduced an ILM Level 3 accredited management qualification for aspiring and first line managers, along with a BA Honours Degree in Leadership and Management, with Anglia Ruskin University for more senior managers. Mr Ledden is a keen advocate of promoting from within, which is hardly surprising as he started with the company as an engineer, rising through sales, depot manager, customer support and on to the position of managing director. When asked about leadership, Volvo came a highly credible 28th in the tables, and 30th in terms of wellbeing, demonstrating that the workforce itself is also very much behind the management in the way in which the company is moving forwards. “We try to promote from within whenever we can. We see that as a strength,” he says. “We have the support


structure in place too, to provide management development.”


Of course you can’t have a glowing answer to every question and Mr Ledden welcomes the constructive comments that have come from the survey. “Our people are telling us that there are areas for improvement,” he says. “If we can act on these areas, in the end that should provide an improved service to the customer. It’s the people’s voice, but we have to act on it. “There is only one customer,” says Mr Ledden. “There is no sales customer, no parts customer or service customer. There is only one customer and we have to work as a team to make the customer our focus. When customers think of Volvo, we want them to think best in class service.


The foundations for this approach are well established at Volvo, both within the UK dealership and within the Volvo Group. The company has achieved ISO9001, 14001 and 18001, plus it holds the highly regarded ROSPA Gold Award. Volvo’s core values of environmental care, safety and quality are also enshrined within every aspect of the business. This is reflected in the fact that 86% of employees felt that the company genuinely cared about the environment, the third highest score. “We do embed environmental care in the culture of our organisation and we’ve done this for ourselves, it’s not from the Volvo Group,” says Mr Ledden. This is an increasingly important factor for major customers too, for whom environmental concern, safety and Duty of Care are major focuses of attention. Indeed Mr Ledden says that 90% of discussions with major account customers have little to do with machinery any more, they are more interested in risk management.


Volvo also intends to give more back this year. For many years Volvo has donated to a number of national and local charities, however, Mr Ledden is keen that the company should invest its time and energy as well as making a financial commitment. “We will be focussing on giving something back this year, with greater community involvement, with schools and local charities,” says Ms Knowles. “The more that we can get people to interact at a local team level in these initiatives, the more it will benefit us as a company and our customers through improved service,” says Mr Ledden.


There is only one customer.. . there is no sales customer, no parts customer or service customer. There is only one customer and we have to work as a team to make the customer our focus. When customers think of Volvo, we want them to think best in class service.


THE VOICE PAGE 37


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52