Golding Homes

Golding Homes partnered with us to support their customer satisfaction strategy

Golding Homes

Golding Homes partnered with us to support their customer satisfaction strategy

An ongoing journey of culture change and increased employee engagement

“What I like about the MGI Toolkit is how practical and accessible it is. It’s easy to use because it just makes sense. The beauty of this methodology is that once you’ve learnt it and understand how to apply it, you have skills for life. You know how the tools work and you can just roll them out.”

Fiona Deal, Executive Director of People, Digital and Change, Golding Homes

We first partnered with Golding Homes in 2021 to deliver a customer service training programme as part of a wider innovative programme called ‘What About Shirley?’. This programme was named Think Shirley to focus participants onto the customer represented by Shirley. As the largest housing provider in Maidstone, Golding Homes provides over 8,000 homes to around 21,000 Kent residents. The Think Shirley programme using MGI’s Mindset, Language & Actions Toolkit was designed to deliver industry-leading customer service excellence throughout the organisation and led to a tangible impact on customer satisfaction ratings and 127 unsolicited compliments from customers.

The leadership team at Golding recognises the Think Shirley strategy is fundamental in delivering the company’s culture change and achieving buy in from colleagues, and in Summer 2022 decided further work was needed to ensure it became an intrinsic part of the Golding identity.

In Autumn 2022, the team commissioned an all-encompassing reset with a series of company-wide MGI Think Shirley Toolkit Refresher Workshops, the creation of 30 MGI-trained Golding Champions who mentor and support their colleagues daily and four MGI Train-the-Trainer-accredited internal trainers. All of which ensures a cohesive, ongoing training and embedding process that reaches every part of the organisation.

There’s always more to learn and that’s the beauty of the Toolkit. The more you do and the deeper you go, the richer and more valuable the experience. For me, the process is organic and constantly evolving throughout the organisation.

Fiona Deal, Executive Director of People, Digital and Change, Golding Homes

Embedding is key

The leadership team appreciates that embedding is key to the longevity of the training and are using innovative methods to achieve this at Golding, including:

Golding’s Gold Standards which explicitly link the Company Values and Think Shirley mindset, language and actions into an integrated behavioural package.
Golding managers are trained to role model the Think Shirley Toolkit and incorporate the language into everything they do.
In annual staff reviews everyone is asked how they demonstrate the Think Shirley Toolkit as part of their Gold Standard Behaviours.
Think Shirley is also embedded within the company’s Recruitment process.
Development of some short, fun video-based workshops, Golden Nuggets, for Team Meetings where colleagues play out various scenarios on screen.

Embedding is key

The leadership team appreciates that embedding is key to the longevity of the training and are using innovative methods to achieve this at Golding, including:

Golding’s Gold Standards which explicitly link the Company Values and Think Shirley mindset, language and actions into an integrated behavioural package.
Golding managers are trained to role model the Think Shirley Toolkit and incorporate the language into everything they do.
In annual staff reviews everyone is asked how they demonstrate the Think Shirley Toolkit as part of their Gold Standard Behaviours.
Think Shirley is also embedded within the company’s Recruitment process.
Development of some short, fun video-based workshops, Golden Nuggets, for Team Meetings where colleagues play out various scenarios on screen.

A key outcome – improved employee engagement

The continuous focus on excelling in using Think Shirley tools is reaping positive results, with Golding’s Best Companies Survey last Autumn increasing from ‘Ones to Watch’ to a solid 1 Star – Very Good Organisation.

Staff retention and sickness stats show massive improvements with staff turnover down from 24% in early 2022 to 11.56% at end of April 2023 and sickness down from 12.2 days on average to 5.86 days over the same period.

This solid foundation means that Golding Homes is firmly positioned to continue working towards outstanding customer service which remains at the forefront of its Corporate Plan, and we are delighted to be a part of it.

I’ve always said that the MGI training gives you self-coaching skills for life, not just work. It’s a Toolkit for positive mental health. It’s about resilience and having a positive, can-do attitude. The Toolkit shows you how to achieve this; it’s the ultimate ‘how to’ guide.