Building Leadership Capability in an Australian Food Manufacturing Business

An Australian food manufacturer with over 160 employees engaged Skildare to support with their emerging HR issues and to support their HR team. The senior leadership had identified that due to the number of people issues emerging and their HR team workload, they wanted to upskill their line managers to be more independent and confident in getting the best performance out of their teams.  

By leveraging Skildare’s Emerging Leaders Program, the business was able to upskill their line managers to create better performing teams and improve their confidence to manage emerging issues before they become business risks. Leaders who participated also reported greater job satisfaction.  

The client had been promoting high performing employees into leadership roles as recognition of their contributions. However, people and performance issues persisted amongst the teams, with multiple issues becoming larger people problems for senior management and HR to grapple with, creating risk for the business.

This is a common story for many businesses, but this business decided to distinguish itself from other stories by focusing on supporting those promoted and emerging leaders to add people management skill and capability.

Skildare partnered closely with the senior leadership and business owners to design a practical training program for new and emerging leaders.  

Our approach included:

• Discovery sessions with senior leaders and owners to identify pain points, persistent people issues and trends.  

• Identifying potential skills gaps and areas for development in new and emerging leaders  

• Mapping out what potential training could look like to fit in with business needs, time periods and essential topics.  

Every step reflected Skildare’s values of collaboration, authenticity, and simplicity — ensuring the training plan and materials were practical, relevant, and engaging.

Together, we developed an emerging leaders program, tailor made for the business, and focused on providing managers with practical tools to support them in coaching their teams toward common goals.  Skildare then helped the business by:

• Creating a custom training package relevant to the business incorporating the business’s values, practical examples that may occur in the workplace and integrating the business’s existing systems.  

• Delivering training and workshops on site across multiple sessions to meet the business needs and ensure engagement.

• Heavily emphasise practical solutions and skills in workshops and training sessions, facilitating peer to peer discussion with emerging leaders across different areas of the business, as well as self-reflection and self-evaluation.

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The business has been able to report a substantial drop in grievances and disciplinary matters that need to be escalated to HR and/or senior management.  

In performance appraisals and through feedback, managers who undertook the course are noting greater job satisfaction and confidence in their roles as new managers.

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This project highlights how Skildare supports small to medium-sized businesses to strengthen the capability of line managers, given their critical role in ensuring day to day performance of the business, support for employees and managing of people risk.  

With a practical and collaborative approach, we help businesses create strong cultures driven by capable and confident leaders.

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