Federation House Commitment (FHC) - Actions and case studies
Building teams and involving staff
When introducing a water efficiency programme it is important that everyone in
the company is involved, to ensure it is successfully integrated into the
company
culture.
Senior management need to be committed to
the programme, but for it to succeed everyone in the
company needs to support it, and one of the ways to do
this is to ensure ownership. The key point is to harness
the powerful motivator 'involvement creates ownership'.
Initially the most effective way of achieving
involvement is to recruit teams to carry out specific
projects. Teams can be used to:
- carry out surveys to identify problem areas;
- brainstorm particular problems to develop solutions;
- select the most feasible ideas; and
- implement the selected opportunities.
Ideally, teams should be cross-functional; people with
different roles and experiences will bring different
skills and ideas, and will ensure a wider buy-in to the
programme. This is particularly helpful if reducing
water in one area of the company requires action from
staff in other areas. Typically, small teams of four to
eight people work well when instigating data surveys
and reviewing ideas. Going forward the team structure
should not remain static, and teams will tend to grow
as opportunities are identified. As teams grow larger
they may need to split into a number of specific project
or implementation teams.
Team working will also lead to the identification of
ongoing opportunities for cost savings.
At first people may be reluctant to provide ideas
so it is important to have clear and encouraging
communications that:
- explain the project;
- ask for input;
- explain how decisions will be made and be open
about why some ideas are to be implemented and
others are not;
- involve a variety of people in the discussions;
- communicate progress; and
- give ownership to people who can make a difference.
apetito has found team working and complete
company involvement especially beneficial, as shown
in the following case study.
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Last reviewed: 08 Sep 2010