About
The Defence Aviation Repair Agency (DARA) faced a major challenge, but fantastic opportunity, when it moved to become a Trading Fund.
Greater freedom to operate in a wider marketplace meant a need to develop as a commercially-based organisation.
Impact worked with the DARA to prepare staff for these organisation-wide changes. The programme objective was to ensure the DARA’s highly skilled workforce was committed to the necessary change and embraced the opportunities it offered.
A comprehensive programme of organisational change was implemented, which focused on three main initiatives:
- Structural change
- Process and technological change
- An extensive programme of people development across the DARA
Crucially, it was recognised from the beginning that change of this magnitude would have very little chance of success unless everyone – from the board to the entire workforce – was prepared to change the way they worked together.
Realising that such change would require a major shift in mindset for all employees, DARA called in Impact as expert change management consultants, to assess culture change and training needs.
Following this, Impact, together with the Bourton Group, were given the key responsibility of delivering the major cultural change needed in the way people were led, managed and work together at all levels in the organisation.
The programme involved a four-month leadership and culture change programme for the board and senior management team, followed by the massive task of changing the mindset of 4000 employees.
The organisation saw a transformation in the way people work together. By empowering people on the shop floor the time scale of one particular maintenance process was reduced from 52 weeks to 16 days.
The programme achieved:
- A complete re-examination and overhaul of every major process and procedure, from sales to production, within the DARA
- A total re-structuring and de-layering of the organisation
- New job roles and responsibilities throughout and reselection from senior managers to team co-ordinators
- A unique and ground-breaking partnership agreement between Trades Unions and management
- Massive investment in new business processes and systems to revolutionise the whole supply chain
- Installation of new information and communication technology across all DARA sites
- An extensive training programme to provide the new leadership, team working and business skills needed
The DARA has also seen a “further dramatic reduction in staff turnover” as a result of the change programme.
The DARA has been recognised for the outstanding success of the change programme on four major occasions – Welsh People Development Company of the Year, two National Training Awards and the CIPD People Management Award.
A spokesman for the National Training Awards said, “DARA has seen an incredible change, the company has improved output, dramatically cut overheads and improved delivery of repair services to the MoD and other commercial customers.”