WeThrive survey results power change across Lombard International Group in Europe, Asia, and the United States as their leadership team appreciate what really matters to their employees
Background
Lombard International Group is a leading independent, global wealth solutions provider with deep local market knowledge. They help nurture private wealth and its positive impact on the world. They do this by creating market leading tailor-made wealth and succession planning solutions for internationally mobile HNW individuals, their families and institutions to ensure that client assets are protected, preserved and passed on for generations to come.
Giving employees a voice
Lombard International Group considers their employees their most important asset and wanted to understand their needs in more detail with regards to workplace culture and practices. It was important they had a tool to gather employee feedback that didn’t focus purely on developmental areas. Sandra Locke, Global Director of Human Resources, explains:
“Colleague engagement and wellbeing, at Lombard International Group, is vitally important to the leadership team. We wanted to provide employees with a mechanism to have a voice without pointing the finger at individuals or playing the blame game. By using WeThrive, the aim was to tease out what colleagues thought worked well and also what needed to change. We were keen to understand the underlying factors contributing to employee stress in order to improve wellbeing in the workplace.”
High completion rates give Lombard International Group meaningful results
Lombard International Group’s first WeThrive survey, which was launched in June 2018, received an 85% completion rate, giving leadership a meaningful view of how people were feeling. The survey highlighted particular themes around what employees loved about working at Lombard International Group. They stated they enjoyed working with their colleagues and also appreciated being given the opportunity to work on challenging projects.
There were also some common themes around what employees thought Lombard International Group could do to improve their day to day work environment. Employees suggested they would like to have more time and resources to complete their work and they would appreciate more headspace to be able to think clearly.
Focusing on the things that matter most
Using the survey results, Lombard International Group developed strategies for their Philadelphia and Luxembourg campuses, making improvements based on real feedback that would improve employees’ work experience by creating a more engaging, efficient and comfortable workspace.
In Philadelphia, they launched the WeThrive results with the ‘Day of a Lion’. In the survey, employees shared that they enjoyed working with others throughout the organisation and they appreciated that they are constantly given the opportunity to learn. As a result, Lombard International Group introduced an online learning course focused on cultivating relationships with their peers. During the ‘Day of the Lion’, employees also had time to meet and interact with colleagues from other teams, enabling those who didn’t work together every day to connect and ultimately, giving them a greater understanding of how others contribute to the organisation.
Sandra comments:
“The results were fascinating. It became clear that it was also important that people felt connected to Lombard International’s values as an organisation. For example, employees pledged to ‘Go Green’ by reducing their consumption of single-use plastic. Giving back to the community was also highlighted as being important to staff, so we decided to increase their participation in community projects throughout Philadelphia.”
After analysing the results, wellbeing and mental health were also two key areas Lombard International Group wanted to focus on. They started by launching a Massage Day in October to help employees relax, and that was just the beginning. They now offer monthly wellness initiatives to tackle stress in the workplace, including the launch of a Wellness Week in October 2019.
At their Luxembourg campus, Lombard International Group launched a number of initiatives to address the issue of headspace and potential anxiety in the workplace. These initiatives included encouraging employees to take breaks and head outdoors with ‘Walktober’, introducing relaxation workshops, and offering healthy breakfasts to provide an energy boost during busy times and to help employees to start the day in a positive, productive way.
Following feedback that employees needed more time to reflect and think clearly, the leadership team gave HR, Facilities and Marketing the opportunity to design three new rooms specifically to help address these needs:
- The Games Room – to help foster teamwork and have some fun on lunch and coffee breaks.
- The Relaxation Room – a place to gather their thoughts and take a break when feeling anxious.
- The Learning Room – a quiet place to concentrate and complete online training courses.
By using the WeThrive survey, Lombard International Group gave employees a voice, listened to their feedback and most importantly, implemented change to address the challenges raised.
To ensure these actions were followed through and to increase accountability, Lombard International Group nominated WeThrive ambassadors who are using WeDo to create and track the progress of actions that were implemented by Senior Management.
What’s next for Lombard International Group?
Lombard International Group launched their second company survey in September 2019. This year, they will be focusing on goal-setting for 2020 and ensuring line managers take responsibility for the actions within their teams. Managers will be taking part in Thrivology training to ensure they have a complete understanding of WeThrive, can interpret the results of their team, and know how to act quickly on the challenges that arise.
Sandra concludes:
“The aim was to tease out what colleagues thought worked well and also what needed to change. We were keen to understand the underlying factors contributing to employee stress in order to improve wellbeing in the workplace…The results were fascinating. It became clear that it was also important that people felt connected to Lombard International’s values as an organisation.
We are also using the WeThrive results in conjunction with our performance management tool to help set clear targets, identify training needs and communicate our long term goals. In this way we feel that we are more likely to all be pulling in the same direction, have greater clarity on what’s going on and who’s responsible for what – hopefully creating an exciting, fun and nurturing working environment!”
