Northern Foods: idea is a guiding light

Northern Foods, which is currently going though a major restructuring programme involving the disposal of large parts of its business, has signed what is thought to be one of the first multi-union national learning agreements in the business.

In partnership with the Bakers Food and Allied Workers Union (BFAWU), the Transport & General Workers Union (T&GWU) and the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (USDAW), Northern has entered into the agreement to give employees easy access to a wide range of courses, from numeracy and literacy through to languages and the European Computer Driving Licence.

The agreement aims to make learning and development opportunities accessible to all employees. It's about creating a learning culture in the workplace and building on the development of Northern Foods' on-site learning centres. It has five fully operational on-site learning centres, with a further three under development.

As part of a root and branch review of its operations, Northern's HR manager Fern Coombes told Food Manufacture's HR forum how the company had undertaken a continuous improvement programme designed to identify skills gaps in its business - both for leaders and managers - while nurturing nascent talent.

As part of this work, it identified different structures and focuses at different plants across the group. What it is now trying to do is bring these into alignment and make best practice a consistent theme - from senior managers down to those working on the shop floor.

"We want to have sites focusing on manufacturing excellence," said Coombes. "We are also developing a competency framework based on manufacturing excellence. We are very clear about what we are looking for in individuals."

Ultimately, she said, the aim of the foundation level manufacturing development programme, which will underpin subsequent professional development, is to improve efficiency and line manager influence by developing manufacturing managers, area managers and group leaders.

To drive continuous improvements throughout Northern Foods, it was necessary to give people the right skills, knowledge and problem-solving abilities, she added. "We want our managers to really take responsibility for those working in their teams."

So far, 10 improvement projects had been completed, said Coombes, resulting in total cost savings of £175,000 a year - including savings of £2,000 a week through the reduction of waste. This had been achieved through reduced downtime and the development of key business processes; from developing relationships with customers, reducing waste, reducing labour, more positive trending of variances and more accurate stocktaking.

However, the personal benefits for individuals involved had also been significant. "The communicating and influencing module has gone down an absolute storm on site," said Coombes. "We are really at the beginning of the journey, but we have a proven model."