Increasing staff satisfaction at Sage
The Challenge
Sage produce some of the best known accounting and business management software in the world. Their operation in Ireland provides software and support services to over 40,000 businesses from start-ups to multi-nationals. Following a staff survey, Sage Ireland wanted to hold a staff training programme that dealt specifically with the challenges that had been uncovered in the survey. One area that had been highlighted was how managers could handle personnel issues more effectively. They wanted the event to be really special and memorable. Sage approached Dramatic Solutions with the brief.
The Approach
We created a one day event that allowed staff to handle difficult conversations. The session included a short scripted performance which illustrated many of the problems that people encounter when dealing with difficult conversations with colleagues. Scenes from the playlet were then used to help participants explore alternative ways of dealing with the situations. Practical skills building sessions were interspersed between the scenarios so that participants got to practice the skills as well as see them played out by our actors.
The Results
The result was that managers felt much more confident about having these conversations and subsequent staff surveys showed a much higher degree of satisfaction with how they are handled. Following the event Dramatic Solutions has returned to Sage to deliver sessions on persuasion and influencing and on coaching skills for managers.
