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Tuesday 16 Jan 2007

NETWORK RAIL WINS PRESTIGIOUS TALENT MANAGEMENT AWARD

Region & Route:

National

Network Rail beat off stiff competition, including Carphone Warehouse and Deloittes, to win the Talent Management Award at the recent Personnel Today National Awards. Peter Bennett, HR Director at Network Rail, said: “Network Rail issues can be complex and technical, and the company wanted to avoid a situation where there was rapid turnover of employees with huge corporate memory, leaving us with no option but to use expensive and time consuming recruitment processes. Our challenge was to better manage Network Rail’s talent and succession planning; and to ensure a talent pool for the future. “We worked with the University of Warwick and the Centre for High Performance Development to devise a process to identify, select, assess, develop and manage talent across the company. “We then established a world class leadership centre to run development centres, training and education programmes, strategy planning and functional events. University-accredited leadership programmes included assignments on real business issues that were relevant to Network Rail, and this enabled us to build a substantial talent pool, ready to take the next step up. “As a result, 60% of the last year’s key business-critical vacancies were filled from within Network Rail, halving the need and cost of external recruitment.” Judge Chris Parry said she was impressed with the team’s systematic and holistic approach: “The Network Rail model links individual development to organisational change. The model is designed to bring about cultural change and consistency across a large organisation and encompasses leaders at all levels.” Peter was joined by Marc Auckland, Head of Leadership Development and Resources, Bob Hughes, Talent and Employee Engagement Manager and Nick Moncaster, Company Resource Planner at a gala award evening at the Grosvenor House Hotel in Park Lane.