Investors In People Case Study Video Transcripts: North British Distillery

GLYN CAVE, HR MANAGER, NORTH BRITISH DISTILLERY:

Well I know that it's a well worn cliché, you know, you're people are your most important asset, but it is true. You can have all the best processes, production process, systems, whatever it is, but without the people with the sort of right skills, experience, qualifications, motivation, then really you haven't got anything.

WHAT HAS YOUR EXPERIENCE OF WORKING WITH IIP BEEN LIKE?

As a company the North British Distillery has been associated with Investors In People since about 1998. At that time there was a lot of change and modernisation at the distillery and we felt we'd left the people behind. So we embarked on an employee development programme, here at the North British, and we were looking for something to link that employee development programme to. Investors In People seemed a good best practice standard to map what we were doing here against, to have that sort of external benchmark tool for evaluation, if you like. But I want to say right from the start that it was never about the badge, I think that's the important thing. The important thing is to do what's right for us as a company. 

WHAT IS THE ASSESSMENT PROCESS LIKE?

Now, before an assessment, you'll have a pre-meeting with the assessor, which looks at what you want to get out of the assessment. You know, "what objectives do you have for this assessment? Do you want us to focus on anything in particular that would help give you feedback?" We don't do anything in terms of preparation for an IIP assessment. It's just a case of saying, you know, tell the assessor how it is.

WHAT HAPPENS AFTER THE ASSESSMENT?

Once the report comes out they don't just issue the report now, it's a case of a post assessment meeting to take you through that report and help you understand the findings. It's all about that plan, do, review cycle. That ties in with every business. Any business which is not planning and reviewing what it does is in danger of becoming out of business. So I think it's relevant to any business.