Career Advice
Taylor Wimpey Head Of Resourcing: This is a Fascinating Industry to be Working in Right Now
Glassdoor Team
Glassdoor Team | Author & Career Expert at Glassdoor | 6 Dec 2017
For the very first time, this high profile housing construction firm has been announced as the #15 Best Place To Work in the UK. But, it’s not just about diversity, strong leaders and an inclusive culture at Taylor Wimpey, if you fit certain employee criteria, they'll also give you a heavy discount on a new home as part of their “house purchase scheme”. Of course, it has to be a Taylor Wimpey home, but isn't that incredibly useful in the current climate?
We caught up with their Head of Resourcing, Edd Jenner, to find exactly how this business managed to become a top 20 UK Best Place To Work in 2018.
MDT: How do you help build a great company culture?
EJ: At Taylor Wimpey we are proud to have a strong and inclusive company culture. Employees at all levels across our business take pride in the work they do to deliver the highest quality homes and service for our customers. We promote from within where possible and invest in development. We have created a number of development programmes to support our staff, including our very own Production Academy, an award-winning graduate scheme and a range of leadership training courses. We have also worked hard on developing a competitive and flexible suite of benefits, to reward a diverse workforce that we know want different things from their remuneration package.
What does leadership mean to you?
Leadership means many things to many people, but at Taylor Wimpey we are really working hard to drive excellence in Leadership and move from a Managerial culture to Inspiring Leaders who know how to get the best out of their people. Leadership to me is about Emotional Intelligence – the ability to empathise with people, adapt your style and the ability to create a vision that people can feel a part of. Communication is key – you must be a strong communicator so not only do people understand, but also feel comfortable to challenge and question you. Thinking strategically in both the short and long term is a non-negotiable as well as being comfortable coaching others. Finally, a great Leader must be an excellent change agent as every business is subject to continuous change. You need to be comfortable creating the drive for change, be agile and most importantly lead by example.
What do you do to foster employee trust and engagement?
Where commercially viable, we offer our employees flexible working patterns and the opportunity to work from home. Trust is built through good relationships between teams and managers. The business also benefits from a fantastic senior management team with a great deal of experience to draw on. This, in part means excellent mentors and leaders for others to lean on. Individuals in leadership roles endeavour to make themselves accessible and approachable which also helps significantly with a more engaged workforce.
Your employees love working here as we see the strong rating on Glassdoor - How do you make this a great place to work day in and day out?
Taylor Wimpey has 24 regional businesses spread across England, Scotland and Wales, and each business promotes a strong teamwork ethic and a responsibility to do the right the thing on behalf of the business and for our customers. The diversity of roles on offer in the business means there are plenty of opportunities to gain exposure to all parts of the homebuilding process – from sales and land to commercial and production functions - providing our employees with valuable experience and skills to enhance their CVs. We do realise it’s impossible to keep all our people happy all of the time but we strive to offer the best possible environment and enable success.
What is the best part about working here?
The people. A diverse workforce, strong leadership and experts in their respective fields make this a fantastic place to learn and develop. It’s also a fascinating industry to be working in which is right at the top of the Government’s agenda making it a particularly interesting sector.
What do you look for in informed candidates?
I think prospective candidates should look to understand Taylor Wimpey’s legacy and the journey we’ve come through to become one of the largest residential developers in the UK. Our publicly available financial reports also give a good view on the strategy and commercial outlook for our business as well as our areas of focus.
How do you retain talent - what are some of your best practices?
Where possible we promote from within, this is especially prevalent in senior management roles where internally we work closely with aspiring individuals to coach and develop them into the future leaders for our business. We recognise that internal talent and succession is critical to the long term success of the business and retaining good people. We set clear development plans and parameters for top talent to achieve the next steps in their careers, from graduates and apprentices, right up to regional and managing directors.
What are some of the coolest or most unique perks and benefits you offer?
At Taylor Wimpey we offer a range of competitive benefits for our employees, from generous pension contributions and life insurance to private healthcare and a choice of share save schemes. One particular benefit that’s unique to Taylor Wimpey is our house purchase discount scheme, where we offer our employees the opportunity to purchase a Taylor Wimpey home using a significant discount available exclusively to our staff (subject to certain criteria).
Glassdoor Team
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