Background

Omexom has 300 employees, at various offices and sites across the UK and Ireland. Due to the nature of their electrical contracting business in the Energy Industry, their employees are geographically dispersed mobile engineers, based from the Scottish Highlands to the Isle of Wight. Omexom is part of a large global engineering company VINCI Energies with a 13Bn Euro turnover and 20,000 employees. VINCI Energies has a unique business model operating with a flat organisational structure, that deploys numerous small business units of less than 50 people with niche expertise for their respective markets.

Omexom employees are empowered to be autonomous, act as entrepreneurs, to network and utilise the power of the group to share business intelligence and resources. The company’s aim is to grow their business by growing their people, and to stand out from the competition. Key challenges are marketing their brand for growth and new customers; attracting and retaining talented people; embedding their values; and encouraging networking across their BUs and countries. These challenges are accentuated by the Energy industry shortage of skills and the age gap in expertise. This makes for a fiercely competitive market for attracting and retaining talented people. In 2019, Senior Management launched a new approach to the market across the UK/ROI Group. This was based on the above challenges and research with their customers. A two-year programme was developed to create a new narrative and embed new ways of working. This involved the wider team and became the “Omexom Way.”

Approach

The approach was to have the Managing Director, Senior Managers and wider team develop a narrative which could engage both employees and customers.  A powerful statement was devised to create an emotional connection and make Omexom stand out from the crowd, stating that “Omexom is a community of incredible people empowered to deliver the promises of the digital and energy revolutions.” The new Purpose was “To connect us all for a better future” and would be delivered by “empowering and bringing together amazing people”. This narrative was used in business procedures, marketing materials, tender submissions, recruitment, people development and was strongly linked to Omexom’s Values. Omexom’s aim was to employ incredible people who are naturally curious, and passionate about their work and who would live and breathe the values of Team Spirit and Generosity; Trust and Empowerment; Integrity and Responsibility; and Innovation and Entrepreneurship.  The company wanted to create a great place to work which customers would also want to come back to. The narrative shaped the Omexom Way – a five-part programme to address the company’s key challenges. The company also designed a mascot called “Moxi”, a new recruit who takes their teams through the transition towards becoming qualified engineers.

1. People & Development – In this part, performance procedures were rewritten, performance related pay was scrapped, “check-ins” and self-development plans were implemented. This was all developed by one of their hugely talented HR Managers as part of her Master’s thesis. They also re-focused on “Values-based” recruitment, linking DISC profiling with psychometric analysis.
2. Graduate Recruitment – They restructured the graduate programme and joined “The Power Academy”. Sponsored by the Institute of Engineering & Technology (IET), this enables Omexom to recruit the best engineering candidates from top Universities. They selected Managers and Engineers (ex-graduates) to visit these Universities to share the narrative alongside their own actual experience.
3. A new Omexom Institute was introduced to host their training and competency needs for the engineering and construction teams. This combined classroom training, online tutorials, and practical hands-on construction. This Institute compliments the VINCI Energies Academy which was already providing core skills for project management.
4. Market Knowledge – The company’s Interns created market studies and updated their Business Development approach; developing new marketing materials which incorporated the new narrative and branding. They targeted conferences, industry awards, and increased client engagements. They also ran marketing and customer engagement sessions to improve the quality of their external conversations, again using the narrative as a foundation.
5. Collaboration – The company increased networking opportunities via combined BU forums, and joined Pivot Clubs across the Global VINCI Group; consisting of groups of experts gathered to drive innovation. They updated their websites, Yammer, and communications to share the narrative. They also conducted workshops on what it means to be “incredible,” and promoted cross-BU working and sharing of resources.

Outcome

Omexom have been measuring progress through customer engagement, recruitment shortlisting, attrition, quality of graduates, Q12 surveys, and business success rates and early results are very positive. Halfway through their two-year programme they can see the quantifiable impact of the new approach. People and Development gained positive feedback from staff who feel that the quality of conversations have improved. DISC profiling has been shared across all 300 employees, creating a common language to have more effective business discussions.

The values-based approach to recruitment has increased the quality of shortlisting, halved interviewing time, and created a better candidate experience. By using more searching questions, Omexom have seen a 100% increase in their appointment success rate, of candidates with the right attributes. The company have secured two high calibre Project Directors through this process, where traditionally these scarce candidates are difficult to attract. Graduate recruitment using the Power Academy has been a real success. Six Universities were visited; more than 60 applications received and 4 undergraduates appointed. The quality of candidates has been exceptional, and the Omexom team has gained valuable feedback on the effectiveness of their narrative and Vinci storyboard.

The Omexom Institute has provided huge benefits to the business, enabling control of their training, reducing annual budgets, and tailoring BU needs whilst continuing to invest in their people. 100 Overhead Linesmen have been trained and more modules are planned. The Institute is exceeding expectations and will become a self sufficient external training centre within 2 years. Meanwhile, Market Knowledge delivered technical market studies which have enabled a more targeted approach to Omexom’s customer pipeline (increasing productivity by 30%) and has subsequently significantly improved tendering success rate. Omexom have secured contracts using the new narrative and storyboard. As one client told them; “it is refreshing to see this different approach, you are not selling a product or service, it is about your people.” Market and Customer engagement training for more than 100 Business Managers and Engineers has also provided overwhelmingly positive feedback. Collaboration has been enhanced by the creation of UK Pivot Clubs attended by more than 20 Managers and Engineers leading to increased participation in wider EU activities. Business opportunities worth £500m+ have been created through this new approach, with support from France, Spain and the Czech Republic.

There is a renewed confidence and passion in the business triggered by the Omexom Way. 2019 metrics in comparison to 2018 demonstrate the real business results so far and Omexom is currently experiencing an exciting period of growth following several major contract awards. A recent accolade is that the Vinci HQ in Paris will adopt the narrative and share The Omexom Way as best practice with other countries. Overall, a tangible shift in attitude and culture can be felt across the organisation. Potential employees are understanding and buying into Omexom earlier than previously and new starter inductions are receiving very positive feedback on the increased depth and quality. Engineers report feeling more equipped and confident to tell the Vinci story and there has been a positive impact on employer reputation during the last 12 months.

Customers view Omexom staff with a different lens, gaining better clarity on how they operate and their capability. This has led to wider opportunities within the industry previously unknown, and their enhanced networking has allowed them to secure valuable in-house expertise from Australia for new projects in the UK, partnering with major global manufacturers. The company has passionately engaged with employees on the narrative and the Omexom Way, something which has been difficult previously due to their dispersed and remote locations. From early results, the company has the confidence to expand and experiment further to achieve their goals. One fundamental they believe has changed the outlook of their teams and customers is that they talk about their incredible people first, not about their projects.