Motivational and Leadership Programmes
While the impact of the pandemic has continued in 2021, the success of the vaccines against the virus gives grounds for optimism that we will be able to return to some kind of normality soon. The importance of looking after our factories, since it is crucial for them to remain active at present, and the difficulty of bringing together groups of people in training rooms mean these programmes are once again on standby.
Nonetheless, in some countries and factories, we are working hard to strike a balance between not being in physical contact but being able to see each other. This is a programme that requires contact with others, being able to feel ourselves as a team and experience things together. This feeling means the members of the team need to be in contact, see each other and spend time together.
This year, we have continued working on keeping these programmes running, with two main goals: keeping the spirit of collaboration and teamwork alive, since these are more important than ever in the times in which we live. We have also sought to take advantage of the technological synergy generated by the pandemic to introduce tools and resources to help teams become more efficient.
We are sure that when the teams meet again in person, they will have learnt so much with new technology and will be able to incorporate it naturally to benefit the programme and its results.
Learning Communities and the Transfer of Good Practices
The development of learning communities on the Moodle platform has been key to keeping motivation programmes running and taking advantage of IT expertise.
Since the inception of the learning communities project in the second half of 2020, we have evolved, adapting to changes and guiding ourselves based on the feedback we have received to consolidate the flexible learning model and respond to the professional development needs of the Group.
Below, we provide a snapshot of the progress we have made on this project since the launch of the first learning communities during the 18-month period.
Our point of departure was the idea of consolidating a learning community, that is, a group of people who learn horizontally, using the same tools in the same environment. We opted for an open, participative and flexible training model.
Sharing good practices and testimonies is highly beneficial and helps create a culture in which the transfer of knowledge and experience is natural, helping to cultivate innovation and collaborative learning as standard.
TONI ROCA
Plant Manager
Industrias Cósmic S.A.R.
• Gavà (Spain)
“Cósmicos is a motivational and development programme for middle management.
The programme was launched five years ago in 2017 with the aims of providing management tools, improving communication and empowering area managers and team leaders.
The name Cósmicos combines the words cosmic (from our name, Industrias Cósmic) and cosmos. The idea of the word cosmos is that there are no limits or limitations as a team and a company.
We suffered many changes at Industrias Cósmic in 2020. The pandemic and the resulting declaration of a state of alarm meant we had to pause the programme, although we continued production and dispatches at a slower pace. We have had to deal with measures to safeguard jobs by reducing working hours, the transfer of the production plant in record time from Caldes de Montbui to Gavà and a workforce restructuring programme, which affected half the workforce (26 operators).
The Cósmicos programme will resume once we have stabilised the production and organisational functions. For us, restarting the programme will mean returning to normality after a complex and turbulent year.
Although I have had the opportunity to work in multinational companies, this is the first time I have come across this type of programme.
All too often, not enough attention is paid to creating a powerful organisational structure and providing management and leadership tools for staff who have been promoted to middle management, many of whom are promoted on the strength of their technical skills, not their managerial ones. However, failing to do so can mean gaining a weak manager at the expense of a strong technical worker.
This programme allows us to create a framework for implementing a continuous improvement system and for creating mechanisms for communication, motivation and development for middle management.
The programme helps to improve the four pillars on which the plant’s strategy is based:
The programme also aligns us with the company strategy for achieving excellence in operations to reduce costs and improve customer service.
I highly recommend the motivational programmes that RGCU manages and leads with the Roca Group plants for the major improvements we have seen in Cósmic at both the operational and organisational levels.”
