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HDA Case Studies

Career Transition Case Study / - Formula 1 Motor Racing

 

The Background

Due to the announcement of an intention to sell a Formula 1 racing team, the roles within the racing development company were put at risk of redundancy. HDA were engaged to provide the employees with Career Transition support via the HDA Versatile Support Programme. An important aspect of the programme was the opportunity to participate in professional training to learn new or enhance existing workplace skills. Management level was supported via the HDA Flexible Access programme providing open access to the HDA resources within a 6 month period (extended in a number of cases).

APPROACH

The programme provides a flexible approach to meet individual needs, including the opportunity to participate in ‘vocational’ training to learn new or enhance existing skills. An agreed number of units are allocated at the start to ‘spend’ against the available resource options, dependent upon the paths they wish to explore.

In addition to the HDA Candidate website (an ‘information and research’ resource to compliment 1:1 meetings and workshop attendance), the employees also have access to a web-link providing a dedicated resource centre specific to their industry and location.

On notification from the sponsoring organisation, the HDA ‘Online’ consultants made initial contact with the employees. This allowed them to gain an understanding of the individual’s immediate requirements and concerns, along with discussing how best to maximise the value gained from the programme. A dedicated lead consultant was then matched to these needs and worked with the employee through the duration of their support. All training requirements were discussed with the online consultants to ensure a co-ordinated approach was adopted.

Outcome

89% of the employees took up their programme of support. The majority of employees ‘confirmed as settled’ moved into permanent roles with new organisations; 44% becoming self employed either contracting or starting their own business. As Formula 1 racing is a niche sector, an important factor of the career coaching was the identification of transferrable skills and how to market these effectively into new sectors such as energy, electronics and communications. Vocational Training proved to be a popular option with 70% booking at least 1 training event. The range of training selected was vast e.g. certification in barge handling; soft skills such as customer service and assertiveness; project management; language skills; accountancy; specialist software skills.

Due to a company culture of team building, career continuity and staff support, the prospect of redundancy was quite a shock for some which needed addressing at the beginning of the programme. Considering life ‘outside’ of F1 was a challenge for many who really enjoyed their work. During uncertain times for F1 in general, the specialists who wished to remain in the industry needed to focus on utilising their network as the main route to a new role. The direct approach (a more difficult strategy to engage with) being the next preferred option i.e. the unadvertised job market. The vocational training option encouraged thoughts and goals outside of F1. Attention to recognising the added value the delegates could add to other organisations was a very important factor to include within their self-marketing campaign. For those willing to use their existing skills but stay in the motor trade (e.g. truck driving or mechanics), the prospect of not having the same financial return, structure, energy, and culture of F1 was initially un-attractive. However, suggesting that this could be a short term move until F1 rejuvenated made it less painful.
HDA Online Consultant May 2010

 

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