Mivan

Building a Dynamic Management Team
A strong management team working to well-communicated goals can take an organisation from strength to strength. Mivan, a modern proactive specialist contractor, set the challenge for Parity Training to develop a programme of executive skills training for their management staff which would ensure a common understanding of the current environment and build teamwork for the future.

Mivan specialises in Telecommunications Network Rollouts, Interiors, Theming, Formwork and General Contracting and has a head office in Antrim, Northern Ireland, other offices in Dunstable, Manchester, Leicester, Europe, the Far East and USA. The international focus and the competitive climate are key elements in the contracting industry and Mivan saw an investment in staff development as a vital step towards market leadership.

A Shared Approach: A Varied Audience
Mivan's objective for this learning project included the skills development of the current management executives and the recruitment and induction of graduates into a fast-track management programme. Parity's experience in both areas, and its relationships with leading management bodies, like the Institute of Management, made it the ideal partner to undertake this programme.

said Derek Scott, Parity Training's Learning Consultant, who spearheaded the Executive Skills Training Programme.

Parity Training's Belfast-based Liz Johnston had been working with Mivan as part of Parity Training's award-winning Premiere graduate recruitment programme and took the role of project manager for the graduate fast track scheme.

said Liz,

Liz worked with Mivan's Training and Development Department to devise a learning plan that covered the necessary skills the graduates would need and incorporated Mivan's management style to ensure that the new managers would easily fit into the current management environment.

Cultivating the Skills of Mivan's Executives
Mivan's Executive Skills Training Programme utilised a modular system of learning sessions that incorporated 8 important management skills including leadership, interviewing, coaching, time management, delegation and team building. Sixty Mivan managers attended an introductory two-day training session and a two-day follow up course. Examples and scenarios were relevant to Mivan and commercial awareness workshop exercises were fed back to the management team - so that innovative business ideas explored in class could be considered by the company as a whole.

Parity Training learning specialists created suitable course manuals, blending established management techniques with forward-thinking ideas. Instructor-led courses were held at a convenient hotel conference centre - selected by Parity Training because of its suitability to accommodate the courses and delegates comfortably.

Parity Training's close relationship with Mivan throughout the development and delivery of this training project built an efficient partnership that benefited the Graduate Management Programme that followed and other training undertaken by Parity on Mivan's behalf.

A Customised Graduate Learning Solution
The Graduate Management Development programme ran over 24 weeks and utilised multiple learning methods including instructor-led courses, case studies and specialised skills development. New recruits who had recently graduated and had backgrounds in engineering started their learning with a 7 week course held at Parity Training's Belfast training centre. The course covered vital management skills and incorporated best practice for managers, as specified by the MCI (Management Charter Initiative).

Delegates then rejoined Mivan, taking an active role in project teams in different areas of the business. Each delegate worked on at least two projects in order to gain an overview of the work that Mivan did and to achieve some valuable real-world experience that could be built upon in the third stage of their learning.

To complete their development, delegates then attended specialist training sessions, focussed on construction-related skills. These courses prepared each delegate for the unique role they would play in the organisation.

Parity Training delivered the training sessions, oversaw all training administration and managed the smooth-running of the project from start to finish. Twelve individuals successfully completed the graduate development scheme and are now working for Mivan at locations throughout the UK.

David Somerville, HR Manager for Mivan, was delighted with the results and said,