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Inside Addaction: L&D at work

Inside Addaction: L&D at work

Nick Martindale
Mon Nov 16, 2015 2:24 PM

Nick Martindale speaks to the executive

HR director, Guy Pink, at the drug and
alcohol treatment charity about
development, HR and more
Drug and alcohol treatment charity Addaction was
already one of the UKs leading substance support
organisations in the UK, but its recent merger with
south-east mental health, drug, alcohol, and family
services body KCA saw it expand even further. The
charity initially employed 1,200 people, and a further
400 have now transferred across from KCA, which is
now a wholly owned subsidiary of Addaction
(http://www.addaction.org.uk/).
As is often the case with mergers or takeovers, this
has dominated the agenda for Addactions HR and
learning and development (L&D) team, and
particularly executive HR director Guy Pink, over the past year. There were, he says, two main issues to consider from an
L&D perspective: the practicalities of integrating KCA staff into existing arrangements and also a wider review of how the new
charity would approach L&D in general.
The first task was made easier by the fact that this was not an area that had been fully exploited in KCA. Culturally it wasnt
something that had really been followed through, says Pink. We were able to offer staff all of our own learning and
development opportunities all the online learning, the face-to-face delivery and ILM courses for managers before they had
even transferred over, so it was an easy win.

Making the values count

L&D has also played a role in helping staff fit into the wider Addaction culture, with a strong focus on coaching managers in
the values of the organisation, which could then trickle down to others. Ultimately you dont bring about change from the
centre or the top but from that cohort of managers, says Pink. We need them to understand our culture, ethos and values.
Anecdotally we know where the really good services and managers are, and we want everybody to be at that level.
Alongside this, there was a need for Addaction to better understand the mental health side of KCA, which was a new area of
focus. Weve got a learning and development manager who actually spent some time with the managers and the staff to
really understand their what their leaning needs are, and what more we needed to do to provide that support, he says.
Again, there was a quick win here; previously KCA staff would be expected to pay for their own continuous professional
development and take annual leave to do this. We were able to say that when they joined Addaction we would ensure they
did not have to do that, says Pink. That made a very clear statement to the staff coming into the organisation that we valued
them, and their development.
The charity also took the opportunity to review its whole L&D process, and particularly the technology it used. It is currently in
the process of implementing a new learning and performance management system, which will enable both HR and managers
to better track performance and identify objectives for appraisals, as well as looking at how to make more effective use of
e-learning.

Instant access to learning content

One example of this, says Pink, would be to provide access to videos which managers could watch when required, for
instance ahead of a difficult conversation. Thats actually very different to how organisations might previously have done that,
where you might have a course thats been set up some time in advance, and those skills are not necessarily used
immediately, he says.
As the merger begins to bed in, other areas will also come into focus. One priority, says Pink, is to change how it brings in the
skills it needs, particularly nurses specialising in substance misuse, with a greater focus on taking people out of college and
training them up itself, rather than seeking experienced hires.
This will be the first programme of its kind outside of the NHS, and were calling it a national orientation programme, he says.
Essentially its giving nurses the skills, experience and professional development to get them to the level that we need them
to be at, rather than recruiting them externally.
This will start in the middle of 2016, he adds, with the intention of taking on the first recruits 18 months later. We hope that will
significantly reduce our recruitment costs but also help us to grow our internal capacity in a way that is different to other
organisations, adds Pink.
Retaining existing talent is always a priority, says Pink, which it tries to do through a combination of offering rewarding work,
flexibility and the potential for future development. Its vital for us to get the right people in so its important to make sure that
people value what they do and feel that theyve got a great organisation to work for, he says. The charity enjoys low levels of
turnover, Pink says, and around 10% of its staff have returned to the organisation after working elsewhere.

https://www.i-l-m.com/Insight/Inspire/2015/November/addaction_profile_QandA

13/10/2016

Inside Addaction: L&D at work | ILM - Insight

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A final aspiration is to look at how volunteers can be better used, as the charity wrestles with having to do more on fewer
resources. Our L&D strategy over the last five years has really only focused on staff but one of the future developments that
we are looking at is how we ensure that theres a similar structure for developing and supporting volunteers, says Pink. If we
can structure it in a way that gives good opportunities for people to get great work opportunities, then that really does provide
a different slant in terms of doing more for less.

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13/10/2016