Case study

“Inspiring Change worked seamlessly with our internal project team, designing a best practice diagnostic and qualitative approach that would work within the PSNI context, and an internal comms plan that resulted in significantly increased employee participation.

The sessions they ran with our senior leadership team gave us an opportunity to ensure that we were all aligned on the type of culture we want in the PSNI and the actions we had to take to get us there.”

​

Clare Duffield, Assistant Chief Officer, People and Organisational Development.

The challenge:

A key deliverable in the PSNI’s 2023 People Strategy was the design and delivery of an organisation-wide culture review to understand the areas of strength and areas for improvement in the culture.  It had been several years since the organisation had undertaken a culture review, and a refreshed understanding was needed to identify opportunities to improve the experience of police officers and staff and, in turn, organisational performance.

The organisation at this time was also navigating a myriad of challenges including digital transformation, significant budget cuts, the absence of a fully functioning Northern Ireland Executive, and increased scrutiny and pressure on police forces by the media, politicians, and the public.  This made it more important than ever to understand how the culture was impacting the performance of the organisation and the workforce.

 

​

What we did:

Working with a project team inside the PSNI, we designed a tailored culture review framework, informed by both the organisation’s needs and best practice. We then deployed a mix of qualitative and quantitative research tools to gather feedback from the 9,300 + police officers and staff across the force.

We also worked with the Leadership Team to establish what the desired culture was and what was most important in the context of the organisation delivering on its commitments and strategic ambitions.

We created a detailed report for the culture review including all findings, behavioural and attitudinal insights, and recommendations for next steps and areas of focus.

Throughout this work we designed and ran an informative and engaging communications campaign with the internal communications team, to ensure that all colleagues were aware of what was happening, and to drive engagement at all stages of the culture review.
 

The outcomes:

• We significantly increased participation rates compared to the last survey the organisation had run with police officers and staff, ensuring a robust sample size and valuable insight.

• We brought clarity to the PSNI Leadership Team on their colleagues’ perspectives on the culture and ways of working, ensuring police officers and staff felt heard.

• We created a clear set of next steps and recommendations - shared with the project team, Leadership Team, and the Policing Board - which are now being actioned in the organisation.
  
   

Need Support:

• If you're struggling to communicate change or strategy in a way that touches your people in a more authentic and human way, please get in touch.  We'd love to help!
  
  hello@inspiringchange.ie

​

​

Click for printable PDF