Capability enhancement at HM Revenue and Customs

The challenge

The Large Business and Employer Customer Unit (LB&ECU) at HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is a recently created directorate responsible for building better relationships between HMRC and big business in the UK. LB&ECU face a number of business challenges in delivering their targets.

HMRC was created from a merger between Customs and Excise and the Inland Revenue. In addition to the challenges of integrating staff from two different organisations, LB&ECU had a number of teams with widely varying objectives.

The unit is tasked with delivering the “Better Regulation” agenda – an initiative to reduce unnecessary complexity in policy and to respond better to the needs of customers. A further objective is to improve the dialogue between Government and business such that the views of business influence policy making and HMRC’s needs are clearly communicated to business.

LB&ECU faced the challenge of building a programme planning capability that adequately represented and managed the activities that were undertaken every day across the directorate.

Our approach

We worked closely with HMRC to deliver a number of important enablers:

• Improved integration between teams within the directorate and clarified understanding of how to deliver objectives. Planning workshops involving the whole unit were organised and facilitated by Moorhouse consultants to initiate the planning process. Each of the teams were supported and guided through developing draft plans showing how they were going to deliver their objectives. The Moorhouse team collaborated with staff from the unit to build the plans and to populate them with more detailed information. Further workshops were organised and facilitated to examine relationships and dependencies between plans to inform a programme level plan.
• Link between strategic aims and delivery. A strategy chart was developed in collaboration with the unit Director to graphically illustrate the link between
  high-level strategic aims and the unit’s delivery. The strategy chart is a powerful communication tool at Director level to help explain the role of the unit within
  HMRC and specifically explains the activities that are undertaken.
• Enhanced planning capability. Training sessions for designated planners were held to build skills in Microsoft Project. These group sessions were followed up with individual training to address the specific learning needs of each planner. Planners were equipped with skills in Microsoft Project and also coached
  through the planning process as they built team level plans. A central planning coordinator was coached through the process of coordinating and updating a
  unit wide programme plan. The practical processes for updating team level plans and how these cascade into the programme level plan were designed and
  embedded into the organisation.

How did this deliver value to the client?

All the targets for the engagement were achieved on time and to budget. Team level plans, a programme plan and a strategy chart were delivered along with an enhanced planning capability within the unit that was able to sustain ongoing planning activity.

The planning workshops were some of the first forums involving all the teams within the Directorate where objectives and goals were openly discussed. They were a vital link in the process of giving visibility to activity within the unit and linking all the workstreams together. The planning products helped to address the issue of how objectives were to be delivered as managers confronted the detail of quantifying their strategic goals.

If you would like to talk to us call on the number below. Alternatively, click on the consultants email address, provide us with your details and we will call you back. We look forward to speaking to you. Contact: Email: Tel: Paul Mansell paulmansell@moorhouseconsulting.com +44 (0) 1225 446 313