‘Excellence through people award’ for Dublin Corporation

Effective training benefits everybody in an organisation. Greater production and profitability, improved team spirit and an increase in customer satisfaction are some of the obvious benefits which quality training programmes can bring to a business.
For training to be truly effective however, it needs to address the individual needs of employees as well as the overall objectives of the organisation involved. It must also be carried out in a planned, professional and systematic manner.

To help organisations achieve these aims, FAS has developed an Irish standard, Excellence Through People, which encourages organisations to develop the full potential of their employees and so maximise their contribution to the company. The award is also to show recognition for organisation which have achieved this aim.

One such organisation which met all the necessary requirements was Dublin Corporation’s Mechanical Division which is located at Grangegorman Lower, Dublin 7. Catherine O’Donovan, a Senior Executive Engineer within Dublin Corporation’s Mechanical Division, said: “Receiving the award was a great honour as it was recognition for all the hard work we do for the Corporation and the many different ways in which we help people which a lot of the time goes unnoticed.”

The objective of Excellence Through People is to encourage organisations to develop the full potential of their employees.
The Standard recognises the training and staff development programmes implemented by the organisations and through awarding the Excellence Through People Standard, it acknowledges the organisation as one who contributes in a significant way to the the development of excellence through people.

The process allows organisations to carry out a self-assessment of its training and development plans through the aid of FAS’s Excellent Through People Self Assessment Guidelines. Self assessment leads to an organisation identifying its strengths as well as identifying areas where action is required in order to improve. Once this action is taken the organisation can then apply to FAS for recognition under the criteria for Excellence Through People.

What the Excellence Through People Standard entails:
1. Review of Organisation Plan and Objectives
2. Organisation Training Plans
3. Review of Training
4. Implementation of Training
5. Training and Development Records
6. Employee Communications and Involvement

A native of Kilkenny, Catherine has been with Dublin Corporation for the past three years. She graduated from Trinity College with a Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering degree in 1988 and from there worked in various different industries, mainly the Railway industry though, where she stayed for a while on completion of a Masters Degree in System and Strategy at Brunell University, London.

“The Mechanical Division is divided into two sections; the heating, ventilation and air conditioning section and the fleet maintenance section,” explained Catherine. “I’m responsible for the fleet maintenance section and basically it is our job to purchase and repair the Corporation’s fleet of vehicles and all that is associated with that end of things such as insurance, tax, accidents etc. We have our own workshop here where we carry out repairs.

“We also manage a lease hire list (cars and vans over a three year period) and offer plant hire. If a specialist vehicle is required, we buy it. We take care of a fairly diverse fleet (eg heists, bus trucks, cranes etc), there’s a lot of different makes and models. We look after the Lord Mayor’s car for example.

The Fleet Maintenance section provides employment to forty-four people and they all pride themselves on their desire to offer a professional service. The Award was proof of that. What were the decisive factors which made the judges choose Catherine and co?

Needless to say it had something to do with the comprehensive service the Fleet Maintenance section boasts which is excellently geared to fulfil the requirements of even the most demanding customer.

“We set out a business plan which incorporated a training plan, the aim of which was to help us develop our staff so they in turn could help us achieve our goals.

“The majority of people who work here have a craft apprenticeship so, obviously, they know what they’re doing. We like to involve everyone, we try to bring the staff into the loop rather than keep them outside it. As a result everyone here knows there is a business plan and realises what they have to do to reach the targets.

“Another factor, I think, which was a big bonus was that we’ve become more customer orientated than we were before. We continuously trying to improve the service we offer, turn vehicles round in good time and at the same time offer a quality maintenance service. We intend to continue to strive to improve our service.”