“The team that participated on the leadership development programme gave very positive feedback. They enjoyed the programme and learned a lot from it, evidenced by the feedback they’ve had from colleagues through 360 feedback.  They commented that whilst it was hard work and there was lots to do between sessions, “you reap what you sow”.  They enjoyed the content and flexibility of the programme and in particular the 360 feedback at the start and end of the programme.  Muir Group has benefited from the positive difference in how they work as leaders and managers in their own and across teams, and they are more confident as a result of the programme.”

Catherine Dixson, Muir Group

“We engaged with Empathy at the beginning of the development of our Leadership and Management development programme.  It was clear that Simon has a great deal of experience in the housing sector and was keen to work with us to develop a programme based not only around our vision, mission, values and behaviours, but also the outcomes of the recent engagement survey results.”

Lucy Mitchell, South Yorkshire Housing Association

“Empathy worked with us to design a bespoke customer services training programme to be rolled out across the whole workforce of more than 500 people. Our organisation was the result of 2 housing associations, Willow Park and Parkway Green joining a single Group structure. Simon spent time understanding the business, our values, culture and the challenges faced by our staff on a daily basis in delivering excellent customer service. His creative approach resulted in an engaging and impactful programme which covered the customer journey, taking personal responsibility and managers’ role in making the programme sustainable. A measure of the success of the programme is that employees still refer to it and the lessons learned have become part of everyday language and culture. Empathy is a very professional company to work with and Simon is a valued partner to our business.”

Elizabeth Jovanovic, Wythenshawe Community Housing Group

“I approached Empathy Communication to assist us in developing our Management teams skills when HMS was formed in 2011.  They created a bespoke management development programme for HMS – the ‘Evolution’ programme – which focussed on the practical aspects of management and leadership techniques and the facility to implement the learning acquired into everyday practice with focussed coaching sessions.

The Evolution programme has been a continued success and has become the staple development programme for all HMS managers to date, which has assisted us in steering our cultural transformation over the last 3 years. The programme challenges each individual manager through a combination of training sessions and coaching.  This has led to a high level of application of learning, whilst addressing each individuals specific needs.

I have found Empathy to be exemplary professionals, mastering delivery and importantly being really switched on to a business’ individual development needs.  I would not hesitate to recommend Simon and his team to assist any business with their development needs and I look forward to many more years of working together achieving more great results.”

John Barrow, Housing Maintenance Solutions

“We get very positive feedback. People say they’ve enjoyed the programme, that it’s not been at all boring and that they’ve learned a lot from it. Empathy always follow up in a friendly and professional manner. We’re quite demanding at times too and Empathy are very flexible in tailoring programmes to get the exact results we want – as you can see by the number of times we’ve worked together! 10 out of 10 – highly recommended.”

Karen McMurdo, Liverpool Mutual Homes

“Excellent external facilitation, clear messages and good lively staff participation and engagement. Every conference session was delivered with appropriate humor and a mix of discussion and interactive exercises which kept a diverse audience well engaged. We’d definitely recommend Empathy to other organisations and businesses.”

Marcus Bishop, Rykneld Homes

“We engaged Empathy to support us through our cultural evolution.  They quickly got to understand what makes us tick.  Their research with staff was comprehensive.  We were impressed by how quickly they won their trust and confidence.  They produced an objective report which we used to identify our priority actions.

I’m really pleased with the outcomes of the project and feel we have made real progress. We will be building on this supported by the behaviour framework.  We would unreservedly recommend Empathy for similar projects.”

Alan Rogers, Cobalt Housing

We worked with Empathy to deliver Super Brand training to all of our operational staff.  The programme delivered will have a profound impact on our staff and working practices.  They understood our challenges and business and delivered a truly tailored and engaging training solution to meet our needs.

“Empathy undertook a bespoke piece of work to support the transformation of our Direct Labour Organisation based in Cumbria. The team had gone through a reorganisation which presented the new management team with a number of challenges. We engaged Empathy to support the team through the transformation ensuring that the team acted in a consistent manner to create a high performing culture, focusing on customer excellence whilst supporting and delivering cost reduction and efficiency in service delivery.

Empathy brought significant experience to the table which included a range of business transformation projects but more importantly service specific experience in relation to the delivery of repairs and maintenance.

The work entailed undertaking 1-2-1 meetings with all managers and supervisors, the creation of team plans and goals, together with a number of group exercises which ensured that the team developed a greater understanding and awareness of each other’s challenges. It also included workshops for operatives focusing on delievering first time resolution, efficiency and customer excellence.

The results have demonstrated significant performance improvements in customer service, and a significant reduction in cost. The individuals endorsed the programme and were able to appreciate their own development over a short period of time. Performance management is now embedded in the team, and a greater cohesion has been developed between the workforce and their managers. The impact has also resulted in a measurable improvement in staff satisfaction.

I would certainly recommend Empathy for similar projects.”

Phil Pemberton, Riverside Housing

“Blackpool Coastal Housing has worked with Simon for more than 10 years.  The range and diversity of the training Empathy offer and have carried out is fantastic; including Customer Service, Team Leader Bootcamp and Change Resilience to name a few.  Simon is extremely client focused, creating our bespoke requirements into interactive, participative and engaging training sessions which are always delivered in an exemplary manner.  The feedback received from participants has always been positive as employees feel their requirements have been considered and they have been involved in the journey.  Blackpool Coastal Housing would wholly recommend Simon and we hope to continue and build on our relationship.”

Debbie Miles, Blackpool Coastal Housing

I would like to thank you for your excellent presentation at our seminar in Coventry, earlier this month

The seminar was one of the best attended, illustrated by the seats having had to be arranged Theatre Style.

We have had many compliments from the members attending about how they had enjoyed the day.

We have had a rush of members wishing to view the presentations, which are now on the Members area of our website, which shows that they found the day very useful.

We hope we will see you again at one of our seminars in the future.

Rodney Smith, Direct Works Forum

Coaching Testimonials

“I wouldn’t have got this job without attending your brilliant ILM course. So many areas helped me, especially Leadership, Dealing with Change, Developing Staff, Coaching and most of all the presentation skills course. I had to do a 10 minute presentation at the interview which I sailed through – much easier without the video camera! Thank you again for your all help and your coaching sessions”.

“I would like to take the time just to thank you as it has helped me so much, not only in work but has helped me in my private life, specially to respond not react, control my ‘chimp’ and most important, how to ‘reframe’. As I look how I have changed as a person throughout this course I can appreciate how much you have made me a better man and I would like to thank you as a friend”.

“Following my 1-1 coaching session a couple of weeks ago when you helped me looking at some interview skills … I planned as you suggested and put together some scenarios using STAR.  I also did some research around Strategic Agility and Strategic Vision. This all worked and I am really happy to let you know that I was successful and start in my new role on Monday. Once again thanks for all the help you gave me, it was really useful”.