When Neil Hayward, Chief People Officer, joined HS2 back in 2017 he found a company that was in danger of failing.

“There were clear signs of distress in terms of HS2’s reputation, and performance. Their people were disengaged and unmotivated. A lot of change was required. That change had to embrace every aspect of their operating model – structures, systems, processes, governance, as well as their people. The Board signed off a new People and Organisation strategy which committed us to doing things differently, with focus on building HS2 as ‘an effective client organisation with the right capabilities’ and developing ‘a talented workforce and an inclusive culture’.

Employee voice, a corner stone of engagement wasn’t working at HS2. It had run a traditional bi-annual staff engagement survey – it was laborious process and by the time the results were shared with people managers, the feedback was dated. And the single snapshot in time wasn’t keeping up with the rate of change at HS2.”