Having your people understand and live by your company's strategy is crucial as it guides daily decisions, aligns efforts, and maximised motivation and productivity.

With the help of AskYourTeam, Volunteer Service Abroad (VSA) identified a disconnect between its people and their strategy. The opportunity arose to completely renew their strategy and in doing so, they put their people at the heart of the process. Achieving organisational buy in and alignment, VSA now see their scores on strategy, culture and leadership showing top of the table.

People and strategy disconnect

Insights from AskYourTeam told the VSA leadership team there was work to do in better connecting their people to their strategy, says Chief Executive, Kate Wareham. 

“Our people told us they couldn’t see that we had a clear strategy, and that it hadn’t been communicated in a way that made sense."

In response to this feedback VSA used the AskYourTeam People Insights Platform to involve their people directly in the design and development of its strategy.. 

“The focus for us as a leadership team was on designing and developing a strategy that had buy in from our people, that was easily understood and communicated often.” says Kate.

It was important for VSA to get a read from their people that the new strategy was landing, and in the right way. 
Once the new strategy was live, VSA used AskYourTeam to test whether it was resonating and making sense with their people. Had the steps taken by VSA made a difference? Was the strategy understood, and then implemented by their people? “I was thrilled to see such a huge shift in people's responses,” says Kate

Massive improvement in strategy scores

By asking for and listening to the feedback, acting on it, and then measuring the results, VSA has noticeably shifted the dial, and created a cycle of continuous improvement. 

In just 12 months VSA’s survey scores for strategy, leadership and culture have shifted from the bottom to the top, delighting the CEO and developing essential connections between its people and organisational purpose.

"To me it was a great reinforcement for having focused on those areas as a team and really thinking hard about what people needed to know and do, in order to operate well within the strategy.”

“It’s fantastic to see an understanding of strategy and a sense of common direction, it’s really lifted for us as a team and given us a renewed focus around strategy and a clarity of direction”.

Rather than leaving things to chance, or guessing at what answers their people might give, VSA asked. Regular use of the AskYourTeam platform is now part of VSA’s core business operations. The insights and feedback received helps the leadership team decide on priorities for the year ahead, says Kate.

“It makes us think about what the survey has told us, and that we’re focusing on the right areas,” she says.