The Customer
Clay Paky S.p.A. is a landmark throughout the world in the professional show lighting sector. The wide product range includes moving body and moving mirror luminaries, projectors for architectural lighting, color-changers, followspots and outdoor lighting.

The professional sectors using Clay Paky light effects are: Theatre, Television, Live Events, Discotheques and Clubs, Fashion, Trade Fair Exhibitions, Theme Parks, Shops, Shopping Centers, Conferences, Car Showrooms and many other sectors in the show business and architectural lighting fields.

The Challenge
Aiming at a higher competitiveness worldwide, the company management felt that they had to take further steps to develop their managerial culture and promote the continuous improvement process.

For the first time, the company decided to involve all staff members in a change process aiming at:

Our solution
To meet this challenge, the Support team has designed and implemented a development scheme combining different tools and integrating the competencies of both HR Consulting and Finance divisions. In particular, the project included the following steps:

Climate survey
The main aim was to gain a deep insight into the level of satisfaction expressed by all Clay Paky staff members - workers, clerks, middle management and executives (a total of 90 employees) - with respect to the organization, its structure and dynamics. The questionnaire was worked out in cooperation with the company management and it was delivered through the on-line platform designed by the HR Consulting experts.

After ten days (the term agreed upon for the filling in of the questionnaire) and the subsequent processing of the data collected, the results showed a strong sense of belonging to the company and, at the same time, the need for more clearness in the definition of roles and responsibilities.

Moreover, the results highlighted poor communication among the different functions. In particular, most participants complained about a certain lack of feedback from their line managers.

Revision of the organization chart
In light of the climate survey's outcomes, the HR Consulting team, in agreement with the company management, rationalized the organization chart by redefining functions and roles and by identifying three competence centers: Operations, Sales and Accounts/Finance.

Definition and Mapping of Competencies
The HR Consulting specialists worked together with the company management to define and share the company model of distinctive competencies. Ten core competencies have been identified and translated into actual behaviours and expected competency levels according to different professional groups.

The next step was a mapping of the competencies defined, thus identifying the training needs both for individuals and groups. Once more the Online Survey tool has been used: a web based platform allowing a rapid comparison between the self-evaluation of the single participants and the evaluations carried out by the line managers.

Revision of the Job Descriptions
To raise the employees' awareness of their role, the HR Consulting team has designed a new format for the company Job Descriptions; while the previous model focused on tasks and activities, the new one highlights the responsibilities of the single employees and the role-specific criteria for performance measurement. The new format was filled in and used for all 40 roles existing in the company.

Consultancy regarding Fondimpresa
At this step of the project it was necessary to implement the new organization and above all to fulfil the identified training needs. To reach this objective, the HR Finance specialists designed and submitted to Fondimpresa a Shared Training Project by using the Company Current Account. The project involved clerks and middle management and provided the financial support for all training activities.

Training
All staff members worked in classrooms focusing on the following areas of competence:

• role awareness
• internal/external customer orientation
• communication

Moreover, for participants with personnel management responsibility, further training topics were:

• leadership
• people management

Coaching
Through four individual coaching sessions, the HR Consulting specialists supported the three managers directly reporting to the top management in the implementation of the new organization and in the reallocation of tasks and responsibilities within the different teams.

Gruppi di lavoro interfunzionali
In order to implement the knowledge acquired in the training sessions and to enhance the continuous improvement of the company processes, they created cross-functional work groups with max. eight people each.

In the first four sessions the HR Consulting specialists acted as facilitators and supported their teams by suggesting analysis and problem solving methods. Subsequently, the work groups managed autonomously the remaining meetings necessary to reach the objectives set.

Results
According to the set objectives, the project developed by the Support team has allowed Clay Paky S.p.A. to achieve the following results:

• stronger awareness with respect to roles and responsibilities
• initiation of feedback processes between line managers and employees
• optimization of cross-functional processes with a particular focus on:
  • process engineering of new products
  • order processing
  • purchasing marketing
  • global quality for production lines

The work groups, which are still active, are continuing with the measurement activities of the different process KPIs. All staff members are engaged in this effort and motivated to carry forward the ongoing change.