Case study EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT AND WELLBEING: CABINET OFFICE'S SOCIAL INVESTMENT AND FINANCE TEAM How the Cabinet Office's Social Investment and Finance Team sustained high staff

engagement from 2012 to 2014. KEY IDEAS FROM THIS CASE STUDY: * all team members have responsibility for engagement * build trust and innovate The Cabinet Office’s Social Investment and

Finance Team (SIFT) is responsible for helping to grow the UK’s market for social investment: the use of repayable finance to achieve a social as well as a financial return. SIFT is an

entrepreneurial team, working on a growing area, and their work ranges from acting as a classic government “market steward” dealing with issues such as regulation, through to setting up Big

Deputy Director who heads the team to understand what approaches were driving these excellent scores. TEAM MEMBERS HAVE RESPONSIBILITY FOR TEAM MANAGEMENT - INCLUDING ENGAGEMENT > I take 

a highly delegated approach to managing the team. Band As > (Grade 6/7s) each have responsibility for a particular area of team > management, including employee engagement, learning 

and development, > and team finance. This is included as one of their objectives and is > taken seriously, being assessed at in end of year reviews. > In addition to helping develop

 Band As to become future Deputy > Directors, delegating responsibility helps ideas to be generated > from within the team. We very actively use the People Survey to > identify 

areas to focus on. For example, in recent years our > Learning and Development scores have required improvement, and > someone has taken responsibility for leading this forward, 

speaking > to people individually to establish their requirements, advising on > practicalities, and working together towards a new approach which > better meets the team’s 

specialist needs. INNOVATIVE APPROACHES TO BUILDING TRUST AND TEAM SPIRIT > We have taken a number of innovative approaches to building trust > and openness. One example was our “team 

meeting on failure”. > Everyone in the team was encouraged to bring an example of where > something had not gone well to share with the rest of the team. > Importantly, I started 

this off in style, bringing a substantial > example of where I had made a bad call and this had had real > consequences. This allowed team members to feel able to follow up > very 

honestly with their own examples. > The team has fed back that they found it really helpful to see me > openly share failure and learning, a topic with which people are > often 

uncomfortable. The meeting reinforced that a risk of failure > is a flipside to being entrepreneurial, and that failure isn’t bad > in itself if you learn from it. The meeting also 

threw up a number > of common themes around failure which were useful to learn from, > and, while there was trust in the team to begin with, helped build > an even more trusting 

environment where people took others into > their confidence. “TIGHT-LOOSE” TEAM LEADERSHIP The team is very mission-focused, where there is clarity or “tightness” over what they are

working to achieve. However, they aim to be very “loose” in how team members achieve these goals, including being highly accommodating of where people work and their preferred communication

approaches - whether people prefer a structured discussion, a quick chat or to work through a PowerPoint presentation. Their aim is for managers to support people, not direct them. While

this approach works really well for this team, this level of autonomy in delivery asks a lot of people, and it is only possible when given space from senior leaders. Feedback from team

members is that they really value the trust and freedom given to them, and that it helps to breed creativity. A SUPPORTIVE, HIGH-FEEDBACK ENVIRONMENT > Our team has actively taken a 

number of small steps to create an > environment where people feel supported and offer feedback. We try > to start every meeting by asking people how they are - while the > answer’s

 often ‘fine’, this sometimes opens up conversations > which focus on real issues people are having. As people leave for > the day, they check in with others who are still working and 

offer > to help. This helps people feel like they’re part of a team > effort, where people have a genuine interest in how others are. They > enjoy spending time together, meeting up

 frequently outside work - > including at the weekend! A CULTURE OF ‘YES’ Innovative approaches to work are promoted - if team members suggest something new they are encouraged to take it

forward. While ideas need to fit within work priorities, this culture means that team members are able to shape new ways of working. This in turn makes them feel that processes are shared

and agreed upon rather than imposed. ENGAGEMENT AND TRUST CREATES BENEFITS TO THE WIDER BUSINESS > The trust and engagement in our team really helps our credibility > with stakeholders

 and creates a virtuous cycle of positive > behaviours and productivity. People pull their weight, support each > other and the default is to be positive and not project blame. > 

Through being given greater autonomy, people are more passionate, > deliver more, and become more engaged. The UK is now a world leader > in social investment, starting from a similar 

position to other > nations, and I think that the high engagement of our team has > absolutely had a part to play in that - and that is why it is > explicitly an objective for the 

team. Learn more about social investment UPDATES TO THIS PAGE Published 18 February 2016