Empowering SSE’s People For A Sustainable Energy Future

SSE, a leading renewable energy provider in the UK, is committed to meeting today’s energy demands while driving long-term sustainability. With a diverse and dedicated workforce, SSE prioritizes innovation and operational efficiency as it works to achieve its ambitious net-zero targets.

To support this effort, SSE partnered with us at Oliver Wyman to develop and implement the "Performance Edge" initiative — an effort designed to enhance employee performance by fostering a culture of continuous learning and feedback. The program combines a coherent set of tools and methodologies with different powerful leadership styles and skills.

Through close collaboration with us, SSE successfully rolled out the "Performance Edge" program, integrating strategic objectives into daily operations, fostering a dynamic and pragmatic approach to change, and ensuring lasting impact through internal ownership.

The results have been significant, with notable improvements in leadership development, employee engagement, and overall organizational agility. The "Performance Edge" program has become a model for large organizations seeking to drive cultural transformation and operational excellence. 

Voice over

At SSE, the purpose is clear. To provide the energy needed today while building a better world of energy for tomorrow. This is more than just a corporate goal. It’s a commitment that resonates deeply with SSE’s dedicated and diverse workforce. This is where the collaboration with Oliver Wyman comes into play. We partnered with SSE to design, activate and embed Performance Edge, an approach to enabling people’s best performance by fostering a culture of continuous learning and feedback with a consistent set of tools.

Keith McCambridge

Wendy, John, SSE has made a tremendous commitment to net zero. Now that is, I'm quite sure, not without its challenges internally. What are some of the ones that are really pressing for you?

John Stewart

I think for me, the biggest issue we’ve got, is that we have really excellent ambitions—they're clear with defined goals 2027 and 2032. But we really need to scale up the organization in order to deliver them. And so, you've got all the challenges of what I would call typical growth pains. You’ve got to attract people, you’ve got to retain them, you’ve got to get them up to speed, and you've got to harness the kind of sense of purpose that they’ve got organizationally. And to me, you've got to create framework to make people efficient and effective. And that's the biggest challenge for us is how do we, we've got great plans, but how do we activate these plans well?

Keith

Wendy, when it comes to where you start, what are the immediate challenges that you have to face into through this work?

Wendy Tubi

When we rolled out Performance Edge, we definitely called it an evolution, we weren't trying to change the world, but how we incrementally built, this program of work, how we worked through it, how we did all those small changes that made things better along the way. And to all of us, it's become part of the essence of SSE.

John

The biggest thing that we could see was that people wanted the opportunity to grow. The things that matter most — and that we focus on a lot — are flexibility and purpose in today’s world. T A lot of people, especially graduates and trainees, come because of our net-zero goal. It makes us a real employer of choice for graduates. It’s attractive and they want development. And I think our biggest frustration when we start to look at our data was that when we start to look at the exit stuff, people were leaving for development opportunities and that made us think, oh hang on, if they want development with the amount of growth we've got, we should have lots of this to offer.

Keith

We’ve got to have a proposition.

John

We should have a proposition. So, we knew what people wanted, but something was slightly disconnected.

Keith

One of the other really interesting things about the program, too John, was actually connecting net zero and the SSE strategy to the work that everybody does. And so, the program started with really understanding individual executive directors' objectives and then cascading those down through agile goals. For you, what was the key to our success as, as a combined team? What mattered to you in terms of working with us on this program?

John

So, the energy was great, I think the innovation and the last bit I think a degree of pragmatism, I think we were quite open at times about having discussions about what might work, what might not work. And I think sometimes not being too precious. Sometimes, these things go wrong, if the blueprint is so tight you won't move on it. I think what I would say, there was quite a lot of evidence-based adjustment of, look, we're going to just tweak this a little bit, this thing has landed really well here. We're going to try that again. It’s landed better than the previous iteration of it. So that was great. And then the last bits a collaboration because, one of the things obviously that was important to us was to be able to run this on and stay self-sufficient. And so, some of the stuff in terms of the knowledge sharing, the training the trainer. To me, that’s real partnership. You know, the partnership is actually when you leave us to be reasonably self-sustainable, at the end of it, that to me is a partnership.

Wendy 

There was a couple of comments around, wow, I didn't realize that if I use some of these methodologies, I wouldn't have to do everything or always tell my team how to get everything done. I could actually just set off the task in the direction, and they would be able to do that themselves. And the element, and maybe the eye opening thought that came with that was, wow, this is going to save a lot of time. So that efficiency piece. But maybe also, that element of wow I can lead in a different way. I can do it, yeah.

Keith

Finally, what would your advice be to other organizations who are trying to release the capability and enable the edge in their people going forward, what would you advise to other organizations in a similar place be?

John

I think my starting point would be, I think the framework that we've put in place here really, really works. I think it's pragmatic. I think it's scalable. It’s something that you can work at embedding. So, if you're going through growth, if you're looking to harness or line people up, with your strategic objectives, if you've got the same issues we had about people saying, I’m not sure there's enough development for me. So, if you recognize any of these things, I think this is something that is really powerful. I’d probably recommend if you're a big organization, like we are, there were lots of merit in taking a bit of a pragmatic view of piloting first, testing it and checking it would work, fine tuning it. And then I think the last thing is, I think is going in with a bit of an open mindset of being willing to flex and grow with the program itself. As it develops, you stop and you think about, okay, we always knew where our North Star was, but a little bit of flexibility is a good thing at times. 

Keith

Thank you both.

Wendy

You’re welcome.

John

Thank you.

This transcript was edited for clarity

SSE, a leading renewable energy provider in the UK, is committed to meeting today’s energy demands while driving long-term sustainability. With a diverse and dedicated workforce, SSE prioritizes innovation and operational efficiency as it works to achieve its ambitious net-zero targets.

To support this effort, SSE partnered with us at Oliver Wyman to develop and implement the "Performance Edge" initiative — an effort designed to enhance employee performance by fostering a culture of continuous learning and feedback. The program combines a coherent set of tools and methodologies with different powerful leadership styles and skills.

Through close collaboration with us, SSE successfully rolled out the "Performance Edge" program, integrating strategic objectives into daily operations, fostering a dynamic and pragmatic approach to change, and ensuring lasting impact through internal ownership.

The results have been significant, with notable improvements in leadership development, employee engagement, and overall organizational agility. The "Performance Edge" program has become a model for large organizations seeking to drive cultural transformation and operational excellence. 

Voice over

At SSE, the purpose is clear. To provide the energy needed today while building a better world of energy for tomorrow. This is more than just a corporate goal. It’s a commitment that resonates deeply with SSE’s dedicated and diverse workforce. This is where the collaboration with Oliver Wyman comes into play. We partnered with SSE to design, activate and embed Performance Edge, an approach to enabling people’s best performance by fostering a culture of continuous learning and feedback with a consistent set of tools.

Keith McCambridge

Wendy, John, SSE has made a tremendous commitment to net zero. Now that is, I'm quite sure, not without its challenges internally. What are some of the ones that are really pressing for you?

John Stewart

I think for me, the biggest issue we’ve got, is that we have really excellent ambitions—they're clear with defined goals 2027 and 2032. But we really need to scale up the organization in order to deliver them. And so, you've got all the challenges of what I would call typical growth pains. You’ve got to attract people, you’ve got to retain them, you’ve got to get them up to speed, and you've got to harness the kind of sense of purpose that they’ve got organizationally. And to me, you've got to create framework to make people efficient and effective. And that's the biggest challenge for us is how do we, we've got great plans, but how do we activate these plans well?

Keith

Wendy, when it comes to where you start, what are the immediate challenges that you have to face into through this work?

Wendy Tubi

When we rolled out Performance Edge, we definitely called it an evolution, we weren't trying to change the world, but how we incrementally built, this program of work, how we worked through it, how we did all those small changes that made things better along the way. And to all of us, it's become part of the essence of SSE.

John

The biggest thing that we could see was that people wanted the opportunity to grow. The things that matter most — and that we focus on a lot — are flexibility and purpose in today’s world. T A lot of people, especially graduates and trainees, come because of our net-zero goal. It makes us a real employer of choice for graduates. It’s attractive and they want development. And I think our biggest frustration when we start to look at our data was that when we start to look at the exit stuff, people were leaving for development opportunities and that made us think, oh hang on, if they want development with the amount of growth we've got, we should have lots of this to offer.

Keith

We’ve got to have a proposition.

John

We should have a proposition. So, we knew what people wanted, but something was slightly disconnected.

Keith

One of the other really interesting things about the program, too John, was actually connecting net zero and the SSE strategy to the work that everybody does. And so, the program started with really understanding individual executive directors' objectives and then cascading those down through agile goals. For you, what was the key to our success as, as a combined team? What mattered to you in terms of working with us on this program?

John

So, the energy was great, I think the innovation and the last bit I think a degree of pragmatism, I think we were quite open at times about having discussions about what might work, what might not work. And I think sometimes not being too precious. Sometimes, these things go wrong, if the blueprint is so tight you won't move on it. I think what I would say, there was quite a lot of evidence-based adjustment of, look, we're going to just tweak this a little bit, this thing has landed really well here. We're going to try that again. It’s landed better than the previous iteration of it. So that was great. And then the last bits a collaboration because, one of the things obviously that was important to us was to be able to run this on and stay self-sufficient. And so, some of the stuff in terms of the knowledge sharing, the training the trainer. To me, that’s real partnership. You know, the partnership is actually when you leave us to be reasonably self-sustainable, at the end of it, that to me is a partnership.

Wendy 

There was a couple of comments around, wow, I didn't realize that if I use some of these methodologies, I wouldn't have to do everything or always tell my team how to get everything done. I could actually just set off the task in the direction, and they would be able to do that themselves. And the element, and maybe the eye opening thought that came with that was, wow, this is going to save a lot of time. So that efficiency piece. But maybe also, that element of wow I can lead in a different way. I can do it, yeah.

Keith

Finally, what would your advice be to other organizations who are trying to release the capability and enable the edge in their people going forward, what would you advise to other organizations in a similar place be?

John

I think my starting point would be, I think the framework that we've put in place here really, really works. I think it's pragmatic. I think it's scalable. It’s something that you can work at embedding. So, if you're going through growth, if you're looking to harness or line people up, with your strategic objectives, if you've got the same issues we had about people saying, I’m not sure there's enough development for me. So, if you recognize any of these things, I think this is something that is really powerful. I’d probably recommend if you're a big organization, like we are, there were lots of merit in taking a bit of a pragmatic view of piloting first, testing it and checking it would work, fine tuning it. And then I think the last thing is, I think is going in with a bit of an open mindset of being willing to flex and grow with the program itself. As it develops, you stop and you think about, okay, we always knew where our North Star was, but a little bit of flexibility is a good thing at times. 

Keith

Thank you both.

Wendy

You’re welcome.

John

Thank you.

This transcript was edited for clarity