Case study: communicating and reporting performance at the Co-Operative Banking Group

The Co-operative Banking Group forms part of The Co-operative Group, the United Kingdom’s largest consumer co-operative. Britannia Building Society merged with The Co-operative Banking Group in August 2009. The combined business provides a wide range of financial services, including retail and investment banking , insurance and asset management. It employs approximately 12,000 people and has 5.5 million customers.

The IT Operations & Development function (ITO&D) has undergone major organisational change since the merger. It now consists of six different functions, employing approximately 700 permanent staff, based in six different locations across the UK.

A new balanced scorecard was introduced in 2011 with the aim of creating a flight deck that provides an at-a-glance overview of performance. The objective was to measure, monitor and share the current performance issues, hot topics as well as good news to ensure everyone in the organisation was on the same page.

Four quadrants (or perspectives) were identified and arranged around a wheel, which has the vision of the organisation in the centre (see figure below).

Each of the four quadrants contains three strategic objectives, which are aligned around key action words that describe each of the objectives: Manage (for finance), Deliver (for customer), Ensure (for process) and Engage (for people).

The detailed objectives are:

• Manage IT run costs to latest forecasts ensuring stretch targets are achieved
• Manage build costs effectively to deliver value for money solutions
• Manage suppliers to deliver the required service and innovation to drive value for The Co-operative Banking Group

• Deliver business benefit bringing Specialist IT functions under IT O&D governance
• Deliver IT elements of the change portfolio to time cost and quality criteria
• Deliver high quality IT services to support the business and seek ongoing improvements

• Ensure the risks of legacy infrastructure are reduced in line with the 3 year plan and within risk appetite
• Ensure robust resilient IT processes are delivered within governance
• Ensure effective control of operational risks, IT security and business continuity

• Communicate effectively with our people to engage them on our journey
• Lead an engaged and motivated workforce
• Create a high performing engaged workforce

This case study demonstrates that engagement with performance data can be achieved throughout the organisation by making sure the messages are communicated effectively.