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Leadership Development
Tesco
Strategic Business Partnering Programme

by

Leadership Development.

Tesco.
Strategic Business Partnering Programme.

The challenge.

Tesco identified a significant need to elevate the skills and effectiveness of its Business Partnering roles across the business. Through a comprehensive discovery phase, both externally across the industry and internally within Tesco, it became evident that business partners were getting too involved in the detail and needed to build their confidence in challenging stakeholders.

They also needed to adopt more strategic behaviours to drive better outcomes. The aim was to create a tailored offering that would introduce key partnering skills and behaviours, ensuring partners were set up for success.

The Strategic Business Partnering Programme was designed to provide foundational skills that would enable participants to better support the business, framed within the Tesco ‘Me, Us, and It’ model.

TESCO logo
100+
HQ based

The solution.

PeopleUnboxed conducted a discovery phase to identify key skills gaps and then to design a comprehensive, targeted solution that addressed these gaps.

The content was framed with the “Me, Us, and It” model and aligning it with Tesco’s core “Win Together” behaviours, we ensured the programme would be both relevant and impactful from the start.

The main element of the programme took the form of a two-day in-person course, which introduced the essential skills for effective strategic partnering at a foundational level, and allowed ample time to practise applying their skills in a safe environment.

The programme launched as a pilot across four of Tesco’s teams. This pilot phase allowed us to gather crucial feedback and make iterative improvements before a full rollout across the organisation.

A key component was the inclusion of a post-course online partnering toolkit which enabled delegates to access resources.

Embedding actions into participants’ personal development plans (PDPs), growth continued beyond the classroom, while collaboration with course buddies provided ongoing support.

In addition to the in-person sessions, participants were given access to an online partnering toolkit with additional resources such as workbooks, online tools, and a peer-led forum.

Developing Leader Programme quadrant. Showing Manager Essentials Programme for Office Development and Junior Managers Retail Manager Programme for Shop Development and Junior Managers Leader Essentials Programme for Office Development and Senior Managers Retail Leader Programme for Shop Development and Senior Managers
The Manager Essentials framework detailing the: order of programme with dates, session topics, session style (e.g. virtual classroom, coaching call or learning app). The framework sessions spell out LEADER: Leadership potential, Engaging people, Authentic communication, Delegation and motivation, Embracing conflict and Responsible leadership.

The results.

39% increase in confidence

"Working with the PeopleUnboxed team on the Strategic Business Partnering session has been an incredibly positive experience. I provided the skills and focus areas for the session, and the team expertly applied relevant models, tools and theories to bring it to life. They were responsive, collaborative and dedicated to creating a value-added experience for our Partners. The seamless integration of our business behaviours and values into the learning ensured the session was both impactful and aligned with our needs. The quick turnaround to meet our business requirements was impressive, and the feedback from our workforce has been overwhelmingly positive and I have observed some great longer-term impacts to our colleague's working behaviours and confidence, seeing a more strategic mindset that adds real value to our business.

Thank you PeopleUnboxed, it was a pleasure working with you.”
Global Learning & Development Lead




“One of the best, if not the best session I’ve been on in my 10+ years at Tesco.”



“I found the role-plays and practice sessions incredibly valuable.”



“The post-course content is something I still refer to, months later.”
Learners
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