Case Study: Wynne Construction
Wynne Construction is an award-winning, Welsh construction company that provides high quality and innovative solutions operating within the public and private sectors.
Our involvement with the company began in March 2022, when Wynne Construction’s Social Value Manager, Alison Hourihane, came across one of our ‘social value in construction’ podcasts on LinkedIn and enquired about our services.
Background
Established in 1934, Wynne Construction originally operated from Rhuddlan, North Wales. During its early development, its structured growth and positive impact on the local community and economy advanced its success and created strong commercial relationships with local authorities and clients alike.
It provides construction and related services for public and private sector organisations in a variety of market sectors, with a client base spanning public sector bodies, local authorities, NHS Trusts, universities, colleges, and private clients.
The process and how we helped
One of the primary objectives for Wynne Construction was to devise a way to increase the understanding of its history and culture, and how it has grown as a business.
We understand that shaping an organisation’s approach to social value means we are also helping to change and shape its culture. This meant that we had to encourage a full adoption of the process from the whole managerial team.
The initial stage of any project involves a preparation and fact-finding task where we analyse the current approach, define aspirations and identify any challenges that may arise.
From there, we immediately began with a full day dedicated to a social value engagement workshop. Our Social Business Connect Lead Consultant, Adam Cox, and our Social Enterprise Sector Policy Officer, Dr Sarah Evans, worked to develop a comprehensive social value stakeholder engagement strategy.
Our primary focus was to address social value and what it means to Wynne Construction, establishing its current position and outlining its vision for the future. This session established their position, their vision, values and aspirations of how they deliver social value in the company going forward.
We also undertook a social value audit, ratifying Wynne Construction’s social value performance and output against a particular set of metrics of legislation. One aspect of this was measuring against the seven goals of the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015. The audit identified what was currently working and what could be improved upon and implemented going forward.
Outcome
The results of our involvement included co-designing an internal stakeholder group at Wynne Construction. We helped shape its strategy and approach to social value and to recognise its importance within the construction industry.
The success of this project has meant that we have developed an ongoing working relationship with Wynne Construction and built on trust and understanding of its values and culture. The team at Wynne Construction understand the importance of accountability as well as the qualitative and quantitative outputs of social value.
Establishing a new approach to social value was important to Wynne Construction as it has maximised the company’s social impact for customers and communities, embedding principles that go beyond contractual obligations.
Alison Hourihane, Social Value Manager at Wynne Construction said:
“The approach implemented by Cwmpas has been embraced company-wide and is now embedded in our culture. As a company who is constantly tendering for projects, the advice and guidance that Cwmpas gave us has helped steer us in how to respond to the social value responses and meet social value requirements set by the Welsh Government.
“Adam’s knowledge of the construction industry, coupled with the thorough approach from Cwmpas has been vital for our success, as we were able to directly apply the advice and fully understand what we are required to deliver.”
Andy Garner, Pre-Construction Director, Wynne Construction, said:
“We were keen to review our social value approach and establish a new social value vision for Wynne Construction, with the full involvement of the leadership management team. Cwmpas has supported us completely through this process, including an engagement workshop and ensuring that social value is embedded in the organisation and goes beyond our contractual obligations. We now have the tools in place to maximise on our social impact for our customers and the communities in which we work.”
Adam Cox, our Lead Consultant for Social Value, said:
“It’s refreshing to work with an organisation that sees social value as something that has impact beyond just metrics. The ongoing relationship allows us to develop creative social value ideas to drive it forward for the benefit of our communities.”
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Adam Cox: adam.cox@cwmpas.coop
