This kind-hearted offer spotted on a sidewalk sign in the U.K. is not the only indication that good things are happening at and through Timpson Group: TIMPSON, Great Service by Great People — If you are unemployed and need an outfit cleaned for an interview, we will clean it for free!

I am always on the lookout for examples of Connection Cultures that I can share to inspire leaders and give them ideas to adopt or adapt in their own work setting. I was not familiar with the Timpson Group until John Crittenden, a British friend and executive coach, suggested I take a closer look at this 150+-year-old business in the U.K. that is very intentional about its “culture of kindness, respect, and fairness” and putting people first.

By way of background, Timpson Group provides a variety of services through 20 businesses, with 2,000+ shops and 4,500+ employees. Its origin story is shoes. Shoemaker William Timpson opened his first shop in 1869, which eventually led to a chain of shoe stores and the family extending to the related businesses of shoe manufacturing and repair. One hundred years after its founding, Timpson started diversifying into key cutting, engraving, photo printing, watch and phone repair, dry cleaning, and other service or repair areas such as a locksmiths and installing home security alarm systems. Besides the Timpson name, other retail brand names in the group include Snappy Snaps, Jeeves, The Watch Lab, and Johnson Dry Cleaners. With its experience and commitment to providing excellent customer service, Timpson has ventured into the hospitality business more recently with a handful of properties, from pubs in the U.K. to a ski hotel and restaurant in the French Alps. A family-run business for six generations, the current chairman is Sir John Timpson and three generations of Timpsons work for the company.

Timpson Group champions an “upside down management” structure in which the Chief Executive is at the bottom of the V-shaped organizational pyramid. The next levels going up are Support Colleagues then Area Teams, with Branch Colleagues (i.e., frontline people interacting with customers) at the very top. It is communicated that “everyone at Timpson is there to support our branch colleagues.” Leaders are empowered to help the people they are responsible for “be the best they can be” so they can best serve, and amaze, their customers. Last year, Timpson Group soared 45 places up KPMG’s customer service experience list for the U.K.

Sir John got the idea of an upside down management approach 25 years ago when he visited Nordstroms in Seattle and was impressed by how management empowered those on the frontlines. On a graphic showing the Timpson Upside Down Management on its website there is a note next to the bottom layer that reads, “Our aim: to make life in the shops as easy as possible.” The Timpson approach also shares similarities with the management style used by Howard Behar, the founding president of Starbucks International and former president of Starbucks North America. Behar once said that the role of leadership was to “set the tone, live the values and knock down the hurdles” that stood in the way of the colleagues’ success. “The better we served, the better the results.” To Behar, leadership’s primary job was to serve those doing the work. It seems that Sir John would echo that sentiment.

Timpson’s Practices that Cultivate a Connection Culture

Timpson has created and is sustaining a “colleague-focused” Connection Culture. They have a vision that inspires and unites people, they value one another as individuals and don’t think or treat one another as mere means to an end, and they give people a voice to share their ideas and opinions.

There are many things Timpson does to foster Connection Culture. Here are a few:

• Timpson prioritizes the wellbeing and happiness of their staff, believing that when their employees are happy and empowered it translates into better customer service. The company has more than 100 mental health “first aiders” to help the people who work there because Sir John sees the company as a social enterprise as much as a corporate one. The company offers tools and resources, including confidential counseling, financial support, and helping to arrange doctor home visits for colleagues who are sick. “Helping and supporting our people when they need it is central to our ethos,” Sir John explained in an interview with KPMG.
• Timpson’s head office focuses on strategy, continuously improving the culture, and empowering and equipping people in the stores (rather than monitoring and controlling them). “We trust our colleagues to run our business as they see fit.”
• Leaders throughout Timpson complete a course on what it takes to be a great leader through encouragement rather than through command and control.
• On a scale of ten, the company recruits people who are nines or tens in terms of attitude and positivity. They are looking for personality, not pre-existing skills. “Our colleagues are confident, chatty, presentable and super-friendly. It’s how we always offer such incredible service!” When Timpson doesn’t make the right hiring decision, it parts ways “kindly and generously,” ensuring they part as friends.
• Timpson conducts a weekly morale survey and an annual “happy index” survey which lets them know what their colleagues really think about how the business is being run and how they are being treated. Results are taken seriously and even reviewed annually by Timpson’s board of directors.  
• “Putting people first” means also offering extra, atypical benefits as a way of saying thank you. Timpson’s “Making Dreams Come True” program lets employees, or their colleagues, submit a dream or aspiration, such as taking a “bucket list” trip or paying for medical treatments. The website states, “​​Every year, we spend over £500K to make dreams come true for our colleagues.” Other examples include maintaining 19 holiday homes (i.e., vacation homes) for its colleagues to use for no charge, an extra day off for birthdays, and cash rewards for great ideas that improve the business.

Vision in Action

While the businesses in Timpson Group are diverse, each is service-oriented. When it comes to the Connection Culture element of Vision, “Great Service by Great People” captures what the company is all about. The key principles, or values, within the unifying culture are trust, kindness, inclusion, loyalty, and generosity.

Value in Action

As the examples above illustrate, Timpson emphasizes the Connection Culture element of Value and expresses this in many ways. Another unique example of putting Value into action is that around 12 percent of Timpson employees are former prisoners. Many of them don’t have money or lodging when they come out of prison so Timpson provides help with those things so they get off to a good start. Timpson believes if you give former prisoners the right environment and a fresh start, they can flourish and contribute to the business.

Voice in Action

An attitude that goes to both Value and Voice is stated this way on the website:

We’re incredibly proud of our inclusive culture, but there’s always room for improvement. That’s why we’ll never stop listening to colleagues and looking for new ways to improve our approach. The Timpson Group is committed to getting things right, so we’ll continue to learn, listen, and improve as we build an even stronger connection with colleagues in the years to come.

“If I have to give one piece of advice it would be to focus on your people,” underscores Sir John. “If you get that right, everything else will follow. Trust them, empower them, and give them the tools to succeed. When your employees are happy and motivated, your customers will feel it too.”

A Management Idea to Borrow: The Timpson Test

I’ve previously written about how gaining “personal knowledge” humanizes the other person and enhances collaboration, so a practice that I especially like is the Timpson Test. Managers are expected to know their people and the Timpson Test checks this out. Below are a number of items to learn about a colleague and the maximum points you receive for each item. A 70+ score out of a possible 95 points means you know your colleague well. A score lower than 70 means you need to get to know the person better.

The Timpson Test

Do you know his or her:

1. Age? (5 points)
2. Where do they live? (5)
3. Partner’s name? (10)
4. Children's names, ages, schools? (20)
5. Last holiday? (10)
6. Next holiday? (5)
7. Main hobbies? (10)
8. Partner’s hobbies? (5)
9. Career history? (10)
10. Health record? (5)
11. Make of car? (5)
12. Parents' names? (5)

Questions for Self-Evaluation

How about your company? How do you describe your company’s culture in a nutshell? How does your company show people that they are valued? How do you show colleagues that you value them? If you were to take the Timpson Test with each of your colleagues in mind, how well would you do?

After more than 150 years, Timpson knows that they still have to be proactive about shaping their culture. I hope their story inspires you to try something new in your organization’s journey towards creating and maintaining your own Connection Culture.

About the Author

‍Michael Lee Stallard, MBA, JD, is a thought leader, speaker and leading expert on how human connection in workplace cultures affects the health and performance of individuals and organizations. In addition to Fired Up or Burned Out, he is the primary author of Connection Culture: The Competitive Advantage of Shared Identity, Empathy, and Understanding at Work.

Photo by Simon Kadula on Unsplash