By Nigel Paine

Bright Horizon Points the Way

James Sharrod is the pathways manager at Bright Horizons. His story is remarkable. He joined the company straight from university and, 15 years later, he is now a senior manager there. He has worked in various departments around the company and Bright Horizons has helped him focus his career and learn the right skills to progress, as well as supported his development from junior to senior manager. James is, in many ways, an embodiment of the value system of this company rather than an exception.

Bright Horizons is an example of how to succeed in a difficult sector. The company runs one of the largest networks of nursery school places in the UK. It runs over 300 nursery schools in workplaces and communities the length and breadth of the country. It also has nurseries in the US, where it is headquartered, and in the Netherlands, India, and Canada. It runs over 1,000 schools globally.

It is a large, complex operation in a field that traditionally has low margins and poorly trained staff. Bright Horizons prides itself on the ways it differentiates from the sector generally. It has been rated by the Great Place to Work Institute as a ‘Best Workplace’ in Europe and the UK for the last ten years, and now has the additional accolade of ‘Master Great Place to Work’ . It is on the FORTUNE list of the 100 Best Companies to Work For, and recently won the 2022 learning category of the HR Zone ‘Cultural Pioneers Award’. This is a well-run and impressive company, evidenced by the award citation written by one of the Cultural Pioneer judges.

 "Bright Horizons stood out because of their holistic talent strategy that models what learning means to the organisation from the moment that individuals walked through the door.  This team of cultural pioneers demonstrated what it means to continually learn." (HRZONE 2023)

 If you examine the link between the company’s values; its behaviour towards its staff, and towards its customers, as well as its focus on the young children in its care, it is possible to see an enormous coherent shared and consistent vision. This is what makes the company impressive.

It describes itself as: "delivering with heart." What that means is both literal: delivering in a caring way, however, heart is also an acronym. The acronym outlines the company values. Bright Horizons delivers with honesty, excellence, accountability, respect as well as through teamwork and inclusion. The company lives those values and puts them at the heart of everything they do. (Pun intended.)

Here are some examples of the way that the learning opportunities available to staff are not offered in isolation but part of a wider holistic system where organizational development, individual capability and creating an excellent environment for work are integrated and inseparable.

1. The company’s comprehensive Leadership Programme is designed to be activated at any stage in an individual's career, including as a junior member of staff. The company is willing to support anyone on the team that wishes to progress through the organization and offers a continuous, linked Leadership Programme from early stages of working with the company and team leaders through to senior management. Access to the various stages of the leadership programme is open to all. 

2. Induction in Bright Horizons is not about regulation and compliance but a full induction into the values and behaviours that the company embodies. Staff who are committed enough to join the company, realise very early on they have made a very sensible decision. The induction programme lets them experience what the company can offer and encourages them to take up those opportunities. In other words, it is an induction programme that tells new starts what they can do, and what the company can do for them, rather than burden them with rules about what you cannot do.

3. The company has a large apprenticeship programme. There are 500 staff apprentices in the UK and there will be another 500 added during 2023. That makes up a total of 7% of the entire workforce. And many staff not currently on any apprenticeship programme came into the company through the apprenticeship route. This puts Bright Horizons in the upper echelons of companies that make apprenticeship provision in the UK. And their view of apprenticeships is wide-ranging. It is not simply an apprenticeship into a role, but a connection and induction into the company, and its values and behaviours.

4. There is a learning pathway provided for every staff member. There is no elite group defined as ‘talent’ in Bright Horizons.  Everyone in the company is seen as talent and recognised as having potential. Amongst James’ roles as pathway manager is the one that ensures that every single member of staff not only has a learning pathway provided for them based on what the company needs from them but also has the rights skills and attitude as a lifelong learner to take advantage of it.

5. Every single location (and that is over 300 in the UK alone) has a mental health ambassador on the staff. Their role is to monitor the local situation, offer help and support where necessary, or call in more advanced help. They are trained internally using an eLearning suite of resources developed by Bright Horizons. It is mandatory for those wanting to go forward as mental health ambassadors, and the company is hoping to offer the resources, freely, to other company’s wishing to go down a similar route.   

This is only a snapshot of the provisions offered by the company. It is clearly an excellent company doing a very good job running its own nursery schools, but also offering a support service for companies and for local authorities.

 The business is growing rapidly.  It is very successful. The parents who entrust their kids to Bright Horizons report positively on that experience. James Sharrod, himself, has put his own children through the Bright Horizons nursery programme. So he has experienced Bright Horizons as a customer, parent, as well as an employee.

The company thrives because it thinks holistically. It doesn't just offer development programmes, but it builds the right context by paying attention to the environment where learning will flourish.  This means that staff pull that learning towards them rather than having it pushed at them.  The company argues that if it gets the environment right, and you make it consistent across every part of the organisation, and you have a leadership team onside, it is very easy to motivate and retain good staff.

In an employment sector, where it is very difficult to acquire staff, and even more difficult to retain them, Bright Horizons stands out as exemplary provider. In terms of a learning organisation, Bright Horizons creates a climate where staff can actively learn from each other, where no one is blamed for making mistakes, which are seen as learning opportunities that can improve individual and group performance.  Getting better at your job and helping others get better at their job is an integral part of the learning culture.

In a sector not normally celebrated for its commitment to staff development, or as an exemplification of organisational learning, Bright Horizons stands out.  However, let James Sharrod have the final word.

“I joined Bright Horizons straight after university not really knowing what I wanted to do or what I expected from an employer. They have stuck with me over the years, and I have grown and developed and increased my levels of responsibility accordingly. I feel very fortunate that I ended up in such a great company and it is still one that I still have no desire to leave.” (Interview recorded 18th July 2023)

This is a powerful endorsement of an organization that sees everything from a holistic cultural perspective. This excellent workplace manifests itself through a strong values-led company, that has a culture that embodies teamwork and group learning for the benefit of staff, customers and above all the children in its care. Lifelong learning begins with the children and extends to every member of staff.