Esbjerg Municipality is the sixth-largest municipality in Denmark, with 12,000 employees located on the West coast of Jutland.

Challenge

Esbjerg Municipality faced multiple challenges, including an increasing ageing population with a high employment rate, and difficulties in finding sufficient manpower. They aimed to improve their services since the municipality recognized the need to find smarter and more effective ways to serve the citizens of Esbjerg when the proportion of elderly people increases and the municipality has fewer hands to carry out the tasks. They also acknowledged the valuable contributions of their team leaders while seeking assistance for leadership development. Therefore, Esbjerg Municipality asked Business Learning to tailor-make a leadership education program for the current team of 24 leaders of a specific area.

Approach

Business Learning grasped the challenges faced by Esbjerg Municipality and tailored a leadership education program specifically for their team leaders. The program incorporated various tools from Business Learning’s portfolio, including exploring The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, utilizing the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) for individual assessments, implementing design thinking methodologies, and fostering intelligent problem-solving. The program was built upon the success of a previous program conducted seven years ago and was structured to span a year, with four face-to-face workshops scheduled.

Impact

Through their collaborative efforts with Business Learning, Esbjerg Municipality has been able to address their challenges head-on and make significant progress in improving service delivery, leading their workforce, and fostering a stronger sense of teamwork within their five different leadership teams.

Preliminary results have shown promising outcomes. From February to March, the municipality experienced a reduction of over 20% in the number of temporary workers. This reduction indicates an improvement in workforce efficiency and effective leadership practices. Moreover, the leaders involved in the program reported enhanced teamwork and expressed satisfaction with the quality of their area leadership team meetings. These positive impacts reflect the successful implementation of the tailored leadership education program, as facilitated by Business Learning.