About Involvement
When Involvement Group (formerly accredited under their Invopak brand) achieved We invest in people Gold with Investors in People, they had already established a strong reputation for their people-first culture. But they didn’t stop there. In 2025, Involvement raised the bar and achieved We invest in people Platinum— the highest level awarded by Investors in People.
We caught up with Involvement to explore how they built on their existing strengths to create a truly high-performance culture, how they approached the challenges facing them on their journey with Investors in People, and what tangible benefits they’ve seen since achieving Platinum status.
- Industry: Packaging & Storage
- Location: Southam, Warwickshire and Hyde, Cheshire
- Organisation size: 50-99
The Drive for Platinum: Ambition Meets Purpose
For Involvement, striving for We invest in people Platinum wasn’t just about recognition — it was about clarity and continuous improvement.
“We are very clear that in the current climate of challenge and uncertainty, our people are our greatest asset. The better we can make our team, the better we can serve our customers. We invest in people Platinum helps us get there – and shouts out to the world that we’ve arrived at the very top.”
Achieving Platinum gave them the opportunity to benchmark their culture against the best, helping them identify not just what they were doing well, but where they could go further.
Their long-standing ambition to reach Platinum was rooted in a desire to understand the impact of their investment in people — and to keep refining and evolving in response to changing employee needs.
A Shift in Mindset: From Perception to Data-Driven Insight
Working closely with their IIP Practitioner, Estelle Warwick-Wilson, Involvement made a key shift: moving from subjective measures of success to a more data-driven culture.
“Estelle’s advice helped us shift from relying on subjective perceptions of success to a data-driven approach. One of the key areas she highlighted early on was the importance of providing concrete data and insights to support our initiatives.”
This included changes such as sharing High Performance Plan (HPP) outcomes across the leadership team — enabling them to spot trends, start meaningful conversations, and better support colleagues.
Practitioner Insights
“It’s a joy to work with Involvement! They are ambitious, creative and committed to improving. They have a very clear vision of the culture they want to create and the diversification and growth they want to achieve, and continue to put in place innovative, connected practices to deliver this.
Using the high performance plan highlights the leaders and teams that are performing to be able to share their good practice both in-house and externally. It also enables swift corrective action and measurement of the impact of this on performance. Involvement can now prove the link between their practices, high performing teams and organisational success.
We’ve seen year-on-year improvements in people’s perceptions of and buy-in to Involvement’s strategy and people practices: 97% now feel encouraged to perform to their best and 98% say it’s a great place to work.”
Estelle Warwick-Wilson, IIP Practitioner
The Work: Empowerment and Continuous Improvement
To support their ambitious three-year business plan, Involvement focused on two cultural priorities:
- Empowering colleagues to take ownership
- Driving continuous improvement
At the heart of both initiatives was the launch of the Involvement Coaching Academy. Every colleague was offered the opportunity to receive coaching from trained leaders, supported by a bespoke Coaching Handbook and regular learning sessions. The response from their people saw a healthy 124 coaching sessions booked in the first three months after launch.
“Coaching covers topics like our ‘A-Game’ and ‘1 Metre’ frameworks, which help colleagues focus on performance behaviours. By coaching colleagues through this, it gives them the confidence to act.”
While coaching remained optional, every employee also took part in quarterly High Performance Plan check-ins — delivered in a coaching style to encourage ownership and reflection.
Facing Challenges: Making Coaching Work for Everyone
Not everyone jumped at the chance for coaching, and Involvement recognised early on that this had to be okay.
“Coaching isn’t for everyone – and it can be hard to hear that some people don’t want to get involved. But our coaching-style HPP check-ins mean everyone still gets the benefit in a way that works for them.”
The organisation remained committed to embedding the culture of ownership and improvement without forcing a one-size-fits-all approach.
Experts in Empowering and involving people
Involvement’s journey from Gold to Platinum has been in no small part due to their work to nurture a culture of trust and ownership in the organisation, where people feel empowered to make decisions and act on them.
What Involvement People say about their organisation:
100% said that they had agreed objectives in the last year
97% feel encouraged to perform to the best of their abilities
97% have discussed their performance in the past 6 months
98% feel trusted to make decisions in their role
The Impact: Ownership, Performance and Growth
The shift in mindset and behaviour has had a profound impact.
- Ownership is now embedded across the business — whether it’s in day-to-day tasks or personal development. In 2024 alone, 18% of Involvement people moved into a role with more responsibility.
- Performance has improved - with colleagues more invested in the outcomes of their work.
Involvement has seen business growth with a similar headcount, thanks to improved systems and smarter working. Since starting their IIP journey in 2019, Involvement have seen its business performance metrics improve whilst only increasing the number of people in the organisation by 7%. As a result, profit per head has increased in one year by a staggering 2800%.
Absence rate: 1.1 days
(per colleague per year)
UK average: 7.8 days
Attrition rate: 15%
(net employee movement)
UK average: 34%
“Colleagues have improved processes and systems, which in turn has enabled us to achieve a lot more with a similar number of people.”
Externally, the benefits are just as clear. Clients now associate Involvement’s people development with exceptional customer experience, and prospective hires are taking notice.
“Culture is equally as important as package for more and more people now. Our IIP accreditation often comes up in interviews.”
Looking Ahead: Keeping Performance Fresh
The journey doesn’t stop at We invest in people Platinum. Involvement has now introduced High Performance Habits into every employee’s personal plan — keeping the culture of improvement active and front of mind.
“By simply talking about high performance habits, it keeps the motivation alive and prompts people to look for ways to improve.”
Advice to Others: Link Culture to Purpose
When asked what advice they’d give to other organisations aiming for Platinum, Involvement are clear:
“Connect your colleagues to a purpose. Break down your long-term goals into personal goals and show each person how what they do supports the bigger picture. Then guide them to improve individually and as a team.”
Conclusion
From Gold to Platinum, Involvement’s journey is a powerful reminder that culture isn’t static — it evolves, improves and grows when organisations commit to clarity, ownership, and purposeful development.
They’re not just investing in people — they’re building a business where everyone has the tools, mindset and motivation to make work better.
