Companies House Strategy

Our Strategy for Companies House

“What we are and how we want to be” – our purpose and vision

We serve the 2.7 million companies in the UK, their professional advisors and the wide range of customers who access the information we hold.

Our purpose and vision are simply:

“We are the heart of company information in the UK, recording the life events of companies for all to see.“

“to be a world class information exchange;accessible, easy to use and trusted.”

Strategic context

In looking forward into the next decadeand driving towards our vision we face many challenges and opportunities including:

Increasing customer expectations
Data issues such as:identity, sharing, security, fraud and trust
Increasing expectations of government
Technological changes and greater personalisation of digital services

Implementing and working with the new Companies Act
Influencing and implementing developments in European company law
The government Service Transformation Agenda
Managing and delivering fast change

The Companies Act 2006 provides a fully revised legal framework for UK companies,a clearly defined role for the Registrar, with new powers and responsibilities and the basis for the register to play a key role for corporate success in the UK and globally.

Much of our corporate framework stems from Europe and increasingly this agenda, from helping business to operate across borders, to reducing regulatory burdens and providing easier access to information, will influence our work. We must be engaged and involved so that the UK continues to be a good place to do business.

The register is at the heart of corporate information in the UK and in an increasingly information hungry world it must maintain and build on its reputation as an accessible and trusted source of information for all.

As electronic data exchange becomes the norm we must keep pace with technological change enabling companies and searchers to provide and access information seamlessly as part of the process of running a business and making decisions.

In an increasingly digital age services will be personalised, designed around the needs of the individual and from their perspective. This is the only way to create excellent customer experiences. Our customers run companies, or provide professional services to companies, and use the information on the register to make decisions. Interacting with Companies House should never be seen as an end in itself but within that context.

The Service Transformation agenda aims to provide an integrated approach to company interactions with government, with services designed from the customer’s perspective. Companies House has a key role to play in developing this customer centred approach and must embrace this without limiting its drive for personalised information exchange services.

Ourfuture

In looking ahead into the next decade we will work towards our vision through our goals and values. Our goals show the direction we will take to meet the challenges and opportunities ahead;our values show how we will behave in getting there. We have two strategic goals, two supporting goals and three core values.

Strategic Goals

1. Creatingexcellent customer experiences. This is achieved through:

Excellent services;we provide services designed on the principles of simplicity, ease of use, quality, personalisation and minimal cost. We deliver all our transactional services electronically helping us reduce the burden on customers of updating the register and accessing information.
Available services; our services are electronic and available 24 x 7.
Quality services; our services must be reliableand operate at industry best practice levels or performance and quality.
Excellent customer support and insight; great customer experience comes from dedicated staff who enjoy their jobs, understand their customers, care about the service they are providing and are available when needed.

2. Providing trusted information.This is achieved through:

Up to date information; companies submit their information on time. We help customers to do this but rigorously enforce if they do not.
Secure delivery and authentication; information is received electronically from the authorised source and the risk of false information is minimised.
Accurate information; we will compare information with that already on the register and to trusted sources and request companies to explain or correct anomalies. We work with industry organisations and professional bodies to improve the quality of the information we hold.
Effective influencing and implementation of policy and legislation; helping customers meet their legal duties and using our knowledge of customers to influence new developments.

Supporting Goals

Our priorities are creating excellent experiences for our customers and providing them with trusted information and we must ensure everything we do embraces the principles of simplicity and value for money. In delivering this agenda we have two supporting goals.

1.Developingour capability; this describes how we will improve what we can do and isdelivered through:

Inspiring development: ensuring we have the right skills, we develop our staff to realise their potential and we have effective career development.
Engaged employees:we develop, through our values, a great working environment where staff feel informed, cared for, valued and involved.
Accessible information:We must make the best use of the information we hold.We will develop and implement an information strategy which makescustomer, corporate and internal information more accessible and easier to use.
Working with others: We develop effective partnerships with: suppliers, other parts of government, other registries and business organisations.We share data electronically with other parts of government, supporting the ‘file once’ agenda.

2.Developing our capacity:this describes how we will improve how much we can do andis delivered through:

Right structure and resources: we develop the right structure to match our strategy, developing a target operational model to reflect our future business processes. This will help us plan effectively so we have the right people in the right jobs and that as the business changes we have the appropriate people and skills.
Good infrastructure: ensuring we have both the physical and systems infrastructure to deliver great customer experiences and a trusted register.
Sound finances:we have a clear finance and fees strategy ensuring we meet Treasury targets and have the funds to support our strategy.
Delivering efficiency:We continually drive improvements in efficiency and productivity and we pass benefits onto customers through service improvements or lower fees. We maximize the use of electronic services for transactions.

Our Values

How we do things is as important as what we do. Our goals provide the direction we need to move in and highlight the priorities; our values guide how we will do it.

Our Values are:

Doing it right
I listen to customers and colleagues and exceed their expectations
I take pride in what I do
I take responsibility for my action
Making a difference
I seek to embrace and deliver change
I look for new and better ways of doing things
I take every opportunity to develop myself and others
Working together
We respect each other
We communicate openly and honestly
We acknowledge and celebrate the success and achievement of others

Ensuring our values live throughout Companies House is right at the heart of our plans for the future. We can only create the right organisation to deliver our strategic goals by creating the right environment for our staff. Making our values live is the way we will do this.

What we’ll be like a few years from now

We know our customers and help them make the best use of the register. Our products are available when and where customers want them and our staff are on hand to ensure everything runs smoothly.

Our electronic services are the chosen channel for customers and we have withdrawn paper based services. Companies and their advisorssend us data and take responsibility for their information owning, checking and maintaining their record electronically.They can access their details and alert us quickly to changes by updating records directly, and automated validationhelps them get it right first time.Our processes are secure and prevent unauthorised changesand we work with other trusted sources to check our data. We make it easy for customers to comply with their legal obligations, ensuring they know what they have to do and how to do it: simply, efficiently and on time. However, we deal rapidly, firmly and fairly with those who do not.

We have simplified our products to provide information to bulk users, companies and individuals. Our products and services enable them to access the information we hold easily, efficiently and at low cost and we maximise the amount of free information available.

We are clear that our role is to register the information required by legislation and make it available to all; we do not add to the information we receive or make judgements on its value, but where appropriate, ensure it is consistent with reliable sources. We actively promote the use of the public register, as a trusted source of information bringing benefits to the economy.

Companies House is at the heart of the service transformation agenda, working in partnership with Businesslink.gov.uk, driving change based on the needs of different customer groups. As the primary source of company information, we share data with other parts of government so that customers only have to submit information once.

Internationally, both in Europe and beyond, Companies House is recognised as an innovative and proactive partner who shares information with others, and plays a strong role in promoting better ways of working. We track global best practice in company registration and use it to improve our service.

Our focus has changed completely from processing documents to serving customers.Creating excellent experiences for our customers comes from dedicated staff who have a good working environment and enjoy their work. The quality of our service is down to their high skill levels and flexible working and our staff deal with most customer queries at the first point of contact. Their broad knowledge of Companies House, the systems they use, and their empowerment to make decisions enables them to do this. Our values have changed the way we work and have created a workplace where everyone is valued and encouraged to reach their potential.

Our customers enjoy better value for money achieved by making our operation simpler and more efficient. Our continuing investment in technology delivers strong and resilient systems, which enable us to deliver the services to our customers when they require them.

We have redesigned the organisation to reflect our fully electronic processes andour drive to make things simpler and provide value for money.

Measures of success and key indicators

Our strategy is clear, in fulfilling our public task we want to create excellent customer experiences and provide trusted information. The measure of how well we deliver our strategy will be the views of customers and stakeholders. Market research, customer satisfaction surveys and customer complaint measures will all point to success in achieving these goals. The evidence of our success will be:

Creating great customer experiences

Best practice levels of customer satisfaction
Low levels of complaints and low levels of complaint reoccurrence
Reduce the administrative cost to companies of filing.
Service performance
Volume of electronic transactions
E filing capability

Providing trusted information

Low levels of complaints for false and fraudulent activity
PROOF levels (prior to Mandation)
High compliance levels
Surveys indicate the register is trusted
Registration time

Developingour capability

Staff development
Staff satisfaction
Staff absence levels
Knowledge sharing
Innovation and ideas

Developingour capacity

Staff retention and promotion / recruit from within
Stakeholder views
Efficiency
Reducing cost per company measure
Query handling rates
Finance measures