Leadership Blueprint for a Seasonal, High-Scale Business

With BeTalent by Zircon, Haven transformed leadership development into a scalable, data-powered programme that empowers managers across 39 locations to lead vibrant, self-contained communities across the UK.

“The tools are truly credible but then you layer that with the expertise that the BeTalent team brings. That credibility builds strong bonds and trust.”

— Deano Giles, Head of Talent, Haven

One of the UK’s leading holiday park operators

  • Sector: Hospitality and Leisure

  • 39 parks with up to 13,000 staff during peak season

  • Focus: Psychological Safety diagnostic tools, BeTalent Blended 360, Strengths, Resilience, Coaching, Facilitation, Blueprint Design

The Blueprint for Holiday Park Success

Challenge

Haven’s pre-pandemic leadership framework from 2019 had not kept pace with the organisation’s needs.

General Managers (GMs) operate as independent business leaders, facing distinct challenges shaped by park size, location, seasonality, and local community needs.

A generic, top-down training approach could not meet the requirements of such a diverse leadership population. The challenge was to replace it with a model grounded in real-world insights and tailored to individual contexts.

Our Approach

BeTalent by Zircon initiated the project with a comprehensive discovery process, engaging stakeholders across all levels to understand the internal and external factors shaping leadership success.

Using BeTalent’s diagnostics: Blended 360, Strengths, and Resilience, the team gathered behavioural and contextual data to co-create a leadership blueprint designed around the realities of each GM’s environment.

The focus was on flexibility, depth, and relevance, ensuring the blueprint could be applied across varying park landscapes while remaining personally meaningful to each leader.

Deployment and Impact

The bespoke Leadership Blueprint was structured around 12 capabilities grouped into four domains: Lead, Think, Interact, and Deliver.

GMs completed both a 360 and Strengths profile, then received individual coaching from qualified psychologists to interpret their results and create targeted development plans.

The blueprint is now fully embedded across Haven’s talent cycle including recruitment, onboarding, performance conversations, and succession planning. It has also been extended to Heads of Department and Exec-1 leadership roles, using tailored versions of the same capability model.

The impact has been transformative:

  • Personalised development: GMs engage in coaching-informed growth plans built around their strengths and challenges.

  • Improved recruitment & succession: Strengths profiling now enhances hiring decisions and future planning.

  • Consistent leadership language: The framework aligns expectations across all leadership levels and functions.

  • Sustained engagement: Ongoing conversations between GMs and line managers are now more focused, effective, and motivating.

Why it Worked

  • Evidence-led insights: Blended 360, Strengths, Resilience, and Psychological Safety tools delivered a clear picture of leadership strengths and development needs.

  • Tailored for scale: A bespoke leadership blueprint adaptable to the diverse challenges of 39 parks and 13,000 staff.

     

    Expert coaching: Psychologist-led feedback turned data into actionable, strengths-based development plans.

     

    Embedded for impact: Fully integrated into recruitment, onboarding, performance, and succession to drive long-term success.