“A business is only as good as its people and you can only have the best people if every manager makes it a priority to spot and nurture talent.” Glenn Leech, HR Director

Our Talent Strategy ensures we have the right people in the right roles and that we develop a pipeline of future talent within the business. It’s all about developing our employees to help them realise their full potential and ensuring that when we bring in new people, we select those with the right skills, potential and fit for our business.

Having the best people has clearly been at the heart of our recent success in winning extensive new contracts. Now we face an unprecedented period of growth and need to ensure that we have the right people, now and in the future, to support the business.

Development is available to all our employees and is tailored to the individuals needs. It is typically provided as a result of our bi-annual performance and development reviews and we have a variety of approaches including formal training courses and workshops, to individual coaching and mentoring.

We also have a number of schemes such as the Apprentice Scheme, Graduate Scheme and Leadership Development Groups.

Apprentice Scheme

This scheme offers the first step on the ladder to becoming a supervisor in Operations. It is a structured scheme offered to both existing staff and new recruits and leads to a formal NVQ qualification.

We set up the scheme in January 2009 and several of our Apprentices have already been appointed to a supervisory position.

Graduate Scheme

Our 18 month scheme is designed to provide a strong grounding in the Operations and Commercial sides of the business before preparing the graduates for their future career in whatever direction they chose to take. Each graduate has a mentor at Director level and works closely with senior managers from across the business.

The scheme commenced in 2008 and more than half of our first intake are now appointed to permanent positions. 

Leadership Development Groups

These groups aim to prepare and accelerate development for people to move into roles that are different from their current job.

The groups are for all levels of staff to build their leadership and management skills. This may involve coaching and business mentoring (external and through internal business mentors) as well as workshops and training sessions on people management, technical skills, business skills and interpersonal skills.

We work with the Institute of Leadership and Management, and NVQ providers, and offer professional qualifications where appropriate.