Author: Lucy Wood

See it, Sort it, Report it. 

As part of our commitment to Health and Safety, this quarter we are running an internal campaign on Near Misses to raise awareness and improve standards. 

A Near Miss is an unplanned event that did not result in injury, illness, damage, or product loss but had the potential to do so and research has shown that for every 90 near misses an accident will occur. While the exact numbers may vary, near-misses are a warning sign that something is going wrong.

Reporting a near miss can reduce accidents and improve safety on site. It will help us to find out what went wrong, fix the problem, and learn from it.

The purpose of near-miss reporting is to address the incident and take action to prevent reoccurrence and stop an accident before it happens.

The Westgrove Group are pleased to announce a new partnership and founding patronship with the well-being and mental health charity, Mind Over Mountains. 

The facilities management company based in Warrington has pledged its support to the charity for 2022 and hopes to helps people in the wider community access the support they need through outdoor events and activities combines with professional support.

Founded by Alex Staniforth in 2020 with the belief that everyone deserves access to the tools they need to stay mentally and physically well.  As a founding patron, Westgrove provide financial assistance to enable to charity to support people facing challenging life circumstances.

Claire Mckinley-Smith, Managing Director of The Westgrove Group said: “We’ve worked with Alex for many years in his role as Mental Health Brand Ambassador for Westgrove. He provided our colleagues with mental health and well-being support and it is a privilege to continue this relationship as a founding patron of his charity, Mind Over Mountains.   

Looking after our employee’s wellbeing is of paramount importance to us and we’re pleased to be able to provide our colleagues across the UK with funded places and make Mind Over Mountains accessible to all”. 

Alex Staniforth, co-founder of Mind Over Mountains said: “Looking after well-being in the workplace has been more paramount than ever through the last 2 years and our programmes offer a sustainable solution to support colleagues, beyond simply ticking boxes. I’m extremely grateful for Westgrove supporting my own adventure challenges and charity fundraising as a Young Ambassador since 2014, and I’m delighted to see this evolve into a new partnership with Mind Over Mountains that will have a positive impact on even more lives”.

To further support the partnership, Westgrove colleagues will be taking part in a Yorkshire 3 Peaks challenge in September to raise money for the charity and provide even more people with the opportunity to walk, talk and find stillness in nature. 

As always, we are keen to ensure our valued Partners stay up to date with all the latest news from around The Westgrove Group.

We are delighted to present the Spring edition of the Westgrove Digital Newsletter.

In this edition:

• We hear from Managing Director, Claire McKinley Smith
• Welcome new partners
• Hear from our Partner at Touchwood Shopping Centre, Tony Elvin
• Find out about the expansion of the Technical Services Department
• Hear the latest news from Westgrove HQ
• Take a look at our award-winning successes
• Any much more!  

Click here to read Issue 2 of the Westgrove Digital Newsletter.

Each year we receive hundreds of nominations from across the UK showcasing some of the amazing work that our teams carry out on a daily basis and 2021 was no different.

There have been some outstanding achievements from our colleagues and as a business we are extremely proud of all our nominees, finalists and award winners.  From saving lives, to acts of kindness, and going above and beyond with their customer service, our colleagues are what makes Westgrove the company we are today.

We are extremely proud to announce this year’s winners:

A huge congratulations to all of this year’s winners, finalists and nominees. You are all amazing!!

We are pleased to share an overview of our company business plan showcasing the highlights from 2021 and our objectives for 2022.

CLICK HERE to see our vision for the year ahead.

Warrington based, fast growing facilities management company, The Westgrove Group has launched a new unique internal recruitment platform, streamlining their recruitment process by 30%.  Saving time, energy and money, Internal Recruiter has empowered the Westgrove Recruitment Team by providing a secure cloud-based platform that organises and collaborates recruitment across all locations. 

This bespoke recruitment platform helps speed up the recruitment process and helps Westgrove to reach all of the popular job boards quickly and easily.  They are able to recruit their own talent by posting vacancies to all job boards at the touch of a button.  Applicants CVs, reports on activity, candidate information and prospect data are all in one place.  With the support of the software, Westgrove are able to attract, manage, assess and onboard new colleagues quickly and easily.

HR Manager Hannah Denning said, “Our colleagues are at the heart of our business.  We recruit from different backgrounds, looking for customer service skills above all else.  Our bespoke recruitment platform helps speed up the process and helps us reach all the popular job boards quickly and easily.  Internal Recruiter has made a phenomenal impact – we’ve streamlined our process by 30%.  We have a real time view of vacancies locally and nationally and we’ve been able to organise and collaborate recruitment across all our locations”.

Will Fairhurst from Internal Recruiter said: “We are proud that Internal Recruiter has been able to help Westgrove streamline their recruitment processes across multiple sites. We’re looking forward to developing a long-lasting relationship with The Westgrove Group.”

The Westgrove Group was founded by Group Chairmen Simon Whittle and Steve Fives.  Based in Warrington, Cheshire, Westgrove employs over 1000 colleagues and specialises in providing security, cleaning, maintenance and customer service to shopping centres and mixed-use destinations, corporate offices, business parks, manufacturing and airports throughout the UK.  Following a successful 22-year history, the company expanded in 2020 to add technical services to enhance its well-established award-winning soft services provision. 

Our people are what make us special. From saving lives and preventing crime to helping people in need and much more. Our Reward and Recognition scheme is our way of saying thank you to our Colleagues for the amazing work that they do each and every day, often going above and beyond in their role.

Well done to all our winners and everyone who has been nominated for an award this quarter – you are all amazing!

Our Quarter 4 winners are:

Site Manager of the Quarter
• Mark Driscoll, Templars Square

Team of the Quarter
• St Johns Security Team
• Novelis
• Lion Yard Cleaning Team

Colleague of the Quarter
• Kevin Stagg, Piazza Centre
• Simone Guadagno, Lion Yard

Newcomer of the Quarter
• Kirsty Kirkland, St Johns
• Joseph Leicester, Stamford Quarter

Health & Safety Champion
• Matthew Barrett, Stamford Quarter

Outstanding Act
• Jake Quieros, Castle Quays
• Matthew Peake, Gloucester Quays
• David Field, Ryemarket Shopping Centre
• Steve Retallick and Darren Williams, Quedam Shopping Centre
• Andy Davis & Phill Over, Grosvenor Shopping Centre, Chester
• Chris Collins, Andy Ryder, Dave Hardy, Mathew Peake, Darryl Knight (Security Team), Gloucester Quays
• Security Team, Castle Quays

Service Excellence
• Ian King, Lion Yard
• Stewart Todd, Birchwood Park
• Jaspreet Singh, Queens Square
• Paul Osborne, Lion Yard
• Katie Fox & Carly Hart, Head Office
• Sharon Griffin, Telford
• Jennifer Evitts, Cornbow Shopping Centre
• Nicola Greatrex, Touchwood

Our Head Office team have been busy collecting and donating items as part of their Hunger and Homeless charity initiative to support their local community. 

The team have donated clothing, toiletries and food items to two local charities; Room at the Inn and Y Project based in Warrington who provide daytime services and emergency accommodation to homeless and vulnerable people and to Care UK who support families and individuals, who through no fault of their own find themselves in difficulty with no household or essential items. 

We’re incredibly proud of the team for their generosity and for supporting their local community. 

We are extremely proud that two of our colleagues, Majid Khan from Templars Square Shopping Centre in Oxford and Denise Phillips from Market Place Shopping Centre in Bolton who are finalists in The Outstanding Security Performance Awards (OSPAs) 2022 in the Outstanding Security Officer category 

The OSPA’s recognise companies, individuals, teams, products and initiatives that have made a significant impact and have demonstrated outstanding performance at the highest level within the security sector. 

These nominations follow on from this years’ success in the British Security Industry Association (BSIA) Awards, Women in Security Awards and the recent Sceptre Awards and we wish Denise and Majid the best of luck in the finals!  You can view the full list of finalists here.