The
Westgrove Group were delighted to welcome colleagues from all over the country
to celebrate the remarkable work they do each and every day, often going above
and beyond in their work. The Westgrove
Annual Reward and Recognition Awards ceremony, held at the Village Hotel in
Warrington is always an emotional and inspiring day.
We
heard from guest speakers Alex Staniforth, our Westgrove Brand Ambassador who
told us of his next awe inspiring challenge, British Security Industry
Associations (BSIA) Andrew Cooper who gave us insight into the security
industry and Retail Trusts Tom Bostock who shared information on the amazing
work Retail Trust do and the support they can offer to our business.
During 2019, the business
received an unprecedented number of Reward and Recognition nominations from
colleagues and partners and we are delighted to announce the winners from each
category:
Site Manager of the Year
Stewart Todd, Birchwood Park
Site of the Year – Market Place
Market Place
Team of the Year
Security Team, St Johns
Colleague of the Year
David Philips, Market Place
Service to the Customer
Tata Technologies
CSR of the Year
Gloucester Quays, Martin Davidson Royal Priors, Neil Peters & Aston Ford
Its #NationalApprenticeshipWeek
and what better way to celebrate than interviewing our very own Westgrove Apprentice;
Jordan.
National Apprenticeship Week aims
to celebrate apprenticeships and the positive impact they have on individuals,
businesses and the wider economy.
Apprenticeships are a growing option for people to earn while they learn
and a vital entry route to gaining the skills and behaviours required to
progress in the professional sector.
Jordan is studying Business
Administration Level 3, an 18 month course designed to give her the skills she
needs to progress her career. She joined
Westgrove 6 months ago as Operations Admin and is now an intrinsic part of the
Westgrove team.
Let’s meet Jordan…
Tell us a bit about
your apprenticeship:
I’m studying Business
Administration Level 3. It’s an 18 month
course designed to give me on-the-job experience to develop real world
skills. I work full time but also study
as part of my working week.
Why did you want to
do an apprenticeship?
Doing an apprenticeship has
allowed me to study and work at the same time which has helped me so much in
gaining the confidence and skills that I can use in the real world. I knew I wanted to continue learning after
school but I also wanted to get a job so this was a perfect decision for me.
What do you do at
Westgrove?
I joined Westgrove in July (6
months ago) as Operations Admin. My job
is varied and no day is the same. I get
to work with all the different departments at Head Office like HR and
Finance. I do all the admin jobs like
keeping systems up to date, answering the phones and the door and all the
general admin work.
What do you like
about your job?
I love the office environment,
everybody is so nice and friendly.
Tell us something we
might not know about you?
I’ve been Morris Dancing for 15 years and my favourite holiday destination is Mexico!
Our Reward and Recognition Awards are our way of thanking our Colleagues for the amazing work that they do everyday.
Here are our latest Outstanding Act winners. Congratulations to them all.
Natalee Watmough & Louise Whitehead – The Lowry Outlet
Natalee and Louise helped to comfort a young girl who had fallen and broken her arm. While waiting for the ambulance to arrive, they kept the injured girl as calm and comfortable as they could as well as reassuring her mother, who later emailed the management team to express her gratitude for everything the team had done. Well done to you both!
Security
Team – Birchwood Park
Congratulations to the Security Team for their outstanding professionalism, calmness and confidence in handling a difficult situation. Communication was key in this situation and the full team on site played their part.
Ansaar Hussain
– Security Officer – Spindles Town Square
Ansaar was praised for his swift and professional response after helping a woman in distress while he was on patrol.
Mark Driscoll – Dual Services Manager – Templars Square
Mark was also congratulated for his amazing work in a difficult situation.
We are delighted to announce a number of new contract awards which continues to strengthen our position as a leading facilities management partner.
As well as shopping centres, we have been awarded contracts in new sectors including manufacturing and the public sector, offering new service provisions and bringing in some brilliant new Colleagues to help support us. New shopping centre awards include Telford, Corby and Leeds. We are also delighted to have been awarded the cleaning contract for Greenwich Peninsular in London further strengthening our southern portfolio.
These include providing dual security and cleaning services as well as a growth in demand for other services as shopping centres increasingly move away from traditional retail schemes and towards mixed use food and beverage, residential or leisure use.
You can find out more about our work in the new issue of The Westgrove Magazine. Email enquiries@westgrove.co.uk for a copy.
The latest issue of our magazine is hot off the press and packed with lots of Westgrove news.
It has been another fantastic year for the company and the magazine celebrates our strong growth and welcomes new schemes and Colleagues to our portfolio across the UK.
We’ve got interviews with our Partners and Colleagues, news about our new technology, systems and services and the awards we have won.
We showcase our training and development work and our commitment to raising mental health awareness.
And we reveal the incredible work that our people do every day.
Click here to view Issue 10 of the Westgrove Magazine now!
You can view The Westgrove Magazine back catalogue here:
The Westgrove Group, one of the UK’s leading independent
facilities management companies, has been nominated for a prestigious diversity
awareness award.
The Warrington based company is a finalist in the
Kimberly-Clark Professional Golden Service Awards 2020.
Held biennially, the awards were created 30 years ago to
reward the excellence of facilities management and cleaning teams and are a
hallmark of quality.
The winners will be announced at The Golden Service Awards
ceremony which will take place on March 4th at the London Hilton on
Park Lane.
Claire McKinley Smith, Managing Director of The Westgrove
Group, said: “We are delighted to have been shortlisted as a finalist in these
prestigious awards for Diversity Awareness, recognising our commitment and investment in
raising mental health awareness in the workplace.
“We have seen so many benefits this year in raising awareness of mental
health with our colleagues across the UK. This will continue into 2020 with
more investment in training and support in mental health and other areas of
diversity awareness.”
Earlier this year, Westgrove embarked on a journey to
improve mental health awareness across the business.
A number of initiatives were rolled out across the year
which aimed to create a work place environment where all colleagues felt
comfortable in discussing their own and other people’s mental health.
The whole company, including over 1,000 colleagues across
the UK, got involved and it delivered measurable results including the
appointment of mental health first aiders, awareness weeks and a new well-being
portal with the charity retailTRUST offering 24/7 free and confidential help to
colleagues.
Working with bodies such as the Samaritans, MHFA and Revo,
the representative body for retail and shopping centres, Westgrove is also
looking at good practice and specialist training around mental health and
suicide awareness for all their colleagues working in shopping centres.
The Westgrove Group is on course to become a £40million
turnover business in the next five years.
The company provides its security, cleaning and PRM (Persons
with Reduced Mobility) services to shopping centres, corporates, business parks,
retail environments and airports across the UK.
The Westgrove Group, which recently celebrated its 21st
anniversary, was founded by Group Chairmen Simon Whittle and Steve Fives. The
Senior Management Team have proven direct Shopping Centre pedigree including
operational experience at some of the country’s largest regional Shopping
Centres such as the Trafford Centre and Meadowhall.
They have held senior positions for owners such as Westfield and managing agents including CBRE and Lambert Smith Hampton demonstrating strong commercial and operational experience.
Facilities management company the Westgrove Group has engaged with
retailTRUST to support the welfare of the company’s colleagues.
Through the partnership, Westgrove can now offer free and
confidential support to all its 1,000 plus colleagues 24/7 through an on-line
portal and helpline, My RTWellbeing.
retailTRUST is a charity which supports the wellbeing of people
employed in the service industry including retail, aviation, manufacturing,
corporate and many other sectors.
As well as self-help tools online, downloadable resources,
counselling and CBT, the Trust also offers critical incident support.
The Westgrove Group is investing heavily in the wellbeing of its
colleagues. The Warrington headquartered company recently declared its first
Mental Health Awareness Week a big success.
Over the course of a week the company sent out daily advice and
information to its colleagues to help build awareness of mental health.
Colleagues were also signposted to advice on podcasts and videos and given
tools to test their stress and levels of positive mental health.
As part of the Westgrove Aspire Training & Development
programme, colleagues were encouraged to take a ‘Mental Health Awareness’
online eLearning course giving them an understanding of the importance of their
own and other people’s mental health.
Over 70 Westgrove colleagues are now qualified as MHFA
England mental health first aiders with an additional 50 planned by the end of
2020.
Westgrove HR Manager Hannah Denning said: “Supporting
the wellbeing of our colleagues is vitally important to us as a company, which
is why we are working hard to increase awareness of mental health issues
both generally and within the workplace.
“Engaging with retailTRUST allows us to extend our colleague
welfare offer in line with the mental health awareness training we rolled out
earlier in the year.”
As well as retailTRUST, the company is also working with
bodies including the Samaritans, MHFA and Revo, the representative body for
retail and shopping centres.
Our first Mental Health Awareness Week has been a big success.
Over the course of the week, we sent out daily advice and information to our colleagues to help build awareness of mental health. Colleagues were also signposted to advice on podcasts and videos and given tools to test their stress and levels of positive mental health.
As part of the Westgrove Aspire Training & Development
programme, colleagues were encouraged to take a ‘Mental Health Awareness’
online eLearning course giving them an understanding of the importance of their
own and other people’s mental health.
Over 70 Westgrove colleagues are now qualified as MHFA
England mental health first aiders with an additional 50 planned by the end of
2020. MHFA offers mental health training, including Mental Health First Aid
(MHFA), a mental health skills and awareness programme.
Westgrove Managing Director Claire McKinley Smith said:
“We are working hard to increase general awareness of mental health
issues both generally and within the workplace.
“Working with bodies such as the Samaritans, MHFA and Revo,
the representative body for retail and shopping centres, we are also looking at
good practice and specialist training around mental health and suicide
awareness for all our colleagues working in shopping centres.
“We are delighted that over 50% of our colleagues trained
via eLearning during Mental Health Awareness Week and are encouraging others to
do so by the end of the year.
“We also received some great feedback from colleagues who
felt well informed and empowered after taking the course. We are looking
forward to holding more Mental Health Awareness Days in the coming months.”
Westgrove will be supporting World Suicide Prevention Day on
September 10th as well as running their own Awareness Week.
Adrian Canale, Business Development Director Westgrove Group
To head up our continued expansion into the South, we have recruited a new Business Development Director.
Adrian Canale, who has worked extensively in facilities management across a range of sectors, has been appointed to support our continued business development and also bring the company into new sectors including education and healthcare.
Our BSIA regional winners included Paul Ogden, Market Place (Service to the Customer), Vijay Odedra, Haymarket Shopping Centre (Best use of Technology), Gavin Jones, Matthew Lamb and John Wallbank, Ropewalk Shopping Centre (Outstanding Act), Steven Travis, Arcades Shopping Centre (Outstanding Act) and Matthew Bray, Concourse Shopping Centre (Best Newcomer).
Mental Health Awareness Week
Steve Allen of The Westgrove Group receives his BSIA award
Mental Health is something that Westgrove believes strongly in, which is why we were delighted with the success of our recent Awareness Week.
During the week, we sent out daily advice and information to our colleagues to help build awareness of mental health and offer advice.
Over 50% of colleagues trained via our online eLearning course during the week and we received some great feedback.
Look out for more Mental Health Awareness Days, fundraising activities and do ask about our eLearning course.
Did you know?
We are proud to have been accredited as a Living Wage Recognised Service Provider. This means we work with our Partners to recommend that they pay the Real Living Wage of £9 per hour (£10.55 in London), rather than the National Living Wage of £8.21.
New Colleague Engagement Survey
Hearing from our colleagues is extremely important to us. This year, we are asking what you think on a quarterly basis.
Look out for the link coming soon to our third Colleague Engagement Survey. This new survey focuses on Health & Safety.
The results of our first two surveys will be appearing in the new issue of the Westgrove Magazine, out soon.
Reward and Recognition Awards – Quarter 2 Winners
Here are all our R&R Award winners for Quarter 2. Congratulations to you all.
Site Manager of the Quarter Stewart Todd – Security Manager – Birchwood Park
CSR of the Quarter Joanne O’Neill – Business Manager
Team of the Quarter Birchwood Park Security Team
Colleague of the Quarter Martin Davison – Cleaning Operative – Gloucester Quays
Service Excellence of the Quarter Waqas Maroof – Service Manager – TATA Technologies Jack Beeney – Guest Service Ambassador – The Galleries Shopping Centre Carpark Team – Grosvenor Shopping Centre Istvan Szobollodi & Andrew Gregory – The Galleries Shopping Centre Gillian Hurst – Cleaning Operative – Liverpool Air Traffic Control Ajay Shah – MSO Supervisor – MSO Team Lion Yard Cleaning Team – Lion Yard Shopping Centre Stan Sinclair – Business Manager
Outstanding Act: May 2019 Lauren Gilhooley – Security Officer, St Johns Shopping Centre Simon O’Neill and Keith O’Neill – Cleaning Operatives, The Lowry Outlet Rajdeep Sidhu & Zdenek Lanik – Security Officers, Skydome Leisure World
Organised by the British Security Industry Association (BSIA), the
awards showcase the national finals of the security personnel categories and
highlight outstanding personnel within the industry who have gone above and
beyond the call of duty in their everyday work.
Mike Reddington, Chief Executive of the BSIA, said: “The British
Security Awards is a major celebration in the security industry calendar that
recognises the talent and commitment of our industry’s finest.
“We have an industry fit to burst with positive ambassadors from
within our sector: from young officers starting out to seasoned professionals –
every one of them recognised today for having gone above and beyond
expectation, demonstrating courage, innovation, customer service and
contribution to the industry.”
Westgrove Group Managing
Director Claire McKinley Smith said: “Steve is a superb manager and it’s
fantastic to see him recognised in this way.
“This is a huge achievement and shows the value in both putting
our amazing colleagues forward for prestigious industry awards and showing how
our people go the extra mile for the company and our Partners.”
Westgrove also had a number of regional winners in this year’s
BSIA awards including Market Place, Ropewalk and Concourse Shopping Centres.
Steve Allen of The Westgrove Group receives his British Security Award
