Highlights from our 2024 Staff Conference
On Friday 18th October we held our annual staff conference at Millenium Point in the centre of Birmingham. This event is a chance to come together as a team, reflect on our achievements, and prepare for the journey ahead. With a growing team spread across the country, it’s more important than ever to get everyone together in one place.
A year in review
We kicked off with a quick quiz from Property Director Polly Dyer about our recent growth. Compared to this time last year, we’re 14% bigger in terms of sites managed and 15% bigger in terms of people. The distance between our two furthest properties is 421 miles.
Directors Joe Jobson and Brett Williams presented our year in review. From welcoming new team members to bringing on landmark instructions and office moves, it’s been a fantastic year for the whole team.
Unveiling our new strategy
Operations Director Stephanie Jobson presented our new strategy which has been developed to provide focus and alignment across the organisation over the next 3 years. Principle was established with an ethos of doing things properly and our strategy reflects our ongoing commitment to getting things right for our people, our clients and our customers. It builds on our vision and will support our work to positively impact the everyday lives of our communities.
Discovering hidden talents
We split into smaller groups for our team building exercise; discovering previously unknown facts about each other. From hidden talents to quirky hobbies, we all learned a little more about each other. We have a chess grandmaster, an expert gamer and DJ in the team. Plus lots of connections to sporting stars and celebrities and a lot of languages spoken!
Choosing our corporate charity
We played a company-wide game of heads or tails to pick the charity we’re supporting next year. We’ll share this, plus our fundraising total for 2024, later in the year.
Focus on Wellbeing
Anji McGrandles from The Mind Tribe ran a wellbeing session on goal-setting, focus and habits. Everyone in the room set professional and personal goals for the year ahead and broke these down into manageable tasks.
Staff Awards
Everyone in the business had the opportunity to nominate team members who have stood out this year. Our categories recognised rising stars, newcomers and contenders for employees of the year, as well as those who embody three of our core values:
Rising Star
Recognises a promising individual who has shown significant growth, potential, and impact.
Winner: Jessica Deller, for the positive way she has progressed from PA to Junior property manager and her dedication to her clients and customers.
Best Newcomer
Honours the most impressive new team member who has quickly adapted and made a strong, positive impact in a short time.
Winner: Tanya Malik, for the impact she has made on our customer satisfaction and fun positive attitude to the role.
We are United
Celebrates an individual who consistently puts the team’s goals above their own and fosters a collaborative and supportive environment.
Winner: Daniel Lannon, for literally being the man, juggling two roles and being our go to tech support in all things.
Never Settle
Recognises a person who continually strives for excellence and has made a significant contribution to improving working practices.
Winner: Esme Williams for her dedication to improving every single function within the business.
Choose Positivity
Recognises an individual who consistently brings a positive attitude, providing others with a lift to create a supportive and motivating environment.
Winner: Matt Harris for managing a very tricky portfolio with a smile, and as one nomination stated – if everyone doesn’t vote for Matt then they don’t deserve him!! Matt also brings in baked goodies for the team every week.
Employee of the Year
This is awarded to the individual who has been nominated and recognised by their peers for their performance, contribution, and achievements throughout the year.
This category saw so many positive nominations that we had to select two winners: Jenny Fennell for her endless energy to support her team and Ellie Ricketts for tirelessly searching for answers.
The staff conference is one of our favourite days of the year which gets better every time! We’re so proud of what we’ve accomplished together this year.
