Employee survey drives continuous improvement

In this weeks Leading the Way blog, we look at some of the actions being taken at Bristow & Sutor after further analysis into recent staff survey findings, as well as consideration of further feedback opportunities that can be expected in future.  

Earlier this year we shared that 74% of the Bristow & Sutor workforce had taken the time to complete our first anonymous survey utilising We Thrive platform. WeThrive helps us take these survey findings and turn them into positive actions and suggestions for improvement. We are very excited to share some of the insight this has now provided and discuss the influence this has had on our development as a business.  

Over the past two months, Managers, Team Leaders and Supervisors across the Bristow & Sutor Group have been working with their individual teams and alongside HR to assess results and develop action plans that will address any lower scoring areas, whilst continuing to promote things that are already working well. This is an ongoing process and all of our teams will continue to develop and roll out specific action plans over time.  

We previously reported how initial feedback was showing encouraging responses related to team spirit, support, ethics, values and company direction. We have now been able to follow these findings up with action plans that have been aligned into three specific channels for future improvements. These are local actions, group actions and health & wellbeing developments.  

Actionable change 

Local actions primarily address team co-operation, knowledge, skills and resources. We have undertaken team restructures to increase resources where needed, provide more support and facilitate development with more team and individual objectives creating increased clarity of purpose. More one-to-one meetings with team members have been encouraged and recognition initiatives are being introduced alongside team activities focused on bonding and co-operation as well as buddy schemes, quizzes and catch-ups organised by a newly formed social team. ‘Meet the Managers’ and onboarding packs are also being developed across the Group to better support new starters.  

Group actions consider more communication, organisational pride and common bonds. The Single Tenancy project means DRP, Credit Style and B&S are now all on the same platform and can collaborate on tools such as Yammer and Sharepoint. Managers Monthly Insight comms have been devised and more are planned to shout about our ‘One Group’ approach. A Post Pandemic Working Group has been established to determine future ways of working and we are increasing the amount of positive internal and external messages shared about the success and achievements of our people.  

Finally, health & wellbeing initiatives have been given renewed focus including setting boundaries and time management best practices to free up headspace. Peer to peer support, coaching and health & safety updates have been introduced and Line Managers now have access to related wellbeing resources in WeThrive. A strategy is being developed to address mental, physical and financial wellbeing requirements and regular welfare check-ins have been introduced for Enforcement Agents. The Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) team has expanded and full training is now provided to new MHFAs, along with Changes to the H&S Committee to ensure a diverse group and promotion of a voice for all employees around any matters for concern.  

Future planning 

The results of these internal surveys are owned by every member of the business and it is widely appreciated and accepted that everyone within Bristow & Sutor has a duty to act on findings if we are to succeed and help the company be the best place to work that it possibly can be.  

We hope the actions already taken and the strategies that are planned signify that these responses have been taken seriously and that our employees continue to have a voice. We have ensured that the surveys we have conducted were anonymous to encourage honest and open feedback and similar surveys will continue to be carried out regularly - with another already planned in this style for later this year. This will allow continuous monitoring of progress and help us to act quickly to address any areas of concern.  It’s really important to us that Our employees continue to play an integral role in shaping the development of our business for the future. 

Bristow & Sutor has shown genuine willingness to listen and act on the feedback provided by its people and the response has been fantastic. It is expected this will be reflected in participation numbers as we aim to maintain the same high levels of engagement already seen, ultimately leading to even more refined action plans and strategies for happiness and success in future.