Our people and culture define Turner & Townsend.
So much so, that within the North East division we have created a People and Purpose Group.
This is led by Tania Haxton from our Stockton office and myself as part of our commitment to supporting, developing and upskilling our workforce. This is a hugely important area and it is crucial we look after our team on this journey.
As such, we have a number of focus groups within the People and Purpose Group, including employee engagement, learning and development, health and wellbeing, CSR, and diversity and inclusion.
The last 18 months has shown us, beyond doubt, that change is constant and has brought physical and mental wellbeing to the forefront of our thinking.
In terms of wellbeing, Clare Wood, director, UK infrastructure, is our appointed mental health first aider. Clare has successfully signed up four members of her team to become mental health first aiders and they are our go-to colleagues to offer advice on professional support that is available and provided by the company.
They act as a conduit with line managers whilst also working with our HR team. Next steps are evaluated in terms of work commitments and outputs whilst ensuring the correct support is provided.
We have also introduced an employee assistance programme offering external advice and access to a doctor virtually or over the telephone, to reduce the stress that has been placed on the NHS during the pandemic.
Regular wellbeing Wednesday coffee mornings provide colleagues with a chance to chat and bond and we have a newsletter which is packed with information to promote wellbeing and focuses on areas of awareness.
The ‘Are you ok?’ podcast covers a range of mental health topics and we will soon be launching a number of ‘Let’s Talk’ drop-in sessions which colleagues are encouraged to attend.
We are proud to support the community in which we operate in and project manager, Demi Hindhaugh, has been busy leading on a range of fundraising events which also coincide with our 75th anniversary year. As part of this, we have a sponsored 26 mile and 75-mile charity walk in August, with all money raised going to our chosen charity of the year, Action for Children, which helps vulnerable children, young people and their families. The 75-mile walk starts on 14 August from Carlisle to Newcastle and the team is aiming to raise £7,500.
We also encourage the team to give back and support the local community. This forms part of our corporate responsibility and each employee is given one day per annum to do this. As such, various members of the team have also taken part in beech cleans, Action for Children mentoring and a range of school and university engagement programmes, such as virtual work placements.
We have also worked closely with the National Literacy Trust to provide action packs for primary school children to give them an early insight into construction.
Led by our project director, Paul Humble, we have raised £1.5k for the Galafield Community Hub for families with children aged up to 19 living in the North and outer West areas of Newcastle.
Communication also lies at the heart of our business along with our open and transparent culture and we regularly take part in internal presentations providing updates from across the region so that we are kept abreast of all activity.
Our diversity and inclusion group has also been busy producing a monthly newsletter and we recently hosted a virtual roundtable on the topic of diversity and inclusion within the workplace.
We welcome the feedback of our teams and participate in a range of surveys, our most recent, Peakon Survey, looked at our wellbeing and how we felt at work. If anyone requires assistance in certain areas solutions are provided.
In terms of people development, we have a yearly performance review where we are encouraged to identify areas of training that we would like to pursue and we continue to make progress with our graduate and apprenticeship training as we focus on attracting and retaining North East talent and building our workforce of the future.
The development of our next generation of workers is clear to see and we were delighted to find a number of our team shortlisted within the 2021 Generation for Change (G4C) Awards.
Charlotte Ramsey, project manager trainee and Rebecca Watt, cost manager trainee, are both shortlisted for Apprentice of the Year – Technical Trade, cost manager, Jordan O’Neil and senior cost manager, Theodora Xeni are both shortlisted for New Professional of the Year, cost manager, Andrew Hunt and assistant project manager are up for Trainee of the Year, our associate director, Liam McCracken is nominated for Mentor of the Year and our project manager, Demi Hindhaugh is in the running for G4C Future Leader.
Last, but not least, we have, as a company, been shortlisted for our commitment to employee training and development and that is testament to the talent and determination and culture that we have developed here at Turner & Townsend.
