Sabre Jetting achieves Investors in People Silver
Jul 12 2018Sabre Jetting Services Ltd are delighted to have been awarded Investors in People Silver following an intensive assessment day. Assessor John Jones visited our premises on 27th March to speak with the company directors and interview employees from every department of the organisation. As a result of the information he gathered that day, John was able to recommend that the company be awarded the Silver Standard for Investors in People. This result shows a clear progression by the company following our Bronze award achieved in 2014.
The assessment day was just the final part of an exhaustive process to determine the companies standing across three key principles, Leading, Supporting and Improving, each with three sub categories called indicators. The first step of the process was for employees to carry out an anonymous online assessment. The purpose of the assessment was to give an initial rating for the company against the nine indicators based on employee opinions. The results from the assessment meant that the business scored well above the industry average across all of the nine indicators with an average score of six out of seven achieved.
The next step of the process was to produce evidence against the nine indicators to demonstrate what measures are in place in order for the company to lead, support and improve. This included items such as the company strategy and objectives, information on the driver behaviour programme, management and Team Leader meeting minutes, monthly newsletters and details of our Hero of the Month award. All the evidence prepared was provided to our assessor in a pre-assessment pack so that he could use the information within his interviews. This enabled him to ensure our business processes were embedded within the organisation.
SABRE JETTING PRINCIPLE 1: LEADING
The three indicators for this principle are, Leading and Inspiring People, Living the Organisations Values and Behaviours, and, Empowering and Involving People. In order to demonstrate that we had established business processes in place for each indicator, we were able to provide evidence of regular meetings, daily communications including a company WhatsApp group, monthly toolbox talks and bi-annual business briefings. Our assessor felt there was ‘a clear sense that people, irrespective of their roles, feel that they are part of a two way communication process and have a voice in the life of the organisation.’ It was also noted that there is a ‘common consensus that their equipment, PPE and operational procedures is far superior to rival operators.’
John also took the opportunity to attend one of our quarterly Team Leader meetings and he came away noting that ‘a sense of empowerment was palpable in the questions raised and the solutions offered.’
SABRE JETTING PRINCIPLE 2: SUPPORTING
The three indicators in this principle are, Managing Performance, Recognising and Rewarding People, and, Structuring Work. These are obviously three key indicators to ensuring a motivated workforce. Procedures are put in place to aid our site based teams in their roles and this was clearly noted by one employee, working on a major site with two of our competitors, who commented during his interview ‘our procedures for vehicle and equipment storage and maintenance had a massive pay-off for the company during the recent big freeze, it meant we were able to keep working when others were frozen off.’
We were delighted with Johns comment that our staff felt ‘a sense of being valued and a loyalty to colleagues, managers and the company as a whole.’ John also highlighted how ‘the decision to invest in new premises, with an open plan layout for the main offices, exceptional consideration to operative and technicians welfare facilities, development of dedicated training facilities and a safe ‘test-bed’ lab-room, was based on a strategic decision to encourage collaborative working.’
SABRE JETTING PRINCIPLE 3: IMPROVING
The three indicators for this principle are, Building Capability, Delivering Continuous Improvement, and, Creating Sustainable Success. As a business we are constantly looking to improve, which is why we hold quarterly Team Leader meetings, in order to get feedback from the guys on the front line. It is also why we put a lot of effort into the training of the operators, and developing people from the moment they enter the company. Our assessor noted that ‘Apprenticeships are utilised and the organisation has a track record of developing apprentices into key workers and future managers.’
One thing we certainly pride ourselves on is the quality of our equipment, so it was great that John commented that ‘The organisation and the MD in particular has a track record of design and improvement in many technical aspects of water jetting equipment and protective wear.’ This includes development of a water jetting mask tested to EN166-B, modifications to guns to make them more user friendly and the commissioning of the Siltbuster HD Unit which has revolutionised hydrodemolition water treatment.
The company is extremely happy to have progressed to the Investor in People Silver award and would like to thank our assessor John Jones for his time and thoughts. A big thank you also to our staff for their input which played a huge part in the achievement of the award. Over the next three years we will be working towards achieving the gold standard.
