Celebrating Success
Many of you may have already read in some of my previous blogs about how proud I am to lead a Society that bets on people, not strategies. As I’ve said before, business is lives, business is real people!
We are under no illusions about the importance of our people to the success of our business.
Our colleague’s fantastic attitudes and approaches to providing the best service is integral to keeping our customers coming back. And in the end, it is our colleagues who live and breathe our values and make our Society what it is.
This is why the Annual Rewards and Recognition Awards evening is always a highlight of our Society’s calendar for me. It gives us a chance to get together and celebrate the efforts of our colleagues and teams over the past year, and to share some remarkable stories of their achievements - and this year was no exception!
Whether they created results in the business area, shown willingness to go well beyond that extra mile, or made efforts to enrich our communities, it was fantastic to reward so many colleagues for their commitment to our Society.
I was pleased that Locale Grouville had yet another incredible year, picking up awards for Store of the Year, the Best Mystery Shopper Results, and the Top Performer Balanced Scorecard.
As one of our more recent stores, having opened in February 2015, it’s impressive to see this team going from strength to strength and retaining Store of the Year for another year - this is the award every store wants to win!
I’d like to thank every member of the Locale Grouville team for their commitment to embracing our values and congratulate them on winning multiple awards!
Store of the Year, Locale Grouville colleagues (left to right) Marisel De Freitas, Helio Duarte, and Odette Jorge, Store Manager, pictured with Ben Shenton, President of the Board of Directors
While the Society has made some great contributions to our communities, it often the smaller acts of our people that define our values the best. This year, all three awards for making a difference to our communities were picked up by teams in Jersey.
It was heart-warming to hear about the charitable efforts of colleagues and how they have gone out their way for customers with special acts kindness and bravery.
Special mention also needs to go to the colleagues who won awards for their passion and personal development. Several individuals were recognised for their excellent customer service and commitment to the company.
The award winners included two well-deserving Ambassadors of the Year, James Birch from Travelmaker Jersey and Joaquim Santos from Grand Marché, St Helier. Well done for the brilliant work you are doing guys!
Ambassadors of the Year (left to right) Joaquim Santos and James Birch, pictured with Ben Shenton
While every single award winner deserves their own special mention, you’d probably be reading this blog all day. Here’s the full list of main award winners from the evening:
- Store of the Year: Locale Grouville
- Best Mystery Shopper Results: Locale Grouville
- Best Christmas Store: Locale Georgetown
- Living our Values, Co-operation (Individual Effort): Jane Robert
- Living our Values, Co-operation (Team Effort): Irene Carson and Shaunie Gallienne
- Living our Values, Passion (Individual Effort): Duncan Ashley
- Living our Values, Passion (Team Effort): Don Street Post Office
- Living our Values, Empowerment (Individual Effort): David Northrop
- Customer Service (Individual Effort): Pedro Canada
- Internal Customer Service (Individual Effort – Joint Winners): Leigh Thebault and Kimberley Loyer
- Internal Customer Service (Team Effort): Customer Relations and Reception
- Supporting the Community – Acts of Kindness (Individual Effort): Charles Smith
- Supporting the Community – Acts of Kindness (Team Effort): Louise and Tony Le Masurier
- Supporting the Community (Winning Team): Homemaker Jersey
- Ambassadors of the Year (Joint Individual Winners): James Birch and Joaquim Santos
Additionally, 28 colleagues celebrated ten years of loyal, continuous service working as part of the Society and 24 colleagues were recognised for achieving significant training qualifications.
Finally, I’d like to congratulate everyone on their well-earned awards, and everyone across the whole Society for what we achieved together last year. Here’s to an even better 2017!