But this didn’t stop its senior team, led by CEO Chris Hill and head of HR Natasha Waterfield, continue to innovate and develop its people offer including its reward and recognition and training packages for its 1,000 employees across 16 sites.
Among key initiatives which stood out for the judges and helped NWTC retain the award, is its new industry-leading staff engagement Tribes Project, which aims to help attract and retain the best people in the industry by helping maintain the company’s valued culture and reward non-management staff on a regular basis.
Tribes focuses on non-sales related challenges, which are delivered through an app, and recognises the good stuff that team members do in and out of work, with members of each of six Tribes earning points to attend fun local and national group events during work time such as ‘It’s a Knock Out’, gaming days, North v South football tournaments and paintball wars.
The overall winning Tribe members receive two extra days’ holiday and individuals win instant daily rewards for winning challenges such as vouchers, with the highest national point earners in each Tribe also winning a holiday abroad each year.
New staff benefits include paid time off for birthdays and volunteering, training bursaries and a staff discount on supplier wine. All staff are paid at least the national minimum wage and NWTC has also introduced Super Surprises to recognise individual staff milestones, such as a key number of cocktails made, site sales achieved, etc.
Staff have engaged in the past year with a charity initiative for Barnardo’s, with £42,000 raised and 1,000 hours of time given to run activities for young carers, with this involvement with the charity ongoing through a new allotment project and mentoring scheme.
NWTC also works with an organisation in Manchester to help people with autism, Asperger’s and cerebal palsy gain employment.