Month: November 2019

Westgrove nominated for diversity awareness award

The Westgrove Group, one of the UK’s leading independent facilities management companies, has been nominated for a prestigious diversity awareness award.

The Warrington based company is a finalist in the Kimberly-Clark Professional Golden Service Awards 2020.

Held biennially, the awards were created 30 years ago to reward the excellence of facilities management and cleaning teams and are a hallmark of quality.

The winners will be announced at The Golden Service Awards ceremony which will take place on March 4th at the London Hilton on Park Lane.

Claire McKinley Smith, Managing Director of The Westgrove Group, said: “We are delighted to have been shortlisted as a finalist in these prestigious awards for Diversity Awareness, recognising our commitment and investment in raising mental health awareness in the workplace.

“We have seen so many benefits this year in raising awareness of mental health with our colleagues across the UK. This will continue into 2020 with more investment in training and support in mental health and other areas of diversity awareness.”

Earlier this year, Westgrove embarked on a journey to improve mental health awareness across the business.

A number of initiatives were rolled out across the year which aimed to create a work place environment where all colleagues felt comfortable in discussing their own and other people’s mental health.

The whole company, including over 1,000 colleagues across the UK, got involved and it delivered measurable results including the appointment of mental health first aiders, awareness weeks and a new well-being portal with the charity retailTRUST offering 24/7 free and confidential help to colleagues.

Working with bodies such as the Samaritans, MHFA and Revo, the representative body for retail and shopping centres, Westgrove is also looking at good practice and specialist training around mental health and suicide awareness for all their colleagues working in shopping centres.

The Westgrove Group is on course to become a £40million turnover business in the next five years.

The company provides its security, cleaning and PRM (Persons with Reduced Mobility) services to shopping centres, corporates, business parks, retail environments and airports across the UK.

The Westgrove Group, which recently celebrated its 21st anniversary, was founded by Group Chairmen Simon Whittle and Steve Fives. The Senior Management Team have proven direct Shopping Centre pedigree including operational experience at some of the country’s largest regional Shopping Centres such as the Trafford Centre and Meadowhall.

They have held senior positions for owners such as Westfield and managing agents including CBRE and Lambert Smith Hampton demonstrating strong commercial and operational experience.