Author: Lucy Wood

Our people are what make us special.  From saving lives and preventing crime to helping people in need and much more.  Our Reward and Recognition scheme is our way of saying thank you to our Colleagues for the amazing work that they do each and every day, often going above and beyond in their role.

During Quarter 1, there has been a lot to contend with including the start of the Covid-19 pandemic which saw Colleague stepping up and displaying professionalism and compassion.  Well done to all our winners and everyone who has been nominated for an award this quarter – you are all amazing!

The winners are:

Colleague of the Quarter – Silvia Simonetto, Tata Technologies

For her excellent customer service.

Newcomer of the Quarter – Jackie Bull, Telford

For her enthusiasm and hard work and for implementing improvements in the cleaning and maintenance at site.

Site Manager of the Quarter – Karen Hall, Hardshaw

For always giving 100%.  Karen is approachable, helpful and always completes her documentation fully and on time.

Team of the Quarter – Security Team, High Chelmer
For their professionalism and teamwork.

Outstanding Acts – January      

Gennaro Esposito, High Chelmer
Who assisted a young male in distress with empathy and patience.

Whole Team, Market Place
For dealing with a traumatic incident at site, the team worked together to assist all involved and gave the best possible outcome.

Majid Khan, Templars Square
For proactively assisting a member of the public and ensuring he got the help he needed.       

Outstanding Acts – February      

Sean Stanton, Cornbow 
For saving a life!

Kelsey Evans, Telford
Her vigilance aided with the arrest of a wanted male.

Martin Wain & Majid Khan, Templars Square 
For staying late on shift to assist Police to find CCTV footage which lead to an arrest.

Alan Sharp & Aaron Large, Lowry Outlet
For helping to evacuate a building which was on fire.  They opened the Lowry Outlet to allow residents somewhere to shelter from the cold and rain.

Sarah Headley, Haymarket 
Commended by Paramedics for assisting a lady with a serious injury.

Outstanding Acts – March       

Michael Foulkes & James Warrender, Bay View
For helping reunite an elderly male with dementia with his son using CCTV, after their shift had finished.

Castle Quay Team
For assisting with a theft and helping recover £500 worth of clothes.

Security & Car Park Teams, Grosvenor 
For their professionalism in dealing with an attempted suicide.

Nick Rose, Hardshaw 
For assisting with a baby having a convulsion and keeping the Mum calm until help arrived.

Asif Nazir & Marek Skrzypczyk, Lion Yard
Their teamwork ensured a positive outcome when assisting with an unconscious male. 

Asa Abraham, Queens Square 
For dealing with a suspicious package at site.

Richard Grass, Telford
For assisting Police with CCTV when elderly and vulnerable were being targeted at cash points. 

     
Service Excellence

Rohan Kumar, Queens Square
A great team player, always helping others.

Perminder Singh Dubb, Queens Square
Always willing to cover extra shifts when required.  Perminder also helped an elderly lady get pasta and toilet roll during Coronavirus pandemic.

Orion Phillips, Castle Quay
When the site Washing Machine stopped working, Orion took washing home to ensure it was clean, during the Coronavirus pandemic.

Luke Aries, Gloucester Quays
Always professional, polite and has a positive attitude.

Artur Domagala, Lion Yard
In his own time, Artur assisted with high level work to put Chinese New Year decorations up at site

Jonathan Chandler, Castle Quay
For assisting a lady with a broken-down vehicle, using his own jump leads and car to get hers started.

Mohammad Nasir, Eden Square
For helping a distressed elderly lady get an overdue taxi.  He waited with the lady to ensure her safe onward journey. 

Ian King, Lion Yard
For using his initiative to produce Westgrove documentation which are now used throughout the business.

Clare Danks, Westgrove
For her professional and enthusiastic attitude.  Clare shows support for colleagues and shows expertise in her work.

Please remember to nominate your colleagues through our Reward and Recognition programme. You can find out more and nominate here. 

Over the last few months, we have been working on a project to make The Westgrove Group a ‘Disability Confident Employer’ as recognised by the Department of Work and Pensions.

We are pleased to confirm that we have achieved the first stage accreditation which means we are a ‘Disability Confident Employer’.  This is a government supported scheme that supports organisations like ours to make the most of the talents that people with disability can bring to our workplace.  The scheme helps us recruit and retain great people; draw from the widest possible pool of talent; secure high-quality employees who are skilled, loyal and hardworking; and improve employee morale and commitment by demonstrating that we treat all of our people fairly. 

Being named a Disability Confident Committed employer is the first of the three levels to support us on our Disability Confident journey.  You can read more about the Disability Confident scheme here.

Managing Director, Claire Mckinley-Smith, comments, ‘Westgrove are already an inclusive employer and work hard to ensure we are accessible to all when recruiting and employing, but we are very proud to have been accredited in this way.’

We are delighted to have been officially accredited as a Disability Confident employer.

Hello and Welcome to this special edition of The Westgrove Newsletter

Dear Colleague,

Thanks to each and every one of you for your continued commitment this week and for the extended hours many of you are working to help out at sites where colleagues are needing to self-isolate to help overcome the current crisis. We are proud of you all.  

There are some huge changes at many of our sites as leisure activities such as gyms, restaurants and most shops have been forced to close their doors. We are maintaining resource as much as we can at sites working on reduced hours and pulling together to keep sites functioning. Many sites have essential retail services such as food and pharmacies and it is critical that we manage these sites effectively and communicate the right messages to visitors.

On Friday 20 March the Chancellor added to an already unprecedented package of financial support for businesses, to assist with the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic.

Please be aware that the information and guidance is changing on a regular basis.  As we receive further details and direction, we will continue to provide updates.

Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme

Some of you may be affected as sites are looking to reduce hours or temporarily furlough colleagues whilst the current lockdown is in place. If you are affected please see the below guidance;

What does it mean?

The Government has stated that they will reimburse employers 80% of an employee’s salary whilst colleagues are ‘furloughed’ (this generally means a temporary leave of absence from work) during the Coronavirus crisis. 

• Colleagues that are to be furloughed will need to be designated as such and notified. Colleagues will need to provide their consent to their Line Manager by signing the letter provided by Westgrove HR team.
• Colleagues must not undertake any work for Westgrove (or any other employer) while furloughed to qualify for the scheme. The grants do not cover the wages of colleagues working reduced hours due to the virus.
• Potential furloughed colleagues are those that would otherwise be made redundant.
• The rebate is capped at £2,500 salary per month and the relevant employee will have needed to have been entitled to the salary on the 28th February 2020.
• The £2,500 may include employer’s NI and pension contributions, but this is not yet clear. Therefore £2,500 may not end up being the precise maximum gross pay which the employee receives, if for example, pension contributions are then taken into account. You may receive 80% of your current earnings.
• The measure will be in place for at least three months. 
• The scheme will be accessible to Westgrove through an online portal (HMRC are still working on this but it should be available soon). Once we are able to access the portal, we will need to provide details (this is likely to be name, NI number, salary etc) of the affected furloughed colleagues and submit this information to HMRC.
• All payments will be backdated to the 1st March 2020 (or the date the furlough leave commences) although the Government have suggested that it will be late April before the system is fully operational with cash reimbursements being processed.
• Colleagues must be employed before 28 Feb 2020.  

Key Worker Authority

The BSIA (British Security Industry Association) are now classing Security Personnel as Key Workers. Roles essential to supporting law and order, with the potential to reduce demand on policing, also meet the critical worker definition. This would include, amongst other areas, the guarding of empty or closed commercial, retail or office premises; the monitoring of similar through CCTV or other remote means; and the provision of alarm response centres including mobile units. (Information provided by SIA 26th March 2020).  

Westgrove are also classing cleaning colleagues as Key Workers under Public Safety. Your Site Manager has been issued with a letter of authority by HR, should you be asked by the Police why you are travelling to and from work.

Our HR team are on hand for any help or advice you may need during this time.  They can be contacted by email HR@westgrove.co.uk or by calling 01925 414190.

Please look after yourselves and your family and stay safe.

Free and Confidential Well-being Support

Reward & Recognition Awards

Unsung Heroes!

Welcome to the March edition of the Westgrove Newsletter. The newsletter will be coming to you monthly and will keep you up to date with what’s happening around the business.  

Colleague Coronavirus Update

We would like to reassure colleagues that as a business we are taking Coronavirus (Covid-19) very seriously.  We have set up a dedicated webpage where we will keep you informed of any updates, here.  

For those colleagues who are concerned, further guidance is available through our colleague welfare portal or you can speak directly to your site manager.

Click here to access the Colleague Welfare Portal.

Annual Awards Ceremony 2020

We were delighted to welcome colleagues from all over the country to celebrate the remarkable work they do each and every day, often going above and beyond in their work to this year’s Annual Reward and Recognition Awards Ceremony.

We heard from guest speakers Alex Staniforth, our Westgrove Brand Ambassador who told us of his next awe inspiring challenge, British Security Industry Associations (BSIA) Andrew Cooper who gave us insight into the security industry and Retail Trusts Tom Bostock who shared information on the amazing work Retail Trust do and the support they can offer to our business.

During 2019, the business received an unprecedented number of Reward and Recognition nominations from colleagues and partners and we are delighted to announce the winners from each category: 

Site Manager of the Year – Stewart Todd, Birchwood Park

Site of the Year – Market Place

Team of the Year – Security Team, St Johns

Colleague of the Year –David Philips, Market Place

Service to the Customer – Tata Technologies

CSR of the Year – Royal Priors, Neil Peters & Aston Ford

CSR of the Year – Gloucester Quays, Martin Davidson

Community Champion – Spindles Town Square

Service Excellence of the Year

• Renay Snelson, Runcorn
• Ajaz Shah, MSO
• Waqas Maroof, Tata
• Cleaning Team at Lion Yard
• Barry Burnham, Templars Square

Outstanding Act of the Year

• Ahmed Abdul Karim, St Johns Shopping Centre
• Martyn Hoare, Paul Pritchard, Derek Washington, Alex Wilkins and Colin Marshall, Concourse
• Christopher Edwards, Maylords
• Rohan Kumar, Queens Square
• Security Team, Templars Square
• Matthew Barrett & James Thompson, Stamford Quarter
• Mark Smithson, Doncaster & Sheffield Airport

Newcomer of the Year – Macauley Stones, The Lowry

Mystery Shop Winners

• Runcorn
• Bay View
• Templars Square
• The Core

Chairman’s Special Award – Hannah Denning, Head Office HR Team

Congratulations to all our nominees and winners from 2019.

You can see more pictures from the day here.

Ace Award Nominations

We are delighted to be part of the up and coming ACE Awards from Revo the shopping centre industry body. The ACE Awards recognise great customer service excellence. The following centres are finalists;

• Handforth Dean (Retail & Leisure Place)
• Market Place (Regional)
• St Johns Centre (Community)

We are also proud to have a nomination for an Ace Star – Alan McCabe at St Johns – for excellent customer service skills.

Welcome to Our New Colleagues

Let’s welcome Karl Clawley, Director of Shopping Centres and Lucy Wood, Marketing & Community Engagement Manager to the Head Office team. 

Karl Clawley, Director of Shopping Centres

Karl joins us with a strong background in Shopping Centres, winning Centre Manager of the Year with Savills in 2017.  He will liaise with our Partners at a strategic level and will help to support the rapid growth of the business throughout the UK.

We asked Karl a few questions to get to know him a little better and here’s what he said:

What is your background?

Originally from Manchester I now live on the waterfront in Liverpool. I started my career as a Stockroom Operative at Topman, when Top Man was a boy!, and progressed onto a management Training Programme that saw me manage various retail stores around the UK. I went from retail into Shopping Centre Management about 15 years ago and had a proven track record of delivering some innovative new ways to the industry….but the people that worked with me were always key to delivering a customer experience.

What will your new role bring to Westgrove?

I am hoping being the Director of Shopping Centres will allow me to bring some innovative ways of working and delivering a great customer experience through our Colleagues and Site Leads. 

What attracted you to join Westgrove?

Westgrove was my provider of security and cleaning at Runcorn. I liked the way the business was always striving to make its people better and treating them as colleagues not employees. The reward & recognition programme Westgrove operated really made them stand head and shoulders above competitors. 

Who would your ideal dinner party guest be?

Imagine being able to sit and talk to someone like Walt Disney who was ahead of his time in creating a unique customer experience that is now a billion dollar industry. Which all started with a mouse!

Where did you last holiday?

Cape Verde, a complete sunshine, no Wi-Fi, beach holiday

A fact about you! 

Have been to the Buckingham Palace and had a bite to eat with Prince Charles, Camilla and Princess Ann, wasn’t quite that casual!

Lucy Wood, Marketing & Community Engagement Manager

Lucy joins Westgrove with a wealth of marketing and communications experience from a number of popular brands and services.  She will work with the Brand & Development Team on a variety of marketing and community engagement projects to support the businesses sites throughout the UK.     

We asked Lucy the same questions:

What is your background?

I’ve worked in Marketing for over 10 years.  I’ve marketed kitchens and bathrooms, quirky health and fitness products and a postal company and now I’m here at Westgrove ready to communicate with you!

What will your new role bring to Westgrove?

I’ll be engaging with all our colleagues through a number of different media – from your monthly e-newsletter to the posters you see on your noticeboards, the company magazine and social media.

What attracted you to join Westgrove?

The culture and the friendly atmosphere.  

Who would your ideal dinner party guest be?

I’d invite Liz McColgan, middle-distance runner and winner of the 1996 London Marathon.  Growing up I always wanted to be as good at running as she was so I’d love to hear her stories and how she got to be so good.

Where did you last holiday?

I went camping in France last year with my family.  We loved it, so we’re going camping again this year!

A fact about you!

I was born on April fool’s day!

Thank you for taking the time to read the latest edition of The Westgrove Newsletter.

If you have any news to share, such as charity events you are involved with or things happening at your centre, please email lucy.wood@westgrove.co.uk as we’d love to hear from you.

Please also remember to nominate your colleagues through our Reward and Recognition programme for the outstanding work they. You can find out more and nominate here.

The Westgrove Group were delighted to welcome colleagues from all over the country to celebrate the remarkable work they do each and every day, often going above and beyond in their work.  The Westgrove Annual Reward and Recognition Awards ceremony, held at the Village Hotel in Warrington is always an emotional and inspiring day.

We heard from guest speakers Alex Staniforth, our Westgrove Brand Ambassador who told us of his next awe inspiring challenge, British Security Industry Associations (BSIA) Andrew Cooper who gave us insight into the security industry and Retail Trusts Tom Bostock who shared information on the amazing work Retail Trust do and the support they can offer to our business.

During 2019, the business received an unprecedented number of Reward and Recognition nominations from colleagues and partners and we are delighted to announce the winners from each category: 

Site Manager of the Year

Site of the Year – Market Place

Team of the Year

Colleague of the Year

Service to the Customer

CSR of the Year

Community Champion

Service Excellence of the Year

• Ajaz Shah, MSO
• Barry Burnham, Templars Square

Outstanding Act of the Year

• Ahmed Abdul Karim, St Johns Shopping Centre
• Martyn Hoare, Paul Pritchard, Derek Washington, Alex Wilkins and Colin Marshall, Concourse
• Christopher Edwards, Maylords
• Security Team, Templars Square
  
• Mark Smithson, Doncaster & Sheffield Airport

Newcomer of the Year

Mystery Shop Winners

Chairman’s Special Award

We would also like to thank our sponsors, without whom the Awards ceremony would not be possible.

• Ideal 365
• Elite Washrooms
• Cleaning Machine Support
• Clever it
• Hillyer McKeown
• Watson Laurie

Its #NationalApprenticeshipWeek and what better way to celebrate than interviewing our very own Westgrove Apprentice; Jordan.    

National Apprenticeship Week aims to celebrate apprenticeships and the positive impact they have on individuals, businesses and the wider economy.  Apprenticeships are a growing option for people to earn while they learn and a vital entry route to gaining the skills and behaviours required to progress in the professional sector.

Jordan is studying Business Administration Level 3, an 18 month course designed to give her the skills she needs to progress her career.  She joined Westgrove 6 months ago as Operations Admin and is now an intrinsic part of the Westgrove team.

Let’s meet Jordan… 

Tell us a bit about your apprenticeship:

I’m studying Business Administration Level 3.  It’s an 18 month course designed to give me on-the-job experience to develop real world skills.  I work full time but also study as part of my working week.

Why did you want to do an apprenticeship?

Doing an apprenticeship has allowed me to study and work at the same time which has helped me so much in gaining the confidence and skills that I can use in the real world.  I knew I wanted to continue learning after school but I also wanted to get a job so this was a perfect decision for me.

What do you do at Westgrove?

I joined Westgrove in July (6 months ago) as Operations Admin.  My job is varied and no day is the same.  I get to work with all the different departments at Head Office like HR and Finance.  I do all the admin jobs like keeping systems up to date, answering the phones and the door and all the general admin work. 

What do you like about your job?

I love the office environment, everybody is so nice and friendly. 

Tell us something we might not know about you?

I’ve been Morris Dancing for 15 years and my favourite holiday destination is Mexico! 

Our Reward and Recognition Awards are our way of thanking our Colleagues for the amazing work that they do everyday.

Here are our latest Outstanding Act winners. Congratulations to them all.

Natalee Watmough & Louise Whitehead – The Lowry Outlet

Natalee and Louise helped to comfort a young girl who had fallen and broken her arm. While waiting for the ambulance to arrive, they kept the injured girl as calm and comfortable as they could as well as reassuring her mother, who later emailed the management team to express her gratitude for everything the team had done. Well done to you both!

Security Team – Birchwood Park

Congratulations to the Security Team for their outstanding professionalism, calmness and confidence in handling a difficult situation. Communication was key in this situation and the full team on site played their part.

Ansaar Hussain – Security Officer – Spindles Town Square

Ansaar was praised for his swift and professional response after helping a woman in distress while he was on patrol.

Mark Driscoll – Dual Services Manager – Templars Square

Mark was also congratulated for his amazing work in a difficult situation.

We are delighted to announce a number of new contract awards which continues to strengthen our position as a leading facilities management partner.

As well as shopping centres, we have been awarded contracts in new sectors including manufacturing and the public sector, offering new service provisions and bringing in some brilliant new Colleagues to help support us. New shopping centre awards include Telford, Corby and Leeds. We are also delighted to have been awarded the cleaning contract for Greenwich Peninsular in London further strengthening our southern portfolio.

These include providing dual security and cleaning services as well as a growth in demand for other services as shopping centres increasingly move away from traditional retail schemes and towards mixed use food and beverage, residential or leisure use.

You can find out more about our work in the new issue of The Westgrove Magazine. Email enquiries@westgrove.co.uk for a copy.

The latest issue of our magazine is hot off the press and packed with lots of Westgrove news.

It has been another fantastic year for the company and the magazine celebrates our strong growth and welcomes new schemes and Colleagues to our portfolio across the UK.

We’ve got interviews with our Partners and Colleagues, news about our new technology, systems and services and the awards we have won.

We showcase our training and development work and our commitment to raising mental health awareness.

And we reveal the incredible work that our people do every day.

Click here to view Issue 10 of the Westgrove Magazine now!

You can view The Westgrove Magazine back catalogue here:

Westgrove Magazine Issue 9

Westgrove Magazine Issue 8

Westgrove Magazine Issue 7

Westgrove Magazine Issue 6

Westgrove Magazine Issue 5