January is often viewed as a time in the year to make positive plans and changes for the months ahead. At Pennington Choices, we’re delighted to commence this year with the appointment of a new non-Executive Director/Chairman, Paul Crook. Paul has over twenty years of experience in leadership and operational management, most recently as a member of the Executive Leadership Team at RMS Limited. We talk to him here to find out more about what he hopes to bring to Pennington Choices in 2022.
November is National Career Development Month – a month aimed at inspiring employers to empower employees to achieve their career goals.
Managing Director Mark Seaborn explains why this initiative resonates so strongly with the mission, vision and values we share at Pennington Choices.
Without a doubt, our staff members are the essence of what makes Pennington Choices the business it is today. And despite all the challenges thrown upon us in the last 18 months, the pandemic has changed Pennington Choices for the better.
It is a testament to our employee's hard work, trust and loyalty to the business that we are firmly back onto a path of successful growth.
Personal Development Plans
In the last year, we have welcomed 40 new employees to the Pennington Choices' family. Every one of them has a personal development plan - their growth and development are important to us. As part of the plan, each employee works with their manager to set objectives to help establish their personal goals and aspirations for career growth.
As Managing Director I’m also extremely proud of the internal New Manager’s programme which I run alongside external speakers and training providers every year. This programme aims to equip aspiring managers with the confidence, insights and practical skills to enhance their performance.
Additionally, we open a window each year where employees can request relevant business training outside of their roles. In 2021, nearly a quarter of all staff have taken the opportunity to request development training amounting to £73,000. With such opportunities to improve through training, coaching and internal promotions, our commitment to developing our staff has led to 13 employee promotions within the last year.
Employee promotions
Tina Kaminski joined the marketing team in March 2021 and within three months was promoted to Campaign Marketing Manager, taking a lead on managing the organisation’s CRM and responsibility for company-wide marketing campaigns.
'When I joined Pennington Choices as a Marketing Executive I was unsure whether my need for part-time employment would hinder my career. It has been refreshing to work in an organisation where my skills and experience have been recognised and valued so quickly and I am relishing the opportunities that have come my way'.
It is a similar story for Business Development Manager, Aileen Gilchrist who started with the business as a Trainee Bid Writer three years ago.
'Having progressed to the role of bid assistant and then bid coordinator within 18 months, I was offered the opportunity to explore a new career path within business development. Beginning as a business development coordinator, I began a learning journey with the support of the sales team. With support, mentoring and undertaking an NVQ in sales and other accredited sales courses, I developed the skills, networks and confidence to succeed in my new role. As a result, I am now the business development manager with responsibilities for asbestos bid management. Pennington Choices continue to offer new doors to open on my career journey which makes every day exciting and completely different’.
Similarly, Ben Davidson joined the company seven years ago straight out of university as a graduate Building Surveyor.
‘It has been great to take advantage of the various additional training opportunities and support offered to me during my time at Pennington Choices including the manager’s programme. From graduate to Senior Surveyor to my current role as Operation Manager for Stock Condition, I’m grateful to work for an organisation where talent and hard work is not only recognized but positively encouraged’.
Mental health and wellbeing
Employing 120 staff, we are a business that loves transparency and has a continual open-door policy. We recognise good mental health and wellbeing are important to create a happy and healthy workforce. Our Social, Wellbeing and Engagement consultant is employed to look after our staff, managing a newly created 12- month mental health programme of information and activities. We also offer personal development coaching through 1-2-1 sessions; we invest in our people and understand that encouraging personal development contributes to greater happiness and success in, not only our careers, but all areas of our lives.
Ranked within the Top 100 Mid-Sized Best Companies to work for, along with being accredited as a Two-Star Best Company for our commitment to staff engagement, we want to recruit the best people and continue to build on our great place to work status. Going forward, improving our office spaces, continuing our training allowance, reviewing our salary bandings and recommencing our social activities post-COVID are just some of the ways we are committed to doing this.
About us
Pennington Choices is a market leader in property surveying and consultancy services to organisations nationwide.
Delivering excellent service built on the principles of transparency, efficiency, and avoidance of business interruption, we've worked with more than 500 public and private sector organisations across social housing, NHS, education, and rail over the past 20 years.
Our clients have a full assurance that working with Pennington Choices guarantees they are doing the best they can to ensure compliance and safety within their buildings.
If you want to know more, we’d love to hear from you - get in touch.
Accurate and timely data underpins our engagement with providers. We consider failure to manage data integrity to be indicative of a poor internal controls assurance framework.
Whilst Covid-19 continues to bring disruption and challenges to us all, there is no doubt that for some, the impact the pandemic has had on our working lives has been transformational.
The Regulator of Social Housing has released its ninth Consumer Regulation Review and as always, it is jam packed with helpful information and practical examples of how the wider sector is working and what further work is required, to meet statutory requirements and manage the needs of tenants.
Pennington Choices, the award-winning, nationwide property surveying and consultancy organisation, is proud to become a certified member of the Legionella Control Association (LCA) for its consultancy services and legionella monitoring services.
One in four people in the UK will experience a mental health obstacle at some point in their lives. Mental health controls how we think, feel and behave and is often a reaction to a difficult life event, but it can also be caused by work-related trauma. Work-related issues must be assessed to measure the levels of risk to staff, and it is the employer’s responsibility to make the necessary adjustments to ensure that its employees’ wellbeing is forefront of the business agenda.
With the announcement on 5th July that rules around mandatory working from home, social distancing and mask-wearing indoors will end on 19th July, how do you know you are getting it right, not just from a physical environment perspective, but also from a psychological safety perspective?
London Fire Brigade report into New Providence Wharf Fire highlights serious fire safety issues and prompts warnings to building owners and managers
By Siobhan McCoy, Senior Consultant
The London Fire Brigade (LFB) have published their preliminary report into last month's fire at New Providence Wharf. It confirms that the fire started in an electrical consumer unit in an 8th floor flat and travelled out of an open balcony window. The fire then spread up a number of floors on the outside of the building from the timber balcony on the flat of origin. The building was clad in Aluminium Composite Material (ACM), although this hasn't significantly contributed to the external spread of the fire.
Pennington Choices ranked as one of the UK’s Top 100 Mid-Sized Best Companies to work for