Our Managing Director explains.....

Our company has always prided itself on having excellent staff relations. Through our entire history, dating back to 1925, we have achieved very high levels of staff retention and have successfully maintained a close ‘family feel’ to the operation of the business. We have expanded steadily through the years and staff numbers have grown accordingly – currently we employ around 110 people. We like to think that the family atmosphere still exists and that our staff find Hickleys ‘a good company to work for’. The Directors attempt to adopt an approachable style of management where all staff can easily discuss problems and where constructive ideas are always welcomed. We have faith in the ability of our managers and wherever possible we allow them to do their jobs and make decisions with the minimal level of interference from above.

Company size of course brings its problems. In 1994 it was recognised that staff numbers had grown to the point where, in the absence of a defined personnel management system, communication with and motivation of our staff were, at best, haphazard.

At this time we became aware of the Investors in People Standard. After investigations we concluded that it offered us the opportunity to put into place a framework that would help us not just manage but potentially get the very best out of our staff. The Directors agreed we should adopt the standard and accreditation was achieved in December 1996.

The maintenance of the standard imposes a discipline that ensures we keep our minds focused on people issues. We are now confident that we are achieving much better levels of communication with our staff and that we are more forward-looking when it comes to matching our business objectives with our people resources.

We feel we have benefited greatly from being an Investor in People company and we believe it helps us in our main objective - to provide our customers with the highest possible levels of service.

Duncan Meikle
Joint Managing Director

For more information about the Investors In People standard, and what it stands for please click here.