Our People
At Telford Homes our employees are the key to our ongoing success. We recognise that it’s our people that make us different, and we strive to recruit, retain and develop the best.
We pride ourselves on our unique and supportive culture, and are fully committed to driving excellence, creating rewarding opportunities and providing the best environment for our teams to thrive.
We are proud to have an above industry average employee retention rate which is currently running at 89 per cent. With over 300 direct employees, through our culture, values, standards and skills we are proud of the positive impact that we are making within our industry.
Telford Homes employees have been its heartbeat during our 21 year history. They drive our value and productivity such that we can successfully achieve our goals. On an average day we have around 1,800 people on our sites or at head office, of which just over 300 are directly employed and the remainder are employed by our subcontractor partners. We have concentrated on refining our recruitment processes, extending our induction procedures for new staff and particularly on the development and wellbeing of every employee.
HEALTH AND WELLBEING
It is widely reported that the construction industry suffers from one of the highest suicides rates, which for some subcontractors’ trades, is 2.7 times higher than the UK average. Our people’s physical and mental health and wellbeing is of huge importance to us. We pay specific attention to mental health, running an annual programme of activities and initiatives; from promoting World Mental Health Day and raising awareness amongst our staff and site-based supply chain, to conducting regular mindfulness and yoga sessions. The aim is to provide support for staff and to normalise the discussion around mental health.
Site and office staff have access to physical wellbeing plans, that consist of cholesterol, blood pressure, body fat and BMI checks. Health checks are also provided for onsite safety critical workers, such as crane and forklift operators. We have trained over 40 (2022) mental health first aiders and six dedicated mental health champions, who can listen to employees and provide advice on where to find the best professional support.
Due to the Covid-19 global pandemic, we are even more mindful of its impact on people. Accordingly, we have strengthened our mental health and wellbeing campaigns, to help our people through the prevailing period.
Our Sustainability Director chairs the SCSS Wellbeing Special Interest Group. This a cross-sector built environment group, that together contribute insights into the wellbeing of people who build, and live and work in the built environment, and published a best practice Wellbeing Guide in summer 2020.
TELFORD HOMES ACADEMY
The Telford Homes Academy was launched in 2019 to house all of our of training and development programmes under one umbrella. Whether someone is a school leaver, graduate, first-time manager or senior manager, there are relevant programmes for every career stage. It not only supports and develops those who aspire to progress, but also drive capability and excellence for everyone at any level within Telford Homes. The Telford Homes Academy is made up of the following areas:
- Core Skills
- Budding Manager Programme
- People Manager Programme
- Senior Manager Programme
- Trainee Programme
The development programmes that make up the Academy run over the course of a year and provide opportunities designed to develop management and leadership capability. Each programme has achieved Institute of Leadership & Management (ILM) assured status, certifying an internationally recognised standard of excellence.
The Telford Homes Academy will only grow in strength and focus, and with additional backing from CBRE and TCC there are plans to add even more programmes to take our people and our business forward.
HEALTH AND SAFETY
Our comprehensive policies and procedures, regular certification updates and our commitment to continuous professional development for all our employees are just a few of the ways in which we maintain a positive health and safety culture at Telford Homes.
We have a dedicated Health and Safety team, governed and supported by our Executive Health and Safety Committee and Operational and Health and Safety Forum.
Whilst awards aren’t as important as our performance and our people’s safety, they do demonstrate our huge commitment in this area. For the 13th consecutive year we have been recognised with a Gold Award by the RoSPA, and received a President’s Award 2020.
We believe our culture and continuing investment in our people and their training helps us to minimise health and safety risks and provide a safe and protective environment for all our employees.
DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION
DE&I is fundamental to our business, and the key to the successful delivery of our DE&I strategy is to remain authentic, transparent and to learn and to grow from one another. We’re extremely proud of our culture at Telford Homes and it is important that we purposefully create a clear and intentional space that allows us to achieve long-term inclusivity and diversity, both within the company, as well as externally across the communities that we serve and our wider industry.
Upholding our RISE values (Respect, Integrity, Service, Excellence) will continue to remain at the heart of everything we do. Our DE&I mission is that “together, we work to foster a diverse, equitable and inclusive workplace that upholds our company’s RISE (Respect, Integrity, Service, Excellence) values and encourages our employees and partners, to demonstrate leadership in activities that promote our core DE&I principles within our industry and the communities we serve.”
We will be focussing on three key areas – Company, Community and Industry.