Our journey so far
Hi everyone It's been a busy few months on our Gap Year project. As there's lots going on, I thought it would be useful to start sending you a regular blog outlining some of the key highlights. You'll recall from the original staff workshop sessions that I was keen to look at 4 key themes during what we have called 100 days of insight. These are customer service, culture, productivity and knowing our city. Work is ongoing on each of these themes and you or your colleagues may have provided feedback through workshop sessions. Here's an update on where we are at:
1. Customer service Staff feedback - We collected lots of great information during the customer service theme - click here to read a roundup. Many of you told us that it's been some time since there was any customer service training. As a result we've commissioned an external training provider to deliver unconscious bias workshop sessions to all staff. The training will link with improving our customer service, as unconscious bias affects our judgements when dealing with both external and internal customers. Many managers have already had this training and provided really positive feedback. Please book onto this training via LMS. Customer feedback - we've held some customer feedback sessions to ensure we listened to their views. Customer feedback mirrored the improvements which staff would like to see in YHN. You can read about this in the customer service roundup. We've also carried out our STAR survey (survey of tenants and residents) and initial results have just come back. I'll provide feedback on the results of this in a future blog.
Staff suggestions - we've added a new feature to the Gap Year site to let you tell us your ideas. Click on the ideas button to put forward your ideas or suggestions. We'll give feedback on each idea put forward and let you know if we're able to take it forward, and if not, why not. Back to the floor - our senior managers all embarked on a programme of going 'back to the floor' which provided us with valuable staff feedback and also suggestions for improvements to services. You can read about these on the Gap Year site. There'll be lots more happening on Customer Service and the key items you've raised - I'll keep you updated through these blogs.
2. Culture Culture workshops - lots of information on our culture was collected through a specific Managers session and through staff culture cuppas which were fully booked - possibly due to the offer of cake! The feedback has been great and we've had lots of staff providing very honest feedback. Click here to read a round up. Staff Survey - lots of you have taken part in various Gap Year workshop sessions but I want to make sure that everyone has a chance to have their say. You can do this by completing the Staff Survey - click here for more information the deadline is next Monday (13th)! I urge you all to complete this survey and provide your feedback as this will help us shape the future of YHN. The survey is managed by an external company, BMG. BMG is bound by the Market Research Society Code of Conduct to ensure that all survey responses remain confidential and at no time are individual responses attributable to a member of staff in any data or reports provided to YHN.
3. Productivity Some of our tour guides and their teams are currently trying out new ways of working. I'll let you know how this goes in a future blog.
4. Understanding our City This is the theme moving into February. I'll update you in a future blog.
Structure I recently emailed all staff with an update on the structure - click here to read a copy. This email welcomed two new directors to
YHN - Jon Ritchie and Matthew Foreman. Jon and Matthew join myself and David Langhorne as the newly formed YHN executive. Our first key task is to create a new senior management tier that will work with the executive team to lead, manage and deliver YHN's business priorities as we move forward into the future. My aim is to have the new jobs and the senior management tier populated before the end of March 2017.
Tour guides I'm really pleased to let you know we've recruited 33 tour guides who are enthusiastic and keen to help support our journey. You can find out who our tour guides are by clicking here. More information will follow on how they will support the Gap Year, but in the meantime if you have anything you'd like to raise, I'm sure they'll offer a listening ear. That's all for now - it's a really busy time with lots going on. I hope you'll find these emails useful, but as always keep an eye on the Gap Year site to stay updated. You'll shortly receive an alert to your inbox every time the Gap Year site is updated so you don't miss out on any announcements or developments. Also don't forget you can feedback any suggestions through the new ideas button. Many thanks,
Tina