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Scrutton Bland is one of the four finalists in the Education in Business Award, highlighting our commitment to helping our people develop through apprenticeships, professional exams, management training and developing soft skills.
The judges of the EADT Business Award commented that Scrutton Bland is “clearly committed to education and the development of its team” and they were impressed by its “deeply embedded” values. They added that Scrutton Bland is “on a very exciting journey” and look forward to seeing its progression.
How were we shortlisted?
We provided written and video evidence of our people strategy, showing the clear and defined development and growth of our team over the next five years. We showed how training within the business is standard practice in our day-to-day business operations, but also how we go beyond the technical skills needed in each role and build on some of the softer skills through our leadership forum. We showed the judges how we plan to become a true coaching and mentoring organisation in which we all have a responsibility to support each other’s growth, showing the steps we have taken to date and those planned over the next few years proves our intent.
What evidence did we present to back up our claims?
We talked about our competency framework, Project Me, which we use to help each person at Scrutton Bland create a personalised development plan. We showed how this is an innovative approach to education in business, which tries to go deeper than conventional technical skills analysis, and focuses on people, commercial awareness and driving the business. We explained to the judges that this approach moves away from traditional appraisals, and instead focuses on personal development and helps each person to become accountable for their own development.
We also explained the ways in which our Leadership Forum supports our business strategy, allowing key individuals to motivate and support their teams and to share ideas. It is also a way of leading by example and showing others how to respond to different situations or to correct a problem.
Finally we presented hard evidence on the growth in our training budget, and the ways that we recognise the importance of professional learning to our business. We had 40 apprenticeships in 2021/22, and we are expecting 47 to go through AAT/ACA/ACCA or ATT/CTA qualifications in the current financial year. This number continues to grow in order to keep up with the growth of the business and needs of the market.
How will the Business Award shortlisting help Scrutton Bland grow our business?
There are lots of business awards which we could enter, but we try and only enter those where we know that there will be a guarantee of promoting our business to the people we want to reach. The East Anglian Daily Times is the main regional newspaper and digital news outlet for Suffolk, north Essex and south Norfolk, and whilst in the past we have sponsored one of their award categories, we decided that it was time that we entered the awards ourselves. We want to make sure that people across our region can see that we are one of the leaders in the way we train and educate our people, and that Scrutton Bland is one of the elite employers in our region.
What does it mean to us?
Caroline Bixby, our HR Director said about the news of the shortlisting:
“No longer is it just about promotions and job titles. It is about purpose, inclusion, equity of opportunity, clear expectations and the ability for each individual to understand how they create value in the business.
As an organisation we care that each person is recognised, rewarded and revered by their peers and the wider business, and that they gain the confidence and resilience to keep pre-empting the needs of our clients and the ever-changing commercial world we live in.
Our programme was created intentionally to be inclusive of neurodiversity. No one would know, but it is easier to create something that is inclusive, rather than trying to adapt something that isn’t by design.”
When will we find out if we’ve won?
The winners will be announced on 29 September. You can find out more about the awards and the other firms that have been shortlisted here:
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