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2. Take a long term view and act sustainably
Spring
FGH Security kicked off 2016 with an expansion to our Security Guarding Division at Lancaster City Council Depot. This contract was to protect the assets and infrastructure of Lancaster City Council and extended the scope of our work with them beyond the Events Division.
April 1 saw the controversial launch of the FGH Security Cat Division, to compete with the dog teams offered by other providers. This was controversial because on the one hand it was universally popular and one of our most talked about initiatives of the year, but on the other hand it was a shabby deception and all round April fool hoax.
During our annual Approved Contractor audit we received our highest ever score for the 11th consecutive year, raising our ACS score to 166 and putting us a long hop above 150, the requirement to be in the top 5% of Approved Contractors.
We also implemented a range of employee centred initiatives, including raising the referral bonus for recruitment to £100 and expanding the FGH Athlete program, which sponsors employees to undertake Sporting and Charitable challenges. This year’s success story was Emma Jenkins, from the Albert Hall, who trekked Machu Picchu for charity.
The Spring ended with the formal release of FGH Security’s Mission, Vision and Values statement. This document stated our commitment to being an organisation led by our values and beliefs rather than pursuing short-term or unethical goals for increased profits. Since then we have incorporated the beliefs and values into all levels of decision making in the organisation and see them as the template for our future development.
Summer
This summer we saw a further expansion to our summer festival portfolio. New additions for the year included Liverpool Sound City and Bluedot festival. We also saw substantial expansion of some of our existing customers, most notably Kendal Calling. Manchester Pride confirmed their intention to continue their partnership with us until at least 2018.
The summer also saw the redesign of FGH Head Office. Moving away from our ‘traditional’ office set up, we brought in new state of the art furniture designed to support different working styles and to be a market leader in ergonomic workplace design. In combination with technology packages implemented in the Spring we also provided a springboard to support increased remote working to improve the work life balance of the office team.
In Lancaster, a major showpiece event was the much-vaunted Hacienda Classical, which turned Williamson Park into a ‘unique meeting of worlds’ marrying up leading Hacienda DJs with a live classical orchestra.
Our Security Guarding Division continued to expand with the addition of an asset protection and retail security contract at Carver’s Warehouse, Manchester.
In line with our beliefs regarding Personal Development and Training to the Next Level, Professor Keith Still, a world class expert on crowd management, delivered a Level 5 Crowd Safety course to 6 members of our management team. The aim of the training was to ensure that, whatever member of our team we deploy to an event, the same high level of crowd safety knowledge would be present on site. The team enjoyed it immensely.
Key members of our team went to the BSI Crime Prevention Conference to showcase our skills and avail ourselves of the latest trends and developments in our sector.
The FGH Cup, growing ever more prominent as a clash between the mighty University Rugby teams sponsored by FGH, was this year won by Salford University who secured bragging rights and Dave Hassall’s vicarious paternal favour for the next 12 months.
Our commitment to sporting success and social responsibility was reinforced by our purchase of a set of goalposts for Lancaster City Juniors FC. They had attempted to raise funds from a range of donors however FGH agreed to fund the whole purchase.
Autumn
One defining event of the Autumn was the challenging weather conditions in place at Festival No.6. After the delivery of an amazing festival we were forced into full on contingency management mode by the arrival of what can only be described as a deluge of Biblical proportions. Team members on the ground worked additional hours in imperfect conditions to get everyone home safely and did so with a smile on their lips and a song in their heart.
Congratulations to Peter Harrison on passing his MBA with Merit. Peter had been studying the prestigious qualification at Lancaster University on a part time for the past two years. Peter’s mission in undertaking the qualification was to lead the way in making FGH a learning centred organisation and to provide inspiration for the development of the company in the coming years.
September also saw us starting to supply Door Supervisors to Manchester Metropolitan University and the University of Central Lancashire. This expanded our university portfolio and shows the spirit that made Lancaster University our first ever customer is still strong in the company.
Movember was a roaring success as always, this year. With the now annual sponsored walk up a massive hill in extreme weather once again providing a strong centrepiece. This year 10 team members ascended Cross Fell in the Pennines, the 10th highest peak in England and loved every moment of it. This year we also passed the £10,000 mark for total Movember donations from FGH Security since we began participation.
Winter
As always, the winter is the annual awards season. This year we were finalists in more categories than any other security provider at the Security Excellence Awards. For the second time in our history we won the Best Event Security Team of the Year award, building on our 2014 success. We were also finalists again in the categories Training Initiative of the Year; Security Guarding Company of the Year; Customer Care Initiative of the Year; Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative of the Year and ACS Champion of the Year. For the first time, we were finalists in a new category, Security Partnering Initiative of the Year, for the good work we have done in partnership with The Albert Hall and Albert’s Schloss.
Our customers were also recognised at the UK Festival Awards 2016; Kendal Calling as the Best Medium-Sized Festival of the year and Liverpool Sound City as the Best Festival for Emerging Talent. Albert Schloss won Best Bar at the Manchester Food and Drink Awards. Well done to these customers. Quality Places indeed.
We realised our medium term environmental dreams by being awarded ISO 14001 accreditation, proving our commitment to sustainability. Next step is to come up with even more aspirational targets for 2017, including going fully carbon neutral.
For the first time, we took part in the Times Top 100 competition, which measures employee engagement within the workforce. Although we fell short of the 3-Star Best Companies accreditation possessed by the Top 100 we were awarded a 1-Star Best Companies rating, which Dave Hassall described as being like “1 Michelin Star for Employee Engagement”.
Dave Hassall and Lewis Walsh also travelled to London to the National Security Inspectorate steering group to offer their expertise and industry experience to improve the NSI’s position in the security market.
As always, the festive period saw 25 of our staff dressing up as Santa to provide free stewarding to the CancerCare Santa Dash.
We also donated £3,000 worth of toys to disadvantaged children in the communities where we work. This included The Bay Christmas Toy Appeal (North Lancashire and Cumbria), Wood St Mission (Manchester) and Rock FM Christmas Toy Appeal (Central and South Lancashire).
Keep your eyes on the website for future developments including the forthcoming release of the full version of the FGH Employee Portal and the opening of our new Manchester Office.