The first ever Lloyds
|
 |
| Community Awards As a company we believe we have both a corporate and moral responsibility to give something back to the communities in which we operate and who have supported us. As a combined organisation we give millions of pounds each year to charity and volunteer hundreds of hours of service. But it's important not to get lost in the figures and to remember that this is actually the efforts of individuals and teams who are giving up their time to support great causes, whether it's by taking part in charity challenges or helping to mentor disadvantaged young people. As a company we passionately believe we should all 'do our bit' to help, and the Community Awards have acknowledged those who've gone the extra mile or really shone as a team. Our first Groupwide Awards have been hugely successful, attracting hundreds of entries – which makes the success even more special. The purpose was to recognise those colleagues who have made an exceptional contribution to the success of our business, or who have made a big difference in their local community. Catherine Smith-Pincott, Communications Manager, Operations for Black Horse is a Silver Award Winner! Read on and find out what made her stand out from the rest…
Describe the activity or initiative undertaken by the nominee Cath since the beginning of the year has really embraced the British Heart Foundation and taken fund raising to a whole new level and not just for this one Charity. Throughout the Cardiff office Colleagues are generous with their donations but how many raffles and quizzes can one building have before it becomes the norm? With this in mind Cath set about pulling together ‘off the wall’ ideas ones that have never been tried before. In May we had a Fashion Show with Colleagues who would never normally participate in anything like this climbing over themselves wanting to be involved as models of all shapes and sizes and it was because of this that more people wanted to take part. This took almost 5 months of organising due to the size of the venture. 15 different retails stores were approached to loan us clothes, local businesses in the area were visited bringing the community closer together, a South Wales radio station agreed to help and present the event. £10k worth of clothes were lent to us, promotional material, presenters, venues everything was sourced for free. Even with hic-ups on the day itself, make-up artists cancelling, companies donating gift bags not turning up, Cath picked up the phone and worked her magic yet again with just hours to spare and made it happen, not only did she make it special for the people who bought tickets but also for the Colleagues taking part as much as there was happening on stage there was just as much going on back stage. Everyone was made to feel part of this ‘one off’ experience. £3k was raised in less than 3 hours.
Describe the involvement of the nominee(s) To bring this event together and to guarantee its success Cath spent 5months in making it work. Weeks were spent on the phones calling all the companies in Cardiff hoping that they would agree to loan us clothes, venues or agree to promote this for us. Not everyone was available on the first phone call! Cath spent her own evenings visiting shops ‘out of hours’ when it was quieter for them, when they would then be able to discuss at length what it was we wanted or needed with limited interruptions! Weekends were taken up with running over plans and visiting venues to assess suitability. Cath visited other Contact Centres outside of Lloyds promoting the Fashion Show, selling tickets to anyone and everyone. Even when the event was over, the returning of clothes and the general clean-up took 2 weeks. We were featured in ‘Buzz Wales’ which is the on-line magazine for all Welsh Call Centres and as a result was asked to join their editorial team who now meets monthly. Cath is currently working on another ‘one off’ event for Breast Cancer Care Wales, ‘Stars in your Eyes’, she’s always working on one project or another, sometimes 2 or 3 at a time! Cath does all of this and more…most lunch times she juggles hospital visiting amongst everything else she does. Elderly patients in the hospice where is father is, most don’t get visitors so she goes and spends a little time with them and then at the end of a very long day she goes home and looks after her 2 children! This isn’t just about doing the job she’s paid to do it’s about her being completely passionate about what she loves…getting paid is just an added bonus!
Describe how the nominee(s) activity or initiative has made a difference to the community or organisation involved Cath is so passionate about what she does she easily engages with all Colleagues at every level across Asset Finance and not just Operations. She never has any problems in finding Colleagues to assist on any one of her projects, she thinks on her feet, leads by example, and always gets the best out of people. Since the beginning of the year Cath as has worked tirelessly to forge strong networks with Collections and Finance who now work effortlessly on Charity Projects and other initiatives together. Cath’s first agenda item on any project is ‘a great place to work’, and this comes across in everything she does. As a result Cath has been given the Charity Champion Title for AF in Cardiff without any hesitation, Cardiff has been given a target of £20k to raise over a two year period but in just 10 months she has instigated by either managing the project or being actively involved and raised £17k and what we have to remember is that this isn’t Cath’s permanent role, she is on a 12 month secondment, a great achievement! Her personality is lively and bubbly which is infectious with any dealings you have with her. She isn’t afraid to engage people she doesn’t know into conversation and as a result has secured visits from the Lord Mayor of Cardiff and Welsh Assembly AM’s to visit the building during National Customer Service Week. |
|
