Punter Southall Aspire has won the NextGen Culture Award at the inaugural Management Today NextGen Awards 2020[i] which shine a spotlight on the next generation of ground-breaking, high-growth businesses.
This award recognises the work Punter Southall Aspire has been doing over the past 18 months to radically change its workplace culture, by improving inclusivity and diversity, and building a culture where employees learn from one another, share views, ideas and experiences.
Since launching in 2016, the company has grown rapidly and acquired four businesses, adding five regional offices and almost doubling the workforce from 75 to 144.
To make sure all employees at the £15m-turnover company felt included, respected and able to fulfil their potential, CEO Steve Butler set about transforming the culture.
One of Steve Butler’s first initiatives was to tackle the under-representation of female managers, by reshuffling the management structure to create diverse, multi-generational teams. Other initiatives included extending the number of cross-business project groups to enable a more diverse group of individuals to collaborate in key areas of the business, and creating a ‘Diversity and Inclusion’ booklet, which was sent out to all employees and transforming company meetings to focus on employee wellbeing, as well as business.
The company also formed a people strategy group to develop the Investors in People framework, initiated diversity training for senior managers and it is adopting the Chartered Management Institute training route enabling employees to become Chartered Managers.
The success of the initiatives undertaken is demonstrated by a Punter Southall Aspire staff survey conducted last year, which found 95% of employees believe Punter Southall Aspire is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace.
Steve Butler, CEO at Punter Southall Aspire says, “We’re honoured to have won this award and to be recognised for all the hard work and commitment our employees have shown in creating a diverse and inclusive workplace culture that we can all be proud of.
“I believe creating diverse and inclusive teams is the perfect way to futureproof a business operation and we have created a successful and integrated business that uses the talent of all genders, ages and perspectives.
“Currently we are all facing challenges due to the measures to combat Covid-19, but I’m seeing examples daily of that culture continuing, just at a safe social distance. We are stronger as a company to face difficult times because of the inclusive workplace culture we’ve created.”
Punter Southall Aspire also recently won the Diversity and Inclusion award at the Reward Awards 2019[ii], and the business was asked to contribute to a Parliamentary Review highlighting its best practice.
Furthermore, Steve Butler writes ‘Butler’s Blog,’ focused on generational and workplace diversity issues, regularly speaks at events and writes thought-leadership pieces.
He has also written two books. The first ‘Manage the Gap: Achieving success with intergenerational teams,’ providing advice, learning and best practice to help employers manage age diversity, which was shortlisted in the 2020 Business Book Awards.
His second book ‘Midlife Review: A guide to work, wealth and wellbeing’ written with Tony Watts OBE was published this month, offering business leaders, managers and employees guidance to help them understand and support ‘midlife’ workers.
For more information visit: www.psaspire.com
[i] https://www.mtnextgenawards.com/
[ii] https://www.reward-strategy.com/news/top-stories/how-punter-southall-aspire-went-beyond-box-ticking-to-ensure-workplace-diversity-7034