Hard work pays off as Signature are ‘Highly commended’
As our first year of sitting on the editorial board for Modern Insurance Magazine neared its end, we were invited to attend their coveted and highly anticipated UK Customer Service Excellence Awards 2022.
On Wednesday 23rd March, the Signature team travelled down to London for a day of fun and team bonding, hoping to grab an award in one of the 4 nominated categories, safe in the knowledge that it wasn’t going to be easy; whilst we know how we go above and beyond to provide a fair, inclusive and award-winning service, we were pitted against some titans of the industry.
We’re fiercely proud to be an SME, as it allows us to provide a tailored and unique service to clients and suppliers a like, but we were under no illusion that we don’t have the same resources to allocate to increasing visibility of what we do. These awards were a chance to contemplate how proud we are of the team we’ve created and the achievements over the past 4 years at Signature Property Services.
The awards were held at Shaka Zulu; a unique and vibrant South African venue in the heart of Camden Town. Surrounded by performers, musicians, and fire-breathers all working in perfect harmony to create a buzz amongst the attendees, there was so much to look at. As we sat down to eat in front of the stage everyone’s focus was re-captured and all eyes were on the prizes.
We were honoured to be nominated in 4 categories for the awards:
- Above and Beyond
- Customer Experience in a Crisis
- Diversity and Inclusion
- Unsung Hero (Filipa Da Silva)
We were shortlisted by the panel for every single category of the 4 we applied to be considered for, something that we were told by the organisers was a rare achievement and something to be proud of in itself!
We received the highly commended award in 2 out of the 4 categories (Above and Beyond & Diversity and Inclusion) on what was a momentous occasion for us, coming runners up to two imperious and well-deserved winners. To go toe-to-toe with much larger business both in terms of team size and financially felt like a win in itself.
We’d like to take this opportunity to congratulate all winners of awards on the night and to thank Modern Insurance Magazine for having us. We’re pleased to be acknowledged for out diversity and inclusion across backgrounds and abilities and for always going above and beyond to provide a fantastic service to our customers who often come to us in a time of immense need.
What is a healthy workplace?
As a high-level view, trust and cooperation is enough for survival and growth, but drilldown and each working part has it’s own requirements for success. Relationships, health (both mental and physical), purpose and compassion. You cannot apply a one-size fits all approach to a diverse group of people with different needs and drivers. It is not simply a policy written from HR that defines what a healthy company looks like. It’s about understanding your team and building a culture where mutual respect and understanding comes before all else.
We don’t say ‘you can take this many sick days’. We don’t say ‘There’s a process for appointments that needs 48 hour confirmation.’ And we certainly don’t say ‘You can’t change your scheduled hours for that day.’ We’re a family business and that very much defines our entire ethos. We always try to give and take in equal measure and working in a tight-knit team we make allowances for each other. We all have different priorities and find ourselves in different situations outside of the office an are au courant with individual requirements, we don’t look to question or seek reasoning. Working on a notion of compromise and compassionate reciprocity propagates a healthy and open environment.
We certainly aren’t perfect though, and we are committed to identifying areas of improvement. Being a small and busy business we could all do more to improve on our communication levels, internally. Naturally with our ‘muck-in’ philosophy, the directors have very hand-on roles in the business so can be on-site a lot and pulled from pillar to post to problem solve at a top level. Because of this we encourage our staff to be decisive and accountable, knowinghow important it is that we have the right people in the right positions to make those tough calls independently.
In essence, we believe that a healthy environment takes into account both mental and physical health along with needs, requirements, openness and above all honesty. Covid has been the unfortunate driving force in bringing both sides of our health to the forefront of conversation. It can be damaging in the long-term to encourage people into the office that are struggling with symptoms of either complaint. Sometimes a couple of hours extra in a morning is all you need to create the headspace where you feel ready to tackle the day is the most productive way and the flexibility provided by the new notion that it’s ok to mix-up remote working means we can all be more present when required.
We’ll never stop listening to our employees and treating them as friends and family, because that’s what they are. You spend the majority of your time with your colleagues and this means we all need more from each other than just task output. Trust is paramount to connecting on a personal level and it’s the thing at Signature, that we value the most.