Thursday 22 December was set aside in the Planteria Group Calendar for the end of year, Whole Company Meeting, kicking off at 7:45 with a full English Breakfast. The Company have now grown so large that there isn’t a big enough meeting space within our offices to house us all, so the meeting was held off-site at the Hilton Hotel Stansted.
Our Chairman Phil Anderson opened the meeting, welcoming and thanking staff for a successful 2016. Department heads of; Sales, Operations, Finance, Marketing, Floristry and Installation then gave a round-up of achievements for the year and shared their own vision, strategic plans and goals for 2017.
Feedback from this section, during the coffee break, was enthusiastic. “It’s so interesting to hear what goes on in each department, we get so busy with our own work that we don’t have time to think about what other people are doing”
“It’s good to hear that the company is doing well and there has been so much growth in the past few years”.
After the coffee break, the Employee of The Quarter Award was presented by Phil Anderson. The worthy recipient of this Award was Marian Varvari. “Marian has an excellent work ethic, he just gets on with whatever is required of him. He is a great team member and frequently goes beyond his remit to make things work for both his colleagues and our clients.
An example – back in October, one Sunday, he could not complete his floristry round as most of the roads in his delivery area were closed, he was told they would reopen at 6pm. So, after starting at 7am at the nursery and completing 2 deliveries he went home and then went back again at 6pm and finished the round. He then did his Monday round as usual. He did not complain he just said that he did not want to let anyone down – this is true dedication”.
Long Service Awards were given to Karen Norman and Martin Collins for five years’ service.
In the final session of the day Matt Anderson, our Managing Director shook things up a bit and took the opportunity to make the most of having all our staff in one location. Matt screened a thought provoking video based on a factual customer service story. After the video, using a random numbering system, Matt put teams together of people who don’t usually work together. The groups discussed creative customer service ideas. The benefit of this was to get staff talking to one another and bonding over their work experiences and thought processes. A whole raft of ideas got generated, and the diverse mix of job roles in each group meant that the ideas generated were informed, relevant and workable. We look forward to seeing some of the ideas becoming a reality in the coming months.
