People. If you don’t have the right people you don’t have the right business.

You can have smart business plans with appropriate sales, marketing and support functions. But if the execution of those plans by the people in the business is laboured, lacks motivation, then those smart, sparkling ideas become tarnished through uncaring service, undone by diffident staff attitude.

So, getting the right people, looking after them well, allowing your employees to grasp an understanding of their role and how they can grow within their space, are just some of the elements that make a really good business.

Focusing on our people has been a continuous mantra at Fleet Alliance. Looking after your staff – not just the financial rewards, although they are important – but the pastoral aspects, such as mental wellbeing, or personal development through charitable business engagement in the wider world, is central to what makes Fleet Alliance fire up every day, engage with energy each business morning , and makes working with colleagues so enjoyable.

Enjoyment. That’s critical for work, isn’t it?

When you consider how much time we spend at work, and with work colleagues (during normal non-coronavirus operations), the work you do and the satisfaction you take from your role within the company has to be valuable. It has to be more than an end-game of waiting for the end of month salary hit to your bank account, surely?

Getting it right for your employees, the people within your organisation, is critical.

So, I am really very pleased indeed to announce that Fleet Alliance has become a Platinum Investors In People.

Platinum accreditation is given to just 3% of all Investors In People accredited firms. So it’s massive recognition for the way we, as a business, care for and nurture our own people.

What makes us Platinum? Simply, it reflects our relentless desire to be the best employer we can be. According to Investors In People, a selection of our key strengths are:

• How we lead our people – it’s a positive, can-do culture that inspires inclusivity within the Fleet Alliance family, with the ambition to be a great organisation that’s successful at all levels of business.
• A deeply sustained and high-quality level of support from leaders, managers and colleagues to share information that enables all staff to always perform at their best.
• A great benefits and rewards package – working here should be worthwhile after all.
• A sense of community that extends beyond the organisation to the company’s environmental aspirations and its charitable work and donations.

For me this is what really underpins the business. It works whether you are a fleet and leasing company like us, whether you are running a professional sports team, or you run an aspiring small business – these are the basics that count, the ones that matter.

Profit and loss may be poured over by accountants and finance people, but invest in your people and the only outcome is profit. Of the human kind.

The financial sort is the collateral that follows as a result.