An award-winning company doesn’t stay still

Fantastic! I can’t tell you how good it feels to win. And last week we won not one or two but three awards at the Leasing Broker Awards.

Organised by the Leasing Broker Federation, the awards were judged by an independent panel of judges from the leasing and automotive sector. So I’m really honoured that we have been recognized by our peers in the industry.

For the record, we won the Best Large Leasing Broker and Best Large Leasing Broker Customer Service Awards, and then to top it all we were named Leasing Broker of the Year. It doesn’t come much better than that.

But while I’m not shy of taking the glory stint on the night, I’m also acutely aware that there’s a whole team behind me making this possible.

Not only that, there’s a whole team willing to accept new ideas and explore changes to their working practice to improve the business we do and improve the customer experience of what we deliver – namely contract hire car and van leasing along with fleet management expertise.

In other words, investing in staff – in which I believe passionately – produces happier, more productive and more engaged staff.

For example, we’ve just changed our dress code: a small thing, but relevant nonetheless. We’ve moved from ‘smart’ to ‘smart casual’ where a good pair of jeans and a shirt with no tie are now acceptable attire. It’s about making staff feel more comfortable at work to create a more relaxed but productive environment.

And then we have our dress up days – such as our Halloween Spooktacular and our stress down days when we… well, we stress-bust. And not just those stress buster rubber desk balls, but expert head and shoulder massages, rides on a bicycle powered smoothie maker, and so on. It all puts a bit of fun into the workplace, and recognizes the human side of the people behind our award-winning service.

But most of all, our work ethos is underpinned by our Fleet Alliance Loves programme: it’s about developing the skills of our workforce and appreciating business in its wider, social context, and encouraging our core values of Engagement, Trust, Fairness and Respect whether through charitable work, community involvement or environmental practices.

If you think that’s just a load of fine-sounding words, here’s some context for you: the Fleet Alliance staff have very nearly raised £100,000 for charitable causes this year, which will take us to a total of £400,000 given to charity since 2008. That’s an incredible effort.

Encouraging staff, working ethically, and developing a sustainable future is central to what we do; it’s crucial in delivering such high standards of service to you, our customers.

And on behalf of all the staff here at Fleet Alliance, I was immensely proud to have that recognized at the Leasing Broker Awards.