Grandir UK is officially a Great Place to Work!

We are delighted to share that Grandir UK has achieved the Great Place to Work accreditation!

Great Place to Work is known as the global authority on workplace culture and provides companies with a service which helps them to analyse both their successes and their challenges. They also give companies access to comprehensive data which allows them to see how they compare against fellow workplaces and their competitors, both nationally and internationally.

Great Place to Work’s service includes a survey for employees to answer. “The staff here are a joy to work with, everyone gets on really well,” was just one of the many fantastic employee comments we received in our survey!

They also provide a culture audit which allows companies to reflect on their activity, what they’ve implemented and whether it’s been successful for example, over the last 12 months.

Great Place to Work’s system operates by measuring five key areas within a workforce: trust, innovation by all, values, maximising human potential, and leadership effectiveness.

These are then broken down into 60 ‘statements’ each with their own score, which a company can then use to calculate their trust rating.

“They measure everything based on trust,” comments Gemma Goodman, our Head of HR. “There are low trust areas and high trust areas, and we scored well enough to gain the Great Place to Work accreditation based on our trust rating.”

In conducting the survey, we even found areas of success we weren’t previously aware of! According to Gemma, one of our highest scoring areas was ‘Fairness & Equality’, with 96% of people feeling that they are treated fairly regardless of their gender and 97% of people feeling fairly treated regardless of their sexual orientation.

Other areas where we scored highly includes a sense of purpose in the workplace, job security, taking pride in their work, and celebrating special events. Not only did Grandir UK scores highly in these key areas, but we scored above average when compared to other Great Place to Work accredited companies of a similar size!

“In our nursery we work well as team. Our managers in the building are amazing, and we are all treated with respect, and this is appreciated.” – quote from Grandir UK’s GPTW Survey.

Whilst very important, we are not only interested in celebrating our successes at Grandir UK. “It’s absolutely fantastic to get the accreditation, but it also shows what data is really important to our employees so that we can constantly evolve,” comments Caron Moseley-Helbert, our Head of Corporate, Social & Responsibility.

“Our employees are the most important assets that we have to deliver a quality service to families and children, therefore it’s really important to gain their feedback so that we can constantly evolve.”

“Our team is like a family; the team pulls together and staff members support each other…” Grandir UK GPTW Survey Quote

Achieving Great Place to Work has already had a big impact on attracting new talent for our nurseries. Gemma has already seen more people commenting on it in their interviews!

“I’ve had a lot of people say to me ‘I’ve seen that you’ve like recently became Great Place to Work accredited!’, so I think it’s definitely something that’s recognised, and it does help to attract staff.”

“People know you’re a company that can be trusted. So, I think this a really good attraction piece and definitely helps us to entice the talent that we are looking for.”

We hope that this accreditation will also help increase retention in the years to come.  “The more we survey our employees for feedback, over time, it will help retention as staff start to see the impact and change that comes from the survey,” says Caron. “That’s when this will be really important and that’s what we’re working on now.”

“The leadership team genuinely care and in meetings it is very clear that the children are at the heart of everyone’s decision making. It is one of the first times I have felt really proud to be part of an organisation.” – quote from Grandir UK’s GPTW Survey.

We found that progression and development was really important to our employees, which came out really strong in the report. “For us, it’s important to really enhance this,” says Caron.

“Our bespoke development and progression programmes, IGNITE and LEAP etc, that we’ve put in place are now on the second, some of them are on the third, cohorts now.”

“Seeing our employees use these programmes to get promotions, and the progression our employees are getting out of these training programmes, is really good to see! It just highlights that actually this is really important for our employees.”

Developing our current qualified staff is only the beginning. We have high hopes that this accreditation will also encourage others outside the childcare industry to give this career a go.

“It’s a part of a bigger piece,” says Gemma. “We’re doing an awful lot of attraction in terms of growing our own. We’ve got around 185 learners at the moment and we’re increasing all the time!”

“We hope that this accreditation helps us to stand out and show that we can actually deliver the career paths and progression that people looking for.”

One of Grandir UK’s big aims is to attract young people to the early years sector straight from compulsory education, emphasising that you can get paid to learn, better yourself through a meaningful career path and progress to a higher level.

“You can have a real sort of sense of pride and achievement in this career,” comments Gemma. “You really are doing things to promote children and make their lives better. It’s not just a career for money, it’s a career for life, one in which you can progress.”

Grandir UK has many fantastic career opportunities across our nurseries and preschools which are located all over the UK, as well as our support office in Hampshire. Our prestigious Great Place to Work accreditation makes us a unique player in the childcare sector.

To learn more about working with Grandir UK and to apply for an exciting, rewarding new career in childcare, please visit the Join our Team page.

A final word from Gemma: “For me, this is something that we’re really proud of! It’s an achievement for the business and its nice recognition when the candidates pick up on this good news too.”