About AFI Group

AFI’s Senior Management Team demonstrate their commitment by promoting and following three basic principles for the company. The company’s Chairman David Shipman has the same number of holidays as any other employee. He is also field based, along with the rest of the board. AFI’s structure is so flat that no employee in the business is more than three places from the Chairman. David's mobile phone number is published on the intranet site and he regularly points out during his interactions with the team that he is contactable by email and phone. He is highly personable and employees sometimes "backslap" him during his visits to sites and refer to him as "Davey". It’s not the standard term of address for him but the important thing is he doesn't demand respect from anyone. A number of employees have become parents this year and David has sent them all congratulatory text messages and bouquets of flowers with baby toys to their home address. He also always encourages feedback from employees on his Senior Team, as he wants to know that they are being supported correctly.

AFI invest approximately £200,000 per year into training to ensure that their employees work safely and can develop their careers. The company are averaging over four training days per employee each year and have also introduced a series of e-learning modules so that employees can learn at a time, a place and a pace that suits their needs. AFI have also developed a comprehensive induction programme to prepare new members of staff for working in the industry. Health and safety is a key part of AFI’s induction process, so they have added the IOSH Managing Safely programme into their induction as a mandatory requirement for all Senior Managers. This has played a major role in significantly reducing AFI’s Accident Frequency Rate, as their accident frequency rate is currently 1.57 per 10,000 working hours, which is industry leading for a "blue collar" industry. The jewel in AFI’s crown for employee development is their Training Plus scheme, which supports employees for non-job related training. The focus is on personal development, for example football coaching, foreign languages, skiing, clay pigeon shooting lessons and bible studies. The most common request is driving lessons and the company support about five employees per year with financial assistance for these.

All employees are financially linked to their department’s Return on Sales. This provides a pool of cash for each individual that can then be increased based on other factors, such as Customer Service and Health and Safety. These elements are broken down into smaller measurements, which are then reported to the employees so they can see areas for improvement as a group or individually. There is also comparative information between depots and departments. The scheme actively encourages development of individuals and teams, as well as interdepartmental discussions on developing improvement strategies. Acting safely and responsibly is an integral element of the AFI philosophy and the company will continually seek to improve and revise their processes in order to deliver a safe working environment. They want the families of their employees to know that their family member is safe at work and will arrive home that evening. As a result of this AFI have been accredited with the ROSPA Gold Award for commitment to the health and safety of team members and customers.