About North Highland UK

Over the past year North Highlands have launched a programme for High Performing and High Potential people, called HP2. Its main objective is to support and retain high-performing individuals and develop them as future leaders of the business. HP2 is a two way programme, where the organisation commits to additional focus on the group through targeted interventions to stretch and develop them, with a commitment from them to embrace the opportunities provided. The business has invested a significant amount into the individuals on HP2 - by providing 1-2-1 monthly coaching sessions from the People Team (working through an action plan); prioritising people and ring-fencing them for challenging project roles; external career coaching from a professional coach (including action based learning group coaching); additional time with their Directors, and sending them on external training and conferences eg - London Business Forum events. The programme is highly transparent to the rest of the business because they wanted it to be something everyone can aspire to be on. The organisation have communicated the names of the individuals on the programme so that people can see what ‘good’ looks like and learn from them. Part of the criteria to be on HP2 is people showing personal alignment to North Highlands cultural values, being a role model and having exceptional client and team feedback on leadership behaviours. By being open about the people who possess these skills and behaviours, they ensure that everyone benefits and develops from the programme, not just those on it.

North Highlands spend approx. £150,000 per year on our quarterly ‘Action Days’ and social events that follow. They bring the entire company together, taking them off client work and forfeiting revenue, for a day of brainstorming sessions, team building and competitive games (eg: sports day activities, scavenger hunts, treasure hunts) and business updates. There are regular team-building events for the Director group. These are usually two-day off-site events which focus on developing camaraderie and community amongst leaders. They include both interactive business sessions and team-building exercises in the form of outdoor pursuits, eg – tree-climbing in teams. Additionally, everyone in the organisation is part of a North Highland ‘Family’, to encourage social belonging, a close-knit feel, and help individuals to establish networks across the business. Each family is given a budget per quarter for organised social events, they choose and arrange them. Events range from breakfasts and dinners, to activities like cooking lessons, laughter therapy and circus skills training. This year they introduced a competitive edge whereby families worked together to win points (called “Puppals”) throughout the year based on events they organised and competitions at Action Days. There was a leaderboard promoting the number of Puppals won, this culminated with a sports day at their r 10 Year Celebration event where large amounts of Puppals were awarded. The winning Family was announced, and the prize was an extra day of annual leave for each family member with money to spend on treating an actual family member!

North Highland's CSR programme is innovative because they donate money, time and business advice to a worthy cause. The programme is held together by their Community Team, a group of employees that meet regularly to discuss how the company can actively give back to the community via a number of different initiatives. “ChallengeU” is the most effective thing they do as part of the programme; the annual fundraising event is a gruelling physical challenge to raise money for WF Haven, North Highland's charity of the year. This year they endeavoured to cover the distance of 4,000miles (the distance from their London office to their Atlanta HQ). 78 people took part, each person signed up to cover a specific number of miles by cycling, running, walking or rowing, so they could reach the total target. This included a core group of cyclists who covered over 250 miles each in 18 hours, and 1 individual who ran 55 miles. The team actually achieved 5,781 miles in total, and were supported by a team of North Highlanders who stayed around the clock to co-ordinate everything, track the miles, and cheer them on. A team of 20 employees spent 6 months planning the route, organising bicycle hire, medical support, fundraising strategies and organise the celebration party at the Mosely boat club. In total they raised over £20,000 from the ChallengeU event, which went to WF Haven. North Highlands have remained involved with the charity, helping them with their governance and website design.