About The Aspire Group

The senior management team at The Aspire Group have increased visibility, in particular at their spotlight briefings. The Group holds their spotlight briefings each 6 weeks across all their 5 main sites. This is an opportunity to communicate feedback, listen to, and engage colleagues. The briefings are attended by up to 100 people per site and staff are provided with a breakfast as an incentive. Members of the senior management team host these briefings and they have meant that a wider proportion of colleagues have the opportunity to see them, listen and provide feedback. This visibility has led to improved accessibility to the senior team and a better understanding between senior management and front line service delivery issues. The briefings are themed according to the time of year and current corporate priorities, so for example there is an annual review in October and a look ahead to the New Year in April.

The Aspire Group’s mission and purpose is to support the communities it serves. However, they have gone further than being simply a provider of housing, training and neighbourhood services by creating a unique regeneration charity, the Realise Foundation, which adds value to the group’s work. The charity is funded partly through the profit made by the group’s social enterprises which is donated in gift aid. Income also comes from corporate sponsorship from the group’s suppliers and through fundraising from the group’s staff. Activities have included sponsored runs, a team hike up Snowdon, a balloon race, a sponsored swim, an inter-company football match and many cake bake-offs! The company’s suppliers have also joined in with sponsored car washes, barbeques and cake sales. Nearly £100,000 has been raised in fundraising since the charity’s launch in 2010 and £1m has been invested.

The Aspire Group believes the employee’s voices are extremely important to them if they are to exceed their corporate ambitions. The Group listens to employees through the following key ways: regular team meetings, spotlight briefings ask for feedback and provide the chance to ask questions, working groups to support decisions on policy changes such as new benefits etc., a trade union forum, they use their intranet to capture ideas and queries and also have regular meet the CEO sessions for new colleagues. The Group celebrates various initiatives that allow them to engage colleagues on a particular area. For example in the past year they themed Adult Learners Week as Go further for customers – which is one of the organisation’s values and a key initiative to improve customer service. They have also held volunteering week to encourage staff to take up volunteering opportunities and Realise week, which raised awareness of their Realise Foundation charity. In addition, they have a programme of process and/or service reviews which engages teams in the service chain to improve the customer experience.