The Woodland Trust’s journey towards excellence

As part of its 10 year strategy the Grantham-based Woodland Trust is aiming to become one of the best organisations to work for in the UK.

Over the last five years the charity has doubled its workforce and expanded its staffing presence away from its Dysart Road base to the regions.

With this in mind the charity has looked to boost the way it delivers communications to its employees. In addition new regulations in the charity sector required it to also test and develop its staff management processes. An increasingly diverse workforce also drove changes in the way the charity thought about the needs and motivations of its people.

Staff survey results were successful and there had been a steady rise in engagement figures, but wanting to take the next step in its evolution the charity turned to Investors in People for advice and guidance on promoting a best practice framework for leadership and management practices.

Using the Investors in People framework and assessment process was the logical way forward for the Trust. The assessment – a comprehensive process to gather an organisation wide perspective – was undertaken in summer of 2018. An initial meeting with the management team was held to gather context about the Trust, followed by an all employee survey and face-to-face meetings with employees and volunteers. Evidence and metrics were also presented to demonstrate leadership and management practices.

The Trust subsequently received a best practice award against the Investors in People framework.

Nicola McDonnell, HR Lead, at the Woodland Trust said: “We were thrilled to be awarded the first level of accreditation in our very first assessment. This gave us the confidence that we are doing it right, and from now on we can only get better, focusing on the areas that mean the most to our people.

“Our people are highly passionate about our cause, and we’re equally passionate about  valuing our employees. As an employer we want to ensure we have the best possible culture and processes in place to enable our people to make a difference.

“It’s vital that we have effective working practices in place to engage and motivate our                 employees and that our management team is effective in driving our strategy forward.”

This is the first step on the Trust’s journey with Investors in People to ensure continuous development and improvement but the Trust is delighted to have received the best practice award on its first assessment.

Investors in People has already made a difference to the Trust. The Trust planted 600 trees in recognition of its workforce to celebrate its accreditation. We are continuing to make improvements to become one of the best organisations to work for in the UK.