December 2021

As we approach the end of another year, I thought I would share a bit of an update on what has been an incredibly busy quarter for #TeamPelican.

Firstly, let’s talk customer service. I’ve mentioned in my blogs before about CMeX, the method used by the regulator to monitor customer service levels in the water industry, and I am incredibly proud to share that both Wessex Water and Bristol Water remain two of the highest performing water wholesalers in the market, with Wessex Water retaining their number one position year to date. The most recent scores announced in November saw us achieve our best billing scores since the implementation of CMeX. #Proud

Pelican, who provide the end-to-end customer journey for Wessex Water and Bristol Water, are incredibly proud to support our parent companies in their journey for service excellence, and the entire team have been extremely busy, looking for new and improved ways to improve and simplify the journey for customers even further.

Continuing on the theme of customer service and #TeamPelican have had an incredible few months on the awards run. In September, Pelican were thrilled to be announced the winner of the Customer Excellence Award at the Business Leader Awards. The ceremony, which was held at Ashton Gate Stadium, was an excellent opportunity to celebrate our recent success, but also to spend time with many likeminded businesses; passionate about customer excellence.

Following our success at the Business Leader Awards, we were very excited to be announced as a finalist in seven categories at the South West Contact Centre Awards. We attended the awards, held at the Bristol Marriott Hotel, with a number of our customer services team, and by the end of the evening we had snapped up a total of four wins! We were incredibly proud to bring home Best People Engagement, Best Customer Engagement, Mental Health in the Workplace, and the jewel in our crown, Contact Centre of the Year! These awards really are a testament to our amazing people who have continued to work incredibly hard throughout the pandemic to support our customers. 

In November, we were finally able to get our customer service leaders in the same room for the first time in two years, after many months of virtual briefings due to Covid-19. Although virtual leadership events have been an excellent way to keep in touch with our people regularly, and most importantly safely, you just can’t beat a face to face get together. I was pleased to provide our leaders with a number of key updates, along with our Director of Customer Services Oliver Jerrome and Director of Customer Billing Amy Badman, before passing to our Learning and Development Manager Joe Henderson, to run a fantastic coaching session.

We finished the session with a Q&A, followed by recognising some of our leaders with some very well-deserved leadership awards. Congratulations to all of our very worthy winners. 

A group of our leaders smiling and holding their certificates who won awards at our Leadership awards

November also saw us able to meet our class of 2021 People’s Council for the first-time face to face. Our People’s Council is made up of representatives from all across our business, who meet regularly to share highlights, but most importantly, raise ideas and improvements directly with our senior leadership team. Our People’s Council has been running now for six years, and in that time, we have seen a huge amount of change, from simplifications that have massively improved the journey for our customers, to brand new initiatives which have supported our people in a number of areas including professional development, mental health support and new and improved policies.

During the session, our Council also voted on our 2022 charities, which are put forward by team members from across our business, and I am pleased to share our new quarterly charities are:

Quarter 1 - Help Bristol’s Homeless - Aiming to change the face of homelessness across Bristol by creating a gated community of self-contained micro flats from shipping containers, providing temporary accommodation.

Quarter 2 - The Stroke Association - Supporting people to rebuild their lives after a stroke by providing specialist support and funding critical research

Quarter 3 - The Alzheimer’s Society - The UK’s leading dementia charity: supporting people living with dementia, campaigning for change and funding research to find a cure. 

Quarter 4 - The Rainbow Trust - Supporting families who have children aged 0-18 with life-threatening or terminal illness. 

Onto Health and Wellbeing, and October saw the return of a fan favourite; Halloween. There is nothing our team like more than a good old fancy dress competition, and even better when we are fundraising for charity at the same time. It was fantastic to see the enthusiasm and effort put in by our team, and as the old saying goes, I think these pictures tell a thousand words!

Finally, I wanted to touch on diversity and inclusion. Across our business, and the wider Wessex Water Group, we have a team of dedicated Culture, Inclusion and Diversity (CID) champions. These champions work together, to ensure every single person who walks through our doors, feel that they can comfortably, and without judgement, bring their true authentic selves to work every day.

In September we celebrated National Inclusion Week, something we recognise every year, and this year we dedicated the week to our amazing working groups. 

Our working groups and support networks, including our Health and Wellbeing Committee, Working Parents Network, Mental Health First Aiders and People’s Council, are ran by our people, for our people, each having senior leadership support and sponsorship to ensure key ideas and actions are progressed. These networks provide amazing support in a variety of methods, and I am incredibly proud of the network leads, and attendees of these networks, for their collaborative approach towards further developing our inclusive culture.

We also saw the launch of our latest network, The ARC Alliance, which is the Wessex Water Group LGBTQ+ network. The network has representation from all areas of the Wessex Water Group, including Pelican, and their three key aims are to educate, to support and to influence. It has been fantastic to see this network take hold so quickly, with team members across Pelican joining the regular meetings, already creating some fantastic resources and support initiatives.

So that’s all from me this quarter. As we approach the festive period, the only thing left for me to say is that I wish everyone a merry Christmas and a very happy New Year.