A motivational start to 2020

Burnley based Business BCW has taken a fresh and modern approach in an attempt to beat those January Blues with a kick start to January 2020. 4 Lancs Regiment — “The Duke of Lancasters”, BCW’s local Reserve Regiment attended site for a team-building activity with a series of motivational exercises for their workforce. The partnership with the Armed Forces has been going from strength to strength following BCW’s pledge, in early 2019, when they signed the Armed Forces Covenant and were awarded the Defence Employer Recognition Scheme Bronze Award.

The event was a huge success with 63 shop floor staff participating in the fun command tasks and activities. By their nature, teambuilding tasks develop skills such as communication, teamwork, and problem-solving. Brent Collins BCW’s MD gave a short business update to all attendees confirming BCW’s commitment to future employee engagement.

To access all shifts and capture as many staff members as possible, BCW worked with the 4 Lancs Regiment and provided 4 sessions over each shift change including a 4 am activity, much to the surprise of the Reservists. Captain Alan Goodenough, OIC 4 Lancs Employer Engagement said, “It is impressive to see an organisation like BCW commit to engaging with their local Army Reserves, and put so much effort into ensuring such a successful event – very well done!”

Brent Collins, MD said, “Employee engagement has always been important to BCW however, operational commitments have often meant we have been unable to facilitate what we have wanted. Our staff are always in our minds, and we are aiming to create these sorts of sessions for our valued staff in the future. It was great to see so many smiles from colleagues, and the interaction between teams and departments who now share a common sense of teamwork from this experience.”

Whilst on site 4 LANCS took the opportunity to speak to the teams about becoming an Army Reservist and were excited by the level of engagement, 25 expressions of interest were received and some of these went forward to the face to face meetings at Somme Barracks in Blackburn – record numbers for 4 LANCS, and very happy staff. As BCW head for the DRS Silver Award, they will continue to encourage and support those individuals fully.

A few comments from the day:
“Excellent fun activities, made some new friends and got to talk to real Reservists at play!”
“I have never laughed so much in all my days!”
“What a great thing to be involved with – when is the next event?”
“We WON! Loving the spork, pen and a mug – I really enjoyed it!”

The Armed Forces Covenant seeks companies to pledge to support Veterans, Service Leavers, the Wounded Ill and Sick Reservists, Cadets, and those family members of the military.

To find out more, visit: Armed Forces Covenant or contact
Wing Cdr Chris Ashworth RAFVR – Regional Employer Engagement Director North West
0151 317 9159 nw-reedn@rfca.mod.uk
or BCW’s Armed Forces Champion Ashley St John Claire
07790 815754, Ashley.stjc@bcw-engineering.co.uk