Acumen Academy

Our aim is for Acumen to be modern, inclusive and attractive and some of the measures we have in place to achieve this include:

• Mentoring Schemes – Matches made with more experienced team members, which gives individuals somebody to support them whilst also demonstrating to mentors that the business values their own commitment and valued knowledge.
• Shadowing Days – Members of various teams spending ‘a day in the life of’ with other members of internal staff/drivers/external team members and on-site crews where possible.
• Cross training – Acumen Academy actively promotes fluid information and knowledge between each department, it is vital that we offer our customers the best solutions possible across our group business.
• CSR – The Acumen Academy is vital for our Corporate Social Responsibility aims and objectives, active engagement is the key to its success. This includes participating in cross training presentations, local community works, guest speaker engagement.

Maximising Talent encompasses the overall development of our people; their professional and physical development and also their personal learning. This includes a comprehensive range of courses (including apprenticeships and higher education opportunities).

Acumen has several apprentice opportunities and a successful graduate career development programme. Furthermore; we work with our Leadership training partner to deliver a bespoke ‘Future Leaders Programme’ which aims to develop the strategic thinkers of the future.

We endeavour to ensure procedural consistency to make sure that all employees are:

• Placed in roles that are fully mapped out, with clear job brief and objectives;
• Selected based on ability and competence for the role;
• Take part in DISC based behavioural assessments as an additional tool to aid ‘round peg, round hole’ decisions;
• Inducted – both initially and on an ongoing basis;
• Given regular, specific and worthwhile training and development;
• Live and breath Acumen as second-nature;
• Regularly and tangibly reviewed against objectives;
• Mentored by colleagues as part of a formal scheme;
• Consistently managed – sharing the burden;
• Provided with the opportunity to develop and progress;
• Given emotional support and help.

Failure to balance and stabilise the workforce is a strategic risk to outputs and morale.

Maintaining staff levels is a top-level priority. Therefore, we focus on recruiting the right people and then retaining them for the long-term by ensuring that the conditions for success are satisfied and under constant review i.e. the right level of responsibility and workload is achieved for each individual.

Additionally, we recognise the importance of the unwritten assumptions between us and our employees about the appropriateness and value of the social exchange. We believe that value has three core meanings; worth, respect and belief and utilise this thread as a benchmark to judge the success of our people management plan.

Value, in terms of worth, relates to how each side creates added value for the other. Therefore, we are committed to performing frequent salary reviews and pension benefit provisions. Furthermore, training to enhance skills and create better future job opportunities is provided and monitored according to the individual and company needs. Value, as respect, refers to how we as an organisation regard our employees. We want our staff to feel pride in the organisation and believe that their hard work is recognised and as such, opportunities for advancement is provided across all parts of the business and aided by such initiatives as our ‘Future Leaders’ Programme. Lastly, values as a belief relates to the degree of alignment our employees feel between the values they hold and the company such as: Service, Integrity and Safety.

This lived experience of our personnel will be continually improved in order to retain a committed and motivated workforce. The key areas of focus are: job satisfaction; personal development; professional fulfilment; the opportunity for new challenges; and comradeship.

Working without causing damage to people, resources or the environment is our goal. In order to achieve this, Acumen has set an overall target of zero accidents, because we are convinced that all accidents can be prevented.

Acumen’s safety policy is an integral part of our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policy. Safety is in our DNA and it is the starting point for everything we do.

Safety is embedded in the organisation. We provide information, instruction and supervision and we choose safe working methods, setting the conditions for the execution of every task. The safety culture is just as important as our safety policy. By encouraging, supervising and motivating each other to work safely, we will be able to achieve our target of zero accidents.

Terms and Conditions are the agreements between a member of staff and Acumen on how the individual will be employed and what the company will provide in return. Terms and Conditions combined with the lived experience is referred to as ‘The Offer’.

Prior to joining, each potential employee assesses whether the offer – personal to them – competes with any other external offers they may have. This evaluation of the offer changes throughout a career and is unique to each individual. We are mindful of this ever changing personal circumstance and aim to understand through dialogue and report the individual’s needs.