Well, what do you know – after a busy (and very positive) start to the year, here we are in April, already reviewing the first quarter of 2022!
Over the last few months, we have seen the usual mix of customer and colleague success here at #TeamPelican, with plenty to celebrate and reflect on.
I want to start by talking about something we are incredibly passionate about at Pelican – delivering the very best customer service across the customer journey. We aim to live and breathe our values of ‘expert, trusted, engaging and helpful’ at all touchpoints we have with our customers, and it is always hugely pleasing to see that recognised in the quarterly C-MeX (Customer Measure of Experience) results for our clients, Wessex Water and Bristol Water.
We ended the 2021/22 financial year with another set of fantastic results: Wessex Water placed 1st and Bristol Water 6th overall for the year out of the UK’s 17 water and wastewater companies. For the Billing-only element of the performance, the Pelican team achieved a 2nd and 3rd place finish for the year for Wessex Water and Bristol Water respectively, which significantly contributed to the strong end of year results for both companies. This a truly fabulous outcome, one which all our #TeamPelican customer services team members worked hard to achieve, ensuring our customers receive a positive experience when they get in touch. Pelicans are known for being unique, so we are immensely proud to round off another successful year for us with these scores, which help us to #StandOutFromTheCrowd.
Closely related to this is developing our people-centric culture, where everyone feels comfortable bringing their true selves to work regardless of their background, sex, age or ethnicity. As part of our focus on diversity & inclusion, in February we celebrated the Chinese New Year and I can’t help but feel that this year’s zodiac, the Tiger, is especially fitting. Those born in the Year of the Tiger are known for being ‘ambitious, courageous, enthusiastic and generous’, with a ‘commitment to help others’. Whether through supporting customers or colleagues, this is everything we strive to achieve at Pelican, so I am certainly ready to embrace the Year of the Tiger! #EveryoneBelongs
If our support for International Women’s Day in March is anything to go by, our colleagues’ enthusiasm and willingness to engage with conversations about inclusivity is unwavering.
We marked the day by reflecting on the ‘Breaking the Bias’ theme and recognising the importance of a world free of bias, stereotypes and discrimination.
As a business, we are doing more than paying lip service to gender equality and I am excited to share that Pelican is working in partnership with an amazing organisation, ‘Women’s Work Lab’ (WWL). WWL was set up to support women getting back into the workplace; as part of a 12-week programme, the women spend four weeks in a workplace gaining some vital experience to increase their confidence. We are really excited to have two women join us in May for four weeks, to experience life at Pelican. Following a week of onboarding with our Learning & Development Team, they will spend time with our Credit Management, Customer Relations and Processing teams.
A special mention to our Pelican Culture, Inclusion and Diversity (CID) Champions for supporting this important initiative. We are looking forward to welcoming them into the Pelican family!
To cap it off, I am so proud to share that Pelican have achieved ‘Disability Confident Employer’ status, which is the second level of the disability confident programme. This demonstrates that all our business areas are committed to making the most of the talents that people living with disability bring to the workplace. In practice, this means guaranteeing an interview for any applicant who declares that they have a disability and meets the minimum requirements for the role. Recognising that disability is not just a physical condition, we will continue to provide information and advice on mental health.
Talking of mental health, over the last quarter we have continued to support a number of initiatives as we aim to raise awareness and increase understanding of some of the varied and often complex ways that we can all be affected. Between January and April, we recognised Blue Monday, Time to Talk Day, World Sleep Day and Stress Awareness Month, which saw a renewed focus on checking in with each other, taking some time away from our desks during lunchtime walks, and making use of our internal support networks such as our amazing Mental Health First Aiders.
Our team members’ mental health is always something I place at the top of my priority list, to ensure that we all have a safe, supportive, and understanding community that everyone feels part of.
Finally, I can’t complete a review of the last quarter without touching on all we have done for charities and the people they support. On top of the dress down days we held for our first quarterly charity of 2022, Help Bristol’s Homeless, we also supported Wear Red Day in February and Red Nose Day in March. Collectively, we raised over £900 across these events, an incredible achievement that reflects the kindness and generosity of #TeamPelican.
We will now look forward to supporting The Stroke Association during the next quarter – another very worthy cause that helps people rebuild their lives after a stroke.
We have another busy few months ahead and I can’t wait to share what we get up to with you in July! The summer will be in full swing (fingers crossed), and we will have enjoyed more long weekends for the Early May Bank Holiday and the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.
Enjoyed reading this blog? Why not take a look at our latest opportunities to join #TeamPelican on our careers page?