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Our Culture
At APT, we aim to create a culture where we support, trust and learn from each other. We all take responsibility for developing our culture and helping to make the organisation one that we want to be part of. One where we feel valued and empowered.
We value diverse perspectives and seek to bring these into the organisation and our work.
Trying new things is encouraged and it’s ok to make mistakes – we learn from them. We allow time for learning and reflection and we seek to grow and develop as individuals and as an organisation.
Leadership is important and distributed throughout the organisation. By that, we mean that everyone is a leader and takes responsibility for leading their respective work areas.
The wellbeing of our team is important too – we are open to ideas and do what we can to support this, including actively encouraging flexible working and a healthy work/life balance.
And we care about the environment, doing what we can to reduce our carbon footprint and adopt sustainable forms of travel.
Our People Plan
Our ethos, shaped by our culture, values and behaviours, influences how we work, providing the context and foundations for our people plan.
Our culture, values and behaviours are embedded across the organisation and reflected in everything we do from our engagement with communities to how we work together as a team. Empowering people, enabling devolved leadership, fostering a collaborative environment without a sense of hierarchy – is how this translates in practice.
This ethos underpins our people plan and we must continue to focus on this if we are to play our part in delivering the vision set out in Making Our Move: Uniting the Movement in Notts and Derbyshire,
Therefore our People Plan emphasises the importance of nurturing a positive and inclusive working environment, within which we can build a diverse organisation, equipped with the skills and qualities needed to play our part in leading Making our Move.
To do this, we will prioritise the following:
- ATTRACT diverse and talented people into our organisation
- ENGAGE so people feel connected and part of the team
- DEVELOP our people to be great leaders in their work
- LOOK AFTER our people, supporting their health and wellbeing at work
ATTRACT
We strive to be an employer of choice that attracts diverse and talented people into our organisation. As a charity we recognise we can’t compete with the private sector in terms of pay but we can and do offer an inclusive culture and a positive working environment that is flexible and supportive of growth and development.
Actions:
Key to attracting the diversity and talent we need will be:
•Demonstrating our strong commitment to Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI)
•Continue to seek and collect internal feedback on our EDI processes and external feedback on our EDI practices
•Showcasing and ensuring visibility of our values and ways of working
•Actively maintaining our networks and developing relationships with potential future recruits
•Reviewing our employee benefits and support to see if we can improve our offering
So far we have:
•Focused on embedding our culture, values and behaviours in everything that we do, creating an environment where everyone feels comfortable and can bring their whole selves to work.
•Embedded flexible ways of working and made adjustments in response to staff feedback
•Carefully considered and benchmarked our pay, alongside affordability and cost of living.
•Completed our DIAP, setting out our internal priorities and actions (link here)
•Implemented a new recruitment process to reduce bias and help attract greater diversity
ENGAGE
Ensuring the team are engaged and connected is critical to embedding our values and sustaining the collaborative, inclusive and supportive working environment that we have been working on.
Feedback and staff surveys have shown that engagement with our shared purpose and values is strong, connectivity amongst team members has become more challenging as our working patterns have become more flexible.
Actions:
Key to ensuring our people are connected and engaged will be:
•Establishing ways to receive continuous feedback and maintain awareness of how connected and engaged the team feel
•Regular team-building activities to strengthen relationships.
•Maintain open communication platforms (team meetings, check-ins, safe spaces for learning) to provide a range of opportunities to communicate and connect internally.
•Establish more formal and informal mentoring and/or buddying for new starters and others who would benefit
•Proactively maintain engagement around our shared purpose, values and behaviours ensuring are empowered and enabled to lead this
So far we have:
•Team check-in every Monday morning
•Monthly in-person whole team meetings
•Regular team development and team-building sessions
•Creating supportive spaces for learning and reflection relevant to our work.
•Social events and gathering for informal interaction
•Reviewed our induction processes, specifically considering connecting and engaging new starters
•Established a variety of mechanisms for discussion and feedback and held team development sessions on the importance of giving and receiving feedback
DEVELOP
Investing in our people – developing, supporting and empowering them to lead and grow – is fundamental to our overall ambition within this plan – an organisation with the skills and qualities needed to play our part in leading Making Our Move.
Trying new things is encouraged and it’s ok to make mistakes – we learn from them. We allow time for learning and reflection and we seek to grow and develop as individuals and as an organisation. We actively value, encourage and enable learning individually and organisationally through a variety of means, both formal and informal, and this is set out in our Learning Framework.
As a small team, opportunities for career progression internally are limited. However, by embracing a systemic approach, in the spirit of Making Our Move, if we empower team members to reach their full potential and they transition into roles elsewhere in the system, it will contribute to having more of the skills and qualities we need across the system working towards our shared vision.
We aim to support and empower everyone to lead in ways that are relevant to their role and their work – leadership is distributed throughout the organisation rather than being determined by hierarchy. The whole team take responsibility for leading their respective work areas. We adopt a matrix management approach to ensure we operate across role boundaries and hierarchies and make the most of the varied skills we have across the organisation.
Working in a systemic way can feel challenging and slow at times. It requires a collective focus on outcomes, a willingness to genuinely collaborate, time invested in relationships and mindsets that are open and supportive of this way of working – open to new ideas, actively seeking new perspectives etc.
Actions:
Our succession plan identifies key skills and experience required across our various functions and ensures continuity plans are in place to minimise disruption when people move on or need to take time off. We regularly monitor and review our staff make-up to ensure we have the right people with the right mix of skills and adopt inclusive leadership practices to ensure fair treatment and access to roles and opportunities for all staff.
Building on what we have done to date our priorities are:
•Maintain commitment to delivery of our individual and team development plans
•Identify priorities for future board and panel development
•Review and update our learning framework
•Maintain momentum with the development of our culture, values and behaviours and in particular, inclusive practice
•Consider where we need to repeat past training for new starters and offer current team members an option to refresh their skills.
•Consider implications of organisational growth on our ability to support and develop our people to the same level we currently are.
So far we have:
•Developed a learning culture, and articulated this in a learning framework
•Individual and team development plans, supported by a dedicated learning and development budget.
•Reviewed our development and review process, embedding our values and behaviours and 360 feedback.
•Invested in systems leadership training for the whole team
•Delivered team training on facilitation skills
•Supported the development of 2 cohorts of ‘behaviour champions’ – bespoke training on facilitation to support our values and behaviours
•Leading for Renewal training for the whole team, delivered by Inclusive Employers
•Delivered team training on giving and receiving feedback
•Offered individual coaching and mentoring as needed
LOOK AFTER
Our team is our greatest strength and therefore the wellbeing of our team is paramount. Aligned to our culture and values, we aim to provide a supportive and caring working environment through empathy and understanding, enabling us to attend to the individual needs and challenges of our team members.
Our staff survey shows this contributes significantly to employees feeling valued. In addition, we encourage a healthy work-life balance, provide opportunities for activity to be built into the day or commute and we support various options to work more flexibly.
Actions:
Building on what we already have in place we will:
•Review the range of benefits we offer and consider how we can improve these
•Review existing and develop new policies that will further support health and well-being
•Maintain an appreciation of well-being across the team
•Seek feedback from team members on how to improve the support we offer.
So far we have:
•A range of policies that support the wellbeing of our team, including a health and wellbeing policy that was developed by the team.
•Regular check-ins on work-life balance
•Flexible working policy
•Family friendly policy
•Provide a comfortable working environment
•Developed a range of ways to build activity into our day – walk and talk meetings, netwalk meetings, regular breaks, encourage proper lunch breaks etc.
•Cycle to Work scheme to help with purchase of bicycles for active travel
Outcomes and Measures
Attract
- People will want to come and work for us – increase in applicants and diversity of applicants – recruitment data and EDI survey
- Improved benefits package
Engage
- Team and Board feel connected and engaged – staff survey and individual reviews
- Culture values and behaviours embedded – staff survey, EDI survey
- Revised induction process implemented – all staff taking responsibility
Develop
- Individual, Board and team training and development plans delivered and skills gained
- Learning culture embedded – staff survey
- Increase in confidence and improved practices around EDI – EDI survey
Look After
- All relevant policies reviewed
- Improved benefits package
- A healthy, happy team with a good work-life balance – staff survey
Review
Our People Plan is a live document that’s regularly reviewed by the team and adjusted as necessary as part of our action plan and by the Board as part of our governance.
The actions within our people plan are drawn from our annual action plan, which incorporates all actions within our business improvement, marketing and EDI actions. As such, responsibility for the different actions are shared across the team according to individual roles.
Our CEO, Workforce Lead and Head of Operations will manage the annual review process and work with the People and Resources sub-committee of the Board to monitor overall progress and report to the main Board. In addition, the plan will be reviewed annually by our Board of Trustees and findings will be shared openly with the team.
Success will be monitored through a mix of qualitative and quantitative measures including HR data, staff and partner surveys, marketing analytics, EDI, recruitment data and capturing informal feedback throughout the year.