With new owners, a growing team and a refreshed set of company values, it has been a busy time for Sara Stephens, Head of People at Seras. We sat down with Sara to talk about all things HR including company culture, wellbeing, and future growth.
What kind of culture do you aim to create at Seras?
We have entered a new era with Pioneer Point Partners taking ownership of the business, followed by our exciting new brand and identity. Our values – to Take Care, Accomplish More, Be Stronger Together and Be Forward Thinking – sit at the heart of our culture. They reflect our ethos to be an inclusive and welcoming business built on inclusivity rather than hierarchy. It is important to give everyone the opportunity to be the best version of themselves. Our People Forum reinforces a culture which ensures everyone is heard and valued.
How do Seras support the mental health and wellbeing of its people?
Take Care is not just about health and safety but prioritising the health and wellbeing of all our people. We have over 25 trained Mental Health First Aiders (MHFAs) and we have a further 12 who will receive training in the coming months. Men’s mental health is particularly important to us as a large part of our workforce are male LGV drivers, shift workers and in some cases remote lone workers.
We have a wellbeing lead who oversees our Wellbeing Plan which encompasses the physical, mental, social and financial pillars of wellness. This provides a holistic approach to looking after our people. We have recently launched our new employee health cash plan, provided by Medicash. The scheme covers everyday healthcare costs, such as optical, dental, discounted gym membership, complementary and alternative therapies as well as a range of digital and virtual wellbeing benefits. Our Benefits portal also provides a fantastic range of wellbeing and holistic benefits including free financial and mortgage advice, virtual GP, and shopping discounts plus our employee assistance programme that also provides support with fitness, nutrition, mindfulness, meditation and much more.
How are you embedding the Seras vision and values across the business?
Our vision to make waste matter in our sustainable energy future is front and centre of our recruitment activities. We are also incorporating our values across our recruitment processes. We do this byensuring they are embedded intorole profiles and providing managers with confidence to ask the right questions. As a gold holder of the Armed Forces Covenant, our commitment to ex-forces personnel is a key part of our company ethos. Around 15% of our workforce are veterans which is something we are very proud of.
What are your key strategic priorities for the next year?
A key focus over the next year is to develop and implement the Learning and Development Plan. This is a really important area which reflects our company culture to promote development and celebrate success. We have a robust apprenticeship programme in place and great subject matter experts in the business which form a great foundation for this work. We have recently appointed a Learning and Development Manager to take this forward, and they will be joining the business in early May.
We have ambitious plans to grow as a business. The Board and Senior Leadership Team are looking at what that will look like, whether that is organic or through acquisition, so it will be important to retain a people-first culture as we grow.
What are the key challenges faced by the Seras People function?
There is a fast pace of change with employment legislation. We need to consider how the forthcoming Employment Bill will impact how we run our operations and ensure our managers and colleagues are fully versed with this.
Our main challenge is that we have a geographically dispersed workforce so it can be difficult to engage with teams across the organisation. Some of our workforce, such as our drivers, don’t always have easy access to technology to be able to communicate. So, we always need to consider how we keep our employees up to date and make them feel attached to the business. We have also recently appointed a Communications and Marketing Manager, who will support both internal and external communications and marketing moving forward. I am looking forward to working with them on continuing to develop and improve how we engage effectively with all our colleagues and stakeholders.
What has been your proudest moment so far from your time at Seras?
I have been with the business for over six years and it has been a bit of a rollercoaster. We were previously part of a Group so sat as a collective function. Then Covid hit which meant new ways of working for everyone. Now we have come out the other side following the business’ acquisition. We are very much in a new era now with full ownership of the People function and a shared vision driving the business forward.
For me my proudest moment is when I look at what a great team I have, their rigour, their determination, their hard work and their passion to do the best for the business. The team has doubled in size over the last 18 months, and I just couldn’t be prouder of them. They have taken on every new challenge, task and experience with such commitment and optimise all our values every day, I could not do what I do without them.
