Our business growth depends on the strength of those relationships. Our own team and our partners play a fundamental role in our mission to provide quality food and drink. We also continue to make significant progress in promoting positive practices across our entire supply chain.
Leadership Development at Princes
In 2016 we embarked on the journey of putting a more structured development path in place for all existing and new managers across Princes, the first part of this was to launch a new Leadership Essentials training programme. This programme is aimed at all managers across all sites and was the start of a more structured approach to developing management capability. To date over 700 managers have now attended this training, it’s three days long and covers the fundamentals of what a great manager and leader look like at Princes.
The training has received formal Programme Recognition from the National Skills Academy for Food and Drink, this means the content has been independently reviewed to ensure it delivers the skills and behaviours required to be a great leaders across the Food and Drink Industry. The process we went through to achieve this was no mean feat and it’s something we are very proud to hold and tells us we are raising the bar of leadership across our business. Achieving accreditation means our managers are walking the walk and talking the talk and can be seen as credible leaders in their role.
21 managers from Liverpool and Bradford attended a Leadership Essentials Graduation ceremony hosted by Board and Louise Codling the CEO of the National Skills Academy in October 2018 and this number is set to rise as we progress through our Accreditation process.
Apprenticeships
Through the introduction of the Apprenticeship Levy in May 2017 our Learning and Development team have reviewed our Professional Development approach and work with many externally approved training providers to create programmes which support ongoing people development strategy across our operations .
We have had a Food and Drink Maintenance Engineer Apprentice programme in place for many years across our UK sites, we currently have 54 Apprentices in place and 15 of which are now on the new Levy funded Trailblazer programme. The development of new Trailblazers has given us the opportunity to explore these programmes for our existing employees and we have 54 of our colleagues studying for Apprenticeships such as ILM Level 3 & 5, Chartered Institute of Purchase and Supply, CIPD & Business Analyst programmes. Working with external providers has made it possible to develop some in-house programmes which support the overall Princes people development strategy.
Gender Pay Gap
Our people are at the heart of our strategy to be a first choice food and drink group and we continuously review how we operate to ensure we do not discriminate against anyone – this applies to remuneration, career development, training and bonuses.
Taking into account national and industry statistics, our Gender Pay Gap is low. Overall, we are performing well when compared to the economy as a whole, the manufacturing sector and most of the other comparative organisations who have reported.