Thirteen strikes IIP Gold

The Gold award demonstrates that organisations have the right policies and systems in place to help employees develop. It also shows that everyone – from the CEO to the newest apprentice – takes ownership for making these policies come to life and improve life at work.

Only 17% of IIP accredited organisations achieve the gold award.

Heather Ashton, executive director of business change and improvement at Thirteen, said: “We're really thrilled to have achieved the Gold IIP accreditation.

“At Thirteen we’re committed to high performance through good people management and if we can give the right support to our colleagues, they can provide great services for our customers.

“The Gold IIP award demonstrates how we we’ve moved on from the Silver award we achieved a few years ago, and shows that we’ve put further measures in place to help us develop our colleagues.

"People are our biggest asset and as part of the accreditation process, we've been really pleased with the positive feedback we've received from, and about, all our colleagues.

"I’d like to thank colleagues across Thirteen whose hard work and dedication has been central to this fantastic achievement.”

Paul Devoy, CEO of Investors in People, said: “We’d like to congratulate Thirteen.

“Gold accreditation is a fantastic effort for any organisation and places Thirteen in fine company with a host of organisations that understand the value of people.”

At the end of last year, the assessors surveyed staff at Thirteen to get their opinions about what it’s like to work for the organisation. They also spent time with colleagues, talking to them about their experiences and examined systems, policies and procedures designed to help colleagues develop in their roles.

Throughout the assessment, colleagues gave their feedback and made suggestions which has helped Thirteen to produce a range of recommendations and develop an action plan to help carry on making changes, keep improving and keep moving forward.

David Ripley, executive director of customer services at Thirteen, said: "The Gold accreditation is only awarded to a very few organisations that are assessed, but there’s always something more to learn and we’re listening to colleagues to help us continually improve our learning and development services at Thirteen. 

“Although we're really proud of this achievement, this isn’t the end of the process. We’re committed to carry on developing our services for colleagues to help them achieve more for themselves, which will ultimately help them to continue improving our services for customers."