Veriserv Sponsor the Realise Foundation Darts Competition

Veriserv Sponsor the Realise Foundation Darts Competition which was held on 8th October 2016.

The Realise Foundation held its fourth Darts Competition on Saturday 8th October, attracting a range of darts players, from pub players to a former World top 10, Andy Hamilton. The aim of the day was primarily to raise funds for the Charity, but also raise awareness of the Realise Foundation’s work and the support they offer to young people, whilst providing a great day to everyone that attended.

veriserv-sf-board The day proved to be a huge success, with over 100 people attending and over £6.5k raised. This will enable the Charity to support at least 13 young adults into apprenticeships, thus improving their future career prospects.

Ben Morris the charity co-ordinator said; As a semi final sponsor, Veriserv’s support to the Charity is invaluable, ensuring that the event was a huge success. Next years event will take place on Saturday 7th October, with further details to be confirmed closer to the date.

Aspire Housing provide support and work together with the Realise Foundation charity to provide essential support to over 650 young people each year in the Staffordshire region, to help progress them in their education and subsequently gain employment.

Gift aid from PM Training and donations from local people and business, provide Realise with the financial support required to make this happen.

Also supported are a number of progressive initiatives to improve neighbourhoods and disadvantaged communities; help people overcome barriers to skills, support people into employment, tackle health inequalities, and assist in the development of people’s confidence,independence and self-reliance.

veriserv-sf-2

 

This essential support includes the provision of work wear, tool-kits, lap tops, driving lessons, personal development training, creative artwork and environmental improvements.

The Realise Foundation work together with Aspire Housing and PM Training to blend commercial expertise with social purpose, to revitalise communities by providing homes, training, employment and support.

To find out more about;

the charity visit The Realise Foundation Website

and Aspire Housing here.

Veriserv are proud sponsors of The Realise Foundation.

 

 

 

Congratulations to the Veriserv Staff awards winners

Congratulations to the Veriserv Staff awards winners, Becky and Justin are the first winners of the Veriserv GEM awards in 2016. A big well done to both of them!

The Verserv GEM is awarded to staff who have “Gone the extra mile” during their work at Veriserv. Staff awards are presented quarterly where Veriserv staff nominate a winner from the office staff and an engineer is chosen from those that have received positive customer feedback during the period. The winners pick up a cash prize.

Becky Newnham, Veriserv 1st quarter winner 2016

Becky Newnham won the staff award based upon nominations from  fellow workmates in Veriserv’s office. Becky’s day to day role is in Customer Services, however she was asked to help with an urgent task to create Operation & Maintenance Manuals for a large project which had recently been completed by Veriserv. Becky had limited experience in this area but she willingly took on the task, quickly learn t what was required, then meticulously put the manuals together to a very high standard. The day before the delivery deadline day Becky called in from her holiday to check in with our project manager, making sure all was set for a presentation to the client. Well Done Becky!

1st quarter winner Veriserv 2016

Justin Tinker won the engineer award based upon great feedback from Veriserv clients. Justin heads up Veriserv’s electrical installation & remedial department which involves on-site surveys, quoting and supervising other engineers during the completion of on site works. Justin also gets stuck in, assisting other engineers or completing the works himself. Several engineers deserve a “Well Done!” as they had also received positive feedback from clients and were entered into a draw, however Justin’s name was pulled out of the hat. A big well done to Justin!

If you have a need for Electrical Installation or Remedial works Justin can be contacted on 01543 225306, or complete our on line contact enquiry form

Veriserv GEM staff awards-fourth Quarter 2015

Veriserv has presented two employees with the GEM ‘Going the Extra Mile’ Award for the fourth quarter of 2015. This is in recognition of those staff and field engineers who have done something over and above in their job role to help our clients or the company. Each winner receives a cash prize and has their photograph in the “Veriserv hall of fame” a TV display screen in the office reception.

Veriserv GEM staff awards-fourth Quarter 2015 – The staff award is based upon nominations by other staff members and the engineer award is drawn out of a hat containing all positive customer feedback that has been received in the previous three month period.

Over the past weeks Veriserv staff have been voting and giving their reasons why they think a certain member of staff should be presented with the GEM award. These nominations go to a panel of directors who deliberate over the worthy winner from all the nominated candidates.

This quarters staff winner is Emma Westwood who is a key member of Veriserv’s Operations booking team.  Emma has received the GEM Award for the 4th quarter of 2015 and has gone above and beyond her job role by working tirelessly to get the job done when taking on new and challenging contracts, working extra hours whenever necessary.

Veriserv staff and directors all believe Emma fully deserves the GEM Award as she has ‘Gone the Extra Mile’ whilst maintaining her great sense of humour and without a single complaint!

Well Done Emma!

Veriserv staff award

Veriserv’s Portable Appliance Testing engineer, Peter Meciar was presented with the engineer GEM Award following a draw out of a hat which contains all customer positive feedback for on site engineers. Veriserv received great feedback from a customer where Peter had worked, stating that Peter had “delivered excellent service whilst on site completing the electrical testing of portable appliances.”

Peter was one of Veriservs’ engineers whose name went into the draw and Peters name was drawn out, however credit also goes to those engineers who also had good feedback and were included in the draw.

Positive feedback from our customers is a great boost to all who work at Veriserv, reinforcing the level of service and commitment we strive provide to all our customers.

Well Done Peter!

veriserv staff award

Engineers at Veriserv do a fantastic job and receive numerous emails from clients communicating their gratitude for their hard work.

Veriserv are extremely proud of all their Staff and Engineers. They work extremely hard and always express enthusiasm and show industrious workmanship throughout all tasks and works. This follows through to providing an excellent service to all our clients.

Please checkout our range of compliance services here

Veriserv Staff win the GEM award for going the extra mile in their work duties

Four times per year, Veriserv present an engineer and staff member with the quarterly GEM ‘Going the Extra Mile’ Award. This is in recognition of employees who have done something extra in their job role to help our clients or the company. Each winner receives £200 and has a framed certificate on our reception wall.

The staff award is based upon nominations by other staff members and the engineer award is drawn out of a hat containing all positive customer feedback that has been received in the previous three month period.

Over the past weeks Veriserv staff have been voting and giving their reasons why they think a certain member of staff should be presented with the GEM award and these nominations go to a panel of directors who choose a winner from the worthy candidates.

It can be a difficult choice, but not this time as Veriserv’s Customer Services team leader, Melanie Parish received the GEM Award for the 3rd quarter of 2015. Mel has gone above and beyond her job role as team leader by supporting her staff and contributing a great effort to important Veriserv company contracts in short and testing time scales.

Veriserv staff and directors all believe Mel fully deserves the GEM Award as she has ‘Gone the Extra Mile’ whilst carrying out her work duties.

Veriserv’s Fire & Security engineer, Chris Chetwyn was presented with the engineer GEM Award following a draw out of a hat which contains all customer positive feedback. Chris contributed to jobs where Veriservs’ customers had sent in positive feedback stating that they had received excellent service from Chris. A Greene King pub manager had stated;

“Your engineers carried out the work with minimal disruption and kept the work area clean and tidy so as not to effect my trading. A great job guys!”

Chris was one of the engineers on this particular job and his name was drawn out of the hat to win the GEM. So credit also goes to all our engineers who worked on this job.

All positive feedback from our clients is a great boost to all who work at Veriserv, reinforcing the level of service and commitment we strive provide to all our customers.

veriserv

All engineers do a brilliant job and Veriserv receive numerous emails from clients communicating their gratitude towards Engineers and their hard work.

Veriserv Staff win the GEM award for going the extra mile in their work duties -Veriserv are extremely proud of all their Staff and Engineers. They work extremely hard and always express enthusiasm and show industrious workmanship throughout all tasks and works. This follows through to providing an excellent service to all our clients.

Please checkout our range of compliance services here

Respect for Shop Workers Week November 9th – 13th 2015

More and more often these days, you hear stories of how people can suddenly lose it. How a situation suddenly and unexpectedly escalates from disgruntled to angry, from complaint to arguing, and from threats to physical violence. Respect for shop workers just doesn’t seem to be there.

Even from those you would least expect it from, our “I want it and I want it now culture” is causing flash points for potential incidents. I can only imagine what the new law of 5p for a plastic carrier bag, has done to increase the potential of this at the checkout.

respect for shop workers

(Image from Usdaw’s 2014 ‘Respect for Shopworkers’ week)

 

“Shocking research reveals that every minute of the working day another shop worker is verbally abused, threatened with violence or physically attacked.”USDAW (Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers website October 2015.

This year’s “Respect for shop workers week” has a theme of “Keep Your Cool”, to encourage the public to remember that despite the stresses of the Christmas shopping period, there is never an excuse for abuse or violence to members of staff.

USDAW conducted a survey in January 2015 on the violence and threats faced by shop workers. 5,021 of its shop workers participated and were asked about their experiences last year. The results were:

  • 3.1% assaulted
  • 33% threatened
  • 56.3% verbally abused

So if you apply those percentages to the total number of those in a customer facing role, throughout the UK, that is an awful lot of people who are exposed to a real threat.

Other surveys online have stated, that the costs to businesses and individuals in these sectors is vast. For those staff living in fear of these type of incidents, which are especially prevalent within the retail and licensed businesses. Owners, managers and staff can have a fear of being confronted, which could be affecting their ability to work effectively, as well as causing stress and anxiety at work.

Although we should always respect and sympathise with anyone who is suffering from the effects of fear, or have been unfortunate enough to have suffered from such attacks, the cost to businesses isn’t always just emotional or physical strain on individuals. For businesses, the cost for loss of working hours, disruption and anything associated along with the healthcare & judiciary systems, all add up and affect us all.

There are guidelines and information readily available for business owners to ensure they are compliant with their duty of care to minimise the potential, provide support and manage incidents effectively.

Such as this guide from the British Retail Consortium on the best practise guidelines for tackling violence against staff, which explains all the compliance expected from employers.

Or this advice from HSE, who offer this guide on Violence at work, with tips on how to stay compliant, as well as effectively manage the threat of violence. They suggest speaking to your employees to find the true scale of the problem, by speaking to staff and keeping reports. Deciding what action to take, such as more training or perhaps a safer environment, by installing safety systems. Knowing yourself, and making your staff aware, on how you will take action following an incident, and finally, checking back to see if the measures you put into place are enough.

 

With Veriserv, we understand the dangers, and have clients in the licensed sector. So we know first-hand the potential for, and the steps required to protect those in vulnerable situations, and to help them feel safe in the workplace while deterring would be incidents.

Our VeriSafe solution is designed specifically for these type of environments and situations, where assistance and support is required at the first sign of a potential threat. With a police response and real time interaction, it is providing a duty of care, as well as helping staff feel safer at work.

You can find out more about the VeriSafe workforce solution on our page or in the graphic below:

VeriSafe solution graphic

We strive to keep people safe in their workplace, and to keep businesses compliant. So if you are responsible for, or believe that your workplace would benefit from an assessment, of how Veriserv are able to help, then please get in touch or mention the VeriSafe solution to your manager/director. You could even share this post, to get more awareness for “Respect for shop workers week” and how you can keep yourself, your colleagues and your whole team VeriSafe over this seasonal period.

For those of you who aren’t involved in working in a customer facing role, or perhaps those of you who forget what it is like to have been in that position, let’s be considerate of all those who are faced with uncomfortable situations. Those who have a duty, and have to abide by the laws within the sectors they work in, such as asking your age to sell certain products. Who themselves, are only human, with a job to do and a boss to answer to. Shop workers should always feel respected, and should always be able to feel VeriSafe.

Ellie and Abbies BBC Children in Need Appeal 2015

Veriserv are very proud to announce, Ellie and Abbie star in BBC Children in Need event night on TV! Although the BBC receive applications from thousands of worthy charity campaigners, they have seen Ellie and Abbie’s event as something they would like to film for the actual BBC Children in Need night on television and have contacted the two young stars to book the filming.

Ellie and Abbie are the daughters of Jennie Knight who works within the operations team at Veriserv. They are twins, both 15 years of age and have been doing their bit to help raise money for Children in Need since they were 8 years old. The girls tireless efforts to date have raised an amazing £9,825.13 and hope that this year they will break through into £10,000. This year the girls really wanted it to be a challenge so they are going for a 1 Mile Swim, 3 Mile Bike Ride, 2 Mile Run (There own version of a Triathlon).

Ellie and Abbie’s Fundraising event will take place at the Friary Grange Leisure Centre  on Saturday 24th October 2015 at 4:00pm. All spectators are welcome to watch and support the girls on their brave 6 mile journey.

Please don’t forget to support Ellie and Abbies BBC Children in Need Appeal 2015 head over to the girls JustGiving page to support these amazing, courageous and ambitious girls.  JustGiving is a safe, easy and secure way of donating to such a great cause. Your details will be safe and you’ll never be hassled with unwanted emails when donating through JustGiving. Click the link to take you to Ellie and Abbie’s JustGiving page httpss://www.justgiving.com/Ellie-and-Abbie-Holloway3/

 

Here are a few photos of Ellie and Abbie’s incredible fundraising over the past 7 years.

 

Ellie and Abbies BBC Children in Need Appeal 2015

Ellie and Abbies BBC Children in Need Appeal 2015 forest

Ellie and Abbies cleaning up for BBC Children in Need Appeal 2015

 

Do you protect staff from robbery or violence?

Starbox Audio

Do you protect staff from robbery or violence?

At Veriserv we install a product designed to protect the safety of your staff and lone workers.

What support do you offer your workers in the event of them being faced with unwanted confrontation?

Do you offer protection for your workers? What would happen in the event of a robbery or medical emergency?

Veriserv are qualified and experienced installers of a unique product known as Starbox. This unique product will do all of the above and more!

At the push of a remote panic button a support team will assess the situation, distract the offender helping disrupt the focus of their intention and contact the Police or Paramedics before situations get out of hand.

Its works particularly well at public premises that deal with cash or drugs, such as pubs, betting shops and pharmacies.

Your current Health and Safety at work obligations place responsibility on companies to protect and support your staff where situations can arise which place them in danger or expose them to violence and intimidation.

Veriserv have found fitting Starbox’s have helped to reduce crime by up 30% in most cases. Also we can usually reduce the cost of your current monitoring services.

Please contact Veriserv, we will be pleased to offer you a free no obligation survey and a security consultation.

 

GEM Awards – Staff going the extra mile

Its that time of the year again, we are in our second quarter which means its time to announce our GEM Award winners of our staff that have been going the extra mile.

This quarter we are happy to reveal that Simon Roberts, one of Veriserv’s newest office staff  members, has been awarded the GEM ‘Going the Extra Mile’ Award.

Although Simon is new to the office, he has in fact been working for Veriserv for the past 9 years, having joined in 2006 as a Portable appliance tester, and after 6 years was given the opportunity to move to the Fire and Security division as a Fire and Security Engineer. Simon spent 3 years as an F&S Engineer until he was offered a promotion to work in the office as  Fire & Security Engineers Support. This role involves ordering  stock and equipment, speaking with the engineers making sure all jobs are running smoothly and on time. Simon uses his technical expertise to help with any on site issues that engineers or clients may be faced with. It has been a big leap for Simon coming off the road and into the office, however all Veriserv staff believe he has ‘Gone the Extra Mile’ and adapted to his new job role with passion and focus, bringing new ideas into the business.

 

Simon Roberts - GEM going the extra mile

Veriserv’s Portable Appliance Tester, Darren Hunt was awarded this quarters Engineers GEM Award. The engineers award is drawn out of a hat, which includes all positive customer feedback that has been received in the three month period.  We have received great response and feedback on Darren’s hard work and customer service skills from clients and customers.

Here are a few examples of what was said about Darren, and a few of our other Veriserv engineers.

‘Just to say that the 2 guys are really hard workers  and a credit to your company – Thanks!’

‘can you pop Darren into the GEM Pot please. He has been running around all day, its paid off though x’

‘Can you put the engineer(s) names, who worked on Wolverhampton Civic Centre, in to the next GEM draw, the client was mightily impressed with their communication and reporting ability, along with the stealth mode in which they operated!’

 

Darren Hunt - GEM going the extra mile

You can check out our previous winner in our blog. We’ll be back next quarter with some more staff who have gone the extra mile.

 

 

Veriserv extends its services to testing in Compex Explosive Atmospheres

Veriserv would like to congratulate their engineers on the successful completion of the competence validation tests in relation to CompEx. Meaning Veriserv can now test in explosive atmospheres

explosive atmospheres compex

Veriserv’s Senior Electrical Inspection & Testing engineers have extended their qualifications by completing and passing the new modules in Compex environments. The extension to Veriservs’ range of services is specifically for clients who work in areas that contain explosive atmospheres, for example; Gas refineries, petro-chemical, distilleries, pharmaceutical and a wide range of other gas industries.

Our engineers have successfully passed the following units:

EX01  Preparation & Installation of Ex’d’, ‘n’, ‘e’ and ‘p’ electrical equipment

EX02  Maintenance & Inspection of Ex’d’, ‘n’, ‘e’ and ‘p’ electrical equipment

EX03  Preparation & Installation of Ex’i’ equipment and systems

EX04  Maintenance & Inspection of Ex’i’ equipment and systems

All units are based on the IEC Standards 60079: Parts 14 & 17 and the APEA/IP Guide as appropriate 

explosive atmospheres engineer testing

The CompEx Scheme is now the global solution for validating core competency of employees and contract staff of major users in the gas, oil and chemical sectors.

Veriserv are delighted with their engineers achievements and through CompEx, look forward to extending our range of services for clients who operate in environments with explosive atmospheres.

As more companies are required to comply with the ATEX Directive to meet European legislation, Veriserv are perfectly positioned to offer ATEX advice, assessment and certification of your electrical installations.

Our services also include electrical inspections of work carried out by your contractor ensuring compliance to current requirements and regulations.

For more information or a quotation please click here