Whitfield Business Support has showcased its diverse service offering after arranging a series of summer team building exercises for us here at Laird Assessors.
The Heswall based firm provides a proactive and dynamic ‘business incubator’ service. It is geared toward speeding up the growth of startup and early stage companies, as well as successful SMEs. It does this by delivering ‘full life-cycle’ business support covering initial start-up, accounting and funding to IT, recruitment, consultancy, mentoring, marketing, web and graphic design, and branding support.
One of its latest projects involved devising a series of team building exercises for Laird Assessors – the UK’s leading expert witness firm supplying the legal, insurance, motor trade, police and fleet firms with independent motor vehicle reports.
Laird commissioned Whitfield to organise a meeting for 20 people, followed by a team building exercise for 40 people, and then a further meeting for 60 people with food and drink. Whitfield Business Support Events Co-ordinator, Liz Ellis said the business incubator benefits from an experienced team who excelled in the latest project developing a creative solution which tested a variety of disciplines.
“The smaller meeting was mostly straight forward as we were able to host 20 of Laird’s automotive engineers from around the UK in our offices at Whitfield Business Hub,” said Mrs Ellis. “The next two events proved more challenging. We had to consider how to ensure that people from very different professions and age groups could mixed together and communicate effectively.
“We decided to create a treasure hunt with a twist. We based the hunt on ‘The Apprentice’ and this allowed us to play on the theme by testing their negotiation, navigation, budgeting and communication skills. As WBS is currently chairing the Heswall & District Business Association, we decided to involve some of Heswall’s businesses.
“This was really an opportunity to strike two birds with one stone. We used the event to engage and drive awareness of local businesses, as well as provide a stimulating activity for Laird Assessors. Essentially, we planted various clues in a selection of shops which sent eight teams on a zig-zag around Heswall.
“We spiced things up and created a buzz on social media with tasks including certain hashtags revealing clues. We also incorporated dates on buildings which provided codes for unlocking clues on websites. For the grand finale, the teams had to work together and their final clue was a series of letters which formed the final destination.
“We believe it was greatly beneficial to both Laird’s and the businesses involved. From a promotional perspective we saw for example one Twitter site going from 1100 hits to 5600 in a 2 hour period.
“It was great to see a real engagement across the community including the shops, church and even the fire station. Everyone really enjoyed this task and hopefully it inspired their staff. The items bought were either used as prizes at the end or given to Laird’s nominated charity – The Candice Colley Foundation.”
Owner manager of Laird Assessors Nik Ellis said: “We are hugely thankful to Whitfield Business Support for their thoroughly engaging team building exercises. It’s highly important for companies like ours which see employees working independently across the UK that they still get a sense of team and buy into the company ethos and values.
“Laird now employs more than 60 staff and is the premier automotive assessor in UK. Much of the success is down to our amazing team excelling at customer service. We focus on being honest, skilful and acting carefully with integrity. We have been able to attract and retain these employees by making Laird a busy, exciting and fun place to work. We are committed to profit linked bonuses, training and development and plenty of extracurricular including skiing holidays, cycling, runs, rowing, community events, charity fund raising and staff parties.”
For more information on Whitfield Business Support visit the website: to www.whitfieldbusiness.co.uk or call 0151 342 0679.