Success at the Business Culture Awards for Sainsbury's and t-three

Normally at this time of year members of the t-three and Sainsbury’s team would be getting together at a suitably snazzy venue in London to celebrate the Business Culture Awards. This event is one of the staples of the L&D awards season, and so we were delighted to hear that they planned to forge ahead (albeit virtually) with this year’s ceremony. It certainly felt very different watching along from home, but it’s safe to say that didn’t dampen anyone’s spirits when we found out the Leading @ Sainsbury’s programme had been crowned winner in one category, and Highly Commended in another!

Icing on the cake

It was very important to us to ensure that the hard work Sainsbury’s are doing to develop and support their people was celebrated this year, despite the fact that they’ve been busier than ever, and have faced and embraced a huge amount of change (haven’t we all?!) this year. We’ve always been proud to support Sainsbury’s, but that pride has grown immeasurably as we’ve watched their people go above and beyond to feed the nation.

We’re thrilled that the Leading @Sainsbury’s programme won the Best Learning Initiative Award this year. To succeed in this category, winners must detail how learning has reinvigorated organisational culture, renewed the confidence of employees and other stakeholders, as well as demonstrating the business benefits that have been achieved as a result. We were able to show that:

• 80% of goals set by colleagues have been successfully completed
• There has been a reduction in recruitment spend
• More colleagues are moving into higher grade roles

This was a closely contested category this year, and we are very proud to have been recognised alongside organisations such as Barclays, Cognizant, Everyday Loans and Patron Capital.

The icing on the cake this year was that we also received Highly Commended in the Best Large Organisation category, amongst Dentons, Temenos, TSB and Lloyds Banking. This is a category that looks at strategic alignment, stakeholder engagement, improving communication and enhancing innovation. We were able to demonstrate:

• A highly accessible and inclusive programme, which was important to Sainsbury's who champion diversity and inclusion within their organisation
• A 98% net promoter score for the programme, important because Sainsbury's are focused on being an organisation where people love to work

The judges’ comments

Perhaps the most rewarding aspect of winning one of these awards is getting to hear directly from the esteemed judges that crown each year’s winners. Some of the comments we received for this programme were as follows:

• "From the mission which expressly refers to creating a great environment for their people and customers to the aligned and congruent leadership training journey, this is an exemplary entry. The changing blend of mandated learning and learner lead learning is brilliant as is the intentional and visible talent mobility demonstrated in the programmes. The outcomes through the NPS scores, completion of goals and improvements seen are testament to the strategic approach carried out by the team."
• "This is brilliant. I am so impressed by this initiative on so many levels: the levelled approach to learning, the blended solutions, and the KPI impact. I think this acts as a blueprint for how to go about delivering a learning intervention which has a demonstrable impact on an organisation's success."
• "What I like about this initiative is that it is internally delivered and works across all leadership levels. What is unique is the inclusive aspect of participants of the programme. I also like the nudge approach and micro learning vs. formalised content."
• "Congratulations on being able to successfully execute such a large transformational project...there is a great deal of tenacity required to drive something of this scale through to completion. I loved the use of 'Store Heroes' to exemplify behaviour and the focus on finding 'Hidden Gems' amongst your colleagues. This is a great example of how great corporate culture has significantly contributed to the ability of a business to adapt to the changes brought about by COVID-19...Congratulations on a well designed and fully executed initiative."

Congratulations again to the whole team at Sainsbury's and t-three. If you'd like to learn more about the Trainee Manager programme that won awards at both the Training Journal and Business Culture Awards in 2019, you can do so here.