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Congratulations to our latest values sharer Robert Stevenson, member services advisor. Robert was nominated for going above and beyond his role to support the latest sales and service induction for new team members and helping our latest group take their first calls. One of his colleagues said: ‘I would really like to recognise Rob's efforts in making it happen. Rob stepped in at short notice when we needed to extend our current induction. He stepped up and his coaching and advice has been of great help. He also provided me with a comprehensive feedback report with suggestions for improvement to the induction, based on his own onboarding experience.’
🚨 New podcast alert... We're launching a brand new Which? podcast kicking off with a series helping you to be a more sustainable consumer. Dive into the complex issues around plastic packaging and the food it protects in the first episode.
We’re keen to ensure parents at Which? are supported with their work and home-life balance, whether they’re expecting, have just had a child or have older children. So we’re launching a new internal Parent Cloud service, which will provide unlimited access to one-to-one sessions with therapists and coaches, as well as resources, live webinars and guides to help support their lives as a working or expectant parent.
We're proud to have worked with a coalition of 11 organisations including business, unions and academics to write the Trade For All framework which is published today. The government must overhaul its trade policy objectives and set a clear strategy for its trade negotiations that delivers a fairer and greener trading system with real benefits for consumers. The success of future agreements will be judged on what they deliver for millions of ordinary people in their everyday lives, not just the export opportunities they provide. Sue Davies, Head of Consumer Protection and Food Policy at Which?, said “It is vital that the government places consumer interests at the centre of its trade policy and delivers on the nine key objectives outlined in the Trade For All report - including world-leading standards in rights and protections for consumers.”
It’s Pride Month! We caught up with Hannah Burke, chair of our LGBTQ+ network. 'Today marks the beginning of Pride Month: a time to celebrate LGBTQ+ communities around the world, recognise how far we have come in terms of progress and realign our focus to continue to push forward with making the world a better place for our communities.’ At Which?, we’ve been taking steps to ensure that everyone knows they can bring their authentic selves to work. We have become a Stonewall Diversity Champion, brought a range of LGBTQ+ voices through our comms and events, encouraged people to display and share their pronouns, and encouraged allies in the network to demonstrate active allyship. Thinking ahead to what more we need to do, we have big plans to work with different teams across Which? to ensure that LGBTQ+ diversity and inclusion is embedded into everything we do, especially as we make the transition to hybrid working.
We’re very proud that Dean Sobers, senior writer/researcher, recently won the Wincott award for Personal Finance Journalist of the Year. The Wincott Foundation was set up to support excellence in financial journalism and to promote better public understanding of financial and economic issues. Dean was awarded based on a selection of features for Which? Money and Which? magazine, including an investigation into the restrictive exclusions travel insurers implemented into policies following Covid-19, and a deep dive into the murky world of ghost broking (a form of car insurance fraud), studying the tactics of the fraudsters and the far-reaching consequences of their actions.
This month we had two teams win our Team of the Quarter award. The Business Operations and Supplier Contract Management team worked tirelessly to create a new hub to simplify internal processes for engaging with suppliers. In addition, Which? Money worked with the tech development team to produce high-quality content while also speedily updating all Consumer Rights tools following Budget announcements. Without the tech development team, the Which? Money writers simply couldn’t put out fast, reactive content. Congratulations!
A year has passed since the murder of George Floyd, and it’s important to take time to reflect on this tragic event that became a catalyst for change. Over the past 12 months we have challenged ourselves as an organisation about how inclusively we are serving and representing all UK consumers, and we have set in place programmes to address diversity and inclusion both as the UK’s consumer champion and as an employer. We have ensured that our testing is diverse and relevant and that our content represents a breadth of experiences. We are also committed to uncovering how issues impact different consumers disproportionately and will address this harm through our advocacy work. We’re working hard to drive a culture of inclusion at Which? and are working with an independent consultancy. Our vision of championing all UK consumers means understanding, representing, reaching and including everyone. We have created a D&I strategic task force, bringing members of the organisation together to provide a focus for continued activities on how we create an inclusive culture, where we bring our be
Meet Nirosha Tharmachandran, ACA, who joined our audit and risk management team in 2019 after working in financial services. Joining Which? gave her the opportunity to build on her audit experience and develop her skills in risk management. She’s run risk workshops, completed training in effective audit techniques and risk management principles, and she is particularly excited about being part of our Diversity and Inclusion taskforce. She says: ‘It’s something I’m truly passionate about, helping Which? become a more diverse and inclusive organisation, as well as getting to know like-minded individuals across the business.’
Congratulations to our latest values sharer, senior internal communications officer Natalie Powell for her work on diversity and inclusion. One of her colleagues said: ‘Nat has had a vision about an entire company-wide week dedicated to diversity and inclusion for a while. She brought it to life with a week-long campaign – a first for Which?.' 'Everyone Week' showcased the launch of our diversity and inclusion vision, including a new pledge tool for colleagues to show their support, a Let's talk event with guest speakers on the theme of allyship, and a Slack live session where colleagues shared their stories and thoughts.
