NHS Arden & GEM CSU is delighted to have been awarded ‘We invest in people’ gold accreditation by Investors in People.
Achieved by just 23% of applicants, gold accreditation recognises organisations that care about their people and confirms the alignment of business and people strategies in achieving their mission.
The assessment, which took place in October 2022, showed an increase in performance level against seven indicators, compared to silver accreditation in 2019, with a significant improvement in the ‘creating sustainable success’ domain. This was reflected in the insights report which praised Arden & GEM’s strong record in understanding the needs of customers and programme of work to develop new services which support the NHS in meeting the Triple Aim duty.
Commenting on the achievement, John Parkes, Manging Director at Arden & GEM, said:
“We are incredibly proud to have moved from silver to gold accreditation by demonstrating that we have the policies in place for sustainable success and that everyone takes ownership for making them a reality.
“We believe our people are our strongest and most important asset so I was thrilled to see the assessment commend our values-led approach, commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI), and the growing focus on wellbeing.
"We are already in the process of updating our People Plan to incorporate the recommendations made by our colleagues through the assessment as we continually strive to make Arden & GEM a great place to work.”
Accreditation evidence was gathered through a range of channels including interviews with 65 people – covering all service lines, levels of responsibility, ethnicities and genders – and a confidential survey completed by 58% of staff. Highlights from the survey included:
- 90% of people confirmed they have agreed on their objectives in the last 12 months
- 87% of people agree their work is interesting
- 86% of people agree their work behaviours reflect Arden & GEM’s values
- 81% of people agree that their manager thinks it important they develop
- 80% of people agree that leaders communicate the organisation’s ambition for sustained success and how improvement objectives support it.
“We’d like to congratulate Arden & GEM. A Gold accreditation on We invest in people is a fantastic effort for any organisation and places Arden & GEM in fine company with a host of organisations that understand the value of people.”
Paul Devoy, CEO of Investors in People
The ‘We invest in people’ gold accreditation lasts for three years with 12 and 24 month reviews to explore progress against recommendations and confirm future ambitions.