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- May 20th 2008
Charitable Richmond Group staff have raised an incredible £185,000 in 12 months for Julias House. The money was raised through a number of special events that were organised as well as through a payroll donation scheme and a customer donation scheme all of which led to this amazing achievement!
- May 20th 2008
Traditional Friday BBQs are back for the summer! Every Friday until October we will be blowing up the bouncy castle and helping hard working RG staff to celebrate the weeks achievements and unwind for the weekend.
If the sun is shining we will be outside enjoying burgers and hotdogs and relaxing in one of the most popular employee benefit schemes we have at the Richmond Group.
- April 23rd 2008
Not satisfied with smashing into the Fast Track 100 and gaining the Sunday Times Best 100 Accreditation, The Richmond Group has leapt into the 2008 Profit Track 100. The Sunday Times has published league tables from The Profit Track 100 for the past 12 years, measuring private companies’ profit growth over the last three financial years. The Richmond Group has entered the league in at number 34 following profit growths of 68% from 2004 to 2007.
Managing Director James Benamor has said: “By avoiding secured lending and not tying ourselves to the property market the Richmond Group has been able to grow quickly and profitably, whilst providing our customers with a great service. The incredible rate of innovation at the Richmond Group has come as a result of our teams and this award belongs to every one of our employees equally”
Click here to view the 2008 Profit Track 100 report.
- March 5th 2008
The Richmond Group recently appeared on the Sunday Times Best100 Small Companies To Work for list. This guide is the definitive guide to Britain’s best employers and is based on anonymous feedback collected by them from our employees. As well as being 71st in the overall list the Richmond Group also appeared in the top 10 for having fun at work. The Richmond Group was the only Dorset-based company to appear on the list, the only consumer finance company there, the fastest growing of the larger companies and had the youngest average employee age.
We have known it for a while but now it’s official. The Richmond Group is faster, Younger, more successful and we have more fun.
Click here to read the Sunday Times write up which appeared on March 2, 2008.
- January 29th 2008
"Best Companies Accreditation is an elite performance standard that was established to acknowledge corporate excellence in the workplace. Accreditation is a focus on Workplace Engagement as an integral component of an organisation's success and growth. This ‘Michelin style’, elite Accreditation system recognises organisation's with One Star, Two Star, or Three Star status. Accreditation is judged by anonymous surveys carried out on staff independently by Best Companies, who also produce the Sunday Times 100 best companies to work for list.
A sample of the accreditation statements included in the questionnaire which RG staff 'strongly agreed' with are as follows:
- My work is stimulating
- I love working for this organisation
- My team is fun to work with
- Working in this team gives me a buzz
- My organisation makes a positive difference to the world we live in
- My manager cares about how satisfied I am in my job
- This organisation is run on strong values/principles
- I have a great deal of faith in the person leading this organisation
- I feel proud to work for this organisation
- My manager helps me to fulfill my potential
- I feel I receive fair pay for the responsibilities I have in my job
Click here to go to the Best Companies Guide.
- January 24th 2008
January saw a rush of frantic activity at RGHQ as the latest Richmond Group company was unveiled. With so many Banks and large loan companies coming under criticism for miss-selling inflated payment protection insurance (which is usually bundled with a loan and paid for in advance from the payout) We saw an opening for providing our customers with a simple, independent product which is cheaper and more flexible than PPI and covers up to 50% of their income rather than just repayments on one loan or credit card.
As with all RG products it has been designed for people with a blemished credit record and can be increased, reduced or cancelled at any time, unlike policies sold by almost all other banks and loan companies.
The Payment Guard launch team were selected from some of the most promising operators in our call centre and have been running the start up as it’s own self-contained business in true Richmond Group style. Early signs looking good with 3 weeks out of the last 6 having ended with champagne being handed out in our Call centre, as sales targets were repeatedly broken.
- January 2nd 2008
A recent poll on our company intranet asked Richmond Group employees what benefit they would most like to see become standard for all RG team members. With the ever decreasing numbers of good NHS dentists the answer was a resounding call for a free dental insurance. Working with HSA we have come up with a plan that gives RG employees who have been with the company for more than 6 months maximum cover on Dental work, check ups and a range of other services such as health checks and opticians visits. Read more about this new benefit on the HSA website.
- December 12th 2007
Plans are underway already for the party of the year. During the week leading up to Christmas we are going to be evicting everyone from the ground floor offices at Walton House to make room for one of the best Christmas parties ever. If you ask anyone who works for The Richmond Group they will tell you that the company’s favourite value is ‘aim to be the best’. This Christmas we are going to be living and breathing this value as we plan the party of the year.
Fire Breathers
Bouncy Castle
Christmas Barbecue
Cocktail bar
Live band till 9
DJ sets 9 till late
Nice and friendly atmosphere
Plus.. Our Christmas Gift Tag giveaway competition will be giving away over £5,000 worth of prizes, including a Holiday for two to Richmond group employees.
- December 4th 2007
Anyone who has worked for The Richmond Group will tell you that change and growth are part of our DNA. This year we have had this officially recognized by the Sunday Times Virgin Fast Track 100. The rankings list UK companies by revenue growth and have ranked the Richmond Group at number 29.
Managing Director James Benamor said: "At a time when the rest of the finance industry is suffering from the fall out of the credit crunch it is great to get public recognition that the Richmond Group really are a different animal. Over the last few years we have stubbornly refused to follow the rest of the industry and have instead chosen to innovate and concentrate on parts of the market, which are underserved by Banks and large finance companies. Richmond Group Values like 'Embrace Change' and 'Aim to be the best' have allowed our growth to flow from every part of our company. By giving real power and responsibility to our Team Managers we have allowed the Group to grow not like one medium sized business, but like 20 small start-ups. It is because of the ownership and passion of everyone involved in our group that this level of growth is achieved. Everyone who works for the group, or has done in the last 3 years shares this award."
To view our listing on the Fast Track website click here
- August 24th 2007
Another year, another move! The Richmond Group sales teams have been growing steadily over the past year and have completely outgrown their current call centre, with desks squeezed into every available space. Our new call centre facility which is due to open before Christmas will feature LCD TVs showing MTV and Sky Sports, Pool Tables, Nintendo Wii with projector screens, IKEA chill out areas, and masses of tropical plants. Not forgetting the famous Richmond Group Biorbs! Working in a call centre has never been so much fun!
- March 10th 2007
Many companies talk about being a good place to work but the Richmond Group have put their money where their mouth is this year by entering the "Sunday Times best companies to work for competition". Being a great employer has always been high on the list of priorities at The Richmond Group, however until this year we have never been able to measure how well we are doing. The Sunday Times and Best Companies has provided us with a framework and a measurement system to be able to judge ourselves against the best employers in the UK.
The best companies to work for competition is judged by the people who really know how good it is to work for us, our employees. Each team member fills out a detailed questionnaire, which together make up 90% of our ranking. The questionnaire is divided into 7 areas:
Leadership
Measures how employees feel about the head of the organisation, senior managers and the company's values and principles
My Manager
Measures how employees feel about and communicate with their direct manager
Personal Growth
Examines what employees feel about training and their future prospects
Well Being
Examines how employees feel about stress and pressure at work and work life balance
My Team
Measures employees feelings towards their immediate colleagues and how well they work together
Giving Something Back
Explores the extent to which employees feel their organisation has a positive impact on society
My Company
Focuses on the level of engagement employees have for their job and organisation
Fair Deal
Measures how happy employees are with their pay and benefits
James Benamor, Managing director said "For our company to continue to grow we need great people but we also need those people to love their jobs and be engaged with us as an organisation. We believe that the Sunday Times and Best companies will be able to help us to measure how well we are doing effectively and give us a roadmap to become the best in our sector"
- February 22nd 2007
From June to September The Richmond group celebrates the great British summer and everybody’s favourite day of the week by laying on a barbecue for our hard working teams every Friday.
Weather permitting the barbecue is fired up for burgers and hotdogs and the Richmond Group Bouncy Castle is inflated to allow everyone to bounce away the stress of the week and get ready for the weekend.
If you are on Richmond Hill on a Friday lunchtime this summer why not pop in and see if you can spot some of our IT guys making fools of themselves trying to perfect a back flip.
- February 1st 2007
At RG HQ this week we have been looking for ways of cheering ourselves up. After a great Christmas the January and February blues are starting to bite a little bit.
We surveyed fellow R Group team members for something that we could do that would cheer us all up a bit. The clear favourite was brightening up the offices, and what better way to clear away those winter blues than with some tropical fish and tropical plants? In response to the survey the company has bought over 150 assorted Yuccas, Palms, and Ferns, and every team will soon have its very own biOrb. Star performing operators have been given the chance to vote on the contents of the high tech fish bowls.
Like all of us the new additions to the Richmond Group family will be well looked after by our hard working environment team who also provide us all with a warm fuzzy feeling inside by making us breakfasts, the best lunchtime sandwiches in the world, and keep our vending machines full of the coffee and Redbull that fuels us through the day.
- January 15th 2007
The Richmond group is supporting a petition being presented to the Prime Minister to bring the changing forward of the clocks to forward to February.
Frankly, whilst we love Christmas, everyone here is getting pretty sick of winter about now. And absolutely the worst thing about winter is going home in the dark.
We all know why the clocks have to change and we are not asking for this to be abolished all together but:
if the shortest day is in December, and clocks change back two months before that in October, why on earth can't they be changed back two months after the shortest day, in February?
February is a terrible month, we all need something to be cheerful about and the changing of the clocks would really do the trick. Think what you could do with that extra hour of day time, sign the petition now at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/summertime/
- December 1st 2006
In our constant drive for expansion, the Richmond Group has moved into larger premises on average 18 months since we started trading in 1999. This year is our best move yet. We have purchased Walton House, the former home of the stationer WH Smith.
The building was built in 1865 and was originally the home of William Henry Smith (the original owner of WH Smith). A grade 2 listed building, this 7,000 square foot facility has specialist secure IT and archiving facilities built by its former owners, Portman Building Society.
Situated on Richmond Hill, the building will serve as the hub of the group, housing recruitment, training, IT, marketing and accounts. The improved facilities will ensure that the Richmond Group will have the room to grow and continue to improve the service that we give our customers. Best of all the building is a great venue for a party and has already hosted both our Halloween and Christmas parties.
> See photos of our recent events |
