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- March 2010
THE RICHMOND GROUP wanted to expand its loan brokerage business but owner and managing director James Benamor didn't put an advert for new staff in the local newspaper.
Instead, he took a number of the company's call centre agents, whose average age was 21, split them into two groups and gave each one £10,000 to set up a debt management operation. Competing against each other, the most successful would become the firm's new brand. The two groups set up businesses from scratch and the Apprentice-style challenge paid off nobody was told "You're fired!" About six months later, Debt Line emerged victorious, and four years on, it is the Richmond Group's second largest brand. One of the original entrepreneurs is now the managing director of Debt Line and three more are managers within the Richmond Group. "We harnessed the power that was already within our company," says Benamor.
The confidence Benamor has in his staff is reciprocated they have a great deal of faith in him, giving a positive score of 82%. Employees have confidence in the leadership skills of senior managers and say they truly live the values of the organisation (both 78% scores), and feel they can really make a difference to the business (79%).
The Bournemouth company provides solutions to people who have been refused credit by their bank or are struggling with debt. "We will offer our customers the best possible service because we have the best people in our team, without exception," reads the mission statement.
Staff believe the organisation makes a positive contribution to the local community (70%). Giving something back is close to Benamor's heart he has featured on Channel 4's Secret Millionaire programme, working for good causes in Manchester. The workforce also supports Julia's House, the children's hospice charity that is once again on the Best Small Companies to Work For list this year. Employees tell us their boss is an inspiring leader (79%).
Richmond Group employees are young, with an average age of 25, and most managers and directors started off working the phones in the call centre. Kate Lawrence, who was on the team of entrepreneurs who formed Debt Line, says: "You can see people who started as operators and who are now managers. You see that with passion and determination you won't be overlooked."
Staff agree that the job is good for their personal growth (79%). They rate their managers highly an overall score of 80% for questions about managers is beaten by just one other organisation. About 50% of a manager's bonus is based on team appraisals and employees feel they help them fulfil their potential, act as excellent role models (both 77%), and really listen to their team (81%). A 78% score shows that the workforce feels excited about the firm's future.
There is plenty to be excited about the first of Benamor's rules of business is for the organisation to grow by at least 50% each year, and the second is that work has to be fun.
"While the first has been surprisingly easy the second has required significant effort," he says. "As a company grows, employees get less back. It's about being small again, thinking small."
An 88% score ranks the organisation fourth overall for colleagues being fun to work with. Working in a team gives staff a buzz (76%) and they feel a strong sense of family (82%, another top five score). "It's really nice that you can work with people you like to see at the weekend too," says Patrick Swayne, sales adviser and department trainer at Payment Guard, the organisation's income insurance brand. The Richmond Group doesn't fit the stereotype of a financial company and Benamor isn't the typical managing director. "James doesn't have his own office," says Swayne. "He's in the thick of it. When things are going well, he's the first to congratulate us and when they aren't going so well, he won't blame anyone. He'll get his hands dirty and sort it out. He leads from the front."
Click here to read about the Times Online Guide.
- June 2009
The Richmond Group has signed up to Twitter - a free service for people to communicate and stay connected. Sign up and follow us to find out what we're up to, current positions and more. Our Twitter username is RichmondGroup - nice and simple. We look forward to hearing from you.
Click here to twitter.
Debt line have launched a new online portal that allows customers access to their debt management plan 24/7. Debt line customers are already feeling the benefits. Customers can now access infomation from statements, debts, income and expenditure giving them complete control. Accompanying the portal is the launch of the customer forum, this lets customers help each other, ask questions and provide feedback in a transparent way.
Click here to visit Debt Line.
- March 2009
For the second year running The Richmond Group appeared on the Sunday Times Best 100 companies to work for but this year for the top 100 mid-size companies. This guide is the definitive guide to Britain’s best employers and is based on anonymous feedback collected by them from our employees. This is the first year we have entered in this category and we went straight in at number 18! The Richmond Group achieved a higher position than any other finance company in our category. The Richmond Group was the only Dorset-based company to appear on the list for the second year running. Some of the top scores we achieved were 90% of our staff agreed that our managers talk openly and honestly with them, 95% of our staff agreed that their teams are fun to work with and 76% of staff agreed that they think that The Richmond Group is an organisation that put back into the community.
So we have done it again but this time proved in a harder category that The Richmond Group is faster, Younger, more successful and we have more fun!
Click here to read about the Times Online Guide.
Due to their flat structure, directors are directly responsible for the managers below them. Like managers, the directors are expected to spend the majority of their time auditing, appraising, coaching and training their direct reports. Managers are expected to take ownership of their team as if it was their own business and the appraisal system is fundamental to the goal of making Richmond Group team managers the best team managers in the world.
Click here to read about the Best Companies Guide.
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 came in at number 15, which is a great improvement on last year’s number 34 this is following profit growths of 96% from 2005 to 2008.
Click here to read about the tenth annual Profit Track 100 league table.
- January 2009
The Richmond Group started raising money for Julia's House back in early 2007 and in just 2 years we have managed to raise nearly £300,000 towards the brilliant charity. The money has been 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.
- December 2008
The Richmond Group is moving with the technological times and has decided to upgrade the free mobile phone that all RG managers receive. Each manager will now receive the latest model of the iPhone with free unlimited voice calls O2 to O2 (anytime), 700 free minutes to UK landlines and other UK mobiles (anytime), 450 free text messages and free unlimited voice calls to 10 pre-configured UK landlines.
- October 2008
October saw the launch of The Richmond Group's latest brand; Loan Finder is The Richmond Group's latest innovation, offering access to a variety of services in just one application from the customer. We saw the need to help our customers right through from application stage to completion of the service, with an increased panel of lenders available, as well as the support of a comprehensive online service.
As with all RG products it has been designed for people with all kinds of credit history - the product is available to everyone.
The Loan Finder start up team has been selected from some of the most promising operators in our call centre and has been running the launch as it's own self-contained business, in true Richmond Group style. Early signs are looking good, with sales targets being repeatedly broken on a weekly basis.
- May 20th 2008
Whilst participating in other charity work Richmond Group employees felt they wanted to be more hands on not just donating but be actively helping in the day to day running of local charities putting something back into their community. So the Richmond group employees came up with the Richmond Group employee's volunteer scheme, which allows all staff to take a day off to volunteer whilst still receiving half of their normal pay. Taking a day out of your normal life to help a great charity like YCT is something that everyone should consider.
Information about Youth Cancer Trust.
The charity was first established on the instigation of Brenda Clark, who had recently lost her only child Tracy Ann, aged 21, from cancer. It was very quickly realised that young cancer patients were obtaining great benefit from a short holiday: The youngsters provide comfort and encouragement for each other and Bournemouth has all the facilities needed for an enjoyable holiday for young people.
Since forming the charity YCT has grown slowly but steadily. At every stage of the development YCT has taken great care to understand the youngster's needs and to learn from them and their parents about the service we provide. It has become more and more apparent that YCT boost's confidence provide invaluable 'fun' and 'stress-free' periods and more than anything else bring normality and hope back into the young peoples lives.
- 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 |
