SoLO accredited again with Investors In People Standard

Many years ago SoLO, when we were very small, we achieved our first accreditation from the Investors in People.  It was a big deal then as it reflected our organisation’s commitment to our staff and volunteers.  As we have grown, every three years, we have applied for re-accreditation and, as we get larger, investing in our individual staff and volunteer becomes more and more of a challenge.  There is always a danger, with growth in an organisation, that the core values are diluted and the approach to personnel becomes institutional and less person centred.

However, we are delighted to announce that yet again we have smashed the standards set by Investors in People and have scored highly in the IIP league tables.  In an overall benchmarking, where the average score is 726, SoLO scored 794 – so we are industry leaders.  This, in itself is really good but what it means is so much better.

So, what does it really mean for our staff and volunteers?

Our leaders inspire staff to be honest and work within our values, delivering services to our members that reflect our values of safety, trust, adaptability and resilience which in turn is providing quality to those who are experiencing all that SoLO offers.

People who are in the organisation are empowered, involved in decision making, encouraged to perform well and rewarded when they do well.  They know what to do and are given opportunities to be trained and skilled up.  They are involved in planning and the future of SoLO.

The whole process has been a valuable learning experience and there are areas that we will continue to develop.  As we consider our future strategy, will take on board some of the advice given for developing areas such as performance management, new ways of recognising great people and system changes to make processes slicker.

Always, at the heart of what we do will be the people we serve and the people who help us deliver our high quality services.