FINANCE
THE FEELING IS
MUTUAL
Andrew Craddock , chief executive , Darlington Building Society
How Darlington Building Society is a force for good for its staff , members and the wider community …
WORDS : MICHAEL MCGEARY
Doing everything it possibly can to help make the Tees
Valley a better place comes naturally to Darlington Building Society .
After all , the 165-year-old mutual society was formed with the express purpose of improving the lives of both its members and the communities it serves by supporting home ownership and encouraging saving .
“ As a mutual , where we ’ re owned by our members , we can focus on the longer term rather than short-term profits for shareholders ,” says chief executive Andrew Craddock .
But director of people and culture Niki Barker says that as well as going the extra mile to look after its 70,000 members and backing a wide variety of charities and good causes throughout the area , it ’ s equally important to ensure employees feel valued , cared for and enjoy coming to work each day .
“ Our key asset is our open and honest culture where employees are encouraged to speak up ,” she says . “ Whether that be on a one-to-one basis , through weekly society-wide communication briefings led by Andrew or our dedicated employee ambassadors , we constantly seek to shape the organisation to support and engage everyone .
“ We ’ ve really progressed our people strategy in the last few years to focus on recognising and rewarding our people for the great work they do .
“ Our performance management structure is underpinned by and rewards achievement . Our commitment to paying all employees fairly has led to us signing up to the Real Living Wage too .”
The more recent challenging times of the current pandemic have meant that open communication and support for employees has never been more important .
Andrew Craddock , chief executive , Darlington Building Society ( right ) and Johnathon Pickard , head of development and economic generation , Daisy Chain ( left ).
Andrew moved early in the pandemic to reassure staff that there would be no redundancies .
“ That message was invaluable ,” says Niki . “ It meant staff didn ’ t have to worry about their jobs on top of everything else that was going on .
“ Andrew ’ s open and sincere approach has been fantastic and we ’ ve followed those words through with actions . It ’ s about being honest and saying , ‘ It is tough but we are here to support you and your families and we ’ ll get through this together ’.”
Employee health and wellbeing has always been important to the society . A team of mental health first-aiders are available to support staff and a newly launched Be Kind To Yourself campaign encourages employees to look after their own health and wellbeing by accessing a variety of different benefits and tools .
52 | Tees Business