Identity Consult (IC) is on track to record another record year with 38% growth in turnover following an impressive 18% growth in 17/18. Profitability in real terms has increased allowing us to open a new Yorkshire office, invest in our staff recruitment and retention practices through incentives and improved training and development opportunities and rationalise our business structure to be more efficient, resulting in six new major frameworks and 35 new clients being secured.

Identity Consult is proud of its recent record on best practice, employee engagement, improved productivity, working with its supply chain, performance monitoring and growth. We entered CENE’s SME Awards this year because we wanted to highlight and share with others in the industry, initiatives that have worked so well for us.

Perhaps the most significant of those initiatives is our conscious effort to really invest in our staff both in terms of training and job satisfaction. A central part of this investment was a focus on mental well-being which was reflected in MIND being our charity of choice, in the offering of Volunteer Days for staff and a string of workplace innovations specifically aimed at improving staff happiness.

Although this staff-investment approach might have been counterintuitive in an industry currently facing a challenging climate, it has proved pivotal to achieving our key goals of staff recruitment and retention. More than that, it has contributed to a growing sense of togetherness, which has proven invaluable in a period in which the company grew its workforce by more than 20 per cent and opened a third office in York, to complement existing offices in Sunderland and Preston.

What has helped mark us out is a desire not to just pay lip service to these initiatives but to fully embrace them – being bold in closing down the business to focus on staff development; releasing staff to go out and promote the industry or lecture in colleges and universities; whole-heartedly backing charity drives like the Honister Slate Mine Rock Climb.

Whether it be ‘knowledge breakfasts’, to share industry wisdom, or investment in the Construction Skills Certification Scheme for all staff, enabling them to safely visit construction sites, we have looked to aid the productivity of individual staff members.

Irrespective of our focus on staff though, we have never lost sight of the need for us to remain a profitable, streamlined and efficient organisation. To that end, we introduced intelligent, accurate and rapid costing using CostX, which creates cost plans with 3D models, 2D drawings and cost databases and we are at the forefront of Offsite Construction.

Additionally, in 2019 we began offering a multi-disciplinary approach offering clients a turnkey service and, with 93% of our supply chain within 30 miles of Sunderland we are able to foster closer relationships with our suppliers and add value to our projects because our supply chain understands local challenges.

Finally, as an SME we are acutely aware of financial management and therefore committed to prompt supply chain payment with an average of 13.6 days – something which not only speaks to best practice but also has reputational benefits.

The year also saw us make a step-change in our approach to social media and we are now fully active on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. This, we believe, offers us an obvious platform to promote best practice and highlight achievements, not only of Identity Consult but also our clients and others in our industry and helping to share best practice.

Key Achievements

• IC has heavily invested in our staff resulting in growth in staff numbers from 33 to 42, creating 10 promotions in a year including two to our Board of Directors – one position being an equity role. We have employed our first two apprentices through our IC Futures Programme providing opportunities for those who may not have had the opportunity to enter higher education and introduced a Leadership Development Programme to identify and fast-track the future leaders of our business, three of which joined us as graduates and are now Associates in the business.
• Putting something back into the communities we serve is a core value for our business as demonstrated by our company vision which is “To be the development consultant of choice in the North of England and be rewarded for bringing value to our clients, allowing us to invest in our staff and the communities in which we work.” This vision was not agreed by the Board and cascaded down but developed by our employees and delegated up to the Board for adoption, showing that our commitment to social value is employee-driven and embedded at all levels. This continued in 2019 with over £10,000 raised for charity through events such as our Honister Slate Mine rock climb and staff utilising their free volunteering days. We have supported local colleges and universities with guest lectures and student placements and our drive to employ local supply chain and pay on average within 13.6 days.
• Identity Consult (IC) is on track to record another record year with 38% growth in turnover following an impressive 18% growth in 17/18. Profitability in real terms has increased allowing us to open a new Yorkshire office, invest in our staff recruitment and retention practices through incentives and improved training and development opportunities and rationalise our business structure to be more efficient, resulting in six new major frameworks and 35 new clients being secured.