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Congratulations to IiP Champion, Anne Wallace OBE!

All the team at Investors in People North of England were thrilled to hear that local IiP Champion Anne Wallace, from Taylors Fish and Chip Shop in Stockport, has been awarded an OBE in recognition of her services to adult and community learning.

An Investors in People organisation since 2004, Anne initially worked with the framework at Taylors as a way to re-invigorate her employees and business during difficult trading conditions.

After witnessing first-hand how developing people could have a massive positive impact on her organisation, Anne went on to establish a new venture - Startpoint - as a way to widen that positivity and benefit her local community too.

Startpoint is a not for profit social enterprise which offers an important anchor for the community -perfectly placed to target hard to reach members of the wider local area who are socially or digitally excluded.

Anne remortgaged her house to set Startpoint up, turning an empty unit into a coffee shop that soon became a community hub for informal adult learning it is today.

Since then, with local support and volunteers including employees from Taylors, Startpoint has helped over 500 people in her area to access hospitality, catering and basic IT training. Startpoint also reaches out to other organisations in the area to offer further support to people looking to develop.

This ethos of sharing and support is also evident through Taylors work as an Investors in People Champion –helping organisations across the region to explore the framework, introduce best practice and realise the potential of their people.

Talking about Taylors’ Investors in People experiences, Anne says:

“When my father died and I took over the business we knew we had to change in order to survive. We knew we had to develop our staff but didn’t really know where to start. We used Investors in People as a benchmark to allow us to recognise the areas we needed to work on. Since 2004 the Standard has been at the very heart of our business and we have seen turnover double and staff retention at 95%“

About her recent OBE acknowledgement, Anne continues:

“To be recognised in this way is amazing, when all I have done is invest in my business, my team and my community.“

And deservedly so too! So another massive congratulations to Anne on her fabulous news – what a fantastic testament to her work in developing people!

To find out more about Anne and Startpoint, please click here to visit their website. If you would like to talk to Anne about her experiences of Investors in People as a local Champion, please let us know as the official partner for Investors in People in the North of England.

To find out more about Investors in People and how it can help your organisation to realise people potential, click here to explore the IiP North of England website or get in touch. You can also find out more about our other regional IiP Champions and their role here.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by idg .