Aspire One Newsletter - Issue 81 December 2022

Cover: Festive fun at Myo 123 Victoria Street. Below: Yasin Alizadeh from Bidvest Noonan tries his luck at the Fountain Room. Check out all

For information regarding the articles in this magazine contact aspire@landsec.com Landsec, 100 Victoria Street, London SW1E 5JL +44 (0) 20 7413 9000 aspire@landsec.com

One newsletter is keen to welcome points of view from Landsec staff and Service Partners. Therefore, the views expressed in this newsletter are those of the individual contributors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Landsec. We welcome contributions whether through social media, email, letters or stories. Please forward contributions to aspire@landsec.com

In my introduction to last December’s edition of One magazine, I reflected on what a challenging and unusual year 2021 had been – much like 2020! This year, things have been much more normal and we have been able to reinstate some of the key events in the Landsec | Aspire calendar.

The Quiz Night, Sports Day, Big Challenge (which this year took the form of the Thames Path Walk), Staff Recognition Awards and Christmas Party have all made a very welcome return. It has been wonderful to spend time together and raise money for our charity partner, Caxton Youth Organisation. Thank you to everyone who has rolled up their sleeves and got involved in our Aspire activities during 2022.

We have also strengthened Aspire this year by creating brand-new roles that are already helping to underpin the success of our unique community. During the year we have welcomed Alison Currell as Senior Aspire Service

Delivery Manager, Femi Olunuga as Aspire Data Analyst and Ross Wiles as Aspire Systems Manager. In addition, we launched the Aspire Centre of Excellence (ACE) at One New Change in April. As well as being the new home for the AspireAssist 24/7 HelpDesk, ACE offers hot-desking, a meeting room, personal booths, a kitchen, lockers and toilets to facilitate collaboration between our Service Partners.

In this issue of One, you can read about our festive activities, meet Mark Fairweather of D2E in our ‘5 minutes with’ article and enjoy all the fabulous photos from Christmas Jumper Day.

Thank you all for your tireless efforts once again this year to provide excellent levels of service for our customers, guests and communities. I wish you and your families a Merry Christmas and a healthy and prosperous New Year.

Meet the team

Kelly Barlow

David Wickens

Alison Currell

Heidi

David Wickens Operations Director & Chair of Landsec | Aspire

We’ve embraced

the season

Twinkling lights, seasonal treats, Christmas tunes and even a sprinkling of snow have added a fabulous festive feel to the London Portfolio.

cCustomers and visitors have been enjoying seasonal refreshments plus freebies and offers from a range of popup brands and market stalls. With Landsec also bringing Seasonal Cheer, our annual yuletide refreshments and music event, there has been a real traditional buzz about the portfolio this Christmas.

Seasonal Cheer

This popular event programme held between 6 and 21 December has seen caterers provide sausage rolls, mince pies, chocolates, mulled wine and soft drinks in Landsec buildings. “The events have been going really well,” says Brad Cordrey, Workplace Manager, who has organised the Seasonal Cheer programme along with Jasmin Byrne (Experience Enhancement Manager for Landsec) and Melissa Harvey (Guest Services Manager for Rapport). “We’ve had positive feedback from clients,” continues Brad, “with the activities really helping to cheer people up. Special thanks to our Workplace Trainees, Jacob Berkeley and Harvey Derwin, for organising and delivering the festive playlist.”

Perfect Pop-ups City & Victoria

The Molton Brown pop-up at 62 Buckingham Gate.

Perfect Pop-ups

Aspire Service Partner Rapport has been collaborating with Landsec Experience and London Retail to arrange a series of festive pop-up events in association with popular brands.

The pop-ups appeared in building receptions across the City, providing customers with free samples, demonstrations and discount offers.

Featured brands have included Umthi, AJ’s Cakes and Bakes, Greedy Vegan, Zooki, Palm House, STK, Molton Brown, Sknfed, Benefit and Luna Skin. The Rapport team, headed up by Melissa Harvey, worked hard to create a really warm, exciting and festive experience in the reception areas in the lead-up to Christmas. “It has been fantastic to host these pop-up brands,” says Melissa, “and see the engagement generated with customers. From local restaurants to cosmetics houses, charities and vitamin suppliers, we have worked with some wonderful partners. There are definitely some real foodies across the Landsec properties, as the freebies from STK

and Greedy Vegan proved particularly popular. The support from our front-ofhouse teams has been superb and has not gone unnoticed by customers.”

‘Tis the season of giving In addition, every building participated in efforts to support charities by having a Christmas Giving Tree and by accepting warm box donations

The Christmas Giving Tree campaign supports the charity KidsOut, an organisation dedicated to giving positive experiences to disadvantaged children.

“The Christmas Giving Tree is like a

Secret Santa,” explains Jasmin Byrne. “Customers have been able to take a tag from reception with a child’s first name and suggested gift and then donate the present, handing it over to front-ofhouse staff.”

All properties have also been accepting donations of warming items – such as socks, gloves, hats and scarves – as well as sanitary products. The items collected will be provided to homeless people in the capital through the charities Cardinal Hume Centre and Providence Row.

Warm box donations welcome

Christmas Giving Tree

Local Christmas Markets City & Victoria

Meet the team

“Having listened to customer feedback, we endeavoured to create the best experiences possible in the run-up to Christmas across our London Portfolio this year, with new innovations for customers across our front-of-house areas.”

Jasmin Byrne Landsec Experience Enhancement

Manager

The STK pop-up at 80 Victoria Street.

Andy MerrittClient Relationship Manager at Bywaters.

“It’s been a real team effort this Christmas, so thank you to everyone involved and to the Aspire teams in our buildings for their help –particularly to the front-of-house supervisors for their invaluable support.”

Brad Cordrey Workplace Manager

Local Christmas Markets City & Victoria

Local Christmas Markets

Customers and visitors at selected properties in the City and West End –including Cardinal Place, Dashwood and New Street Square – have enjoyed festive outdoor markets this month. Artisan sellers have offered a range of wonderful crafts such as textiles, candles and picture frames, either in the open or under the cover of illuminated tents. The aroma of delicious food and drink has filled the frosty air, with market-goers able to enjoy a choice of freshly cooked, international cuisine as well as tasty treats such as cakes, pastries and doughnuts.

Meet the team

Trees and Decorations

With majestic trees, festive lights and sparkling decorations, our properties and public areas are a winter wonderland once again. Although it looks magical, it certainly doesn’t appear by magic, so many thanks to all the Aspire members who have worked hard behind the scenes to create this year’s seasonal spectacle. From the team who visited the Christmas tree farm to select the best specimens, to the security staff helping with their installation and engineering staff providing the required power, to the cleaners keeping receptions looking beautiful, it has been a true team effort with sensational results.

Thank you all for your efforts!

Meet the team

Myo 123 Victoria Street.

Check out all the event images now.

We’re lovin’ the

Christmas Jumpers

tThank you to all those in the Aspire family who donned their seasonal sweaters to spread festive cheer around the London Portfolio. On Thursday 8 December, from the City to the West End, you excelled with your natty knitwear for Christmas Jumper Day! As well as the traditional Santas, snowmen, reindeer, penguins and elves, this year’s couture collection featured gingerbread men, foxes, llamas, Yoda and even a pug. With tasty treats on offer at market stalls in New Street Square and One New Change, the day proved to be a real Christmas cracker!

Office Space by Landsec

NOVA Victoria.

Check out all the event images now.

New Street Square.

Meet the team

Office Space

by Landsec

One New Change.

NOVA Victoria.

NOVA Victoria.

Office Space by Landsec

123 Victoria Street.

123 Victoria Street.

Meet the team One New Change. 123 Victoria Street.

NOVA Victoria.

NOVA Victoria.

NOVA Victoria.

Office Space by Landsec

Meet the team 80 Victoria Street. Zig Zag Building.

62 Buckingham Gate.

80 Victoria Street.

80 Victoria Street.

New Street Square.

NOVA Victoria.

Meet the team

New Street Square.

Office Space by Landsec

80 Victoria Street.

Meet the team

NOVA Victoria.

Look what we’ve achieved TogetherAsOne this year! Happy holidays, everyone, and here’s to an amazing 2023…

ACE

We raised £500 for our new charity partner, Caxton Youth Organisation, at the Aspire Quiz Night in April.

Sustainability remained high on our agenda this year, with a beachcleaning event in the summer and an informative seminar in September.

This year we’ve welcomed Alison Currell, Femi Olunuga and Ross Wiles to the brandnew roles of Senior Aspire Service Delivery Manager, Aspire Data Analyst and Aspire Systems Manager respectively.

The Aspire Centre of Excellence (ACE) opened at One New Change in April, providing a new home for the AspireAssist service and a hub for collaboration between Service Partners.

There’s only one way to round off the Aspire year and that’s with festive frolics on Christmas Jumper Day!

The annual Aspire Sports Day made a welcome return in June, mixing brilliant sunshine with a sharp downpour in true style for British summer weather!

Aspire members voted to recognise and reward colleagues who went above and beyond at this year’s Aspire Staff Recognition Awards.

The annual Aspire big challenge for 2022 was the 26mile Thames Path Walk in September, which boosted our fundraising for Caxton Youth to over £16,000.

One silver lining from the pandemic is that we’ve enjoyed not one but two Christmas parties this year, at Ruby Blue in February and at the Fountain Room in November!

The AspireHarriers Running Club raised a fantastic £410 for Caxton Youth Organisation.

NJC supports Caxton Youth’s Christmas Challenge

The team at NJC has been supporting Caxton Youth Organisation in various ways, including helping our charity partner to produce social media content as part of its Christmas Challenge fundraising campaign with Big Give NJC’s wide-ranging support includes guidance on digital and social media, advice about GDPR regulations and planned workshops on cleaning skills for Caxton’s members.

With Caxton Youth lined up to take part in Big Give’s Christmas Challenge – a special week of fundraising between 29 November and 6 December when charities can double their donations –the charity needed some help to produce a campaign movie and brush up its social media skills. When NJC heard about this, they were quick to respond by organising a special digital media workshop for Caxton’s team.

“We’re absolutely thrilled to be working with Caxton Youth,” says Anthea Besser, HR Director for NJC, “because they’re in our local area and we’re keen to support people entering work where there are lots of barriers. Having them as the Landsec | Aspire charity partner and working with them fits so well with our community and charity goals.”

Anthea and her colleagues at NJC hosted the workshop at their offices in The Zig Zag Building. The session covered how to create movies using iMovie and other apps – including how to overlay sound, text and music – as well as how to run a social media campaign. The NJC team also explained how to view analytics, such as average watch time, in order to see what was successful in each campaign. “We’re only a small charity,” says Rose Swainston, CEO of Caxton Youth, “so it was really helpful to learn these skills, which enable us to make the most of the resources and talent that we have in-house.”

For its Christmas Challenge social media campaign, Caxton produced multiple movies with the young people about the youth club and its work. The main movie can be found on the Big Give website and includes snippets of interviews with members, who explain what they like about their club and what it means to them. “The movie certainly hits an emotional nerve,” says Anthea, “which is exactly what’s required.”

Big Give connects charities with funders – such as philanthropists, foundations or corporates – and the public, helping them to double their donations. “We’re delighted to report that our Christmas Challenge was a success,” says Rose, “and we exceeded our target, raising a total of £4,030. In these challenging times, we’re humbled that so many people supported our campaign. Special thanks to the NJC team for their guidance and also their generous donation.”

NJC’s support for Caxton Youth doesn’t stop there, however. The team has also been helping the charity with governance issues through a workshop on GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). “There is a huge amount for small charities to think about in order to navigate the ever-changing legal landscape,” explains Anthea Besser,

“and keeping up with the regulations is increasingly hard.” Working with the Caxton Youth team, NJC staff discussed what data the charity needs to hold – such as information about young people from their social workers – how long it is stored for and how it is protected. “We reviewed the principles of GDPR,” says Anthea, “and assessed the current processes against these. The workshop clearly identified that there is already a lot of good practice at Caxton Youth and scoped out a roadmap to help the charity’s team to achieve the improvements that they want to make.”

More interaction between the NJC and Caxton teams is planned for next year, when NJC will provide cleaning skills sessions for Caxton’s young people at the charity’s Pimlico base in February and March. The lessons will help members to understand the importance of cleaning and to develop the skills required as part of their independent living training. “We hope that these workshops will lead to opportunities for work experience and employment for the older members as they leave Caxton Youth,” says Anthea.

View the movie here

WrapUp London

In a joint initiative between Rapport, Q&S and Landsec Customer Experience, Aspire has played a part in this year’s WrapUp London campaign, which collects pre-loved winter coats and distributes them to those in need.

Now in its twelfth year, WrapUp London is organised by the charity HandsOn London, which has distributed almost 200,000 coats to help people stay warm since 2011.

unitedArrangements for the donation of coats at all Landsec properties in London were made by Lissania Charlton, Workplace Assistant, and Jasmin Byrne, Experience Enhancement Manager. At the end of the donation period, Q&S collected the coats from all the sites and took them to the charity, with a full vanload being transported.

Well done to everyone involved in this united effort!

Security foils shoplifters

Congratulations to the security team at Cardinal Place for taking a united stance to deal with a spate of shoplifting targeted at our customer, Sweaty Betty.

The store in Cardinal Place was raided half a dozen times over a period of three weeks in November. The thieves approached on bicycles, entered the shop and swiped as many products as possible before making their getaway.

When the customer approached the security team for assistance, Jef Adams (Estate Security Manager with Bidvest Noonan) liaised with the police and Elvis Albert (Security Manager) visited the store to talk to staff. They identified

one of the culprits, who was very well known to the security team and local police, from CCTV images. They then devised an action plan to tackle the problem and set in motion activities to prevent and detain those responsible.

Following their response, the team received some fantastic feedback from the customer: “Thank you so much for the measures you have put in place –your guys have already thwarted two more attempts and the store team feel much more comfortable.”

Paul Trumper, Retail Operations Manager for Central and Suburban London, commented: “Well done Jef, Elvis and team!”

You heard it through the Grapevine

Aspire team members at 62 Buckingham Gate recently showed that they were determined to do the right thing at the right time. As some fabric work was undertaken on one of the pillars at the front of the building, a bird’s nest containing eggs was found. On the advice of local authorities and the pest contractor, the nest needed to be left until nature had taken its course and all the eggs had hatched. While works were stopped Bryan Villenas, NJC Manager, and the NG Bailey team at 62 BG checked daily on the nest. Working in partnership, the Aspire members ensured that our feathered friends were protected and that the work could be completed at the earliest opportunity and in a professional manner. Well done to everyone involved.

In this section of One magazine, we share snippets of news from across the Aspire family. It’s where we welcome new faces, bid fond farewells and celebrate promotions and other achievements. Please send your news to aspire@landsec.com It has been great to welcome Chan Pang Chung back into the Aspire family as Senior Workplace Manager, taking care of One New Change, The Zig Zag Building and 140 Aldersgate. We also welcome Damaris Thurstan of Rapport, who has joined the Nova team as Receptionist. In her spare time, Damaris enjoys travelling, meeting friends, watching films and practising Reiki to relax.

Also new to the Aspire community is Florencia Rola of Rapport (below), who has joined the front-of-house team at 80-100 Victoria Street.

We were sad to say ‘goodbye’ to Ivo Todorov, Receptionist 80-100 Victoria Street recently. Colleagues joined Ivo for farewell drinks at a local pub to wish him well.

Paul Trumper.

bold

SOUND ISSUE SORTED AT 123 VS

wWell done to Vincent Loftus and his team at NG Bailey for being driven in sorting an issue for a customer at 123 Victoria Street recently. When the client had a problem with the noise from fans during a board meeting on the third floor, Vincent was asked to deal with the issue as quickly as possible.

In feedback praising “the excellent service that Vincent and the team provide at 123 VS”, the customer said, “Vincent’s response was immediate and by reducing or turning off the fan speed, sorted the problem immediately. This level of service is absolutely first rate and the team should be commended for their consistent dedication in making 123 run so smoothly.”

Excellent work, Vincent and team!

123 Victoria Street.

Congratulations to Ollie Harris, Central Administrator for the London Portfolio, on receiving some excellent feedback recently. It was reported back to Ollie’s team that when executives were discussing the fact that he was now responsible for processing their purchase orders (POs), one of the managers replied, “That’s great – when you ask for a PO, he’s like that,” and snapped his fingers to indicate speed.

Well done, Ollie!

Mark Fairweather

Managing Director, D2E.

What do you like to do outside of work?

With two boys aged 13 and 10, I’m kept busy getting them to football practice, horseriding, drama lessons and so on. I like to travel; we have a touring caravan and take it all over the UK and most years we head to the Dordogne or elsewhere in France.

What’s on your bucket list?

I’m fortunate to have travelled quite a bit but I would like to revisit some places with my wife – including Australia, New Zealand and Thailand – as well as see some new destinations when our kids are grown up. In particular, South America is somewhere I’d like to go.

Are you a fan of anything or anyone?

For my sins, I’ve been a Crystal Palace supporter all my life. You could say I’m a long-suffering fan as I attend nearly all home games! I’ve been a season ticket holder for probably 30 years now and my boys like to come to matches with me. In terms of people, my one great hero is David Bowie. I’ve always been a massive fan of his music.

Do you have any mantras in business or in life?

Treat people as you’d like to be treated yourself. I’d like to think that most people would consider me to be fair.

What would you say is your greatest achievement?

On a personal level, that would be having a happy family. In terms of work, I’m proud of D2E and its successful growth. I was one of the first in the company some 18 years ago and now we are 32 people strong.

Have you been inspired by anything you’ve seen, read or experienced lately?

Along with my family, I’ve been inspired by the Ukrainian refugees that we took in earlier this year. They are a mother, Anya, and her son, Andrii, aged 13. They joined us just over 7 months ago and their attitude on arriving in the UK has really inspired us; Anya has learned English, got herself a job and settled into our community well. Although it’s tough at times sharing your home with other people, it has been a positive experience and fantastic for my children to understand that others are less fortunate than they are. We are looking forward to all celebrating Christmas and New Year together.

What do you know now that you wish you’d known when you were younger?

I wish I’d known that putting money into my pension fund was a good idea. It was the lowest thing on my agenda in my twenties!

Do you have any pets?

We have a little Border Terrier called Bronwen, who is 8, and we’ve also just inherited a friend’s black Labrador called Zac.

What’s your all-time favourite movie?

I enjoy films but I don’t really have a favourite. However, I do have a favourite album – Space Oddity by David Bowie.

What was your first ever job?

I did a newspaper round, cut grass and cleaned cars to save up for my first car, which was a wonderful red Escort Mk2. My second car was much better – a beautiful Mini. My first proper job was working for a catering company as a front-of-house manager, organising weddings and other functions.

What would you say is your best skill in business?

Probably being organised, and therefore quite efficient, and managing teams of people.

What’s your favourite part of your working day or week?

I like the fact that my job has no routine; it’s so diverse. I enjoy meeting clients – I really missed face-to-face interaction during the pandemic.

And your least favourite?

Having to do routine or repetitive tasks.

The club – which, until now, has been organised by Charles Walden, former Account Director for NJC – met every two weeks over the summer and autumn in Battersea Park.

As the club is open to all Landsec | Aspire members and embraces all levels of ability, those taking part can run, jog or walk. Participants usually enjoy a social drink afterwards too. Although Charles has sadly left Aspire now, the club will be back next year for more fun and fundraising.

Aspire Centre of Excellence

Your community A CE sp

The Aspire Centre of Excellence (ACE) is designed to be a hub for collaboration between Landsec and Service Partners, with the aim of promoting excellence in customer service. The open facility offers hot-desking, a meeting room, personal booths and team-building events and, with every member welcome, aims to further streamline day-to-day interaction within the Aspire family.