HST People

Last year we launched our workation policy and we’re pleased to share that 8 employees have experienced a workation so far!

As a remote first employer, we wanted to enhance our flexible and innovative approach to work and we therefore launched a policy for employees to take a break from their usual remote work environment while still fulfilling their job responsibilities.

The policy combines working remotely with a holiday overseas and therefore extends the time employees can spend in a location that they wouldn’t usually work from without using all their holiday entitlement. Here’s what some of our colleagues had to say about their experience:

⭐ “I absolutely love this opportunity as it allows me to reconnect with my friends and family by spending more time with them than I would during a normal holiday.”

⭐ "For me, being able to work abroad is such a unique opportunity to combine work, holiday and family time. This is definitely the best company benefit for me!"

A message from our fabulous sponsor, High Speed Training!

We're now almost three quarters of the way towards reaching our target of donating 100,000 breakfasts to disadvantaged children with Magic Breakfast! 🥣

As a learning provider, we believe in the power of education and that’s why we are working with Magic Breakfast to provide children in disadvantaged areas across the UK with free nutritious breakfasts that will help them to reach their full potential at school.

If you'd like to learn more about this partnership, head over to the Force for Good page on our website: https://tinyurl.com/force-for-good-community

We’re incredibly proud to support Bradford 2025 as your next UK City of Culture! 💛💚🩷

Rhiannon Hannon from Bradford 2025, said: “Safeguarding the people we work with is of the utmost importance and that's why the support of High Speed Training has been instrumental. The safeguarding training that they have donated has enabled us to efficiently upskill our team, allowing them to work safely, and with greater confidence.”

Find all of the details here: https://bradford2025.co.uk/

At High Speed Training, we are proud of our Yorkshire roots and what better day to shout about it than ! We have our Head Office in Ilkley, as well as additional space in Leeds city centre.

As a remote first company, we still want colleagues to have access to welcoming yet functional office spaces, whether that’s for team meetings, socials, quiet focus time or simply when they are spending the day in the office.

Here are some recent updates to both offices that really reflect our company values and visual identity. A current favourite among staff is our ‘inspiration corner’ in Ilkley which includes our HST library and a place to showcase some of the awards that we have won!

A massive shout out to the wonderful High Speed Training for supporting Keighley Pride 2024. Without the support of a small number of local businesses it wouldn't be possible for us to organise such a great event for the LGBT+ community in Keighley and the surrounding areas.

High Speed Training is one of the UK’s leading online training providers. They offer over 180 different courses to serve large organisations right through to individual learners around the world, and deliver high-quality training courses built in-house to engage and empower learners.

Recently, we enjoyed a fantastic morning of volunteering in the sunshine with Friends of Ilkley Riverside Parks! 🌱

We continued the work that we've already been part of earlier in the year to help maintain and improve the embankment at the east end of Riverside Gardens in Ilkley.

The team look forward to volunteering with FOIRP again in the near future.

Earlier in the year we began our carbon mapping journey with Climate Partner. We recently received our results and we will now begin the next phase which involves looking at how we can reduce our carbon emissions. 🌍

Here is what our Head of Strategic Partnerships, Amy had to say:

"Measuring our carbon footprint is an important and positive step to reducing our environmental impact at High Speed Training. Now that we understand which areas of the business generate the most emissions we can identify the decarbonisation initiatives that we need, and create a carbon reduction plan that we, and our stakeholders, can really get behind."

We’re delighted to be sponsoring the Ilkley Half Marathon again this year so good luck to everyone taking part on Sunday! 🍀
All proceeds from the event go towards supporting good causes in the local area, making a positive impact on the lives of those in need.

Yesterday was ! To recognise this day we encouraged employees to send a note of appreciation to a peer via our social recognition wall.

It was a great way to share gratitude and make someone’s day a little brighter. As of last week we have sent a total of 144 recognition moments via our new social recognition platform and as a result 64.5% of employees have received appreciation since it's launch last October 👏🧡

Following our annual Best Companies survey, we are thrilled to share our results for 2024. Our 2 star accreditation demonstrates we have an ‘outstanding’ commitment to workplace engagement 👏

⭐ Giving Something Back remains a real strength for us at High Speed Training
⭐ Our employees believe our organisation encourages charitable activities and we hold a strong social conscience

Over the next 12 months we will be implementing team commitments and trialling employee led initiatives within teams to strengthen colleague engagement across our workplace!

We’re currently looking for a UX Designer to join the High Speed Training team. Check out more details on this great opportunity here: https://bit.ly/4brOlS9

As part of our Summer Gathering 2024, we invited Liggy Webb, an award-winning and bestselling author and international consultant to lead a session on resilience ⭐

The bi-annual gatherings provide an opportunity for us all to come together to share and learn. It felt fitting to explore the topic of resilience as it’s a skill we all need in our lives, both in and outside of the workplace.

Our colleagues were provided with strategies and resources to better manage challenges and change, adopt a curious mindset, think more optimistically and improve their personal wellbeing through a customised action plan.

Here’s what Liggy had to say about the session ⬇️

“I really enjoyed presenting to the team at High Speed Training about human resilience and how to build inner strength. Resilience is a wonderfully multi-faceted life skill that helps us to explore the beautifully broad spectrum on the human experience. We looked at my three-pillar model of resilience that has been developed to simplify and explore how modern-day resilience applies to us all against the backdrop of the fourth industrial revolution.The model emphasises the importance of taking personal responsibility, embracing change and being agility and looking after our wellbeing so we can cultivate a can do optimistic attitude.” 👏

As part of our summer gathering last week our Mental Health Champions asked our teams to get creative and take part in some light-hearted competition. 🎨

They asked our teams to get together and try their best to recreate our summer gathering parrot, using any medium they liked. 🦜

Making time for creativity has a proven positive impact on mental health, reducing feelings of anxiety and depression. Group activities and the social connection that comes from these can further improve our wellbeing, so this felt a fitting way to end our busy week. 🧡

We have some talented artists at HST, here are just a few of the submissions we received. 🖼️

Last week we held our annual summer gathering☀️

This involves a week of engaging virtual sessions run by internal and external speakers followed by our in person day in Leeds. It’s a great opportunity for all of our teams to come together, hear about the great work our colleagues are doing, take part in interactive team building and end with a relaxed evening social 🧡

Now in its 40th year, celebrates the amazing contributions that volunteers make to communities across the UK. At High Speed Training, we’re saying a big thank you to all our colleagues who have already been using some of their 5 volunteering days in 2024. 👏

This year, we’ve got big ambitions and we’re already making great progress by supporting a number of charities and organisations in our local community with a variety of volunteering opportunities. Here’s what some of our colleagues said:

“I love the volunteering days, you get the opportunity to give something back, work and have fun with other colleagues in the HST team.”

“It was really satisfying to see the areas we had cleared at the end of the day - we could see a real difference.”

And we’ve got plenty more coming up over the summer! Watch this space to see how else we’ve been supporting our charity partners and causes close to our hearts. 🧡

Say hi to Victoria, one of our learning designers 👋

Victoria joined High Speed Training in 2021 and quickly became our environmental lead within our Giving Something Back (GSB) Committee. The employee led team is dedicated to ensuring our social and environmental impact is one we can be proud of. We’re always looking for new ways and opportunities to support local communities which align with our purpose and values.

As it’s , learn more about Victoria’s experience leading some of our environmental initiatives ⬇️

🧡Why did you decide to join the group?
I felt very aligned to the work the GSB group does within the company and the community and I wanted to play my part in supporting HST to leave things better than we found them.

♻️Why is it important that we have a GSB group at HST?
The GSB group provides a focus for our charitable, social and environmental contributions and allows us to live our company values in an actionable way.

🧡How do you balance this with your day job?
Having a consistent amount of time for GSB work can be challenging during busy periods, but we always come together as a team to support our agenda and meet our goals.

♻️What’s your favourite thing about being in the group?
My favourite thing about being in the GSB group is that everyone involved is there because they have chosen to be! The time they put in is motivated by wanting to do some good and give a little back!

🧡What has been your highlight of the work the group has done so far?
All of it! I really enjoy seeing the positive impact that comes from our volunteering days. It is great to see colleagues getting together and getting out and about for good causes.

♻️ What are you looking forward to in 2024?
I am looking forward to the new opportunity we have to assess HST’s environmental impact with Climate Partner and how the results of this and our new partnerships can support our work within the group.

Last week a number of our Mental Health Champions attended the Leeds Mindful Employer conference Mind. It was a great day listening to a range of informative talks on promoting mental health and wellness within the workplace.

Our next step is to reflect on our learnings and consider how we can further build on our holistic wellbeing approach, in addition to finding new ways to empower our colleagues to build healthy choices into their working day 🧡

Employer

We had a great evening at our Spring into Smart Works event to help raise awareness and funds for our charity partner Smart Works Leeds 🩵

The event raised £400 and created valuable connections, with people signing up to become volunteer coaches and get involved with Smart Works.

Looking forward to continuing to support Smart Works Leeds and all of the fantastic work that they do to support women into work across Yorkshire!

Last week was and with learning at the heart of our business, it’s important that we continue to explore how continual learning gives us power to change, grow and achieve our goals. 🏆

Our Learning & Development Business Partner Emma is running workshops with practical advice on creating a PDP and making the most of the training budget each colleague has access to. 💰

We’ve been encouraging colleagues to take our own courses as well as everyone being granted a ‘creative hour’ to take some time to learn a creative skill and share what we’d used it for, helping us to tap into our creative side. 🎨

Emma told us: Our supportive environment and focus on creativity encourages comfort with experimentation, where continuous learning is the norm. Spending time on our creative skills during Learning at Work Week provides valuable opportunities to inspire and learn from each other. 🧡

High Speed Training has been recognised as one of the top 60 Workleap Officevibe customers globally by our outstanding Employee Engagement score! 🎉

This achievement reflects our commitment to employee experience and the outstanding efforts of our entire team.

It’s , and in line with this years theme we are encouraging our colleagues to think about and the benefits of moving more for their mental and physical health. 🧘 🚶 🏃‍♂️

To help our teams do this and to also mark we are offering all colleagues a £20 National Trust voucher to enable them to visit one of the stunning nationwide properties and explore at their own pace. We hope this will get everyone moving while also reaping the added mental health benefits of visiting somewhere new. 🌳

Alongside the vouchers we have also shared additional resources on the importance of movement, how to increase daily movement and some challenges colleagues can take part in. At High Speed Training we make sure to keep the conversation surrounding mental health going all year round with our dedicated group of Mental Health Champions providing these resources on a regular basis and offering support to their peers alongside their line managers and the HR team. 🧡

Say hi to Tom, one of our senior engineers 👋

Tom joined High Speed Training in 2017 and was one of our original Giving Something Back (GSB) Committee members when the group originated in 2018. Our GSB group is dedicated to ensuring our social and environmental impact is one we can be proud of. We believe in building our business together, not only as colleagues but as part of our local communities, and the group is always ready to help those aligned with our purpose and values.

Learn more about Tom’s experience leading some of our GSB initiatives ⬇️

⭐ Why did you decide to join the group?
At the time we were still a small company of around 40/50 people so there wasn’t much opportunity to consider our larger impact like the environment. I think one of our big wins early on was switching to a greener energy supplier.

♻️ Why is it important that we have a GSB group at HST?
I think our value around leaving things better than we found them gives us the opportunity to make an impact outside of our job roles and make a difference in the communities where we live.

⭐ How do you balance this with your day job?
I try to dedicate about 30/45 minutes a week to the GSB group and try to focus on ensuring I have one aim per session.

♻️ What’s your favourite thing about being in the group?
Because it differs so much from my day to day role I really enjoy the fact I can help out mine and everyone else’s community through the group.

⭐ What has been your highlight of the work the group has done so far?
I don’t want to sound too cheesy, but I believe we've made significant improvements in various aspects. Before this group existed, recycling wasn't even a practice in our office. However, over the past year, we've transformed, donating resources and funds to over 100 causes, all of which are connected to us in some form.

♻️ What are you looking forward to in 2024?
Every year we find more and more causes we can support and help with. I’m looking forward to helping those new causes and continuing to support some of our longer running causes.

Last Friday, a team of volunteers from High Speed Training spent the day at Eastwood Community School’s allotment in Keighley, which forms a big part of their outdoor learning activities.

Alongside participate and Eastwood’s Outdoor Learning Centre Manager, the team helped them to pull down and rebuild two fences as well as cleaning up and painting a table and several benches, making the space safe for the pupils to use them in the coming months. Great effort everyone!🙌

This , we caught up with the team involved in developing our Food Allergen Report earlier this year.

The report presents research data as well as highlighting the level of awareness, understanding and impact of food hypersensitivities while also calling for enhanced safety measures within the food industry.

As Shauna, Marketing Campaign Manager, commented: “We hope that the guidance provided within our report will help businesses meet the requirements of those with food hypersensitivities and ultimately feel safer when dining out.”

Find out more here: http://tinyurl.com/food-allergens-report-24

Working in partnership with the Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust, High Speed Training are helping to tackle the climate and biodiversity crises in areas close to our HQ in Ilkley.

We are proudly supporting the planting of 250 trees, and the restoration of 1 hectare of wildflower meadow each year. This will provide vital habitat for many species and people to enjoy, as well as capturing harmful carbon to protect the environment. 🌳

To learn more about the Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust, head over to their website: https://www.ydmt.org/