In December 2019, Pennant opened the nominations for the 2020 Chairman’s Awards.
In March of the previous year, the ‘Chairman’s Award for Innovation’ was won by Dave Selvester, for the establishment of the successful Product Development Forum.
This year, Pennant extended the Awards to five categories: Innovation, Performance, Quality, Respect and Teamwork, celebrating the core values of the company.
Nominations were made by employees, with detailed reasons given for each vote. These nominations were discussed by a four-person panel, who went on to determine the final short list and ultimately, the well-deserving winners.
On Monday 10th February the winner’s announcement was made:
The Innovation Category – Timothy Adams
Timmy has encapsulated the definition of ‘Innovation’ through the invention of the Generic Fastener Installation Trainer (GFIT). He identified an opportunity to enhance some of the core skills learnt at the early stages of training enabling students to better understand aviation hardware and contextualise this learning in the wider aviation maintenance environment. The GFIT device has now been developed and added to Pennant’s growing catalogue of products. It is in line with our company’s emphasis on developing affordable entry level devices that can be used by training institutions and colleges.
Timmy spent large amounts of time developing a concept that has proven to be a great success in Australia, with colleges and schools buying and showing interest in the product, and we are sure there is much more triumph to come!
The Performance Category – Harvey Skinner on behalf of the QTI Team
Following his appointment as project manager on the QTI contract, Harvey has coordinated the team and delivery of all the key tasks on time (an in some cases accelerated on timescales), to a high standard and to budget. The QTI contract has been a great contract for Pennant and at such a large value the whole team have performed brilliantly.
Nomination reasons include receiving fantastic feedback from our clients working with Harvey, reporting on his quick response times and good communication when providing regular updates.
The Quality Category – Nik Barron
Nik’s work and responsibilities impact the entire Pennant Group, with his general day to day activities happening under the radar. Nik provides IT support that goes over and above what would be expected. He frequently works outside of normal hours and during holidays, to keep our IT infrastructure working at top capacity. This is a huge task as we all rely on our IT systems heavily for our day to day jobs.
Nik also maintains and regulators all the needed updates to our systems to ensure we are IT compliant for key contracts and is responsible for the Group’s security status.
Those who nominated Nik also commented on his quick response time, his ability to assist with Oracle issues and his friendly manner.
The Respect Category – Pete Hick
Nominations highlighted Pete as an unsung hero of the business, going about his daily tasks, professionally, politely and with a positive ‘can-do’ attitude.
Pete’s ability to communicate with everyone in the business has been noticed by multiple people, whether they are senior management or not. He is approachable and no task or issue is ever too big or small for him to fix. He never complains when he is asked to do anything, and will always make time to help others, even outside of working hours.
When Pete started at Pennant, a time of high workload for facilities and without a manager, just over a year ago, he ‘hit the ground running’ and has made a great impression on everyone.
The Teamwork Category – The Media Team
The Media Team (Amy Hands & Anna Astbury) support not only Pennant but the whole Group, including our global offices, with Anna often taking on external work as well.
Together they work very well, taking in everyone’s ideas and suggestions to develop a consistent style which many customers have made positive feedback about. Both manage busy work loads, often meeting last minute deadlines all with a positive manner.
Throughout the last year they have overhauled the company’s brand image and supporting marketing material documents, as well as setting out new branding guidelines, group logos, product videos and designing a new website for ASF (soon to be released).
A huge congratulations to all the worthy winners. The judging panel truly enjoyed reading the numerous reasons for each nomination and are proud to see so many members of the Pennant group putting the core values into practice.
