We were recently invited to the Relaxed Performance Pantomime at the iconic Birmingham Hippodrome. Within this world-renowned theatre, our Cleaning Operatives are always on their toes, every day of the week. Whether they have a small time frame in which to clean the auditorium before the next performance or they are cleaning the windows on the exterior of the building, our on-site team ensure this popular venue is in great shape.
All Birmingham Hippodrome employee’s wore sparkly hats to be more recognisable
The Relaxed Performance Pantomime is open to anybody, but is specially adapted for people who have autism, learning disabilities or sensory and communication disorders. To help everyone feel welcome, the Hippodrome release fewer tickets for sale, provide increased wheelchair capacity and give audience members more space to make them feel comfortable.
Front and back row seats were removed to allow more wheelchair access
The performance of Dick Whittington was captioned
As the Birmingham Hippodrome adapted their processes for this particular performance, our own on-site Cleaning Team also played their part in making the theatre as safe and user friendly as possible. Our team ensured that all doors were left open, allowing all patrons to easily leave and enter at their own will. Our Cleaning Operatives also turned all hand-driers in the washrooms off, so as to create a pleasant and calm environment.
‘Sensory Rooms’ allowed patrons to have a ‘time-out’
Both the auditorium and reception areas were adapted for the Relaxed Performance. Namely, all Hippodrome staff wore bright, glittery hats so as to be easily recognisable to all patrons and not only was there more signs, but these signs were enlarged. Adjacent to the reception area’s there were ‘Sensory Rooms’, filled with fun activities and the ideal place for patrons to take a ‘time out’ if they needed to. In the auditorium, both front row and back row seats were removed to ensure that there was plenty of wheelchair access. The whole performance is captioned on large screens and volume is slightly reduced.
The Relaxed Performance was an incredibly uplifting experience and it was fantastic to see first-hand how our Performance Partnership with the Hippodrome directly contributes to such positive events!
The Wonders of Westside Awards (WOW Awards) were held last night at Edgbaston Cricket Ground where Baba Seckan picked up his third award in as many months!
The WOW Awards is an event hosted by Westside Business Improvement District, who we have worked closely with for 3 years. The yearly show celebrates and highlights all bars, restaurants, hotels, entertainment venues and staff who have stood out by providing excellent service, in and around Broad Street.
Directors, Paul Concannon and David Harket with Elaine Weir, one of the organisers of the event for Westside Bid
Baba completed his hat-trick by winning the Outstanding Achievement Award, an award given to somebody who displays fantastic levels of dedication and consistently produces quality results.
Baba on-stage collecting his award from Mike Olley (right), Westside BID General Manager
Baba’s recent success has manifested from 7 years of hard work within the cleaning industry. His passion and drive to maintain high quality results, filters down to all of the cleaning operatives he oversees in Brindley Place. Baba has been a great ambassador for the Company in recent times and he will continue to be fully committed to thewe clean‘ethos’ of ‘taking pride in everything we do’.
Directors, Paul Concannon and David were joined at the event by Chris Taylor (middle) Managing Director for their Principal Supply Partner for Washroom Consumables, Merton Group UK along with Sean Wright (middle right) who manages the Cleaning Operation of the Westside Bid for we clean and Baba
Baba Seckan has officially been crowned the 2016 ‘Dee Richards’ Pride Award Champion.
This amazing achievement follows on from his recent success at the 2016 Loo of the Year Awards, along with his appearance on BBC One’s The One Show, in what has been an outstanding couple of months for our Lead Housekeeper at Brindley Place. Baba was ecstatic to receive this recognition from the business, but the fact that the award is named after Dee Richards, who Baba had such a close relationship with, makes it extra special. Baba saw Dee as a close friend or confidant, rather than just a work colleague and has grown within the business in Dee’s mould.
Baba receiving his Award from we clean Directors, Paul Concannon and David Harker
A proud Baba with ‘Dee Richards’ Pride Award Trophy and Attendant of the Year Trophy
Baba started his we clean journey working just one hour a day back in 2009, but has grown to become an integral member of our team. Over the seven years that Baba has been with the business he has been continually learning, his appetite to succeed has seen him persevere through some incredibly long and challenging days, yet he will always come out the other side with a big smile on his face. As Brindley Place Lead Housekeeper, Baba is never still; he is continually faced with new challenges and problems to solve; he works in a fast paced environment where he has to regularly adapt.
Baba with the Brindley Place client conacts, Andrew Kidd (Estates Manager) and Carley Satchwell (Facilitites Manager)
Our Pride Award Champion managed to spare 5 minutes to answer a few questions:
What’s your name and where are you originally from?
My name is Baba Seckan, I’m originally from Gambia, in West Africa, it’s a small and a very peaceful country, a lovely country.
How long have you been in the cleaning industry?
I’ve been in the industry for 9 years now. I first started working for a company call ICM.
How long have you worked for we clean?
I first started to work with we clean on the 15th June 2009.
Baba receiving the ‘Dee Richards’ Pride Award Trophy from last year’s winner, Sean Wright
What’s your role within the business?
I try to be an ambassador for the Company, and then my day to day job is Location Manager 5-7 in the morning, and then head housekeeper in Brindley Place all day.
When does your working day start?
My working day starts at 5 o’clock in the morning, and my day finishes at 8 o’clock, with a few breaks in-between, but I don’t mind as I enjoy it so the days seem to fly by.
What’s your favourite thing about working for we clean?
They are special, the management, lots of encouragement and motivation, constantly getting in touch, and offering support. I worked with other companies but we clean is different, I often see the Directors and management at we clean which you rarely see with other cleaning companies. It’s the relationship with the management, it’s as a family, everybody is together from the Director’s down to the Cleaning Operatives.
What do you feel makes working for we cleandifferent?
Yeah, it’s the family feel and the relationships within the Company.
What do you get up to on the weekends? Any hobbies?
On weekends, as you know I work from Monday to Friday, I’m always busy, I work very hard, so on the weekends I like to relax. What I do is watch football, I like football; I support Arsenal! I can’t miss it. Sometimes I will go out with my wife and family, most of the time we just relax and stay quiet so try to spend time with the family.
I travelled back to Gambia over Christmas, to see the family back home. I miss them so it’s nice to go back.
Finally, what does the award mean to you?
The award is fantastic, it means a lot, great encouragement. It makes me feel important and is a great reward and recognition. It encourage me to work harder, it means a lot. The company’s award is brilliant, it’s great because it’s an award named after a lovely, fantastic woman. I worked very closely with her, she was more than a Manager to me, a real friend. It’s brilliant. I wasn’t expecting it at all, complete surprise. She will be smiling down on me!
The ‘Dee Richards’ Pride Award recognises those we clean employees who have shown outstanding commitment and passion for their role within our business. This award is a lasting memorial to a lady who offered something very special and valuable to our business over a 13 year period. Dee, more than anyone within our organisation consistently demonstrated a real passion and desire to provide a service excellence to our client base, with this in mind we would like to offer huge congratulations to our ten 2016 ‘Dee Richards’ Pride Award winners who know that by receiving this award they have followed in Dee’s footsteps!
Below are our deserving winners receiving their awards:
Austin James, Birmingham Hippodrome
Austin is pictured receiving his award from our client at the Birmingham Hippodrome, Mike Croke, Facilities Manager, alongside Site Cleaning Manager, David Holmes and we clean Director, Paul Concannon.
Austin is a very deserving winner, known as Mr Reliable, amongst his work colleagues at the Birmingham Hippodrome. Austin joined we clean in September 2009, initially as a cleaning operative at the Birmingham Rep Theatre, moving to the Hippodrome in 2011. Austin takes great pride in never missing a day’s work, well done Austin.
Brian O’Rourke, Lear Corporate
Brian is pictured receiving his award from Malgorzata Michalska, HR Officer, Marie Peplow, Area Contract manager and we clean Director, Paul Concannon.
Brian joined we clean in May 2015, as part of a TUPE transfer following the company successfully winning the LEAR Corporation Cleaning Contract in Redditch. During the subsequent period Brian has demonstrated an outstanding attitude towards his work and regularly carries out additional weekend work on site.
Chris Archer, Brindley Place
Chris is pictured receiving his award from our client Lindsay Riley, Facilities Manager, Darren Mclean, Estates Cleaning Manager and we clean Director Paul Concannon.
Chris Archer is one of Dee’s original protégé’s, working within our Brindley Place internal cleaning contract. In 2013 Chris joined the external cleaning team on site at Brindley Place where his work application, reliability and willingness to go the extra mile has been phenomenal. Keep up the good work, Chris!
David Bird, West Bromwich Building Society
David’s pictured here receiving his award from our client Mark Brayford, Corporate Facilities Manager, Lynn Gill, Area Contract Manager and we clean Director, Paul Concannon.
David Bird is an integral part of our prestigious West Bromwich Building Society National Cleaning Contract. Since April 2014, David has shown a fantastic work ethic for his cleaning duties at the head office morning cleaning contract, together with his afternoon work as an office porter. David’s day finishes off with his cleaning operative role at our Higgs and Sons solicitors contract in Brierley Hill.
David Partington, Cavendish House & Birmingham Hippodrome
David is pictured receiving his award from Jean Hamilton, Contract Management Support and we clean Directors, Paul Concannon and David Harker.
Having worked within the business for nearly ten years, David has worked on numerous we clean contracts. However, over the past twelve months David has taken responsibility for the day to day management of our common area cleaning contract at Cavendish house in Birmingham City Centre. In addition, David is the daytime janitor for the Birmingham Hippodrome where he is highly respected for his professionalism and diligence to his cleaning duties. David is a fantastic ambassador for our business.
Golden Reynolds, UK-NSI Redditch
Golden is photographed receiving his award from our client David Somerville, Facilities Engineering Manager, Marie Peplow, Area Contract Manager and we clean Director, Paul Concannon.
Golden really does live up to his name, he is golden. Joining the company initially in 2012 working at our prestigious Symphony Hall Cleaning Contract, Golden has gone from strength to strength and is now our location manager for the UK-NSI Ltd cleaning contract in Redditch.
Urszula Pakora, Ombudsman Warrington
Urszula is pictured receiving her award from Chris Grayson, Facilities Manager and we clean Director, Paul Concannon.
Based at one of our few none midlands based contracts Urszula Pakora is our Location Manager for the Ombudsman Cleaning Contract in Warrington. Urszula takes her responsibilities very seriously and has displayed ongoing commitment and leadership to her cleaning team and our key client contact.
Yvette Meade, Birmingham Assay Office
Yvette is pictured receiving her award from Maureen Francis, Contract Manager, Marion Wilson director and we clean Director, Paul Concannon.
Yvette Meade joined the business in the November of 2013 and has built a strong relationship with the Birmingham Assay office where she is Location Manager. Yvette’s ability to consistently reach high standards of quality has seen her stand out in what is a very demanding role. Well done Yvette keep up the good work.
Nicki Gallier, we clean Head Office
Nicki is pictured receiving her award from Gaynor Powell, we clean HR and Office Manager and we clean Directors, Paul Concannon and David Harker.
Our first head office Dee Richards Pride Award winner for 2016 is Nicki Gallier who works within our Mobile Cleaning Team and Central Warehouse Facility. Nicki has received her award for her exceptional management of the stock control function within our central warehouse facility. In addition Nicki has provided outstanding levels of reliability within the Mobile Cleaning Team and has now recently taken on a Location Manager role at our AFH Cleaning Contract in Bromsgrove.
Rachael Peacock, we clean Head Office
Rachael is pictured receiving her award from Gaynor Powell, we clean HR and Office Manager and we clean Directors, Paul Concannon and David Harker.
Our final Dee Richards Pride Award winner is Rachael Peacock who is the Company Receptionist and Office Administrator. Rachael joined the company just less than two years ago as a bright twenty year old and has rapidly advanced during this time, becoming a pivotal part of the daily head office function. Rachael is the face and voice of we clean and we are very proud to have her on our team. Well done, Rachael!
The Dee Richards Pride Award Champion for 2016 will be announced next week with a full personal profile and interview.
