Grovelands News category
Registration Events at 2 London Wall
Grovelands Resourcing are proud to unveil the launch of our Registration days every Wednesday and Friday at 2 London Wall; in the heart of the finance capital.
We are keen to meet with all financial services contractors across various sectors (including PPI, Investments, General Insurance and Mortgages to name but a few). The days will provide an opportunity for Grovelands to understand your motivations, requirements and expectations regarding future contracts, and to get an insight into the skills and expertise of individual contractors.
Ideally we would prefer to have a structured schedule in place to avoid a rush at lunch and after work but we would encourage anyone who is interested to come along with their CV to meet us at some point during the day, even if they have not been booked in.
As always it will also allow contractors to complete our vetting process, which in turn will enable them to start a project when required.
If you are interested in meeting with us, please do not hesitate to get in contact. We look forward to welcoming new and acquainted faces to our London abode!
Grovelands has a new London office!
Grovelands is proud to present 2 London Wall Buildings – our new London office which opens on 14th January 2012. This prime location in the heart of London’s finance district will allow us to be closer to our clients and be in the hub of the banking industry.
The office is comprised of 3 dedicated meetings rooms and a large meeting room that will be hosting Grovelands Summits, client meetings, Finance Forums and Team Workshops. It will act as a base for our resourcers so they can meet and interview new candidates. It will also act as a training centre for Grovelands Resourcing and zero G media.
Easily reachable by tube, the nearest stations are Moorgate and Liverpool Street.
2 London Wall Buildings
London
EC2M 5UX
Merry Christmas!
We’ve created a hilarious video e-card featuring our Directors – David Leen and Mark Davies – and our Associate Care Team - Laura Newton, Laura Heaps and Laura Real.
We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Enjoy!
The Grovelanders have all lost Faith…
Friday the 9th of December was a sombre occasion in the Grovelands office. This was the very last day that we would be graced with the presence of the lovely Faith Bannier, known to us Grovelanders as ‘Ban-Ban.’ After a year of loyal service in our Finance department, she is off to fulfil a long-standing ambition to teach English as a foreign language.
From her valiant defence of feminism (and war upon any office macho-man nonsense) to the loving and maternal care she gave our resident bonsai tree, she was truly a delight to have around. Her creative genius reached a peak this Halloween as she donned her hand-made skeleton outfit and, lest we forget, she was the muse for the 2nd Grovelands Day anthem – ‘An Ode to the Finance team – in the style of George Michael.’
It is impossible to summarise Faith’s contribution to Grovelands in a ‘best-bits’ style review of the last year. Her charm and brilliance lay not in big outbursts but in her uncanny ability to bring brightness and humour to the mundane. She will be greatly missed for this. Nevertheless, this is also the reason she will make a fantastic teacher and we wish her all the best for the future.
Christmas Yule
It’s that most wonderful time of year again – Christmas presents, parties and Santa. The day that the Grovelanders had been waiting for all year finally came on December 8th – Secret Santa gifts were exchanged and a magnificent Christmas party took place in the evening.
At around 2pm we all gathered round the ‘Paddock’ to receive our presents, everyone apart from Mark Davies, who strangely disappeared just as Father Christmas made his spectacular entrance accompanied by one of his elves. We all waited with baited breath to see what we’d received and to try and find out who our Secret Santa’s were. There were a variety of gifts from giant pens to rubber ducks. Once the excitement died down we got back to work and prepared ourselves for the evening ahead.
We left the office dressed up and ready for a night of frivolity at Komedia in Brighton. We were probably by far the loudest and largest group in the Komedia, so getting all the meals to the correct people was a bit of a fiasco but we got there in the end. Once our dinners had been eaten and more than a few glasses of wine had been drunk, we all quietened down to welcome the comedians for the night. The two comedians (Sean Collins & Eddy Brimson) and compere were very funny with two unlucky Grovelanders (Ingrid and Toni) becoming targets for the comedian’s heckling – but it did provide a lot of amusement for the rest of us!
Once the comedians had finished their stints on stage the tables and chairs were packed away for us to enjoy a night of dancing. Our very own Hannah Moss kicked up a storm on the dance floor, particularly when the classic Footloose came blasting out of the speakers.
It’s safe to say we all had a brilliant night. A big thanks goes to Emilia Powell for organising, Rachel Gooch for ensuring we all had the correct food and of course Mark Davies and David Leen for putting up with us all and providing us with a memorable Christmas party!
Grovelands Emulate Arsenal’s “Invincibles”
2003/04 marked what was without doubt the most historic season in English professional football history. Arsenal completed a remarkable unbeaten campaign, on their way to a record-breaking title; never before had a team gone close to this feat, and almost all pundits and fans believed it would never happen again. It is therefore all the more extraordinary that Grovelands United repeated Arsenal’s achievement and claimed a richly deserved Premiership title of their own.
Grovelands began the campaign with uninspiring draws in the opening two games. They then went on a winning run to the end of the season (interrupted only by an incredibly hard-fought draw against a technically superior opposition) and finished the season with a trademark 2-1 victory. Grovelands had been priced at a generous 10/1 for the title before the season started, and in the end made the bookies look foolish by winning with a game in hand.
The Invincible Arsenal team of 2003 possessed a cacophony of big name stars who matched immense talent and skill with power and grit; Lehmann, Campbell, Vieira, Pires, Henry, Bergkamp – the list of stars was endless. Throughout the course of this season many of the Grovelands team have displayed marked comparisons to those Arsenal legends. Jeffery showed all the mad talent that encompassed Jens Lehmann, Marker and Ives formed a strong centre-back pairing reminiscent of Campbell and Toure, whilst Gardner played the Gilberto role well. Throw in Wilson as Freddie Ljungberg, Henderson as Robert Pires, the Bailey brothers as Vieira and Bergkamp and you’ve got a good picture. Thierry Henry scored 30 league goals in the 2003/04 season, and whilst he couldn’t boast those figures, Darren A’Court netted a better-than-a-goal-a-game tally of 11 goals.
All in all it was a magnificent season for a side tipped to head straight back down to the Championship. The new season starts on Monday and who would write Grovelands off from repeating their success?
Grovelands backs Firebrands
For the past 3 years I’ve played for the University of Bristol Ladies Hockey Club, representing the first team throughout, and captaining the squad last year. We won the South League in 2009 and reached the National Cup Semi-finals in 2010. In the local league for the West of England, we were promoted to the Premier Division in 2010 and maintained a solid mid-table place during our first year in the League.
I moved out of Bristol in July and decided it was time to move hockey clubs too, to play a higher level of hockey and meet new people along the way. I chose to play for Firebrands, a friendly hockey club in the West Conference League (equivalent to the Championship in football). I was accepted into the first team and have enjoyed playing with the squad ever since. The team train and play home matches on a recently laid water-based Astroturf pitch at Clifton College. This is a new venue for fixtures and a wonderful surface to play on.
Despite the many new faces in the team (including mine), we quickly gelled. Both pre-season matches went well, with wins against Bath and Exe, two rivals in the West. The first match in the West Conference League was away against Gloucester City. The match was very close; we had to fight for a 3-3 draw in the dying seconds. This was a very competitive first match and I was delighted to be nominated Man of the Match (or Girl of the Game) by my new team mates.
Having beaten Exe in the pre-season warm up, we were expecting it to be much easier facing them again than it turned out. It was a scorching hot day and in the end we had to settle for another 3-3 draw. Top of the table Buckingham were a different kettle of fish, the following week they showed why they are holding the top spot, beating us 4-1.
Mid-October away at Bath, we really had to win this fixture as points on the table were lacking and the coach was becoming more and more theatrical on the sideline! Some excellent play meant a 4-2 win against our closest rivals and setting us up to give Southampton’s Trojans a good game the following weekend.
Unfortunately, it was not to be, they took away a cheap 3 points but we are determined to present them with more of a challenge at our next encounter! On the same weekend we had a Cup match against the University of Birmingham, this team was fourth in the National Premier League (like the Premiership in football) at the time so we were definitely the underdogs. We picked ourselves up after our poor performance against Trojans and actually managed to give them a run for their money. They won 3-1 in the end but our coach said it was the best we’d played all season, and I picked up a Man of the Match win so I was doubly pleased.
After a weekend off, the next test was away against Swansea. They were second in the table, but if we could pull off a performance like we did against Birmingham Uni, it would be possible to beat them. We had numerous chances but could not put the ball in the back of the net. Swansea managed to sneak one past our keeper, leaving us feeling robbed. The Swansea team are a tough bunch and most team members came away with a bruise as well, so a frustrating day in Wales!
The most recent match was away at Staines. Again, a tough bunch of ladies (I thought I was playing hockey not rugby) but we took no prisoners and romped home with a 6-3 win. One of the girls got a hat-trick which is always a great confidence boost. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come. Roll on Barnes at home next week!
Charlotte.
Let’s Get Quizzical
As the end of the weekly meeting drew to a close, the Grovelanders waited with baited breath to discover what the theme for this week’s quiz was to be. Hannah Moss took to the floor, accompanied by her glamorous assistant Kim McInally, who announced that the name of the game was the “Mr and Mrs quiz”. The loving couples battling it out were Sam Jeffery and Darren A’Court, Faith Bannier and Fiona Nunn, and last but by no means least, Mark Davies and David Leen.
Sam, Fiona and David were led into a sound-proof(ish) room while Hannah asked their partners three questions each about themselves. The questions ranged from most annoying habit to favourite pizza topping.
The three banished contestants were then brought back to guess what answers their partners had given. Much hilarity ensued as the couples’ knowledge of each other was put to the test; Sam and Darren, one of the favourites to win fell short and came joint last with Mark and David, even with David’s attempt to lure a response from the audience before giving his answers. The winners were Faith and Fiona, who proved that they knew each other inside out albeit a minor squabble over Faith’s breakfast choices!
After Faith and Fiona had claimed their prize of a bowl of (warm) chocolate coins, everyone returned to their desk wondering what the quiz would be next week and who would be crowned the ultimate quizzy rascals!
Grovelands Summit III
The third Grovelands Complaint Handling Summit was held at Vinopolis on 19th October. We had our largest turn out yet and it was good to see familiar faces from the first two summits; proof that the event is becoming a regular fixture in the diaries of Heads of Compliance and Customer Relations functions.
As the number of delegates attending had increased, and in response to feedback from previous events, the format of the event was slightly different for this summit. The delegates were sat on five tables, each with a Grovelands host, and with a guest speaker, Michael Lawrence, present from the FSA.
Following initial discussions around the current challenges in attracting and retaining permanent and contract staff in Customer Relations’ functions, we moved on to preparing questions for our guest speaker who was to arrive shortly. In order to preserve anonymity where requested, and possibly shyness, the Grovelands hosts got things started with a series of questions that had been raised in the lead up to the event. However, the discussions swiftly gained pace as the delegates fired questions at Michael covering Management Information, Root Cause Analysis, the move to a one stage complaint handling process and Quality Assurance.
Clearly the delegates were now in full flow and so after a brief break for the delicious food, Michael agreed to stay on for an extra 30 minutes to take further questions.
The feedback on the event was excellent and we look forward to welcoming familiar faces to the next event in Q1 2012.
Grovelands YouTube Launch
Grovelands has launched its very own YouTube channel!
Any videos that we make will be uploaded to the channel – whether they are of events, interviews with the teams or simply giving a tour of the office. We hope that you enjoy seeing the faces behind the company!
We have already filmed some highly entertaining videos with camerawoman extraordinaire Anna Haigh at the helm and myself conducting the interviews, although to begin with I was given the assurance that, “you’ll be off camera – it will just be your voice on the video.” Somehow I knew that with David Leen involved it was unlikely to be straight forward and hence I became Grovelands’ very own version of Michael Parkinson.
With the cameras rolling I swallowed my nerves and became the ardent professional that I am and turned the attention to Mark and David where we extracted many insights in to the world of Grovelands. The nuggets of history ranged from how they met, to the plans for opening the new London office to David’s eccentric choice of socks (worth looking out for in the video… and by ‘looking out for’ I actually mean shielding your eyes from).
The channel will be updated regularly so keep an eye out for the latest from our video team.
Click below to see our very own David Leen under the spotlight!
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