LONG SERVICE WITH A SMILE

Today I'm hosting a lunch for 10 Hanley staff with a combined length of service of 304 years! The lunch is a thank you to our longest serving and loyal colleagues and was prompted by the amazing realisation that 3 of our people will celebrate 40 years service this year.Clearly 1972 was a fine year for recruitment at The Hanley. This is quite a feat in any contemporary business but for a firm with only 60 employees it's even more remarkable.Others joining us for lunch today have 10 or 25 year anniversaries with The Hanley to celebrate in 2012. It would be temptingly easy to caricature long-service as indicative of a reluctance to change and just settling for things as they are. But that really isn't the case with these Hanley colleagues. During my time here I've admired the way  very experienced colleagues challenge themselves to contend with the unprecedented changes in our core markets and it is undoubtedly true that the society has benefited from the blend of youth and experience that we have in our business. But there is no sense of anyone having the same year 10 or 25 or 40 times . On the contrary the appetite for personal development amongst our experienced staff is a motivator for new recruits. Perhaps that's part of the success recipe in any business; providing an environment where all employees feel able to demonstrate  zest and creativity, irrespective of how long they've been part of the team .