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LEARNING FROM GENTOO – BECOMING AN ‘EMPLOYER OF CHOICE’
• 360 Appraisal – the tool that measures individuals in the context of our 10
challenges to leaders.
• GenDex – measures all elements of Gentoo’s activities and combines them into a
score.
• Re-Imagine – our system to harness creative ideas and innovation.
• The Orange Box – a small group working with the Chief Executive’s personal
agenda.
3. Our people learning agenda
Gentoo’s approach to learning is distinctive in three ways:
• Firstly, we envisage a lifelong approach to learning that can begin at the preemployment
stage and continue after retirement. For example, we have programmes
connecting primary, secondary, post-school and graduate students to the culture and
world of business. Our Academy 360 (our all through academy for 4 – 16 year olds)
delivers a carousel of experiences as part of the curriculum that enables students to
participate in and learn about our culture. This year, a minimum of 400 primary
students will go through our ‘BE’ programme, a self help programme to build
resilience and self awareness.
• Secondly, we are building a learning ladder to provide a progression of opportunities
for individuals to develop themselves, gain qualifications, achieve self-actualisation
and gain the skills to help other do the same. Natasha Greaves provides an example
of how this approach works. Natasha came to us as a Supported Apprentice two
weeks short of her eighteenth birthday. Her experience at school and college had not
been great. She became a trainee and then an Administrative Assistant and now,
aged 21, she is a Project Assistant. Natasha says ‘I know I’ve experienced the ‘art of
living’ with Gentoo and I want to pass on my experience so others can benefit’.
• Thirdly, our learning programmes are designed to be self generating as Natasha’s
story indicates. Whoever participates in our learning programmes (be they customers,
staff, Board members, retirees, or students, etc) can take part in our coaching and
mentoring programmes. These programmes have already given us a resource of 88
people to further support others. This is the basis for our future development.
4. Our future focus
The combination of investment in learning and relationship building based upon shared
values, gives us an expandable, flexible and adaptable human resource both now and
for the future. The value of our people can continue way beyond our initial engagement
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