Setting our people up for success

When our people succeed, we all succeed. This belief shapes how we evolve our approach to performance, development and support for our people across our business.  Our Head of People and Culture, Kirsty Lay explains how a subtle shift in emphasis is helping her team set up our people up for greater success.

Kirsty Lay, Head of People & Culture

Traditionally, appraisal and probation processes can lean too heavily on identifying what is not working. We have recently taken a step back and challenged that thinking. Instead of focusing on what needs to change, we are shifting the conversation towards how we enable change giving our people the clarity, tools and confidence to succeed in their roles.

This shift has been influenced in part by the upcoming changes introduced through the Employment Rights Act 2025, but more importantly by our own commitment to building a strong supportive culture.

A key part of this has been taking a more data-driven and intentional approach to understanding the colleague journey. By reviewing our employee journey process in detail, alongside analysing leaver trends and feedback, we have been able to identify where experiences may not be meeting expectations. This insight is enabling us to focus our efforts on the moments that matter most ensuring we provide the right support, at the right time, to set people up for success from the outset.

One of the most significant changes has been within our probationary process. We recognised that it could, at times, feel weighted towards failure rather than success. By redesigning it, we are creating a more balanced and constructive experience one that prioritises early support, clear expectations and meaningful feedback from day one. In parallel, we are evolving our appraisal process to better reflect ongoing development, encouraging more regular, forward-looking conversations that focus on growth rather than retrospective assessment.

Unitrust's partnership with City of Westminster College supports students as they begin their security career

Central to this is our focus on our managers. They play a critical role in shaping on-site experiences and we know that to set our people up for success, we must first equip our managers to do the same. We are strengthening the guidance, tools and support available to them, enabling more consistent and confident leadership across our teams.

By shifting our emphasis to focus on development and support we are creating an environment where people will be more likely to thrive, grow and deliver their best work.

Members of our security team receiving a Knight Frank Team Excellence Award

At Unitrust, we are always looking for talented people to join our team, if you are interested in exploring a role with us you can find all our latest vacancies here