QED Consulting’ adventures – at Buckingham Palace

QED team members “meet the Queen” at Buckingham Palace and continue to demonstrate their commitment as “Supportive Employers”, positively encouraging active participation in Territorial Army Duties.

Its not every day that a member of your team hands you an invitation to a Garden Party at Buckingham Palace,as part of the Centenary Celebration of the TA activities. That’s exactly what happened here at our QED offices. Emily Anderson, our Business Development Consultant, is an active member of the Territorial Army and as a thank you to her employers for the support they have demonstrated, Emily applied for tickets via competitive bidding process and was lucky enough to be successful in securing three tickets to this prestigious event.

It was a “Royal Day Out” for Emily, Steve Hinton, CEO and Kathy Denton, Director as they went to London to meet the Queen!

Emily has been in the TA for a total of 5 years and is a member of Leeds based 269bty “The Yorkshire Gunners” Artillery Reserves. Her experiences have taken her all over the world in some very interesting circumstances and capacities. She also brings, where possible the cross knowledge transfer opportunities to the workplace as an example of how the personal and professional development opportunities being in the TA can bring.

“I see my involvement in the TA as a chance to put into practice some of the theoretical management knowledge, problem solving and soft skills development we deliver here at QED for our clients. I do this in the form of a very unique training opportunity ensuring that in my role at QED, I don’t just “talk the talk” but can also draw on practical experience when developing programmes and projects. And on top of all this, I get to have tremendous fun and meet a whole range of very interesting, people as well. For myself the benefits have been immeasurable, in terms of “whole person development” I believe employers get more out their staff being in the TA than they realise.”

Kathy explains, “Emily's arrival in our office was our first experience at close hand, of the TA and has really enhanced our understanding of what being an active member entails both for the individual and the employer. We have seen the bruises, shared the challenges and breathed sighs of relief that it is Emily, rather than us, spending the weekend in the pouring rain “yomping” and training!

We have also seen the synergies between leadership within commercial organisations and leadership on the field of combat. How does one motivate a tired, disengaged, challenging team? How does one optimise the potential of each and every member within the group? How does one plan an effective campaign - marketing or military - we have so much to learn from each other?

We recognise the commitment, passion and effort that Emily and her fellow TA colleagues invest in their mission to be the best they can and are proud to support in our capacity as an employer.”