Award Recognition for Gravitas in Supporting Senior Recruiters to Fulfil their Potential

​Everyone at Gravitas is celebrating this week, following the announcement that our training programme has once again been given the royal stamp of approval from HRH The Princess Royal. 

The Princess Royal Training Awards recognise and celebrate organisations that display exceptional dedication to learning and development. As president of the City and Guilds of London Institute, HRH The Princess Royal personally approves any awards that are given to businesses, ensuring that each training program demonstrates a significant positive impact on its organisation and people.

Princess Royal award-winning programmes

We earned our first award back in 2017 for our, then newly developed, Gravitas Senior Consultant Development Programme. A programme designed to support our Senior Recruitment Consultants as they made the transition into more independence and accountability.

Each Princess Royal Award lasts for 3 years, so in 2020 we again entered the awards successfully, this time putting forward our Consultant Development Programme for trainees. The programme has been hugely successful in taking entry level people with no prior experience of recruitment and equipping them with the skills, knowledge and mindset to become performing recruiters as quickly as possible.

Coming to the end of the 2020 award and having evolved and updated our Senior Consultant Development Programme significantly, we decided to enter the programme for revalidation.

9 years of royal approval for our training

What does it take to win this award 3 times in a row?

• Starting with an in-depth application we had to outline the programme and demonstrate tangible results both for the business and programme participants, against the 3 hallmarks of the awards.

• We then hosted an assessment day. City & Guild assessors reviewed evidence supporting our application and spoke to several individuals who had been through the programme as Senior Recruiters, discussing their experiences and the benefits the programme has brought, both personal and professional.

• The assessors then had to provide a recommendation based on the reviewed evidence, application, and employee interviews, with HRH Princess Royal overseeing the final decision.

This new award will also be valid for 3 years, at which point we would have held validation for 9 years in total, having been one of the first recruitment companies to be recognised and to be awarded three times.

The Senior Consultant Development Programme (SCDP)

Senior Recruiters face unique challenges, as they progress from trainee level, in maintaining consistent performance, taking on more responsibility, and becoming more accountable. Our Senior Consultant Development Programme is designed to specifically support them on this stage of their journey.

Post-COVID, existing in a hybrid working environment, the programme is fully adapted to work both online and in person. Designed to work with different learning styles and adaptable for neurodiversity. It’s focused on providing Senior Recruitment Consultants with advanced recruitment and more senior skills as a person moves towards management. It encourages resilience, motivation and independence providing individuals with the ability to manage their desks, create healthy habits, and support their own wellness through a number of wellbeing elements.

The programme is just one part of our overall 5-stage programme, which has been recognised in many awards including ‘Best In-House Training’, ‘Best Onboarding Program’ and Most Effective Professional Development” and which spans every part of a persons’ career from trainee to director-level.

Our talent development strategy

Our company vision, as defined collectively by our employees, is to work together to help achieve excellence and fulfil potential. Talent development is firmly at the heart of our culture and in 2022 we invested £2.7m in L&D activities.

Our focus is on continuous improvement and organic growth. Add all this to the personal goal of our CEO, Kurt Schreurs, for Gravitas to be “famous for our learning & development” and it’s safe to say that this latest recognition for our training programme will not see us sitting back and relaxing. We are constantly working on innovative updates, utilisation of technology and programme enhancements to all levels, to ensure we continue to deliver outstanding talent development to all our employees. Right now, however, we are happy to celebrate our win and look forward to meeting HRH Princess Royal again in November!

Ready to work with a company invested in your development?

If you are a Senior Recruiter looking for an organisation that understands your challenges and invests in your support and growth at every stage of your career, browse our internal vacancies, or upload your CV here and we’ll be in touch.