Employees at Gist Thatcham thrived under the pressures of Christmas and got into the festive spirit while doing so – through a number of engaging initiatives put in place by the site management team.

Christmas sees Gist ensuring the successful and safe fulfilment of increased orders from its customers, with record numbers of trays and turkeys delivered once again this year. The success of Gist's 'peak' operations is down to the Gist employees that make it happen every year.

Earlier in December, the site's employees had enjoyed a traditional Christmas lunch. Later, throughout the busiest week of the peak period, the site laid on a 'Twelve Days of Christmas' raffle, with prizes being awarded to members of the team.

“The brilliant catering team put together a Christmas meal for the warehouse which we all enjoyed,” explains Vicky Bartlett, Operational Management Trainee (pictured, left). “We also ran a ‘headset lottery’ where operatives had the opportunity to win prizes at the end of their shift, and we had a message board up thanking our Warehouse Operatives who went above and beyond for the operation.”

The site also ran quizzes, raised money for Christmas Jumper Day and held an awards ceremony to celebrate and reward its employees.

“Alongside Team Manager Sven Feaver, Operational Industrial Placement Mark Blake and Apprentice Dawid Wachowski, Vicky was the lead on the employee engagement plan for Christmas 2018,” explained Leigh Turner, Site Operations Manager. “The plan was performed excellently and was a fun and creative way to deliver our employees an upbeat message of appreciation for the hard work they put in not just at Christmas but all year round.”