In preparation for entering the next BOSCAs Dave Hitchins, Deacon’s former-pro muso Marketing Manager has dusted off his trusty bass guitar and joined the Hopback Blues Band. We’re expecting great things!
Deacon is gearing up for its annual bowling challenge on March 2nd – last year’s winners Key Accounts are ready to do battle again and are challenging teams from around the business. Underwriting will be hoping not to add to their collection of wooden cooking utensils!
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Feb
20
2012
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Posted by Vikki
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A recent ‘bright idea’ by one of the Deacon operations team was to start to play five-a-side football after work. Despite the prospect of a bunch of insurance brokers running around outdoors in the cold wearing shorts, all went well until we realised that most of us probably should have preceded the match with a tiny bit more exercise and a few less pasties!
We set ourselves the challenge of trying to look good in front of our colleague Fernando who is a former Southampton FC player and is still a very handy player. However, during the game a number of frankly pathetic injuries occurred that included a sprained left ankle, various grazes and bruises and evidence of severe trampling to one of the goalkeepers.
We also witnessed a few incidents of ‘falling over for no good reason’ otherwise known as ‘blatant diving’. One such effort was rather spectacular and managed to incorporate a backward somersault and a rather graceful swan dive; however, the shout for a penalty was unsuccessful due to the fact that the nearest opposing player was at least 20 feet away. Still, we enjoyed ourselves immensely and who knows, if we start to get good we might even be up for a footie challenge or two. Bring the noise!
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Feb
16
2012
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Posted by Vikki
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Deacon looked a bit like a flower shop on St Valentine’s Day with SIX large bouquets arriving for one very popular member of staff alone! I think the postman must have got my address wrong though…(so says Dave Hitchins Deacon's Marketing Manager!!)
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Jan
31
2012
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Posted by Vikki
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The nominees for the Barbon Insurance Group BOSCAs attended a star-studded night at Madame Tussauds on Friday, where they were treated to a fabulous night of glitz and glamour and the chance to hang out with the Hollywood lovelies (albeit made of wax!). There was a variety of entertainment starting off with a private tour, followed by a 4D film experience, a champagne reception and then a three course dinner with live acts from our Barbon’s Got Talent entrants.
The acts were followed by the Awards ceremony and we are very pleased to congratulate:
• Natasha Carey of Deacon who was the recipient of a Silver Service Medal
A great night was had by all and we can’t wait for next year!!
Penny Jepson, Head of Business for Deacon (red)
Deacon managed to raise an impressive £6,533.29 in-house for New Forest Nightstop by conducting bake sales, wearing seasonal fancy dress, conducting raffles in-house and at corporate events, attending Nightstop events, taking part in sponsored runs and participating in sponsored bike rides.
This amount has been doubled by Barbon, making the grand total donation for 2011 a staggering £11,582.58.
A lettings agent asked a self-employed worker to undertake a roof repair without making an assessment of the risk involved. The self-employed contractor of the agent was carrying out minor repairs to the carport and gutter of a tenanted bungalow. After the fall the agent was prosecuted and at the court hearing that followed, it emerged that a plastic roof panel the contractor was moving across gave way, causing him to fall around two metres from the roof of the carport to the ground below.
A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found that the agent that engaged the contractor to carry out the repair work had failed to ensure the work was properly planned and organised and that the contractor was competent to carry out the work in question.
The agent, who managed the property on behalf of the Landlord, was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. They were fined £75,000 and ordered to pay full costs of £11,153.95.
Speaking after the hearing, HSE inspector Chris Wilcox said:
“The contractor might be alive today if simple safety measures had been put in place. The Agents had a duty to ensure the safety of those they employed - whether working directly for them or not.
If your business is managing properties then you must ensure that anyone you engage to maintain those properties is competent and carries out their work safely to ensure their safety and that of others.”
Deacon is delighted to announce their nominees for the 2011 BOSCA’s (Barbon’s Olympic Super Champion Awards)
2011 has been a challenging year for the Deacon team and the awards ceremony; which will be held at Madame Tussauds in London on Friday 27th January 2012, will allow top level management to personally congratulate those individuals who have gone above and beyond in their respective roles.
Each of the team contributes to the top-class service that Deacon offers and Penny Jepson, Head of Business at Deacon, said that the competition was tough and the gap between the final nominees was very close.
Massive congratulations to the following team members in their field of expertise:-
Up sell/Cross Sell - Christopher Lowe
Cost Efficiencies - Thomas Clowes
People - Leila Turk
New Business Development - Hannah Baker
Employee of the Year - Danielle Hoyle
Service Stars - Natasha Carey
Business Support Star - Matthew Vallence
We hope that you enjoy the evening!
During the recent ARMA annual conference, Deacon ran a competition to win a track day driving a Ferrari 599, a Lamborghini LP640 and an Aston Martin DBS.
The competition was open to ARMA conference delegates and supported our ongoing ‘Project 2000’ campaign, which has a ‘secret agents’ theme and the objective of generating 2000 blocks of flats insurance leads.
Our congratulations go to Gemma Weighill from Caxtons in Gravesend, who is the lucky winner
Gemma said that she is very pleased, as she loves cars and she mentioned that whilst she’ll be taking her boyfriend with her on the day, he’ll only be allowed to watch because she’ll be doing all the laps!
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Since Barbon introduced the new Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy earlier on this year, we have taken part in a wide range of fundraising activities including the recent 'sofa carry' and sky diving. Through our fundraising efforts we have raised a fantastic sum of money for a number of homeless charities across the UK - this sum is yet to be confirmed.
Our fundraising total can only get better though, and we are pleased to advise a further £1855 has been raised for the local homeless charities we currently support; this money has been raised by staff taking part in a recent Barbon survey, so thank you to all of those who completed these.
We look forward to announcing our final fundraising total soon.