Our People
We truly believe our people make Portico and it the exceptional talent who make us outstanding and who ensure we remain ahead of the competition and who achieve our market leading client retention.
In 2016 we continued to invest, celebrate and recognise the fantastic people who create the Portico Family. We launched a survey to understand connectivity within our business and re-launched our Employee Forum to share best practice across various levels of our business.
In the spring we hosted our Annual Conference and celebrated our talented and dedicated professionals by organising fun activities for the National Telephonist Day and the National Receptionist Day. Over 200 Portico People took part in these events and the winners enjoyed prizes and personal discussion with Simon Pratt.
Formerly the Excellence Awards, we launched our updated Portico People Awards. 2016 also focused on ensuring a rewarding career for everyone. We revised and introduced a new Personal Succession Plan framework, as well as ensuring that we create an ever growing set of Development Programmes in our Portico Training Academy.
Our Brand
Amongst the highlights of last year was the introduction and launch of our new brand and visual identity. We launched our new identity in September with a new logo, colours and a fresh look and feel to reflect our values, Passion and Service.
This allowed us to create a wonderfully bespoke brand that reflects us, our beliefs and what we stand for. We invited some of our Portico superstars for a photo shoot, where our photographer created wonderful new brand images featuring the talent and wide range of personalities within our Portico Family.
Our Clients
2016 saw Portico continue to grow by focusing our efforts on creating the highest levels of bespoke services that reflect the culture and ethos of our clients.
Our dedicated team helped a global banking client to relocate from multiple offices into their stunning new home in the City. As part of this move we introduced enhanced Concierge services and our first retail shop, offering gifts and essentials, with everything from dry cleaning services, spare ties to sweets and Portico Flowers orders.
We have grown our regional presence in partnership with many of our large clients, adding another 17 locations to our portfolio nationwide, and welcomed several new clients to the Portico Family.
Our residential sector grew with the launch of excellent properties in South London, Victoria and we were awarded to work with prime residential developments in Mayfair, Chelsea and Kings Cross.
Our Business
Practicing Diversity
2016 has brought much change to our business and we are so proud of our team. In such a diverse, complex and competitive world, we firmly believe that the only way of doing business is with an open heart and an open mind. We are proudly making sure that we bring the best talent to our clients, regardless of characteristics such as gender identity, age, race, nationality or social background. Our approach remains focussed on developing tailored programmes to engage and nurture our people.
Every hour someone in the UK goes blind and we are proud to support and sponsor Guide Dogs for the Blind. In 2014, we set a target to raise £50,000 to cover the lifetime training and care costs for a guide dog. In 2016, our teams were busy fundraising, with over 30 events taking place throughout our locations.
Portico Lifestyle
As a natural enhancement to our Concierge Services, we invested in the design and development of Portico Lifestyle, a market leading online platform that our clients and residents use to arrange essential services and extraordinary experiences through a few clicks. We will continue to introduce the platform for a variety of corporate, residential and property clients in 2017.