Month: June 2018

The Advance TRS team return victorious after completing the 3 Peaks by Rail Challenge. The grueling challenge is not for the faint-hearted. The Advance TRS team was one of few teams where all team members completed all three mountains and were four out of 37 people who completed all three peaks!

Mick, Chantal, George and Sean endured and persevered, demonstrating incredible determination and teamwork to get through a really tough 48 hours. On the train from Crewe on the way to the first mountain, Mick says;

“Everyone discussed what they thought was in store, but everyone was way below the mark.”

The team spent weeks preparing themselves, from walking up hills on their lunch breaks to making sure they have all the equipment they needed. They started the first climb up Snowdon in the dark at 10:23 pm, navigating loose rock, spring water causing slippy patches and the freezing cold wind all in the pitch black. Nevertheless, they stuck together and got through returning to the base at 02:41 am, completing the first mountain in 4h17.

After a few hours of cramped attempts at sleep and more fantastic food laid on by the train crew the team begun the 6.5km trek to the second mountain on Friday morning. Scafell Pike proved the biggest test to the team, Sean explains;

“This mountain was by far the toughest.  The team effort was amazing to get to the top of this mountain, with others dropping out constantly it was a real challenge to try and carry on.”

6 hours and 38 minutes after their start from Brackenclose, all 4 of the Advance TRS team successfully completed the second mountain and were well over halfway.

The final and highest peak, Ben Nevis was the last hurdle of the challenge. George explains;

“The weather was not great and you couldn’t tell how high the mountain was as it was stuck up in the clouds. On the radio, all we heard was person after person dropping out of the challenge for various reasons. Undeterred we persevered through the wind, rain and even snow to complete this final mountain.”

Walking through clouds, in wet clothing made the final summit an extraordinary battle of determination with only the final descent ahead of them the team completed the final peak in 5h20, giving the team a total challenge time of 16h17.

Andy Ridout, Group Managing Director and founder of the company shares;

“What an achievement for the team completing this challenge. A great experience and something brilliant to be able to say that they have done. Hearing that only 37 people completed the whole challenge and the whole team of 4 were part of that 37 is just amazing. Congratulations to you all, you’ve done brilliantly. Not forgetting, raising money for the brilliant charity Railway Children.”

Now, home safe and sound, the challenge continues with another £1,500 remaining to raise for Railway Children. The team have already raised an incredible £2,057 for the children’s charity the team now have 5 weeks left to raise the remaining amount.

Show your support for their incredible effort by helping them over the final hurdle and donating to their online giving page.

The team’s final statistics:

Snowdon

Start 22:23:55

Finish 02:41:20

Time 04:17:25

Scafell Pike:

Start 10:00:50

Finish 16:39:37

Time 06:38:47

Ben Nevis:

Start 04:51:01

Finish 10:11:53

Time 05:20:52

Total walk time 16:17:04

We are delighted to announce that Advance TRS have been shortlisted as Finalists for the Toast of Surrey Business Awards in two categories; Employer of the Year and Leadership Team of the Year!

The Toast of Surrey Business Awards aim to celebrate success, recognise achievement and highlight the innovative people and companies throughout Surrey who are putting their region on the map by boosting the economy while making a positive contribution to the local community.

Employer of the Year

As a recruitment business ourselves, we understand just how important it is to find the right people to grow your business. With this in mind, we are always on the lookout for the right people to support our business to thrive. Our core values, commitment to quality customer service and company culture is extremely important to our team, from the bottom up, so the cultural fit is an essential element of our recruitment process.

In order to attract and retain the very best staff, Advance TRS have a comprehensive staff benefits and rewards package. To name a few, we offer an uncapped commission scheme, a private company pension scheme matching employee contributions up to 3%, access to medical and life insurances and access to our exciting perks and discounts platform including things such as discounted cinema tickets, free coffees, free phone insurance and discounts at hundreds of restaurants and high street stores.

We believe in rewarding the whole team when the sales team succeed, which is why we take the whole team out for joint celebrations when we hit big targets, often bowling followed by drinks in our local independently run bar. When we hit quarterly and yearly targets, the whole business heads out for a celebration. These are usually held on an afternoon and they have included activities like climbing the O2, power-boating down the Thames, Junkyard Golf and Airhop.

We also have a Summer conference every year which gives the directors a chance to update the whole business on new developments, business growth plans and successes from the year and also includes a fun team building element in the afternoon.

We have a Christmas Party every December. In previous years these have been held at local venues including Mercedes Benz World, G Live and the Mandolay Hotel to name a few. The party includes an all expenses paid meal, drinks and live entertainment.

Every Friday all staff are invited to join directors in our local bar for a round of drinks on the business. This is a great opportunity to build relationships in different parts of the business that you may not work so closely with and is a great way to blow off steam from a busy week!

Leadership Team of the Year

Over the past 6 years, the company and Board of Directors has grown rapidly and the senior management team has welcomed an Operations Director, Head of Training and Development, Non-Executive Director and most recently a new Chief Executive Officer working alongside the Finance Director and Founder/Managing Director, Andy Ridout. We have expanded into new sectors more recently and we also now have Directors for each sector that we recruit in. These Include a Rail Director, Water and Utilities Director, Property Services Director and an Infrastructure Director. We also have a key management team, including a Marketing Manager, Compliance Manager, Group Accounts Manager and an Accounts Manager and an Administration Manager, who all make up our management and senior management team.

Andy Ridout, Founder and Managing Director says “I am incredibly proud and thrilled that Advance TRS has been recognised for all the hard work and commitment it invests in both its staff and clients alike.”

Andy leads the company to strive for the top and has always had as a priority, the recruitment of the best people to allow the company to Advance. He has built an exceptional team of consultants who, having benefited from his experience and work ethos are fast becoming well-known for their own highly respected recruitment capabilities.

We understand that talented and motivated staff are key to any successful business. To help our team become the best they can be, we provide invaluable mentoring through our Training and Development Director, who works with each employee to establish bespoke development plans and sets clear objectives to support each team member to excel.

The team will be attending the Awards Presentation at Mercedes Benz World on Wednesday 27th June. It will be a celebration of the county’s best companies and a reminder that Surrey is a great place to do business.

These are the aspects of the business that we believe have enabled us to be shortlisted for these Toast of Surrey Business Awards and we are very much looking forward to meeting lots of other successful businesses on the night of the presentations.

Pick up your copy of the Surrey Mirror this Thursday 14th June to see full details on all the finalists!

Advance TRS are taking on the Three Peaks By Rail challenge next week!

On Thursday 14 June, the team will be arriving in Crewe to start their journey climbing Mount Snowdon throughout the night. Then they will be getting the train to the next mountain, Scafell Pike, which is the highest mountain in England at an elevation of 978 metres (3,209 ft) above sea level. Once they’ve climbed this they will then be getting the train again to the third and final peak, Ben Nevis. This is the highest peak in the British Isles which is in Scotland.

The three mountains total over 30km walking and over 3,000m of ascent. This challenge isn’t being taken lightly! The team have been training for weeks and are now gearing up for this two-day event.

The charity that organises this challenge are Railway Children who are an International children’s charity and they ‘believe in a world where no child ever has to live on the streets’. This year, Railway Children celebrates 20 years of fighting for children alone and at risk on the streets. During that time, they’ve reached more than 275,000 children in India, the UK and East Africa.

Advance TRS’s founder, Andy Ridout, and a few other members of our team, have completed numerous challenges like climbing some of the worlds highest mountains including Mt Everest and Kilimanjaro, completed Iron Man triathlons, marathons and cycling challenges to raise money and awareness for the charity. Some staff have even been out to Africa to visit the projects and witness what money raised can do to help vulnerable children in person.

We are aiming to raise £3,500 for taking part in this challenge!  Click here if you would like to support our team!

We wish our Three Peaks team the best of luck and thank the rest of the business for their fundraising efforts to help raise as much money as we can for this great charity.