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Back in the summer, we were all immensely proud of our athletes bringing back a record haul of medals from the Beijing Olympic Games. The sheer dedication and determination of our athletes was an inspiration to us all. We were especially proud in Lambeth, as a niece of one of our staff members won a bronze medal. In the public sector, we are constantly performing in our own version of the ‘Olympics', having our performance measured and compared to our peers. Through annual industry awards we recognise achievement which acts as a driver to inspire even greater performance. So just as our athletes undertake rigorous training programmes, we must ensure we provide sufficient training opportunities for our staff to enable them to be winners. Successful performance takes a huge amount of dedication and training – developing skills to achieve a goal. This kind of continual development is crucial in producing a workforce that can achieve the objectives of the wider organisation. In Lambeth we invest a great deal in our staff and produce a tailored training curriculum based on their needs and those of our business. As part of the annual appraisals we aim to provide all staff with a personal development plan, identifying skills gaps and also making sure that the personal career ambitions of staff are supported. We also monitor this to ensure all staff are making full use of these opportunities. As a result we have seen some dramatic improvements in the performance across our teams. In our Revenues and Benefits division this has made a significant contribution to the outstanding turnaround of the service. We may not have medals to give but I think many authorities have reward schemes like our ‘Staff hero awards' to recognise and celebrate personal achievement, boosting staff morale and ensuring a winning mentality for the organisation. Mike Suarez is finance director at Lambeth LBC

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FINANCE

Money Matters: Olympic inspiration

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