WCF Creates New Leadership Role To Support 370 Employees Across UK

A Cumbrian business has created a new senior role focused on supporting the career development and progression of its 370 employees across the UK.

Brampton based WCF has promoted Karen Kelso to the newly created position of head of people strategy and organisational development. She joined the employee owned business in 2019 and will now take responsibility for developing people focused strategies across the organisation. Her new role will include work on leadership training, career progression and wider initiatives designed to strengthen support for employees working across WCF's different businesses and locations.

Kelso will work closely with WCF's senior leadership team as the company develops its approach to workforce development. The new position is intended to provide greater focus on how employees are supported throughout their careers, while also helping the business develop leadership skills across its workforce. The role brings together elements of employee development and organisational planning within a single senior position.

Leadership development will be one of the key areas of focus in the new role. WCF plans to continue developing training opportunities designed to help employees build their skills and prepare for greater responsibility within the business. Career progression programmes will also form part of the strategy, giving employees clearer opportunities to develop professionally within the company's different operations.

Kelso has worked at WCF since 2019 and has experience of the organisation's employee owned structure and its range of businesses. Her promotion follows the creation of the new position as WCF seeks to strengthen its approach to people strategy. The company has said that supporting its employees remains central to its wider business development plans.

WCF employs 370 people across the UK and operates through 10 different businesses. Its operations extend across 25 sites, creating a diverse workforce working in a range of sectors and business environments. The company's activities include campsites, oil distribution and retail stores, meaning employees work across substantially different parts of the organisation.

The variety of businesses presents particular challenges for workforce development because employees can have very different roles, responsibilities and working environments. The new position is intended to help establish a consistent approach to employee support across the wider organisation while recognising the specific needs of individual divisions and sites.

Kelso said the company was at an exciting stage and that its people had always been central to its success. She highlighted leadership development and clear career pathways as areas where continued investment could help individuals reach their potential while contributing to a stronger and more resilient business.

She also said WCF had worked to create a culture in which employees feel valued and listened to. The company now wants to build on that approach across all of its sites, with the new people strategy role providing a dedicated focus on maintaining and developing the workplace culture throughout the organisation.

The role will involve working across different parts of the company, requiring an understanding of the challenges faced by individual businesses. WCF's operations range from fuels and camping to retail and clothing, creating a working environment where the needs of employees can vary considerably depending on their responsibilities.

Kelso said that working across the company's different businesses could mean moving from one division to another and encountering very different operational challenges. She also emphasised that despite those differences, employees across the organisation share individual ambitions, expectations and personalities that need to be recognised through effective people management.

Career progression is expected to be an important element of the company's future workforce strategy. Providing employees with opportunities to develop their skills and progress within the organisation can support retention while helping WCF build the leadership capabilities it needs for the future.

Leadership training is another area that will receive attention under the new role. Developing managers and future leaders can help ensure that employees receive consistent support while also giving the business a stronger internal pipeline of people capable of taking on additional responsibilities.

The appointment comes after WCF was recently recognised in the UK's Great Place to Work listings as one of the country's best large businesses. The recognition forms part of the wider context surrounding the company's approach to employee engagement and workplace culture, while the newly created position provides an opportunity to further develop those areas.

WCF's employee owned structure also places particular emphasis on the role of its workforce within the business. With employees spread across 25 sites and a number of different operations, maintaining communication and a shared sense of purpose can require coordinated people strategies. The new leadership role is intended to support that process.

The company's varied operations mean that workforce planning must account for different working environments and business requirements. A campsite employee, for example, may face very different day to day responsibilities from someone working in fuel distribution or retail. The new strategy will therefore need to balance organisation wide priorities with the particular circumstances of individual teams.

The appointment of Kelso creates a dedicated senior responsibility for these issues as WCF continues to develop its workforce. Her focus will include supporting employees, developing leadership capabilities and establishing clearer routes for career progression across the business.

The company said its ambition is to ensure employees have opportunities to make a meaningful contribution while continuing to feel valued across its different locations. The new role is expected to support that objective by bringing workforce development and organisational strategy together at senior level.

With 370 employees working across 25 sites and 10 businesses, WCF's latest leadership appointment represents a further investment in its people strategy. The focus on training, progression and employee support is intended to help the Brampton based company develop its workforce while maintaining a consistent workplace culture across its UK operations.

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