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Generation BEST: How are we doing?

Generation BEST, the council’s network for younger employees and staff in the early stages of their career, was six months old this summer. A big thank you to all of you who took the time to respond to our survey to find out how far the network is meeting your expectations and your ideas for future activities.

We had a very positive response, and the results were followed up with a focus group involving members in discussions about how to make Generation BEST even better.

88% of you said Generation BEST was already meeting your expectations and 97% said you would recommend the network to colleagues.

Most members told us they value the network most for developing personal and professional skills and for networking with colleagues, partner organisations and other young professionals outside the council.

Some of the highlights of the network so far:

• Paul Lowney and Catherine Poyner from Excellence in People Management won the Young Metropolitan Borough Council of the Year Award for Birmingham at the Young Programme public speaking competition in February.
• Generation BEST members have taken part in a charity abseil in aid of the Lord Mayor’s Charities, held a Big Picnic in aid of Macmillan, completed a midnight walk in aid of St Mary’s Hospice and signed up for the St Basils Big Sleepout.
• Dr Jonathan Adey from Birmingham Environmental Partnership represented the council at the prestigious Wilton Park political summit in July for a debate on the future of capitalism.
• Next Generation CMT was launched in August, a unique opportunity for Generation BEST members to discuss live issues facing the city and feed back to the council’s Corporate Management Team.
• Generation BEST members Ashley Innis and Dharmendra Singh, successfully competed against peers from local government organizations nationwide for the title of ‘Young Local Government Thinker of the Year’.
• 100 Generation BEST members have taken advantage of free training courses on Facilitation Skills and Managing Change designed especially for early career and aspiring managers.

We received lots of imaginative ideas for Generation BEST in the future, from a mock UN, to social events, interest groups, speed networking, job swaps, think tanks and projects. We will be working hard to bring these ideas to life over the next few months to make Generation BEST as useful and as enjoyable as possible.

To read members’ views and ideas, see our survey summary and focus group notes, below. To find out more about joining Generation BEST, please contact us via lotus notes at GenerationBest, or telephone 0121 675 1545.