The awards conference, held at the Rowley Mile Racecourse in Newmarket on Wednesday 3 October, revealed the 2018 winners of Best Employers Eastern Region Awards and Accredited organisations. It was also the opportunity for the region’s business leaders to learn from one another about creating engaging, inspiring and inclusive workplaces which bring out the best in their people.
The Best Employers Eastern Region initiative was founded by professional recruitment specialists Pure and psychometrics experts eras ltd. It is sponsored by law firm Birketts and publishing group Archant. It provides businesses with the opportunity to gain unique data on their employee engagement levels through the initiative’s free employee survey which measures employee engagement, culture and values. The chance to be officially recognised as one of the region’s best employers is based on the survey results.
As well as the award-winning organisations, more than 40 businesses were also presented with Best Employers Eastern Region Accreditations at the event. New for 2018, the Platinum and Gold Accreditations were awarded to the organisations which scored in the top 25% of the Best Employers Eastern Region employee engagement survey and which also submitted further evidence for judging.
The Cambridgeshire organisations presented with prestigious Best Employers Eastern Region 2018 Awards and Accreditations were:
Award winners:
- Best Not-for-Profit Company Award winner and Gold Accredited: Allia Ltd, a not-for-profit organisation which helps impact organisations and initiatives to thrive, based in Cambridge
- Most Improved Company Award winner: Hundred Houses Society, housing association based in Cambridge
Platinum Accredited:
- Mantle, business spaces provider which has offices in Cambridge
- Morgan Sindall Construction East, construction and regeneration group with offices in Cambridge
Gold Accredited:
- Arthur Rank Hospice Charity, based in Cambridge
- Cambridge Commodities ltd, based in Ely
- University of Cambridge Enterprise
- Cambridge Office Environments
- Riverlite, IT solutions company based in St Neots
- Solarflare, pioneering server connectivity company based in Cambridge
- Stratagem IPM, intellectual property law firm with offices in Cambridge
The judges also presented further accreditations to the organisations which showed high levels of engagement and which they believe are the ‘Ones to Watch’ ahead of the biennial Best Employers Eastern Region in 2020. This included Ensors which has offices in Cambridge and Huntingdon.
On being presented with the Best Not-for-Profit Award and Gold Accreditation, Rachel Coquard, Head of Human Resources at Allia Ltd, said: “Allia is delighted to win the Best Not-For-Profit award for employee engagement. It means so much to us as we won Best Small Business award two years ago – and since then, as the organisation has grown and we’ve welcomed in new employees, we’ve continued to work hard to ensure that our values and brand are embedded in the whole team. Allia is proud of its culture and values, and employee engagement is key. For us, retaining our talent is vital so we’re pleased that we can share we’re an award-winning great employer!”
Matt Thomas, Chief Executive at Hundred Houses Society, which was presented with the Most Improved Award, added: “I’m so proud of the team. This award is all about the hard work everyone has put in. We have a great team, who focus every day on delivering a fantastic service to our customers and each other. We are really glad this has been recognised and look forward to celebrating and building on this success.”
Lynn Walters, Executive Director at Pure and founder of Best Employers Eastern Region, said: “We would like to congratulate all our winners and accredited organisations. The full list really demonstrates the breadth of amazing organisations we have in our region and this external recognition will help them to further enhance their employer brand. We developed Best Employers Eastern Region to raise the recruitment profile of organisations and the region as a whole. In today’s competitive recruitment market these businesses will now be in a stronger position to attract and retain the high calibre employees needed to achieve business growth. As well as being a celebration, the event was a unique opportunity for our region’s businesses to learn from one another. I would like to thank all our guest speakers for sharing their employee engagement journeys and helping us in our purpose of contributing to the growth of the eastern region by sharing insights on increasing employee engagement and productivity as a result.”
The guest speakers at the event included Catherine Spitzer and Julie Archer from Bidwells. In an interview with Jeanette Wheeler, from law firm Birketts, the duo shared their experience of re-designing their Cambridge office as a catalyst to change the culture of the business.
At the event, Paul Henderson and Alex Pearce from eras ltd shared key findings and regional trends from this year’s Best Employers Eastern Region employee engagement survey.
Alex Pearce, Managing Director at eras ltd, said: “We’ve had a fantastically diverse range of organisations taking part in Best Employers Eastern Region 2018. With double the number of participants completing this year’s survey we had some really high quality and valuable data to share.”
The awards event also raised money for charity with a proportion of ticket sales being donated to the regional offices of MIND. Together with money raised at the Best Employers Eastern Region 2018 launch event in February over £5,200 has been raised for the mental health charity.
The full list of award winners and accredited organisations is shown on the dedicated Best Employers Eastern Region portal.