The Best Employers Eastern Region 2012 campaign is a joint initiative between regional recruitment consultants Pure Resourcing Solutions and talent management experts, eras Ltd. The campaign aims to put the region on the map, to help attract new employees and retain talent by highlighting the best employers, as judged by existing employees.
Lynn Walters, director at Pure Resourcing Solutions and driving force behind the campaign, said: “I don’t believe many other regions in the UK could boast such a diverse mix of successful businesses. We need to highlight and showcase this in order to attract and retain talent to the region and prevent our businesses needing to compete for top employees with London based companies.”
The campaign will find the region’s leading employers through a dedicated survey tool specifically designed by Pure and eras Ltd to measure a company’s brand, culture and values from its own people’s perspective - providing a true reflection of what it is really like to work for the business.
New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership, which supports the growth of businesses across Norfolk and Suffolk, and businesses including Birketts LLP, Naked Wines, Brady plc, Essex Cares, Archant and Cambridge Newspapers Ltd have backed the need for a campaign to promote the region’s best employers and are urging companies in the region to get on board.
Alistair Lang, CEO at Birketts LLP, said “As a long established and highly successful law firm in the East of England, we are great advocates of employee surveys and the correlation between employee engagement and business success is widely recognised. This initiative represents a great opportunity for organisations to understand how they are perceived by their employees and how they compare to other organisations in the Eastern Region which can only be a good thing.”
Liz Rymell, Head of HR at Essex Cares, said: “As a caring and supportive organisation we truly understand and value the importance of a talented and motivated workforce – our employees are at the heart of everything we do. We are committed to recruiting and retaining people who share the service-user-centred, committed and caring culture of Essex Cares and hope that being part of this survey will enable us to better understand the true culture within our workforce so that we can continue to deliver top quality support to those who need it the most.”
Rowan Gormley, founder of Naked Wines, said “The Best Employers project represents a great opportunity for organisations to understand how they are perceived by their employees and how they compare to other organisations in the Eastern Region. The project developed by Pure Resourcing Solutions and eras is of great value to organisations in Norfolk and I fully support this initiative.”
Catherine Hall, Head of HR at Brady plc, said: “We are looking forward to taking part in this initiative to raise the profile of the Eastern region as well as getting feedback on the levels of engagement within our own organisation.”
Darren Arnup, Office Manager at Almary Green, said: "Employee engagement is a hot topic at present and Almary Green recognise the importance of receiving genuine feedback through employee engagement surveys.”
The campaign survey is available for companies of all sizes and sectors to take part in. Each company that participates will receive a confidential tailored report including benchmark data of how the company compares to other organisations in the region and an action plan for guidance on any further development.
Once the survey is completed, each organisation will be entered for a number of special awards to celebrate the companies that excel in categories including valuing people, vision and leadership.
The survey, which is available between April and August, is easy to complete. It only takes 15 minutes to fill out online and covers topics including communication, team work, benefits offered and working environment. It is entirely confidential for staff, allowing employees to give honest answers and increase morale by making them realise their opinion counts.
Alex Pearce, Managing Director at eras Ltd added: “People are at the heart of any business and having the right culture and environment for people to flourish is core to a business’s ability to succeed. Working with Pure Resourcing Solutions we wanted to find a way to really measure what a good employer looks like. To do that, you need to ask the people who work for the company.
“The key to making this work is for participating businesses to commit to the campaign by encouraging their employees to complete the survey. The greater the number of staff who complete the survey, the bigger and more revealing picture you will get. But even a 60 per cent response rate will give a good flavour, which is why we have set this as the minimum amount of employee participation required.”
The tailored reports are completely confidential to each organisation, but Pure Resourcing Solutions and eras Ltd will be able to use the overall findings to look at key trends and share best practice across the region.
Lynn Walters said: “It’s our intention that the campaign will culminate in a series of breakfast seminars around the region at which the awards will be presented to the winning companies. The events will provide the opportunity to hear from some of our most innovative and successful organisations in the region as well as gaining an insight into the emerging trends in employee engagement.”
For more information, including a video about the campaign, or to register, visitwww.prs.uk.com
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