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Yorkshire Post Excellence in Business Awards 2008: The firms that know the secret of getting the best out of their staff


Published on Tuesday 21 October 2008 13:24

Despite the gloomy economic climate, this year saw the highest number of companies entering the Best Company to work for category. And according to Dr David Spicer of Bradford University School of Management, chair of the judging panel, the standard was the highest in the three years of the awards.

From an entry of 25 companies from different sectors spread across the region, 10 were put through to a long list: Arena, Elmwood, Leeds Cricket Football and Athletic Co, Lowell Group, McCallum Layton, PSK Prout Tilbrook, Shulmans, Stephen George Partnership, The Retreat, and World Events.

"All these companies demonstrated excellent practice and genuine employee engagement. Last year the standard was high but this year was outstanding and selecting the five finalists was extremely difficult," said Dr Spicer who is associate dean with responsibility for the school's MBA programme.

He explained that what differentiated the finalists – Arena, Elmwood, Leeds Cricket Football and Athletic Co, Stephen George Partnership and World Events – was their consistency and meaningfulness in seeing their employees as genuine partners in their company's development.

He said: "It's not just about having systems, policies and procedures in place, nor is the best employer just a nice, friendly place to work. What makes these companies great is their genuine engagement with their employees, supporting them in their workplace, careers and wider community, which in turn has a real impact on the business. Employees are more willing to go that extra mile to face challenges."

Elmwood sets a particular example of a business working with its employees to face these challenges. "The business had a difficult first half and was not in a position to pay a bonus. The managing director explained this openly to all staff, commitments were made that bonuses would be paid if targets were met, and when they were, the bonuses were backdated. Employees appreciated the openness, honesty and commitment made and were willing to go that extra mile.

"The judges were particularly impressed with the level of leadership and responsibility across the organisation and the outstanding levels of engagement with employees."

Common to all five companies was a continuing commitment to invest in their employees and recognition that this is essential.

World Events' training policy particularly stood out. "The company's support for training is world class and significant effort is made to share and transfer learning back into the workplace. The Keith Wrighton Award, named after the company's founder, supports and demonstrates the company's values and all staff can be nominated."

Both Arena and architects George Stephenson Partnership showed a strong commitment to monitoring and supporting performance with recognition and reward programmes geared towards all members of staff and considerable investment in training and development.

The judges particularly noted the sharing of good practices by the Leeds Cricket, Football and Athletic Co and the passion demonstrated by employees across the organisation to strive for excellence.

"Our finalists are all successful organisations in very different sectors, but they all demonstrate that being a great employer makes good business sense. Their employees understand that the business wants to get the best out of them and vice versa. The ethos is very much work hard, play hard and that valuing people is good for them and therefore good for business."


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