We have been recognised for having ‘world class’ levels of employee engagement

Our commitment to people and culture has seen our firm awarded a coveted workplace accolade.

We have been recognised as a well led and well managed organisation demonstrating ‘world class’ levels of colleague engagement, despite the current unprecedented circumstances.

Our organisation, which has nearly 400 colleagues working across our Liverpool, Manchester and Preston offices, has been certified by Best Companies and recognised for our commitment to colleagues, with a 3-star accreditation, which is the highest possible rating.

Our achievement is recognition of the support we have shown to our colleagues from the start of the pandemic and beyond. This included firm-wide updates delivered by our leadership team on our preparations in response to Covid-19, which centred on the protection of the health and wellbeing of our people and ensuring business continuity.

We quickly established a Covid-19 response group, made up of senior leaders from across the business, which provided regular communications throughout the pandemic via email and video. Also, we built a dedicated intranet area to hold all Covid-related communications for all colleagues to access.

We also set up a dedicated ‘your voice’ email to provide colleagues with a direct and confidential way to communicate with senior leaders. It enabled colleagues to raise concerns, ask questions and seek support, helping to ensure we provided the right support during the pandemic.

In addition, we launched an enhanced wellbeing strategy and adapted it to support our people during the challenges presented by the pandemic. This included weekly communications signposting colleagues to helpful resources online around mental, physical and financial wellbeing, as well as a 10-week mindfulness programme and a four-week yoga and fitness class.

Additionally, we invested in mental health training and recruited mental health first aiders internally (17 across our three offices) who act as the first point of contact for struggling colleagues and signpost them to professional support if necessary.

Our firm also launched a virtual 24-hour GP service for routine consultations when appointments were difficult to come by. We also rewarded all colleagues with additional annual leave, in recognition of them standing together during the pandemic.

Commenting, our Managing Partner Nik White said: “We are absolutely delighted to have received a 3-star rating from Best Companies. This reflects ‘world class’ levels of workplace engagement, and indicates we are making great progress in our ambition to become the employer of choice.

“This is an exceptional achievement and stands as a testament to the hard work, resilience and commitment of our people. I want to thank our people for going above and beyond and continuing to put their trust in our firm.”

Best Companies has over 20 years’ experience in helping organisations measure and improve employee engagement using a robust methodology, with their accreditation standard certifying excellence in the workplace since 2006.