Staff Matters

Croner recently sponsored the “Employer of the Year” award at the 2011 National Business Awards, an event celebrating the best of British business. All 10 finalists had very different stories, but what stood out was the value they place on employees.

Recognising that employees are an important part of the business has clearly had a substantial impact on their success. Each one could demonstrate how investment in the workforce had contributed crucially to business performance.

Despite continued challenges in the marketplace, management consultants Baringa Partners (a finalist in the employer of the year category) has seen a revenue growth of 83 per cent year ending 2008/9 to year ending 2010/11, by offering employees security and exceptional opportunities in career development.

“Our emphasis on culture, commitment to our clients and each other, and recognising excellence has paid dividends in the form of extremely high morale, low attrition and an expanding client base,” commented senior partner Jim Hayward.

So what’s their secret? Well, there are a number of things that each of these companies does. They:

• have a strong culture and set of values and exceptional leadership;

• create inspiring places to work that they know people love going to;

• invest in training and development;

• have clear career progression plans and ensure that employees feel challenged;

• create appropriate reward packages;

• are open and honest with employees; and

• treat everyone with respect and empathy.

Sounds expensive, doesn’t it? Well, it doesn’t have to be. Even the smallest thing, such as a handwritten thank you note, or an extra day off to celebrate a birthday, can have a huge impact.

Encouraging ethical or corporate social initiatives also pays dividends. For example, Liverpool Victoria (a financial mutual company) encourages employees to support national and local projects through fund-raising and volunteering.

So far staff have raised £185,000 and an employee survey revealed that 81 per cent of their people feel ethically and socially responsible.

Uxbridge-based company Rackspace, a leader in IT hosting and cloud computing, was eventually crowned Employer of the Year. Its hosting services enable companies of all sizes to buy pay-as-you-go computing capacity over the internet. Key to Rackspace’s success, and one of the reasons it won the award, was the way the company created a winning workplace through strong leadership, open communications and employee skills investment.

“Rackers” (what employees call themselves) serve their best every day; creating what the company proudly calls “an awesome experience” for all customers. It’s clear then, there is no secret formula, but employers can do a number of things to give their business the X-factor.