Top Employer Awards: Celebrating Top Employers for 14 years

Starting in 2010 and ending in 2024, the WM People Top Employer Awards included employers from every sector and of all sizes. At the first ceremony there were only four awards and there was a big focus from the larger corporates on reducing office imprint in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. Professional services company Accenture took the overall top employer award. The other three awards were employee engagement, innovation in flexible working and SME.

The following year there were eight awards, including an award for childcare, talent attraction, two for SMEs and one for working mums’ champion. The Working Mums Champion has seen some inspiring women recognised for their impact both within their organisations and beyond. They include Julianne Miles from Women Returners, Dawn Moore, Director of Human Resources at construction firm Morgan Sindall Construction and Adeline Ginn of Women in Rail.

Overall Top Employers Through the Years

Overall winners over the years have included John Lewis Partnership, Unilever, engineering firm Atkins, children’s advocates Cafcass and tech firm FDM Group. There has been recognition for outstanding work on job shares [Civil Service Human Resources], on women in tech [FDM Group], on four-day weeks [Radioactive PR], on neurodiversity [Roche], on carers [Centrica] and on agile hiring [Lloyds].

Particular winning policies and practice have gone on to have a big impact, for instance, McDonald’s policy of giving those on zero hours contracts a choice to take guaranteed hours and the London School of Economics’ policy of giving academics on parental leave a period of exemption from teaching duties on return so they can catch up on their research.

Changing Priorities In Recruitment

The Awards have evolved over time to embrace new challenges in recruitment, and new thinking about how employers can make the most of the full potential of both current and future staff. Over the years, awards came and went in popularity due to changing economic and other circumstances. For instance, during Covid many employers paused their returner initiatives meaning fewer entrants for the Best for Returners category which had become popular as more employers recognised the benefits of hiring those who had taken a career break.

However, there was a bigger emphasis on mental health so a new award for mental health was introduced which recently expanded to include physical wellbeing in response to concerns about rising long-term sickness. Training and development have also become a bigger feature of the Awards in recent years.

Changing Demographics

The Awards have also reflected how WM People increased the groups under its umbrella, starting with workingmums.co.uk and expanding to include workingdads.co.uk and workingwise.co.uk for older workers as demographic changes showed the urgency of retaining and recruiting older workers. An intersectional and multigenerational approach has also emerged in recent years.

The Importance Of Innovation

A focus on innovation was always at the core of the Awards as well as recognition of continuing improvement. An award for special innovation - one-off programmes that fall outside the other categories - was recently introduced. Winners included construction company Murphy and ServiceNow UK Limited, Murphy for its Employ Autism initiatives and ServiceNow for its NextGen programme which aims to bridge the digital skills gap.

Expert Judges

While the judging panel has changed over the years, many were with the Awards for a number of years and their experience and their diverse expertise made the long discussions about winners an educational process. Many judges noted that they changed their views during the forensic discussion of each shortlisted entrant.

The judges have included Andy Lake, editor of Flexibility.co.uk, Salma Shah, Founder and Director of the award-winning Mastering Your Power programme, Jennifer Liston-Smith, Head of Thought Leadership for Bright Horizons Work+Family Solutions, David Dunbar, Head of Digital Workspace at the Department of Work and Pensions, Dr Clare Kelliher, Professor of Work & Organisation at Cranfield University and Kim Chaplain, Specialist Adviser for Work at the Centre for Ageing Better.

Apart from during the Covid pandemic, when the Awards went online, the Awards ceremony was held at the beautiful Soho Hotel in London. Each ceremony included an overview of the year by WM People founder Gillian Nissim and a keynote speaker as well as a discussion by the judges about who won and why. The emphasis was on sharing best practice and on encouraging change. Keynote speakers over the year included MPs Jess Phillips and Jo Swinson, diversity and inclusion expert Jenny Garrett OBE, agile working expert Alison Maitland and Caroline Waters, at the time Deputy Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission and Vice President of Carers UK.

The Awards were followed by the publication of WM People’s Best Practice report which includes in-depth interviews with the winners and commended companies as well as case studies of employees who demonstrate the impact of the winning policies and culture. The aim was to share what they are doing and why and how it works in order to encourage and inspire other employers, whatever sector they are in.

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