Northumbrian Water Group has scooped a prestigious award for the innovative way it engages with and shapes the working environment for its employees.
The company employs more than 3,000 people, providing water and sewerage services as Northumbrian Water in the North East, and supplying customers’ water as Essex & Suffolk Water in the South East.
At the 2017 Engage Awards, the UK’s only customer and employee engagement awards programme, Northumbrian Water Group won “Best Use of Innovation in Employee Engagement”, having been shortlisted alongside companies including Vodafone, Marks & Spencer and Thomson Reuter.
The award was presented at a glittering ceremony at London’s Westminster Bridge Park Plaza.
It recognised a programme of activity to create a Great Place to Work (GPTW) for the company’s people, which included refreshing and refocussing its employee experience model. This programme was presented and discussed at 63 employee events by Chief Executive Heidi Mottram and the feedback received, along with the employee survey results, was used to shape local GPTW action plans.
The key elements of the GPTW programme ensures manager responsibility for the experience of their people and a local approach to engagement, with best practice being shared across the business by an Engagement Leaders Forum.
The programme includes support for employees and managers to develop resilience and mental wellbeing, as well as leadership development in emotional intelligence.
Alison Corner, Employee Engagement Manager at Northumbrian Water Group, said: “The way people feel about the place they work and the job they do is really important. We want everyone to come to work every day and enjoy what they do and have a great experience, which in turn will ensure our customers receive an unrivalled customer experience.
“All of our 3,000-plus people are different and do a broad range of roles, from mobile workers responding to burst water pipes to administrators, laboratory technicians and engineers and we work really hard to make sure everything we do at Northumbrian Water creates a great place to work for everyone.
“We’re delighted to have been recognised in this way, especially as we were up against some much larger well-known companies and it’s great to be able to take the award back for the whole business as everyone has had a part to play in achieving this.”
