East of England's ‘Best Employers 2014’ have been revealed – celebrating the companies committed to attracting and retaining talented people and to achieving business success through employee engagement.

The biannual Best Employers Eastern Region Campaign Awards, run by recruitment consultant specialists Pure Resourcing Solutions and psychometric testing experts eras ltd, has seen county awards given to both small and large businesses in Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex.

The campaign culminated in a region-wide final at Paddocks House in Newmarket on Thursday (9 October) to reveal the region’s overall best employers and the region-wide winners in three specific categories.

The winning businesses have all been automatically selected from those with the highest overall scores in the Best Employer’s campaign’s innovative survey. Since April this has been completed by around 6,000 participants region-wide, who’ve all provided feedback on what their company is really like to work for; including their company’s culture, their personal feelings about the organisation and how they engage with it.

The Best Employers Eastern Region 2014 overall winners

The Eastern Region’s Overall Best Employers

• Large business: Benefit Cosmetics, based in Chelmsford
• Small business: Somersault Productions, video communications agency, based in Cambridge

The Best Employer - Customer Focus Award

• Large business: The Tamdown Group, civil engineering company, in Braintree
• Small business: The Best of Suffolk, holiday cottage agency, based in Badingham

The Best Employer - Employee Engagement Award

• Large business: The Luminous Group, housing providers, based in Huntingdon
• Small business: The Arthur Rank Hospice Charity, Cambridge

The Best Employer – Innovation Award

• Large business: Harrod, sports equipment manufacturing company, based in Lowestoft
• Small business: Parker Andrews, the insolvency and business rescue practice, with offices in Norwich, Cambridge and Ipswich

This is the second time Benefit Cosmetics has been crowned the region’s overall large business Best Employer, as the cosmetics company also scooped the accolade in the inaugural Best Employers Eastern Region Campaign in 2012. 

Andrea Lansbury, Human Resources Director, said: “We are delighted to have won this award for a second time. The feedback from the survey is invaluable and the results show we are genuinely achieving our vision of creating a fun and quirky working environment that encourages talent and empowers our people to make a difference. Business success really is all about your people; it’s not a cliché, they make the difference.  While reward and recognition is important, the need to provide a stimulating environment and to give challenge and development is also essential.”

Richard Wellings, Head of Research and Strategy, from the region’s overall small business Best Employer, Somersault Productions, added: “We’ve built a reputation as a creative agency which goes that extra mile and we want everyone that joins the company to share these attributes. We want to attract and retain ambitious, talented and independent employees, and to do this we need to provide them with a work environment in which they can develop and flourish. We’re delighted that this award shows our team agree that we are achieving this.” 

The Best Employers Eastern Region 2014 county winners

The region-wide event followed on from awards having already been presented to the ‘Best Employers’ in each county, with all the county winners going through to the regional finals.

Norfolk

• Large business: Tobar, the wholesale and distribution company, based in Norwich
• Small business: LSI Architects, based in Norwich

Suffolk

• Large business: RehabWorks, the business to business provider of injury management and rehabilitation services, based in Bury St Edmunds
• Small business: Beckett Investment Management, financial planning company based in Bury St Edmunds

Essex

• Large business: Benefit Cosmetics, based in Chelmsford
• Small business: Triconnex, utility business based in Braintree

Cambridgeshire

• Large business: Bidwells, property consultants based in Cambridge
• Small business: Somersault Productions, video communication’s agency based in Cambridge

Lynn Walters, Director at campaign organisers Pure Resourcing Solutions, said: “All our winning employers should be extremely proud. These awards are based completely on the comprehensive feedback we gathered from their own employees. Their survey results showed that their employees had pride in their company, felt trusted and supported, and were motivated to help contribute to the organisation’s success. Having such an engaged workforce means these businesses will be benefitting from increased productivity and profit, and will find it far easier to both attract and retain talented people.”

The Best Employers Eastern Region events have also brought business leaders from across the region together to discuss the relationship between business success and increased employee engagement. The region-wide final included guest speakers; Andrea Lansbury, HR Director at winning company Benefit Cosmetics, Jonathan Agar, CEO at regional law firm Birketts LLP, which sponsored the event, Sarah Trota, Executive Director of People and Business Transformation  at Circle Housing in Norwich and Patrick Pordage, Marketing Communications Director at Cambridge Consultants.

Margaret Burnside, Director of People Development at campaign organisers eras ltd, said: “It has been suggested that the most effective business leaders are those who pay attention not only to what a company does but how it goes about things. There is ample evidence that an organisation’s culture has a vast effect on the engagement of those who work for it, and in turn on how well they perform. It also extends out to impact on customers, suppliers and potential recruits. We want to share best practice and encourage other business leaders to understand how they can monitor, understand and actively manage their company’s culture, and the perception of it within the organisation.”