Our Employer of the Year Award is based on a company’s latest Investors in People accreditation, where we work out the Top 20 UK based organisations (in the relevant Award Level and Size Band) and enter them into the award.
The winner in this year’s Employer of the year Investors in People Standard level with 50-249 employees was David Jameson Roofing Services Ltd – a fantastic opportunity to learn what winning in this category requires.
We caught up with them to find out how they plan to use the award to fulfil their ambitions in 2022.
Why do you think you won the award, and how did you exceed the judges’ expectations?
David Jameson Roofing Services is very proud to be one of the first Investor in People Companies in Northern Ireland, we were originally accredited in 1993 and still holding our accreditation today, so coming up on our 30th anniversary we are extremely proud to be the winner of the Employer of the Year 2021 (50-249).
How we believe we won the award is down to a few overall factors;
- Employing staff long term – with no less than 5 staff working here more than 25 years.
- Maintaining staff – no staff were released during the recent pandemic.
- Employing new staff – since the lockdown ended June 2020 we have hired 12 new staff, with over 70 staff now employed.
- Staff are our assets – we train all staff, new and old, in each area of their occupation.
- Apprentices – we regularly take on young workers in various trades from local colleges.
The winning moment. Where were you? Who was there? What was the reaction?
The management team, consisting of David Snr, Helen, David Jr and Carrie were all together in our office to watch the awards ceremony.
Unfortunately, has it came to our category the screen froze, but we saw a message saying well done DJRS…. we were half excited at this stage not knowing for sure until we received Scott Irwin’s email confirming our win.
We were all blown away, so chuffed to win a UK wide award for Employer of the Year. Wish we videoed ourselves in hindsight now due to the mixed reactions.
How do you and your people feel about winning the award?
I and everyone at DJRS are all delighted…ecstatic might be a better word. We have had clients and friends ringing, emailing and texting us their delight in seeing us win this award.
After all the years of hard work, it is pleasing to receive recognition for the overall work DJRS commits to their staff.
Who would you like to thank?
We’d like to take the opportunity to thank all of our fantastic team, our trusted clients, Christine Mckeown our IIP practitioner, the judging panel at the Awards and Investors in People.
What impact will winning this award have on your organisation?
Winning this award will help us in numerous ways to ensure we remain at the forefront of our industry.
Employment:
- Ensuring our present staff that they are working for a firm that treats them as our greatest asset.
- When recruiting new staff, this will provide them with the knowledge that they will be working for a highly accredited firm
- When applying for new apprentices; the schools, apprentices and their parents will be content that the young workers will be working in a well-established, safe environment
Clients (new and old):
- Maintaining relations with current clients; this award shows we look after our staff, which is key is ensuring the rest of the company requirements fall into place i.e. H&S
- Winning new clients; clients/companies want to work with reputable companies.
If you could pass your secrets to success onto future entrants in your category, what would they be?
If I could pass on any tips to future entrants, it would be to ‘treat your staff as your greatest asset’ as any business/organisation can only run efficiently if staff are happy. We do this by:
- Training staff to be fully competent in their job role
- Asking them for their input on a project
- Giving them responsibility
- Treating staff the way you would like to be treated
How can you become the best organisation you can be?
Most of our winners are Investors in People Accredited, which means they hold one of our prestigious accreditations; which will be in wellbeing, people management or apprentices.
Their commitment to continuous improvement ensures they’re always improving work for their people and have a better chance of winning one of our awards.
