WM People launches the 12th Top Employer Awards

WM People has launched the 12th Top Employer Awards to celebrate best practice in family friendly and flexible working as we emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic.

This is the first year the Awards will come under the WM People banner, bringing together the workingmums.co.uk, workingdads.co.uk and workingwise.co.uk sites.

There is a particular emphasis on post-Covid recovery, for instance, career progression for women after a pandemic which has seen women taking on the lion’s share of caring responsibilities. In the flexible working category we are looking not just for examples of emerging best practice in hybrid working, but also to see that employers have not forgotten other forms of flexible working.

Mental health is also a key issue as the lingering effects of lockdowns take their toll on people’s long-term health. Diversity & Inclusion has been high on the agenda this year following the Black Lives Matter movement and the award aims to see how employers have capitalised on that to ensure equal access and opportunities in their organisations.

This year’s categories are:

Best for Mental Health – sponsored by Kearney – for employers who demonstrate strong initiatives aimed at protecting their employees’ mental health.

Best for Diversity & Inclusion – for employers who can demonstrate how their actions ensure equality of opportunity for all

Best for Older Workers – for employers who recognise the needs of older workers and ensure that they feel equally valued and supported

Best for Flexible Working – for employers who can demonstrate how they promote and manage flexible workers and encourage a flexible culture in their organisation from day one.

Best for Returners Award – for employers with stand-out programmes or initiatives aimed at returners – those who have taken a career break and are looking to get back into the workplace.

Best for Career Progression for Women – for employers who demonstrate initiatives aimed at developing women’s leadership potential, including women’s networks, mentoring initiatives, outreach, training and return to work programmes.

Best for Family Support – for employers who can demonstrate how they support parents and carers and embrace different forms of family set-up.

SME Award – for employers who can demonstrate a real commitment to work life balance practices. This award is split into two by company size.

An Overall Top Employer Award will be chosen from the winners of the other categories.

The deadline for entries is 20th October. More details can be found here.

The launch comes as our sister site, workingmums.co.uk, publishes its Best Practice Report, based on findings from the winners of the 2020 Top Employer Awards. They cover a range of sectors, from teaching, hospitality and finance to technology and gaming, and some of the biggest challenges that employers have faced during the pandemic, from wellbeing to employee engagement and diversity and inclusion. Find out more.

Gillian Nissim, founder of WM People, says: “We are delighted to launch our 12th Awards – our first under the WM People brand which brings all our sites and our work on promoting equality within the workforce to the fore. We adapted the Awards this year to reflect the particular challenges employers were facing due to Covid-19 and we hope that the 2022 Awards will similarly reflect efforts to emerge from the crisis. The sharing of best practice has never been more important as employers grapple with a range of different challenges.”

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