The awards, which celebrate the leading companies in diversity and work-life balance, were presented at a ceremony at London's Soho Hotel where the keynote speaker was Lynne Featherstone, parliamentary under secretary and minister for equalities (pictured).
Winner of the Overall Top Employer Award was Accenture. It was praised by judges for making a strong business case for flexible working and for the way it measured its impact on company performance and staff commitment. The judges also felt the company had harnessed the full potential of technology to offer flexibility on all fronts and at all levels.
The Top Employer Award for Innovation went to professional services firm KPMG. The judges were impressed by KPMG's record on transition coaching, maternity coaching, women's networking and managing other colleagues’ perceptions and felt its approach was the most comprehensive and was a model of best practice.
The Top Employers Award for Commitment and Development, sponsored by Deloitte, went to Accenture. This award recognises organisations that show ongoing commitment to developing policies that encourage work life balance. Accenture was judged to have gone out its way to engage women and implement flexible working, designing roles to fit the modern work force.
The Top Employers Award for Employee Engagement went to John Lewis. It was praised for its very comprehensive approach to continuous employee engagement, which had led to increased staff motivation and commitment. In particular, they were impressed by how employee engagement fed into initiatives such as the summer camps that made parents’ lives easier and improved their work/-life balance.
The Awards were judged by a panel made up of Gillian Nissim, founder of Workingmums, Andy Lake, editor of Flexibility.co.uk, Jennifer Liston-Smith, head of coaching development at My Family Care, and Pip Dorkings, information manager at the Daycare Trust.
Equalities minister Lynne Featherstone said: "I’m a working mum myself, so I know how hard it can be to juggle the demands of home and career. That’s why the Government is taking action to make the workplace a fairer and more family-friendly place in which women are not penalised for being mothers. This includes working with business to extend the right to flexible working to all employees and looking at ways to promote shared parenting from the earliest stage of pregnancy through a system of flexible parental leave. But we can’t do this on our own and we need businesses to play their part, which is why I’m so pleased to see so many companies of all shapes and sizes leading the way. Congratulations to all the winners."
Nissim added: "We are delighted at the calibre of entrants we received for the awards. Our aim is to highlight good practice around flexible working. We hope these awards will inspire others to follow their lead and embrace the strong business case for flexible working."
