Consultancy and Engineering Awards: WYG wins best large firm prize

WYG has won the Best UK Business Performance Large Business award by impressing the judges by growing their business in good as well as challenging times while retaining a key focus on involving their employees and building commitment and buy-in.  

WYG’s UK business has undergone a transformation over recent years from breakeven to being the cash and profit generating engine of the wider WYG international business. The company achieved a 50% increase in operating profit on 15% turnover growth last year, and with an order book of more than £60m and increasing, WYG’s growth trend looks set to continue for the foreseeable future. 

WYG believes its business growth is largely due to the commitment of its people. Feedback from the company’s employee surveys has encouraged them to place staff at the heart of their thinking more than ever before. The company has introduced a number of new staff initiatives and benefits including free fruit to offices and discounted gym memberships and the launch of a new health and wellbeing handbook.

Increased staff communications include local monthly office briefings and the launch of a monthly internal e-newsletter ‘The Thread’. WYG also gives staff an extra days leave in the week of the employee’s birthday and has also introduced ‘make a difference days’ where staff can take up to two days paid leave to undertake voluntary work. Several WYG staff in Cumbria used the initiative to help out during the clean-up effort after the recent floods.

Having established the need to create more of a community culture within the business an innovative company-wide initiative was launched in summer 2015 - “WYG 80 days” – where employees were encouraged to walk, swim, cycle or row submitting their miles to reach a combined company target of 10,000 miles supported by a web and social media campaign. Milestones led to information being shared about offices to educate employees about the wider business whilst charities also benefited from sponsorship and donations. 

The response was unprecedented with over a third of WYG’s UK employees taking part and many more staff supported staff in their efforts. Overall more than 80,000 miles were clocked in the 80 days, brilliant success, and 2016’s campaign is already being planned. 

WYG is convinced that increasing staff commitment and buy-in to the company has been a significant factor in their business success and they are looking to build on that even further in the months and years ahead.

Judges’ comments
“WYG has succeeded in a tough economic environment and competitive market by recognising that to continue future growth it was important that they brought their employees along with them and got their commitment and buy-in.  Key to this fundamental objective was management’s appreciation that WYG staff wanted to engage and connect with the local community and give something back.  Judges praised the introduction of ‘Make a Difference Days’, where WYG gives employees up to two days extra leave to undertake voluntary work. This was used by a number of employees in Cumbria to support clean-up efforts following the 2015 floods.”

Highly commended: Cundall
Cundall’s global turnover has increased from £25.5m in 2013 to £35.4m in 2015. Profit has also gone up, from £4.4m in 2013 to £5.9m in 2015. Staff numbers in the UK and internationally have also increased and the company’s commitment to staff development and involvement is a key part of Cundall’s success. Cundall is the first consultancy in the world to be endorsed as a One Planet Living Company. The company proactively looks to reduce its environmental impact, through training of staff, investment in its offices and changing procurement policies.”

Finalists
AECOM
Mott MacDonald
WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff