It's Official: We Are The 17th Best Small Company To Work For In The UK

​Today marks Best Companies Day, a national celebration of the people behind Britain's best places to work and, for those who made the Top 100 list, to celebrate their achievement. Last week LHi attended the 17^th edition of The Sunday Times 100 Best Small Companies To Work For awards ceremony, and are delighted to announce they have been awarded 17^th place. This award recognises companies that are investing in the development of their people, giving back to their communities and prioritising their staff wellbeing amongst other key principles.

Most importantly, rankings and scores are judged solely on employee’s answers to a confidential survey and build a picture of the companies’ values. Best Companies are respected as a standard of employee engagement, something that LHi is extremely passionate about. On hearing of their placement in the list, Head of People Anne-Marie Butts said, “LHi leadership has worked really hard to make sure that LHi Group is a ‘people first’ business.  By ensuring that our people have a great experience of working at LHi with great leadership and huge opportunities to grow a career, we have increased employee engagement and productivity, growing the business by 40%, which is something we are extremely proud of and is fantastic to have been recognised by Best Companies.”

As an award-winning recruitment company, LHi Group provide specialist talent within the world's most transformative and future-changing industries; technology, renewable energy, life sciences and the built environment. But more than that, LHi Group are a family, and they value their people as their most important asset. As they have grown from one person in an attic in Clapham, to a 230+ person business in 8 global locations, they keep Diversity, Respect and Inclusion at the core of everything they do, promoting a positive and inclusive workplace through an internal platform of networks, communities and events, truly providing something for everyone.

When managers are promoted at LHi, they are presented with a pair of converse trainers that are stamped with the year they joined the company. This is part of their ‘Younger You’ philosophy, which prompts employees who are embarking on a leadership journey to always remember walking in the shoes of their younger selves and to make the path clearer, easier and more successful than it was for them.

A new benefit at LHi also includes every employee is given a paid day off each year to volunteer with a charity of their choice, encouraging them to support causes they are passionate about. This has already proven popular, with employees taking up the opportunity within the first month of the initiative being launched, and could lead to over 250 days of charity work in 2020.

Something LHi takes extremely seriously is its employee's mental wellbeing. There is a 24-hour assistance programme available providing free of charge counselling sessions, personal coaching and emotional support, as well as monthly run clubs and office yoga classes to promote a healthy body and a healthy mind. LHi has invested in the education of their leaders around supporting their people’s mental health, participating in a Mental Health First Aid Course to become Mental Health Champions. The have also launched a MIND initiative that supports mental health awareness with events, open forums and one-to-one discussions.

Incentives and benefits are second to none at LHi Group. To name just one, employees have set targets to hit in order to gain a seat on the ‘LHi Experience’, a half-yearly company trip taking employees from across the globe to places like the Bahamas and Cape Town, embarking on activities and enriching their lives with experiences they wouldn't have otherwise been exposed to.

LHi’s Learning and development programme, launched in 2019, clearly lays out a structured path for individuals to progress, developing themselves personally and professionally through a series of classroom facilitated workshops as well as interactive coaching and a mentoring programme.

But where LHi scored top in the rankings was for Leadership, with 93% engagement, which is based on how employees view the head of the company and their senior managers. The next top rankings were ‘My Manager’ and ‘My Team’ which is based on people’s thoughts on their colleagues and immediate boss. Within the last two years alone, LHi has implemented a solid management structure, which revolves around building a leadership team with a ‘People First’ approach, spearheaded by their newly promoted CEO, Jim Denning.

Jim quote  - “I am extremely proud to see LHi place so well on Best Companies this year and gain a 3-star accreditation. We pride ourselves on being a people-first business where philosophies such as the “Younger You” and “Built to Last” are central to our culture and leadership strategy. This placing is a compliment to the fantastic people we are lucky to have throughout the LHi family but it also serves as a bar that we now must ensure never lowers in terms of workplace happiness and engagement.”