GRAHAM scoops Investors in People ‘Excellence in Health and Wellbeing’ Award for the second time

The award, which is an international award across all industries, was in recognition of GRAHAM’s pioneering employee health and wellbeing initiatives during the pandemic.

Initiatives introduced by the privately-owned construction company, saw tangible results including an employee turnover reduction of 50%, a 25% reduction in the average duration of employee absence due to mental ill-health, engagement rates soaring to 85% positivity, and 87% of staff rating ‘excellent’ for manager support and communication.

Investors in People is the international standard for people management and enables organisations to benchmark against the best in the business on an international scale. Last year, GRAHAM was reaccredited with the IIP Platinum standard, the highest accolade that can be achieved against the Investors in People Standard and is currently held by only 3% of IIP accredited organisations. GRAHAM was also reaccredited with the IIP Wellbeing standard and remains the only company to achieve both accolades at the same time.

Paul Devoy, head of Investors in People, said: “The Investors in People Awards 2021 was a record-breaking year regarding the number of organisations entering.

“I am so proud of every organisation that entered, demonstrating their fantastic commitment to making work better. And as a Winner, GRAHAM really stands out amongst the crowd. A huge well done to all involved!”

Michael Smyth, HR director, GRAHAM, explained: “Over the past year, humanity has faced unprecedented challenges, particularly in relation to the pandemic. We knew that to make a meaningful difference, we needed to fully understand the challenges our employees and their families were experiencing and concentrate on a three-pronged approach: physical, mental and social wellbeing.

“We made a concerted effort to listen and involve employees in the design and implementation of our award-winning initiatives, as well as employing professional health and wellbeing experts, all to ensure we provided valuable support.

“The outcome of this collaborative design and implementation resulted in 90% of employees stating that the initiatives were ‘relevant, supportive and reduced anxiety’, and like everything, we saw a marked positive knock-on effect on our business’ overall performance.”

Continuously striving to improve, GRAHAM have invested in the recruitment of a full-time Wellbeing manager to embed health and wellbeing into the daily operation of the business and focus on tackling poor mental wellbeing which is prevalent in society and the construction industry in-particular.

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