Employees at a West Midlands housing provider are raising the roof after triumphing in this year’s tenth anniversary Midlands Excellence Awards.
The Community Housing Group, based in Kidderminster, was an award winner at the ceremony held at the ICC in Birmingham last night.
Presentations were made before 1,350 guests by music business legend Pete Waterman, who was guest speaker, and Midlands Excellence chairman Alan Jones.
The other main winner was E.ON UK’s Power Technology business based at Ratcliffe on Soar near Nottingham, while highly commended prizes went to 3663 First for Foodservice’s Birmingham depot, fleet vehicle provider Masterlease, based at Bickenhill, and Staffordshire Police Trent Valley Division.
Also highly commended were Protocol Consultancy Services, a Birmingham training company with just eight employees, and Derwent Living, another housing provider.
Midlands Excellence is a not-for-profit body dedicated to helping all types of organisations to improve their all-round performance.
The awards programme sees entrants explain their performance in nine key business areas, which include leadership, people, customers and results. All areas form part of the Business Excellence Model, a management framework used by more than 20,000 organisations across Europe.
Teams of specially trained Midlands Excellence assessors then evaluate the submissions and provide valuable feedback to drive continuous improvement.
Midlands Excellence chief executive Ian Nield said: "Our awards process is well known for being extremely rigorous. Our winners are true role models and all have thoroughly deserved this accolade."
Assessors were impressed with the Community Housing Group’s all-round performance and particularly its focus on improvement, strong leadership, motivated employees and strong interaction with its customers and community.
Chief executive of the Community Housing Group, Ray Brookes, said: "This is truly fantastic. Our board and staff are delighted as it’s real recognition for the time and effort we’ve all invested in bringing the organisation to this point and steering a steady course in a rapidly changing environment.
"Our customers are also excited as they have been with us every step of the way and have been instrumental in our success."
Chief Superintendent Keith Smy, commander of Staffordshire Police’s prize winning Trent Valley Division said: "We are thrilled to have achieved this recognition. It has caused huge excitement in our organisation and amongst our peers. We know the awards are respected by the wider business community and this will spur us on to do even better."
Protocol’s managing director Susan Tipton said: "It’s really motivating to know our hard work is being recognised. To be identified as a company that is one of the best in the Midlands is a tremendous feeling for the whole team."
There was double success for Birmingham City Council’s Legal and Democratic Services in the special award categories with the department named as the most improved organisation while also picking up the Corporate Social Responsibility Award, for the way it interacts with the community and environment.
Staffordshire Police Trent Valley Division enjoyed further success by winning the special award for the Midlands Equality and Diversity Employer. Among the 13 Midlands Excellence finalists were Lloyds TSB Travel Services and two highways maintenance businesses Optima Infrastructure Management and Atkins Highways and Transportation, Northamptonshire.
