2021 has been a great year of awards for Baker Labels.
In November we won the title of Employer of the Year at the Brentwood Business Awards. The winning streak then continued when we were awarded Active Workplace of the Year by Essex Activity Awards.
We are very proud of what we do and delighted for the whole team to receive the recognition. There are over one hundred staff at Bakers and their wellbeing, both physical and mental, is crucial to our success.
Active Workplace of the Year
In the last year or so we have encouraged, supported, enabled and motivated our staff to take part in a range of activities, including:
- Walking from Brentwood to Barcelona (virtially)
- A virtual run /walk / swim / cycle from Brentwood to Tokyo
- Installing standing desks in the offices (electric to give the option of standing or sitting)
- Playing in a 5-a-side football league
- Competing in triathlons
- Running half marathons and marathons
- Building a fully out kitted gym for all staff to use free of charge
Sometimes a little bit of healthy competition between departments kept things interesting too!
Next year we are once again sponsoring the Brentwood Half Marathon & Fun Run with our athlete ID division Sportstiks. We will be encouraging staff to take part with their families as we have done in previous years.
Employer of the Year
We are thrilled and proud to have won the Employer of the Year award at the 2021 Brentwood Chamber of Commerce Business Awards in November. It means a lot to us to be recognised for this accolade as we truly value our staff wellbeing, training and development.
The training and development available to all our staff has received a huge boost in the last year with the roll out of the Bakers Academy. As we grow we don’t want to dilute the skill or lose the individual family touch that we’re so proud of. We have therefore created the Bakers Academy, which will involve a combination of classroom-style sessions and hands on production experience to help our staff reach their potential. It also provides new employees with a basic insight into all areas and departments within the company and the value of their role fits within it.
- Over 500 hours of organised training have been completed this year.
- More than 80% staff have been involved in training in some way.
Well trained staff bring confidence, better job satisfaction and of course improved production.
Wellbeing at Work
We are of course aware that there are sometimes external factors than can effect staff members ability to work well. In the last couple of years we have all had to cope with a pandemic. Some have had greater challenges than others but we have all been affected in some way. This year we ran staff wellbeing workshops to recognise the effects and struggles that many of us are facing. We have ensured that one-to-one counselling sessions with an external independant counsellor are provided to those that require it.
A company that cares.
We have a long history at Bakers of supporting charity and community projects. They are of great value to us. Not only because we feel good about helping those that need it, but because we know our employees feel proud to know that we do the right thing. In addition to that, many of the projects involve direct staff involvement. This could be by donating items to the foodbank, wrapping Christmas gifts for Kids Inspire or growing a moustache for Movember.
There are bigger plans for next year as we increase our efforts to improve our green credentials. In the last few months we have become corporate platinum member of Essex Wildlife Trust and been involved in the instigation of The Brentwood Environmental Business Alliance (BEBA).
Both of these will link us directly to environmental projects to assist us in reducing our carbon footprint. As a large label and flexible packaging company we do use a lot of energy and create a lot of waste. This is unavoidable in successful production. However, we can do better and it is our intention to do so. Having our staff involved in future projects will be added to our wellbeing at work plan.
We believe our staff appreciate all of these thing and that they makes us an even better company to work for.