acs “extraordinary” in the Sunday Times 100 Best Companies 2011

Part of the acs team at the Awards Ceremony in Battersea

For the second year running, acs has been named in the prestigious Sunday Times Top 100 Companies To Work for listing which is all based on feedback from employees.

Appropriately, the recognition comes in the week that acs has taken on its 100th member of staff, with Liz Foley joining the company as its Sales and Marketing co-ordinator.

This latest recognition for Brackmills based acs comes just weeks after it received a three star grading the highest awarded in the Best Companies Accreditation Awards.

"This is just fantastic news for everyone in the business, a real celebration of our teams success and the support from our loyal customers in a tough market," said managing director Jon Thorpe, who received a trophy to mark the company's achievement from Jonathan Austin, the Chief Executive of Best Companies, who compile the Top 100 listing on behalf of the Sunday Times.

"To break into that top 100 last year was a fantastic achievement, especially as it coincided with our 15th anniversary, but to maintain our place in the listings is phenomenal.

"What makes this even more special, is that the listings are based around what your staff say about you independently, and to know that people who work with us feel happy and have the opportunity to grow the business with us.

"I feel very strongly about looking after your staff, and always find it sad when I hear of people who just don't like going to work, or of companies with poor values that don't seem to think it important to look after their staff.

"At acs we know that there is a fine line between success and failure, and having good staff and happy staff keeps you on the right side of that line.

"That is why we put so much time and effort into looking after the people who work for us, and as a company, our success is their success, because without them, we wouldn¹t be where we are today."

Jonathan Austin, Chief Executive of Best Companies presents to Jon Thorpe

The Sunday Times listing is the only one that bases itself on employee feedback, measuring workplace engagement to give a true reflection on what employees really think.

Being a 'Best Company' takes a deep-rooted commitment by an organisation to being the best it can be in every area of the workplace, in supporting the day to day working lives of its workforce.

The very best organisations realise that focusing strongly on people brings meaningful benefits such as improved workplace engagement, better staff retention,
reduced recruitment costs and of course significantly improved financial
performance.

Best Companies established the accreditation award scheme to acknowledge excellence in the workplace. Based on staff feedback, it looks at employee engagement as an integral part of a company’s success and growth, and sets a benchmark for other employers. The accreditation scheme follows a Michelin star style system with companies awarded one star for first class, two stars for outstanding and three stars for extraordinary performance.