Nursery named one of best workplaces (From Swindon Advertiser)

Nursery named one of best workplaces

6:30pm Monday 11th March 2013 in News By Emma Dunn

STAFF at Windmill Hill Day Nursery are celebrating after being named one of the best places to work in the country.

The nursery’s employee-owned company, the Childbase Partner-ship, was placed in eighth position in The Sunday Times’s best 100 companies to work for list.

The company was eighth out of a total of 896 entries.

Windmill Hill manager Angela Farmery said: “It is a very personal achievement because we are part of an employee-owned company where what we say really does make a difference.

“Continual training and support at the Childbase Partnership ensures that all staff are motivated towards achieving excellence daily for each and every child. But it is the small things that make the company special like the regular visits from the chief executive and his hand-written congratulatory messages and gifts recognizing personal and professional achievements.

“Ofsted inspectors have told us repeatedly that a happy and engaged staff team equals happy children. Our pride in our nursery and our company is reflected in our happy and confident children and there is nothing more rewarding or satisfying than that,” she said.

The list measures and acknowledges excellence in workplace engagement.

Each year hundreds of organisations from a range of industries use the employee survey to measure the engagement of their employees.

The responses from these surveys are collated and combined to produce an overall engagement score for each organisation. The 100 organisations with the highest level of overall employee engagement qualified for the list.

The Childbase Partnership has risen 82 places in the list in the last four years.

Vicky Morris, team leader for the two to three-year-olds’ room at the nursery, was at the event in London when the announcement was made.

“It was a huge event with more than 100 companies there,” she said.

“The company just offers so many personal benefits and personal support. You feel like you are treated as an individual within the company.

“You are given the opportunity to grow, which motivates you to stay and do well by them. It gives you inspiration to provide new and exciting opportunities for the children.”