Celebrating our success
"Our people are at the core of all our achievements and as a business we believe that the contribution all our colleagues make in helping us to achieve our vision should be recognised"
Kevin Whiteman,
Chief Executive of Yorkshire Water and the Kelda Group
A key part of
working at Yorkshire Water is that we always celebrate success and whether that's as a company, as a team or as an individual we always want our colleagues to feel valued and recognised for their contribution and achievements.
Being the only company to achieve the 'Utility of the Year' award three years running has given us plenty of cause for celebration and here are just a few examples of our annual events:
Business Excellence Awards 
The Business Excellence Awards are our high profile annual awards process that recognise and celebrate the excellent work done by teams and individuals across the business. Entries that highlight achievements are submitted into one of our six categories that reflect our strategic objectives and colleagues are invited to judge each entry. We also have a converted individual category, Leader of the Year that recognises outstanding individuals and reflects the fundamental part that leadership plays in how we all work together, not just managers.
The
Leader of the Year category criteria is based around our
Clear Leadership framework highlighting how leadership is something that everyone can demonstrate. The successful colleague, nominated by anyone from across the business, who earns the title of Leader of the Year is someone who consistently displays leadership attributes and behaviours in one or more of the following areas:
Personal leadership
They live the company values of respect, resourcefulness, responsibility and teamwork and always strive for success, embrace change and are passionate about customer service
Role model leadership
They lead by example and inspire others to succeed as well as clearly setting and communicating expectations. They are persuasive, influential and seek opportunities to celebrate success
Visionary leadership
They anticipate and influence change in the business and inspire innovation, build positive relationships and networks to generate opportunities for our company
This years Leader of the Year winner is Beth Dodd, Customer Team Manger who was nominated by one of her team. Beth's award winning leadership style is to support her team rather than strictly managing and she purposely creates an environment within the team so that they can push themselves more and develop
Alan Pilliner who nominated Beth wanted to highlight how she demonstrated all the qualities of what a manager should be at Yorkshire Water. That Beth is always approachable on a variety of topics, however large or small and is proactive in her management approach but not autocratic. It wasn't just what she does but how she does it and all the extra things she does such as encouraging innovations within her department.
Beth really does spread enthusiasm amongst the team with her bright outlook on life. Everything is approached with a positive "can do" attitude and always with a proactive approach to any job she does, to ensure that solutions to problems are always available well before they occur..
On being leader of the Year Beth was delighted to win but also said that what's really important is having the respect of her team which, as a manager, is always a great feeling.
Partner Awards 
The value that we place upon our partners is growing year on year and without their continued ideas and innovation we wouldn't be able achieve our vision. The Partner Awards are a great example of the increasingly strong relationships we are building with our partners and provide fitting recognition of the excellent work all our partners are delivering.
We strive to maintain a friendly and caring work environment for all our colleagues and teamwork is one of the cornerstones of our success. We encourage teams to celebrate their achievements internally by holding local events and nights out.
