We're Stockport's Employer of the Year

After a fantastic evening at the Stockport Business Awards celebrating the achievements of local businesses, a very dapper team of Vernon colleagues were presented with and proudly received the esteemed award.

We're proud of our status as an employer of choice in Stockport, but we don't do it for the glitz and glamour; we do it because we care about our colleagues. We try our hardest to create an inspiring environment where people can achieve their full potential and aren't afraid to push themselves. After a difficult couple of years with COVID, we've invested heavily in employee well-being, including accredited mental health training for 15 of our colleagues. We’ve introduced ways to assist our colleagues financially throughout the current cost of living crisis. First, colleagues received a one-off payment of £300 to support them with rising costs – followed by an early 5% pay rise. As an additional measure of support, we have created an Employee Hardship Fund in case colleagues find themselves in severe financial hardship.

Having a happy, healthy team means we can support our Members with a personal service, creating a rewarding experience for both our Members and our colleagues. Our colleagues are the reason we've been able to continue to perform so well as a Society, so it's important to us that we retain our talent and reward their excellent performance. This is possible following two years of transforming our people proposition through listening, training, developing, empowering, engaging, and enhancing policies, procedures, and benefits. We're proud to have built an enviable employee remuneration proposition designed to attract and retain employees, such as a competitive employer-funded pension scheme and generous holiday entitlement; improved sickness and additional benefits, plus a new homeworking policy which allows for greater flexibility for our people, who go above and beyond to help wherever they can, and we couldn't be more thankful.

Tanasè Rivers, our Head of Marketing, Brand and Culture, attended the event: "We're delighted to have won 'Employer of the Year' at Stockport Business Awards. We work hard as a business to be an employer of choice and it's great for the Society to be recognised. Thank you to the Leadership Team and colleagues who make it a great place to work!"

This award represents a constant effort to put our colleagues first by offering benefits, flexibility, and a rewarding work environment - focused on making the Vernon an employer of choic