21 May 2021
Haines Watts Recognised as a Top Ten Accountancy Firm to Work For
Employee health and wellbeing is high on the agenda here at Haines Watts, and as a result we have made it into the UK’s Top Ten accountancy and advisory practices to work for by Best Companies after investing in staff well-being, culture development and mindfulness support during the pandemic.
The accolade sees us move into the top 10 for the first time and comes after we secured a prized one-star accreditation for employee engagement from Best Companies.
According to Best Companies, the 1-Star accreditation shows 'very good' levels of workplace engagement.
In the past 12 months, we have seen a significant average wage increase, while staff turnover dropped by 30% compared to the previous year. The firm has protected the number of its workforce throughout the pandemic and continued with its apprenticeship programme.
Haines Watts managing partner Michael Davidson has urged more companies to invest in staff wellbeing and mindfulness to mitigate the long-term impact of the pandemic.
“Employee engagement has become more important than ever before and we have worked hard over the past year to make sure we not only maintained standards, but improved them. We have made significant investments into our people, culture and support systems, which have become more crucial still as the pandemic forced lockdowns and home working on most of us. I’d certainly like to see more companies invest in wellbeing and business resilience: these are values that will make a business more attractive to investors and which will provide better structure and a shared sense of purpose, all of which make a business much more likely to succeed long-term.”
Over the past 12 months, we have introduced a number of measures to help support colleagues’ welfare, such as a series of mindfulness, yoga and stress awareness training sessions, attended by 560 of our staff. In addition, a large cohort completed managers’ skills courses, leadership development programmes and a number of senior people are currently participating in the executive leadership development programme.
Jonathan Austin, CEO of Best Companies commented: “I would like to congratulate Haines Watts on its achievement. Best Companies has been producing the accreditation standard since 2006 to acknowledge excellence in the workplace. Organisations like Haines Watts have continued to focus on their employees and have been rewarded with an engaged workforce who tell us that this is a best company to work for.”
