Member Article

North Star Housing Group among UK’s Best Companies

Staff at North Star Housing Group are celebrating after being named as one of The Sunday Times 100 Best Not-for-Profit Organisations to Work For, having been awarded Best Companies 3 Star Accreditation – the highest accreditation level available.

The rankings and awards are based entirely on employee feedback on the areas including: wellbeing, personal growth, leadership, team work, and pay and conditions. It also identifies how employees contribute to their company’s success and growth, setting a benchmark for other employers. The 3 Star Accreditation is only awarded to organisations assessed as ‘extraordinary’.

As well as providing affordable housing across the North East and North Yorkshire, North Star Housing Group has a strong sense of corporate social responsibility, actively supporting and funding local community projects, in order to help local neighbourhoods to develop and become more resilient.

Assistant Director of People Services, Carole Richardson, said: “We are over the moon with the news. This achievement is testament to the extraordinary levels of engagement and commitment from the people who work at North Star and the Group’s investment in our staff. We are thrilled to have been awarded three-star accreditation and a place on the nationally recognised list.

“Our culture is a massive part of what makes us successful. We provide vital services to local people, so it’s essential that staff are involved in influencing our approach and feel positive and empowered in the workplace. We are proud to work for North Star and very positive about the future.”

Group Chief Executive, Angela Lockwood, said: “Making the top 100 is an excellent achievement. Every year the prestige of this list builds, making this the competition that every organisation wants to be involved in. We take great pride in the way we invest in our people, providing an enjoyable and rewarding environment for all our employees.

“We feel that to grow a strong business, you must have strong engagement from all staff at every level of the organisation. Our staff are passionate about what they do and they take and active role in shaping the future of North Star, helping to create our Future Picture vision of what we aspire to achieve by 2018.

“We were recently awarded Gold Level Investors in People. To be further recognised in this way makes us feel very proud and we will continue to strive for excellence in the work that we do.”

This is not the first year that North Star has taken part in the Best Companies survey. After securing 1 Star Accreditation in 2011 and 2012, the leap to 3 Stars in 2015 is a great accolade for the Housing Group.

Staff will have to wait to find out exactly where they feature on the list, until the awards ceremony on Wednesday 25th February.

Best Companies have been producing and publishing the ‘Best Companies to Work For’ lists since 2001 to measure and acknowledge excellence in workplace engagement. Only the organisations with the highest level of overall employee engagement qualify for the 100 Best Companies to Work For list in 2015.

For more information, the full Sunday Times 100 Best Companies list and profiles of each company will be available from 15th March.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by North Star Housing Group .