Member Article

North West Vets Scoop National Award

A veterinary group with practices across the North West has seen off competition from a wide range of national brands and household names to win a prestigious award for its internal team magazine.

White Cross Vets circulates the 44 page magazine, called Connected, twice a year to its 185 strong team who work across 16 UK practices including St Helens, Walkden, West Derby, Gateacre and Widnes.

The magazine has just won the ‘success on a shoestring’ category at The Institute of Internal Communication’s annual awards, where it was up against publications produced by the likes of Barclaycard, ASDA, Marston’s PLC, First Utility, Co-op Food and Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

The judging panel described Connected as the one magazine within their category that they wanted to read all the way through. It contains articles from the team’s vets, nurses, client care co-ordinators and support office staff, covering everything from clinical updates, special case studies and practice-specific news, to overall business updates and human interest stories. It’s also complemented by a news email that is circulated to the entire team on a weekly basis.

Justin Phillips, Head of Marketing at White Cross Vets says: “Connected magazine is designed to be informative, engaging and easy-to-read, so winning this award is a huge coup. Since we launched the magazine six years ago, it has evolved into a valuable communications tool that keeps our fast-growing team up to date with everything that’s happening within White Cross Vets and across the veterinary industry as a whole.”

Other employment initiatives White Cross Vets offers include days off and cakes for birthdays, a healthcare scheme and subsidised Fitbits and gym memberships.

Earlier this year White Cross Vets was named in The Sunday Times ‘Best 100 Best Small Companies To Work For’ league table for the fifth year in a row. The company also scooped the Society of Practising Veterinary Surgeons’ inaugural Wellbeing Award which judged entrants on everything from development opportunities through to stress reduction initiatives and how they promote wellbeing.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Steven Wright .