South East Best Companies to Work For 2020

Churchill Retirement Living is a privately-owned family run British Company, specialising exclusively in developing purpose-built one and two bedroom apartments for the over sixties to enjoy an independent retirement.

Developments are designed to take away the hassle and fears that can be experienced by older people and provide security, peace of mind and independence. The organisation have now built over 160 retirement developments in prime locations throughout the country.

Churchill Retirement Living have an ambition 'To be the most successful housebuilder in the UK'. To reach this goal, five core principles have been put in to place for every employee within the organisation to follow every day. The five Principles in question are: trust, openness, respect, communication and honesty.

Churchill understands the importance of wellbeing within their employees. They offer health screenings to all, and are paid for by the company, every three years. This enables employees to take active management of their health and wellbeing. They also offer an Employee Assistance Programme, which is open to everyone, provided by an independent organisation who work to a robust professional code of confidentiality.

Connect Catering deliver quality catering service solutions, specialising in managing clients onsite catering. Offering full contract catering services, consultancy, purchasing, and/or training their clients include: Businesses, Independent Education, Manufacturing and Charities.

Connect's drive, through values and passion, has always been to keep their promises to their customers, produce delicious fresh food, develop teams and enjoy every day at work. Connect has been careful to grow steadily over the last 30 years to ensure that the highest levels of service are maintained, whilst the teams on each of their 72 sites are supported.

The organisation prides itself on providing a client focused service, the common denominator is quality: this must therefore be the first priority. They have a strict fresh food policy, their trained Managers and Chefs ensure dishes are creative, prepared and cooked to the highest standard. The quality of their employees, and the service they provide, is the most important element in the success of the organisation.

Teamwork is essential within Connect, sharing knowledge and experience ensures best practice and enables Connect to deliver a robust and sustainable growth for the future. In turn, the organisation provide employees with the support and training that they need to fulfil their role.

Everyone at Connect has a voice, senior managers encourage employees to share ideas and what people enjoy about the job, and also discuss any problems an employee may have in or out of the work place to enable the organisation to do their utmost to help.

Marriott Hotels remain a family run business with family values as they approach their 100 year anniversary. Their culture is what makes Marriott a great place to work, they live by the founding belief of "Putting People First" and Bill Marriott's belief from day one was that if you take care of your associates, they will take care of the customer, and the customer will keep coming back. This is the company's most important and enduring principle.

Their culture provides that everyone is treated with respect and in a fair manner at all times. In keeping with this long-established policy, all candidates will be considered for employment, promotion or training on the basis of qualifications, without regard to race, colour, age, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, disability.

Culture gives their people meaning, purpose and guidance and acts like a magnet, drawing high calibre people to the company and keeping them on-board.

Marriott nourishes its culture and celebrates their people through associate recognition programmes such as: Length of Service Awards, The Willard Marriott Award of Excellence, the Alice S. Marriott Award for Community Service, to name a few.

Willmott Dixon Construction are a national construction contractor that delivers building projects in education, leisure and culture, hotels, offices, custodial, health, retail, national frameworks and residential for government and local authorities.

Despite Willmott Dixon's extensive growth over the past 150 years, they have kept culture and family values at the heart of everything that they do. A testament to this is the number of long serving employees still working for the business; including their current group CEO.

Values and behaviours are for everyone at Willmott Dixon, they expect their senior management team to demonstrate these values each day through their actions. The group chief executive holds them accountable for this at all times. He sets the standard high, as the leader of an organisation with a strong moral compass and family ethos.

The 'MyLearning' tool gives everyone the opportunity to create and share playlists on learning that they have found invaluable. Whether that is a book they have found inspirational, a TED talk that has changed their thinking, an article that has amazed them or a podcast they have loved.

Childbase Partnership aims to be the preferred provider of childcare and education within the local communities that their nurseries serve and be the preferred employer of childcare professionals within the sector.

The organisation is built upon four core principles, to which every employee follows. These four principles are: People Matter, Quality Matters, Sustainability Matters, Communication Matters.

Childbase know that their employee’s wellbeing is essential in continuing to provide first class childcare. The organisation holds a dedicated training day and toolkit to help all managers support any colleagues living with a mental health condition; break down stereotypes around mental health, and ensure everybody is actively encouraged to talk about their feelings.

Childbase Partnership operates under the banner 'We all contribute, we all benefit', placing particular emphasis on tailoring rewards to the individual. This has resulted in a variety of initiatives.

In its annual profit-sharing initiative known as the Partnership Dividend, not only do Childbase recognise all employees as partners in the business but they also ensure that all contributions are viewed as equally valuable in the continued success of the company. This is just one way in which the organisation looks to reward employees for their continued efforts.