Tag Archives: Bright Horizons

Awards, News

Bright Horizons completes a hat-trick of 2022 UK’s Best Workplaces™ accolades

The 2022 UK’s Best Workplaces™ for Women list was launched this week by Great Place to Work® UK, recognising Bright Horizons among 263 ranked organisations.

It is another fabulous honour for Bright Horizons, which sees the company now appearing in three 2022 Great Place to Work® UK lists. Bright Horizons has featured as one of the UK’s Best Workplaces™ for Women since this list first started in 2018. Earlier this year, Bright Horizons was also named in the first-ever UK’s Best Workplaces™ for Wellbeing and this was swiftly followed by its 17th year in a row appearance on the UK’s Best Workplaces (Super Large category) list.

What this latest recognition confirms about Bright Horizons:

  • Bright Horizons is a great workplace FOR ALL, including women.
  • Bright Horizons is an organisation where people trust each other and employees are able to reach their full human potential, no matter who they are or what they do.
  • Bright Horizons supports the different identities women hold and ensure their daily experiences are positively and consistently experienced.
  • Bright Horizons recognises that women are a valuable talent pool and strive for fair representation of women in the workforce and throughout management.

Bright Horizons is committed to putting Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at the heart of its organisation so that the entire Bright Horizons family is open to, and inclusive of, everyone. The expectation exists at Bright Horizons that all colleagues will treat each other with respect by listening to different viewpoints, opinions, thoughts and ideas and embracing a culture of inclusion.

Ros Marshall, Managing Director UK at Bright Horizons, said: “It is a wonderful honour to be recognised again in this prestigious list. We value and celebrate the unique experiences, perspectives and identities of every individual in our diverse family. Together, we strive to ensure our work and early years environments are welcoming, inclusive and equitable. Our company is shaped by our HEART values, Honesty, Excellence, Accountability, Respect, and Teamwork. We are proud that they remain our guiding principles and help to create our working environment and a culture that is fair for all.”

Benedict Gautrey, Managing Director of Great Place to Work® UK, explains: “Now in its fifth year, our 2022 list showcases the largest collection of Best WorkplacesTM for Women that the UK has ever recognised. These results are based on what women themselves have anonymously reported to us about their workplace experience and how well represented they are in the workforce and management. Ensuring people aren’t discriminated against, placing positive value on our differences, creating fair access and advancement for all, and fostering a sense of value and empowerment in employees is what being a Great Place to Work® is all about. Only by first identifying the gaps in workers’ experiences can organisations truly take action to close them, which is why analysing employee experience is important. We are proud that the data and insights we provide organisations helps on that continuous journey – and it’s wonderful to celebrate so many Best Workplaces™ for Women this year, across all sectors and organisational sizes.”

This latest achievement marks a remarkable few months for Bright Horizons in terms of plaudits. In addition to making the grade on the 2022 Great Place to Work® UK lists, Bright Horizons and its colleagues have received some fabulous accolades:

  • Danielle Hamer (Regional Director) and Jodi Roth (Nursery Manager) were both recently included in Business Women in Education’s inaugural Women to Watch list
  • HR Business Partnering Team shortlisted for a CIPD team of the year award
  • Finalists in three Nursery World Award categories:
    • Outstanding Contribution: Carole Henderson, Professional Development Partnership Manager
    • Health and Wellbeing: Introduction of Bright Beginnings curriculum
    • Business Development: Back-Up Care service at Chelsea and Westminster NHS Foundation Trust
  • Marketing team has recently won two golds and a silver for its advertising campaigns:
    • Gold at The Drum Awards for Search 2022 in the Most Effective Use of Data or Insights category
    • Gold at the UK Digital Growth Awards 2022 in the Integrated Search Campaign of the Year category
    • Silver at the UK Paid Media Awards 2022 in the Best Integrated Paid Media Campaign category.

Ros Marshall, Managing Director UK at Bright Horizons, continued: “Our hard-working colleagues all deserve this recent recognition. In our view early years education and nursery provision, which addresses the trilemma of quality, availability and affordability must be at the centre of any government policy for social mobility and economic growth. We are privileged to have data and insights from surveys with our own nursery parents, as well as a wider working parent community through our Work and Family Services. Their feedback helps us to understand what is important for families regarding their children’s care and education. We share this information in government consultations and with our clients to help them develop their own understanding and strategy to support families at work.

“We are committed to ensuring that skilled and well-supported practitioners are key to the quality of our early years services. We continually review and adapt our rewards and benefits for our colleagues and remain immensely proud of our industry-leading training and development, which provides our colleagues with a rewarding career path.”

More information about inspiring careers in Early Years can be found via the Bright Horizons website.

Awards, News, Wellbeing

Bright Horizons officially named one of 250 UK’s Best Workplaces™ for Wellbeing!

Employees have spoken! Bright Horizons is ranked among the UK’s Best Workplaces™ for Wellbeing (2022) by Great Place to Work®, a global leader on workplace culture.

To determine the UK’s Best Workplaces™ for Wellbeing list, Great Place to Work’s culture experts analysed thousands of employee surveys, assessing people’s holistic experiences of wellbeing at work by asking employees to comment on how their company supports their:

∙             Work-life balance

∙             Sense of fulfilment

∙             Job satisfaction

∙             Psychological safety

∙             Financial security

Evaluations also included an assessment of how well the organisation was able to deliver consistency of their employee experience across all departments and seniority levels.

Bright Horizons has over 30 years’ experience of working with leading employers to identify and support the dependant care needs of their employees throughout their careers and at every life stage. Its wellbeing strategy for its own employees is a three-fold focus: Emotional, Physical, and Financial, believing that a holistic approach is essential to provide support and benefits which are appropriate and meaningful to all members of its diverse employee community.

Bright Horizons supports Emotional wellbeing by enabling its people to navigate life’s ups and downs with confidence and resilience. It’s Employee Assistance Programme enables colleagues to access counselling and its Work+Family Space, which is a hub of resources relating to all aspects of work and family life, is a crucial support tool in this area.

On the Physical wellbeing side, Bright Horizons encourages and promotes a healthy quality of life, both at work and at home. In 2020, Bright Horizons introduced Smart Health [in the UK]. This benefit is a virtual health service provided by AIG Life which gives all employees the opportunity to easily manage their health and wellbeing. This benefit is available to all colleagues and their immediate family members. Smart Health provides unlimited, 24/7 access to everything needed to create long-term wellbeing habits. These services include, a Virtual GP, Mental health support, nutritional support and tailored fitness programmes.

With Financial wellbeing, Bright Horizons provides its colleagues with the relevant skills and knowledge to enable them to have control over their finances and thereby improve their financial wellbeing. Elements that help to contribute to this focus include childcare discounts, back-up care for loved ones of all ages and discounts/cashback that can be used to purchase a wide range of goods and services.

Underpinning all the wellbeing support that is in place at Bright Horizons are its HEART principles (Honesty, Excellence, Accountability, Respect and Teamwork).

Janine Leightley, HR Director at Bright Horizons, said: “Our guiding HEART principles are at the core of how we operate. The wellbeing of all our colleagues is essential as it all comes back to our mission to provide exceptional care and education for children. We always take the time to reflect and look at ways about how we can improve our rewards and benefits for our colleagues.”

“Being better for people is better for business, especially in tough times,” explained Benedict Gautrey, Managing Director of Great Place to Work® UK. “When employees feel genuinely cared for, their loyalty, engagement, and productivity improve. Happier people also become brand advocates for the business and will often go the extra mile to provide a positive experience for their clients and customers. We’re delighted to launch our first-ever UK’s Best Workplaces™ for Wellbeing list in 2022, shining a light on the 250 companies who have succeeded in ensuring staff experience high levels of wellbeing across the organisation. Hopefully this recognition and acknowledgment will inspire more workplaces to do the same in years to come.”

Ros Marshall, Managing Director at Bright Horizons UK, said: “Wellbeing is a key priority for us all in order that we can successfully make a difference in the lives of children, families, and the communities where we live and work. We champion great workplaces and supportive employers, so to make the UK’s first-ever list of Best Workplaces™ for Wellbeing is a wonderful achievement. Through our own research, such as our Modern Family Index and other benchmark reports, we help to shine a light on the needs of working parents and carers, so they may thrive rather than survive. We reflect on the insights ourselves, to help inform our own approach as well as sharing information externally to enable policy change and courageous conversations between employees and employers.”