As part of our aim to be a great place to work, and our commitment to continual improvement, we use the results from Best Companies survey to benchmark our performance in the main areas of employee engagement against the other top companies in the UK. The survey provides a useful external measure of our success in a number of key areas, including how valued everyone feels and how they feel about the company, their manager and their colleagues. Highlights from our 2011 survey results include:

• 85% of our employees said that they loved working for this organisation
• 80% said that they felt the organisation was run on strong values and principles
• 90% said that they felt they could make a valuable contribution to the success of the organisation
• 87% said that they felt Napp makes a positive difference to the world we live in
• 84% said that they felt their job was good for their own personal growth
• 91% said that people in their team went out of their way to help them

In addition to the Best Companies survey, we also conduct our own internal employee opinion survey. Data from both surveys are used across the company to inform our thinking and discussions around how to take the company further towards our aim of being a great place to work. In keeping with the open and inclusive culture at Napp, every employee has the opportunity to feed into these discussions and plans through a number of different channels.

One of the questions on the Best Companies survey asks employees to say why they feel that their company is such a great place to work. Here are some of the responses that our employees gave this year:

"...the core values are evident throughout all levels of the organisation, from the bottom up and all the way back down again. I truly feel part of the Napp family and feel valued by the organisation. It is a fantastic place to work and I work in an excellent team with great people and a superb manager. Everyone goes out of their way to help one another and we have a tight bond. Napp rewards and recognises achievements and really does make you proud to be part of such a wonderful organisation."  

"Senior management involve the entire company in strategic decision making, which makes you feel very included in everything." 

"I am encouraged to show autonomy, to allow myself to develop my own ideas and that gives me such a great sense of achievement."

"The company promotes open, honest opinion, with plenty of forums for views to be expressed without fear of retribution."

"The people are amazing. It feels that we are one unit pulling in the same direction, this is really important in an organisation and I feel this is why we are such a success."

"Having worked in many organisations previously, this is a breath of fresh air."