Utility Week

Operations & Assets UTILITY WEEK | 23RD - 29TH NOVEMBER 2018 | 29 And it's not just the custom- ers who are happy, because 84 per cent of employees say they enjoy their job. NWG was ranked 21st on the Bloomberg Best Employers UK 2016 list and was named best employer in the utilities sector. The company also achieved an industry leading 81 per cent employee satisfaction index score. In 2016/17, a total of 1,212 employees received company support to achieve professional accreditation and qualifications. Innovation In July 2017, the company held its first ever "Innovation Festi- val" – to showcase innovative thinking and new technology. The ambitious event brought together infrastructure experts, academics, key stakeholders and supply chain partners to develop a series of new ideas to tackle a range of social and environmen- tal issues. More than 1,000 delegates took part from 143 external organisations, including head- line sponsors Microso, IBM, BT, Ordnance Survey, CGI Group and Reece Innovation. In addi- tion to the £250,000 sponsor- ship raised, the event leveraged £300,000 into the local visitor economy. Other standout performance examples NWG's industry leading perfor- mance on supply interruptions continued to improve to "even greater levels" in 2017. The com- pany reduced the average length of time customers experience interruptions to two minutes and 26 seconds. In its submission, Winner's comments "Winning Utility of the Year is a fantastic achievement for our company and emphasises our leading level of performance across the entire utilities sector. This award is also testament to the hard work of all our 3,200 people who help make NWG the great company that it is, and this award gives us a wonderful opportunity to celebrate our success together as a team. "Our aim is to be the national leader in the provision of sustainable water and wastewater services, and while we continue to work hard on a daily basis to achieve this, being named Utility of the Year shows us that we are moving in the right direction. "We put our customers at the heart of everything we do, and recognition like this spurs us on to continue to maintain and improve on the levels of service we have been able to achieve. Now that we have won this award we want to maintain our position as the leading utility company in the UK, and we will continue to seek further improvement and develop innovative new techniques so we stay at the very top of our sector." HEIDI MOTTRAM, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, NORTHUMBRIAN WATER GROUP Northumbrian Water on awards night What the judges said… NWG scooped the coveted Utility of the Year Award aer impressing the judges with its "all round, consistent outperformance". Judges described the category as an "extremely tough award". They said the company's performance had gone beyond snappy headlines and polished statements to deliver genuine results at all levels, and commitment, passion and innovation. "NWG is a recognised leader in its sector, a champion for its community and an outstanding example of a utility operating at the top of its game," they said. the company said: "Consider- ing that the industry average is currently 13 minutes and 25 sec- onds, our level of performance is currently beyond the reach of all other water companies." NWG also referenced using bio-resources for energy creation on a much larger scale than any other wastewater company. It claims to be the only company in the UK to use 100 per cent of the sludge remaining aer sewage treatment to produce renewable power. The company's commitment to sustainable working has also been recognised globally. It is the only water company in the world to be included in the World's Most Ethical Company list and has been in the list for the past seven years. And the company was named the top performing UK water company for the seventh time in eight years in British Water's 2017 industry supply chain survey. NWG says it is determined to achieve its vision of becoming the "national leader" in the pro- vision of sustainable water and wastewater services. Last year's awards received record number of entries and were judged by a leading panel of independent experts. More than 1,400 people from the utility sector attended the Bollywood- themed gala dinner and awards ceremony, which was hosted by actress Joanna Lumley. Capgemini's head of energy and utilities, James Forrest helped congratulate Northum- brian Water Group on stage on awards night.

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