The prestigious award, which is an international award across all industries, was in recognition of GRAHAM’s pioneering employee health and wellbeing initiatives during the Covid pandemic.

Initiatives introduced by the privately-owned construction company, saw tangible results including a significant reduction in employee turnover, a 25% reduction in the average duration of employee absence due to mental ill-health, engagement rates soaring to 85% positivity, and 87% of staff rating ‘excellent’ for manager support and communication.

Investors in People is the international standard for people management and enables organisations to benchmark against the best in the business on an international scale. Last year, GRAHAM was reaccredited with the IIP Platinum standard, the highest accolade that can be achieved against the Investors in People Standard and is currently held by only 3% of IIP accredited organisations. GRAHAM was also reaccredited with the IIP Wellbeing standard and remains the only company to achieve both accolades at the same time.

Discussing the Excellence in Health and Wellbeing Award for 2021, Paul Devoy, head of Investors in People, said: “The Investors in People Awards 2021 was a record-breaking year regarding the number of organisations entering.

“I am so proud of every organisation that entered, demonstrating their fantastic commitment to making work better. And as a winner, GRAHAM really stands out amongst the crowd. A huge well done to all involved!”

Michael Smyth, HR director, GRAHAM, said: “Over the past year, humanity has faced unprecedented challenges, particularly in relation to the pandemic. We knew that to make a meaningful difference, we needed to fully understand the challenges our employees and their families were experiencing and concentrate on a three-pronged approach: physical, mental, and social wellbeing.

“We made a concerted effort to listen and involve employees in the design and implementation of our award-winning initiatives, as well as employing professional health and wellbeing experts, all to ensure we provided valuable support.

“The outcome of this collaborative design and implementation resulted in 90% of employees stating that these initiatives were ‘relevant, supportive and reduced anxiety’, and like everything, we saw a marked positive knock-on effect on our business’ overall performance.”

Throughout the regional Building and Civil Engineering divisions, GRAHAM is currently engaged in over £850m of projects.

In Glasgow, as part of the regeneration of the city centre, GRAHAM has secured key residential build-to-rent projects with development partners DRUM and PLATFORM_. The city will also benefit greatly from the £79.5m investment in the Clyde waterfront regeneration with a new road bridge over the River Clyde at Renfrew, connecting roads, cycling, walking routes and communities.

In Edinburgh, GRAHAM has been delivering the new Sports Centre at Meadowbank for the City of Edinburgh Council, and new student accommodation for development partner Watkins Jones.

Elsewhere, GRAHAM is also currently delivering NHS Grampian’s Baird Family Hospital and ANCHOR Centre in Aberdeen, as well as the major redevelopment of the Port of Dundee.

Continuously striving to improve, GRAHAM has invested in the recruitment of a full-time Wellbeing Manager to embed health and wellbeing into the daily operation of the business and focus on tackling poor mental wellbeing which is prevalent in society and the construction industry in particular.