Mitie brought over 75 colleagues together at its 2024 Recognition Awards event in The Shard this week to celebrate their amazing achievements over the past year. From saving lives and acts of extreme bravery, to championing inclusion throughout the business, colleagues were recognised across five awards: Mitie annual Stars awards, long serving colleagues who’ve marked over 40 or 50 years of service, the latest class of distinction grade Level 7 Senior Leader apprentices, Equality Diversity & Inclusion (ED&I) Network Leads, and the winners of Mitie’s Apprenticeship Awards.
The event also honoured special guests, Franceschina (Frankie) Romano and June Bearcroft, invaluable members of the Mitie family who are 92 and 89 years old respectively and have been working as Cleaning Operative’s on Mitie’s contract with Essex County Council for over 20 years.
Mitie Stars
The winners of this year’s Mitie Stars were awarded cash prizes, with first place taking home £10,000, second place £5,000 and joint third place £2,500 each. This year’s winners are as follows:
First place – Victoria, Security Officer
In June 2023, Victoria, a Hospital Security Officer showed exceptional courage and dedication when a group of criminals abducted a baby from a hospital ward. Victoria swiftly intervened, putting herself between the abductors and the child despite being physically assaulted. Although the group managed to escape initially, Victoria’s quick response enabled the police to track and apprehend them, reuniting the baby with its mother. First prize is a fitting reflection of the sheer heroism of Victoria’s actions.
Second place – Osman, Area Relief Officer, Omer, Security Officer, and Faiz, Security Officer
Exceptional commitment to their roles was also shown by Osman, Omer, and Faiz, who were first respondents to the scene on hearing there was a person with a knife at their workplace. Aware of the potential threat, they made themselves visible throughout the building, secured all entrances and reassured those in the area. Their quick actions working as a team to protect those in their immediate care, while simultaneously communicating with the authorities and security teams of nearby buildings led to the arrest of the individual without any injuries. Their teamwork and professionalism not only set a high standard for handling such a high-pressure and complex situation but also showcases the importance of working together.
Joint third place – Nadia, Security Officer, and Ricky, Water Service Supervisor
Security Officer Nadia found herself in a challenging situation when she discovered a man attempting to take his own life. With courage and compassion, she swiftly intervened to save his life. Having trained extensively for this type of critical moment, Nadia remained calm and composed, establishing trust and communication with the man while providing crucial first aid. Her quick response and sensitive care resulted in the individual being led to safety, highlighting the power everyday heroes can have on mental health awareness and preventing tragedy.
Also demonstrating exceptional support and care, Ricky, a Water Service Supervisor went above and beyond to look after a team member who collapsed on site. Despite being away from site, Ricky arrived speedily at the scene and reassured the individual throughout the ordeal, even staying with them for three hours while they waited in the ambulance. Ricky showed true understanding of the traumatic nature of the event and what it means to go the extra mile to support colleagues during challenging times.
Long Service recognition
Along with the Mitie Stars, Mitie also celebrated some of its longest-serving colleagues who have committed most of their working life to Mitie and continue to be an integral part of the Mitie family. The event honoured 17 devoted colleagues who reached over 40 or 50 years’ service, each collecting £400 and £500 vouchers respectively as a thank you for their loyalty and dedication.
Level 7 Leadership apprentices
Over the past year, a class of 18 Mitie colleagues eager to develop their skills took on the challenging 12-month Corndel & Imperial Business School Level 7 Executive Leadership Programme, specifically built to enhance the skills of ambitious managers, leaders and executives. Remarkably, every single colleague from this cohort achieved distinction in their course and were awarded certificates for their achievements.
Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (ED&I) network leads
Certificates were also presented to all the leads and deputies of Mitie’s ED&I networks for their unwavering support and dedication to promoting inclusivity across their respective networks, on-top of their regular day-jobs. Mitie has six dedicated networks to support and empower colleagues from all different backgrounds, which have contributed significantly to its progress in ED&I. These networks include CHORD (its race and ethnicity network), Mitie Women Can (its gender equality network), Proud to Be (its LGBTQ+ network), Mitie Military (its Armed Forces veterans, reservists and family members network), Enable (its network dedicated to disability and neurodiversity related topics) and Parents & Carers.
Jasmine Hudson, Chief People Officer, Mitie, said:
“Our annual Mitie Stars event is always an amazing opportunity for us to acknowledge the excellence of our colleagues, but this year we wanted to spread this even further, recognising the great work of even more of our colleagues. These colleagues embody what it means to be Mitie, from incredible levels of bravery and professionalism, unwavering commitment to their jobs, and championing equality. They should all be very proud of their achievements, and I’m thrilled that we could all come together to celebrate them today.”
Notes to editors
The Mitie Stars scheme is the company’s flagship employee recognition programme, with colleagues applauded for going above and beyond to deliver Mitie’s values. Employees can be nominated year-round for a Mitie Star by either fellow colleagues or Mitie customers and will then be considered for that month’s prize. Each year, all of these monthly winners are shortlisted, with the top three entrants named the overall Mitie Stars of the Year. Mitie has previously hosted an annual Stars Event, but has this year extended this to recognise the efforts of more colleagues for a range of different achievements.
In February, Mitie hosted its inaugural Apprenticeship Awards to celebrate the outstanding efforts of its apprentices. The winners (Keaton, Stuart, Clare, Adam, and the Mitie Property Services team) joined the rest of the winners in The Shard to again acknowledge their successes.
About Mitie
Founded in 1987, Mitie’s job is to look after places where Britain works, and it is the leading facilities management and transformation company in the UK. We offer a range of services to the public sector through our Central Government & Defence and Communities (Local Government & Education, Healthcare and Care & Custody) divisions. Our Technical Services (Engineering Services) and Business Services (Security, Cleaning, Landscapes, Spain and Waste) divisions serve private sector customers in areas such as Financial & Professional Services, Industrials, Retail and Transport, and increasingly the public sector.
Mitie employs 65,000 people. We take care of our customers’ people and buildings, through the ‘Science of Service’, and we are transforming facilities to be more flexible, safe, sustainable, and attractive to all. Mitie continues to execute its technology-led strategy and in the past twelve months has received multiple awards and validation for its ambitious near and long-term science-based emissions reduction targets from the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). Find out more at www.mitie.com.
