WM People launches Top Employer Awards 2025

WM People’s 15th annual Top Employer Awards which celebrate the best in family-friendly, flexible and inclusive working have opened for entries.

There are nine categories this year, including a new category on Age Diversity which embraces multigenerational working with key issues being how employers counter age discrimination in the recruitment process, training for all employees regardless of age, flexible working and age-tailored benefits.

The Best for Mental Health category has been expanded to include other aspects of wellbeing, given the links between mental and physical health and concerns about the number of people who have dropped out of work due to long-term sickness. It is for employers who help employees with health issues who want to remain in or return to the workplace, who seek to prevent stress and ill health and create a positive working environment where individuals can thrive.

The other seven categories are: Best for SMEs, Best for Flexible Working, Best for Family Support, Best for Diversity & Inclusion, Best for Learning and Development, Best for Talent Attraction and the Special Innovation award for a stand-out policy or initiative related to working parents, women’s career progression, older workers or flexible working that is having a demonstrable impact on its employees or the wider community.

The Awards ceremony will be held on the evening of 4th February 2025 in London. The keynote speaker will be Ashanti Bentil-Dhue [pictured right], CEO of the Competence Centre for Workplace Equity. It has pioneered a new peer-reviewed, evidence-based, competence-focused approach to diversity, equity and inclusion that is centred on business transformation and seeks to take the politics out of the issue. 

This year’s Top Employer Award judges include: Andy Lake, editor of Flexibility.co.uk, Gillian Nissim, founder of WM People, Salma Shah, Founder and Director of the award-winning Mastering Your Power programme, Jennifer Liston-Smith, Head of Thought Leadership for Bright Horizons Work+Family Solutions, David Dunbar, Head of Digital Workspace at the Department of Work and Pensions, and Dr Clare Kelliher,  Professor of Work & Organisation at Cranfield University.

Next week sees the publication of WM People’s Best Practice Report, an in-depth report on the winners and commended companies in this year’s Awards. The report aims to share what they are doing and why and how it works in order to encourage and inspire other employers. Each entry is accompanied by a case study which shows the impact on individual employees. They include a number of dads.

Mandy Garner, managing editor at WM People, said: “Research shows that more and more jobseekers are researching prospective employers’ workplace culture and their policies on a range of different issues, from family support and learning and development to flexible working. Workingmums.co.uk annual survey shows that a huge 82% have researched employers’ flexible working policy before applying. Employers who can demonstrate that they not only have the policies that matter to people, but have been judged to be outstanding by experts in the field stand to attract the best talent.”

To enter the Awards, click here.

• Vote  
• 0
• 0
• You already voted!